Aaron Homer Byington was born in Herkimer, N.Y., on July 23, 1826, the son of Aaron Byington and Sarah Waterbury. He attended the Amos Smith Collegiate School for Boys in New Haven, Conn. Unable to attend college, he went to work as an office boy for the Norwalk gazette. When a syndicate was formed to begin publication of the New Haven morning journal, with Thomas G. Woodward as editor, Byington accepted the position of business manager, a capacity in which he remained until he bought the Norwalk gazette in 1848. Shortly before the Civil War, he was hired by Horace Greeley of the New York tribune as the newspaper's congressional correspondent in Washington, later becoming head of the paper's corps of army correspondents. Byington's reputation as a war correspondent was established when he became the first to deliver news of the outcomes of the battles of Bull Run and Gettysburg. After the war Byington founded, with Edmund C. Stedman and Charles A. Dana, a Republican newspaper called the New York sun. He sold his interest in the paper after a dispute arose between Dana and Ulysses S. Grant. Byington was active in politics as well as in journalism, representing Norwalk in the House of the Connecticut General Assembly during 1858 and 1859 and the Twelfth Senatorial District in the state senate during 1861 and 1862. In 1897, Byington received a Foreign Service commission and was appointed U.S. consul to Naples, at which time he suspended publication of the Norwalk gazette in order to devote full attention to his diplomatic duties. Byington had married Harriet Sophia Richmond on Nov. 8, 1849. She died during his posting to Naples, and shortly thereafter he retired from the Foreign Service. Aaron Homer Byington died on Dec. 29, 1910 in Flushing, Long Island, N.Y. He was survived by three sons: William Homer, George Richmond, and Stuart Woodford. Another son, Henry Sumpter, had died in 1887, and a daughter, Harriet Eloise, in infancy.
From the description of The Byington family papers. Part 2, 1822-2001 (bulk 1860-1910). (Georgetown University). WorldCat record id: 171147048
