On this day in Alabama history: Francis Bartow Lloyd began syndicated column
Writer Francis Lloyd Bartow is known for his newspaper columns about Alabama life and culture written as his alter ego, Rufus Sanders. The columns dealt with politics, religion and folk culture through the homespun musings of Sanders and reflect the typical aspects of the "local color" tradition in literature. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama)
Aug. 16, 1891
Francis Bartow Lloyd was a reporter and city editor with The Montgomery Advertiser and also was the state representative to the Legislature for Montgomery County. He is best known for spinning tales based on the fictional Alabama character Rufus Sanders that were full of humor, insight and pearls of wisdom gleaned from Southern life. On Aug. 16, 1891, Lloyd was given a regul ar syndicated column that was published in newspapers throughout the South. Following Lloyd’s murder on Aug. 25, 1897, his family compiled the columns into the collection published under the title “Sketches of Country Life: Humor, Wisdom, and Pathos from the ‘Sage of Rocky Creek.’”
Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.
Author and columnist Francis Bartow Lloyd (1861-1897) in the study of his farmhouse outside Greenville in Butler County. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama)
For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.
