Lawrence Gobright

Biography Gobright was born on 22 May 1816 in Baltimore, Maryland.

During the Civil War, his peers called him “Pop” and “Father Gobright” due to his gray hair. Golbright had worked with President Abraham Lincoln, who sometimes invited him to accompany him. The President provided him with news although the dispatches did not attribute anything to the source. When Lincoln received, for instance, a report that General Ulysses S. Grant’s army was defeated near Vicksburg, Mississippi, Gobright was present. The President was reportedly agitated and forbade the reporter to publish the news. Gobright was said to have reminded him that “more than half of the war rumors are false.” The report proved to be erroneous. He was also known for his close links with many politicians. It is claimed that younger reporters accused him of being a “government agent”. Gobright had no other details about the incident when this lead was dispatched. He would file a more detailed news for the dailies later. Later, many historians cited his accounts of the assassination. Gobright also testified before the military tribunal that heard the case of Dr. Samuel Mudd, an alleged Lincoln assassination conspirator. Scholars note the innovations to his reporting after the assassination, which included the use of the lead and the inverted pyramid structure. Prior to this, news reporting followed the chronological format.

Retirement Gobright’s retirement from Associated Press was recorded in detail. By early 1878, dissatisfaction of his work emerged due to the perception that he was incapable of meeting the post-Civil War demands for news that addressed the wider spectrum of regional interests and journalistic tastes. The Associated Press tried to remedy the situation by hiring two additional reporters at the news outlet’s Washington Bureau, “Hayes and Divine, the two best reporters in Washington”. Problems persisted and sometime in June 1878, Walter Polk Phillips was sent to Washington to replace Gobright.

Gobright died on May 22, 1879, at Washington, D.C.

Publications Men and Things in Washington During the Third of a Century is considered to be Gobright’s best known book. Recollections of Men and Things at Washington During the Third of a Century (1869) Jack and Jill (1873) For Old and Young (1873) Echoes of Childhood: Old Friends in New Costumes from the Risen and Rising Generation (1879)