Alfred Horatio Belo was born on this day in 1839, in Salem. He was the son of Edward Frederick and Caroline Amanda Fries Belo.
Alfred was educated at Salem Boys’ School, the Masonic Institute at Germanton, and Wilson’s Academy in Alamance County. His father owned an iron foundry, a linseed oil mill, a farm of 400 acres, and a wholesale and retail general mercantile store. Alfred worked during vacations and after school in his father’s store, at the mill and on the farm. By the time he was 21, his father sent him to purchase merchandise for the general store.
During the Civil War, Belo was commissioned a captain in the Forsyth Riflemen and served in Virginia.
After the war, Belo traveled to Texas and worked as a tutor. Then, in 1865, he joined the Galveston News and later became a partner in the company. Belo purchased the company in 1875 and established A. H. Belo and Company. He moved to Dallas in 1885 and began the Dallas Morning News which soon grew in circulation and influence.
Alfred married Jeannette Ennis in 1868. He passed away in Asheville in 1901.
Photo courtesy of Forsyth County Public Library Photograph Collection.
