John A. Tibbits

File:Williston Seminary.png in 1856, where Tibbits attended school before Williams College.]]

John Arnold Tibbits was born on February 19, 1844, to John W. and Fanny Tibbits (née Chappell) in New London, Connecticut.{{cite book |title=A biographical record of the Kappa Alpha Society in Williams College, Williamstown, Mass., from its foundation to the present time. 1833-1881. |date=1881 |publisher=S. W. Green's Son |location=New York |pages=228–229 |via=HathiTrust |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hn47qz&seq=244 |access-date=December 13, 2024 |language=en}} His mother died when he was an infant, and Tibbits was raised by his family members.{{efn|Sources are contradictory as to which family members primarily raised Tibbits; some claim his stepmother,{{cite news |title=Major Tibbits Passes Away |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-day-major-tibbits-passes-away/160700847/ |location=New London, Connecticut |access-date=December 11, 2024 |work=The Day |date=July 27, 1893 |via=Newspapers.com |pages=6}} while others claim his grandmother.{{cite news |title=The Late Major Tibbits |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-morning-journal-courier-the-late-maj/160701338/ |access-date=December 11, 2024 |via=Newspapers.com |work=The Morning Journal-Courier |date=July 24, 1893 |pages=4}}}} After initially attending Bartlett High School in New London, Tibbits went to Williston Seminary in Easthampton, Massachusetts. He matriculated to Williams College in 1860, and joined the Kappa Alpha Society the same year.{{cite book |collaboration=Catalogue Committee of the Kappa Alpha Society |title=A record of the members of the Kappa Alpha fraternity, and a city and town directory, 1825 [to] 1892 |date=May 1892 |publisher=Press of A. H. Kellogg |location=New York |pages=132–133 |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_DEZNAAAAYAAJ |access-date=December 11, 2024 |via=Internet Archive}} He stayed at Williams for less than a year,{{cite book |last1=Sawyer |first1=Joseph H. |title=Alumni records from 1842 to 1874 |date=1875 |publisher=C. W. Bryan and Company, Printers |location=Springfield, Massachusetts |pages=179–180 |url=https://archive.org/details/alumnirecordsfro00willrich |access-date=December 13, 2024 |via=Internet Archive}} leaving to study law in New London.

On July 12, 1862, due to the start of the American Civil War, Tibbits enlisted in the 14th Connecticut Infantry Regiment,{{cite book |last1=Page |first1=Charles Davis |title=History of the Fourteenth Regiment, Connecticut Vol. Infantry |date=1906 |publisher=Horton Printing Co. |location=Meriden, Connecticut |page=442 |url=https://archive.org/details/pagehistory14threg00davirich |access-date=December 13, 2024}} becoming an orderly sergeant. He first engaged in combat on September 17, 1862, at the Battle of Antietam, where he was wounded in both hands; as a result, he lost use of his left hand.

After recovering from his injuries, Tibbits was promoted to second lieutenant of Company F on December 15, 1862, and fought at the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, where he sustained another injury to the right arm and was subsequently honorably discharged. Later, after re-enlisting, he served under George Armstrong Custer with the Army of the Potomac's cavalry in the Valley campaigns of 1864, and was promoted to captain on May 28, 1864. Upon his final honorable discharge on July 31, 1865, Tibbits was brevetted the rank of major.

== Career ==

When he returned to New London at the end of the Civil War, Tibbits became an editor of David S. Ruddock's New London Morning Star until 1872. In 1873, as Ruddock was struggling with health issues and unable to publish the Star and his other newspaper, the New London Democrat, Tibbits began to write his own newspapers, the Evening Telegram and Connecticut Gazette, to replace them respectively; both ceased publishing in 1909.{{cite book |last1=Decker |first1=Robert Owen |title=The Whaling City: A History of New London |date=1976 |publisher=Pequot Press |location=Chester, Connecticut |isbn=0-87106-053-1 |pages=280-283, 326-327 |url=https://archive.org/details/whalingcityhist00deck |access-date=December 13, 2024}}

In 1866, after the Civil War, Tibbits finished his law studies with Augustus Brandegee. Tibbits and Thomas M. Waller established a law firm when Tibbits entered private practice, and were both elected to represent New London in the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1872. Tibbits served in multiple roles in the Connecticut General Assembly, first as an assistant clerk of the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1868, ascending to clerk the following year; he also served as the clerk of the Connecticut State Senate in 1870.{{cite news |title=Major J. A. Tibbits Dying |via=Newspapers.com |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/record-journal-major-j-a-tibbits-dying/160933684/ |access-date=December 15, 2024 |work=Record-Journal |date=July 20, 1893 |location=Meriden, Connecticut |pages=1}} Tibbits was elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1872 and 1885, representing New London; subsequently, on January 5, 1886, he was elected Speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives.{{cite news |location=New London, Connecticut |title=Head of the House |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-day-head-of-the-house/160934233/ |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=December 15, 2024 |work=The Day |date=January 6, 1886 |pages=3}} Tibbits was also a delegate to the 1876 Republican National Convention and campaigned across the country for multiple Republican presidential candidates.

