Rollin Mallory Daggett was an American politician, diplomat, journalist, and author. He was the United States Minister Resident to the Kingdom of Hawaii.
Background
Rollin Mallory Daggett was born on February 22, 1831, in Richville, St. Lawrence County, New York, United States. He was the son of Eunice White and Gardner Daggett, farmers. Daggett was the youngest of seven children, the other six being girls. After his mother’s death in 1833, the family moved to Defiance, Ohio, in 1837.
Education
Dagget attended school in Defiance, where he also learned the printing business.
Career
Daggett worked as a printer's devil - a printing apprentice - for the Defiance Democrat before heading west in 1849 to seek his fortune. His journey involved numerous frontier adventures, including disease and encounters with Native Americans and wild cattle. Once in California, however, Daggett struggled as a miner and soon returned to his trade as a printer in San Francisco. By 1852 he and business partner J. Macdonough Foard had established the Golden Era, a literary journal that Daggett promoted as a "Good Family Paper calculated for circulation in every parlor and miners cabin". The publication, which emphasized frontier stories, proved successful among readers in the California mining camps, and attracted several well-known contributors, including John R. Ridge, who published under the pseudonym "Yellow Bird", E. G. "Don Jr." Paide, the humorist A. "Old Block" Delano, and Charles Warren Stoddard "Pip" Pepperwood.
A literary journal that for half a century was a powerful force on the West Coast, the Golden Era gained distinction for printing the prose debut of Bret Harte and for helping establish the careers of many western writers, including Mark Twain. Daggett himself wrote adventure stories and sketches for the journal under such pseudonyms as "Blunderbuss" and "Korn Kob". Eventually, the paper began offering reviews of San Francisco area theatrical productions. In 1860 Daggett sold his interest in the Golden Era and turned to newspaper publishing. He and Foard co-founded a Republican daily called the San Francisco Daily Evening Mirror, but it lacked the success of their earlier publication.
In 1862 Daggett pulled out of the business and moved to Virginia City, Nevada, where he assumed editorship of the Territorial Enterprise, one of the region’s most influential newspapers. That August he hired Samuel Clemens to contribute humorous stories of camp life, and, adopting the pen name Mark Twain, Clemens remained on the staff until 1864. In 1867 Daggett became a clerk of the United States circuit and district courts for Nevada and got embroiled in local politics.
In 1876 Rollin was chosen as a presidential elector. He won election to the United States House of Representatives as a Republican in 1878. His impassioned speech, Railroad Wrongs in Nevada, was published in 1881. Although Daggett lost his bid for re-election, he was appointed minister to Hawaii in 1882 and for three years enjoyed island life. He befriended King David Kalakaua and edited his Legends and Myths of Hawaii: The Fables and Folk-lore of a Strange People in 1888. Following his return to California in the mid-1880s, Daggett resumed contributing to literary periodicals and completed Braxton's Bar: A Tale of Pioneer Years in California.
In 1882, Rollin published a novel, Braxton's Bar: A Tale of Pioneer Years in California. Three years later, Daggett returned to San Francisco where he continued to write, editing Legends and Myths of Hawaii (1888).
In 1868, Daggett married Maggie Curry. They had two daughters.
Father:
Gardner Daggett
Mother:
Eunice White Daggett
Wife:
Maggie Curry Daggett
References
Contemporary Authors New Revision Series
In response to the escalating need for up-to-date information on writers, Contemporary Authors New Revision Series (Volume 217) brings researchers the most recent data on the world's most popular authors.
2011
American Magazine Journalists, 1850-1900
The second half of the 19th century was a time of tremendous upheaval and change in America-the transformation resulting from the Civil War and the industrialization and urbanization of America which followed were reflected in the magazines of the era.