by Edmund Starling, 1886
Clarence Christian Givens, editor and publisher, was born in Providence, Hopkins County, on the ninth day of November, 1865, and educated in the common schools of his county. He is a son of Matthew C. Givens, present Judge of this judicial circuit. In his young life he evinced a fondness for newspaper work, and, at the age of seventeen years, commenced the publication of the Sebree Sunbeam, a three-column folio, at Sebree, Kentucky. He spent one year in this enterprise, then sold out and came to Henderson in the employ of Thomas L. Cannon, who, at that time, was publishing the Sentinel. He remained with the Sentinel but a short time, when he removed to Providence and commenced the publication of the Gleaner He soon succeeded in building up a large circulation, and, at the end of six months, desiring to go into a larger and more extended field, removed to Madisonville and commenced the publication of the Hopkins County Gleaner, seven columns. Here he sought patronage in opposition to the Times, an old established paper published by Zeno F. Young, one of the most popular and deserving publishers in the State. Nothing daunted, young Givens took off his coat, and, by working night and day, soon gained a large patronage and drew around himself a host of friends. His paper was soon after enlarged to an eight-column folio, then to a nine-column with steam power added. By determined industry and square dealing, he registered the largest number of subscribers ever claimed by any paper in the county. Twelve months had scarcely rolled by, when he purchased the Times and consolidated it with the Gleaner. Not satisfied, but determined to go into a yet larger territory of newspaper usefulness, in July, 1885, he removed to Henderson and commenced the publication of the Henderson Gleaner, a nine-column weekly. By dint of personal perseverance and unlimited effort, Mr. Givens has secured a circulation never attained by any paper heretofore published in Henderson. He is a bundle of nerves and each nerve is the embodiment of energy. Work is his motto, and work it is with him from morn 'till night. It is creditably asserted that his paper now has a circulation of five thousand. His advertising, as well as job work patronage, is proportionally large.
In the month of August, 1885, Mr. Givens married miss Emma M. Sloan, of Madisonville, and unto them on the twenty-fifth day of August, 1886, was born a daughter--Lizzie May. In politics he is a Democrat, in religion a Baptist. This young editor and publisher is a living example of what can be accomplished by intelligence and systematized hard work. Recently a one-third interest in the Gleaner has been sold to Professor Haag, of South Carrolton, Kentucky, for two thousand dollars. The firm is now Givens & Haag.
The History of Henderson County, Kentucky by Starling 1887 page 672-;