From 1872 to 1878, Tibbits was the judge advocate of Connecticut's Third Regimental District, and also was a judge for the City Court of New London. Additionally, Tibbits was on the New London Board of Education and served as city attorney. He served as the Government Director of the Pacific Railroad during Ulysses S. Grant's second term, as well as the Collector of the Port of New London under both the Hayes and Arthur administrations.

On July 2, 1881, Tibbits, along with John C. Turner (a colleague from the publishing company Tibbits established to replace Ruddock's businesses) and John McGinley, began The Day, under the company John A. Tibbits & Co., located at 52 Bank Street in what is now the Downtown New London Historic District.{{cite news |title=Advertisement |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-day-the-day-advertisement/161042112/ |access-date=December 17, 2024 |work=The Day |date=October 19, 1881 |pages=2}}{{cite web |title=Downtown New London Historic District |url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/nrhp/text/79002665.PDF |website=National Park Service |access-date=December 17, 2024 |page=7 |archive-date=January 26, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240126040753/https://npgallery.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/nrhp/text/79002665.PDF |url-status=live }} Tibbits was the editor and publisher of the newspaper and wrote several reports; his family sold The Day to Theodore Bodenwein, a former apprentice of the paper, in 1891.{{cite web |title=Our History |url=https://theday.com/history-of-the-day/ |publisher=The Day |access-date=December 13, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240711172147/https://theday.com/history-of-the-day/ |archive-date=July 11, 2024 |url-status=dead}} Tibbits also was involved in real estate and insurance in New London.{{cite news |title=John A. Tibbits Busy Man |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-day-john-a-tibbits-busy-man/161041493/ |access-date=December 17, 2024 |work=The Day |date=April 24, 1922 |via=Newspapers.com |pages=3}}

File:Thomas M. Waller (Connecticut Governor) (3x4a).jpg, who ran in the 1882 Connecticut gubernatorial election as a Democrat; Tibbits heavily criticized Waller but later re-established a law firm with him.]]

Tibbits' law firm with Waller eventually broke up. Tibbits, as a Republican, criticized Waller and his candidacy as a Democrat in the 1882 Connecticut gubernatorial election, accusing him of hypocrisy and betraying the working class.{{cite news |last1=Stone |first1=Greg |title=Strings of power |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-day-strings-of-power/160820281/ |access-date=December 13, 2024 |work=The Day |date=July 2, 1981 |location=New London, Connecticut |pages=73 |via=Newspapers.com}} Eventually, Tibbits, Waller, and Waller's son, Tracey, established another law firm in spite of their political differences, which dissolved again on August 18, 1887, as the group became separated geographically.{{cite news |title=The Day 75 Years Ago |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-day-the-day-75-years-ago/160820999/ |location=New London, Connecticut |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=December 13, 2024 |work=The Day |date=August 18, 1962 |pages=8}} Waller won his campaign and served as governor of Connecticut until president Grover Cleveland appointed him to serve as consul to Bradford, England, in 1885. Although Tibbits ran for the Republican nomination in the 1886 Connecticut gubernatorial election, Phineas C. Lounsbury, who eventually won the election, was nominated instead. President Benjamin Harrison would later, in 1889, nominate Tibbits to the same consular position as Waller.

Tibbits was a Roman Catholic convert. He married his wife, Lydia Dennis, on February 18, 1869; the two had one son, John Dennis Tibbits.{{cite book |last1=Moore |first1=William F. |title=Representative men of Connecticut, 1861-1894 |date=1894 |publisher=Massachusetts Publishing Company |location=Everett, Massachusetts |pages=434–437 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=loc.ark:/13960/t4dn4gr48 |access-date=December 17, 2024 |language=en |via=HathiTrust |archive-date=April 8, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230408072201/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=loc.ark:/13960/t4dn4gr48 |url-status=live }} Tibbits died on July 22, 1893, in New London, Connecticut, after an illness. He was buried in Cedar Grove Cemetery.{{cite news |title=Borne To The Grave |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-day-borne-to-the-grave/155550531/ |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=December 15, 2024 |work=The Day |date=July 27, 1893 |location=New London, Connecticut |pages=8}}

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Category:Newspaper publishers (people)

Category:Speakers of the Connecticut House of Representatives

Category:19th-century members of the Connecticut General Assembly

Category:1844 births

Category:1893 deaths

Category:Republican Party members of the Connecticut House of Representatives

Category:Politicians from New London, Connecticut

Category:19th-century American newspaper founders

Category:Union army officers

Category:Military personnel from Connecticut

Category:Consuls for the United States

Category:19th-century American diplomats

Category:People of Connecticut in the American Civil War

Category:Burials at Cedar Grove Cemetery (New London, Connecticut)