[6] He was married in June 1867 to Hallie Benson of Missouri, whom one newspaper described as a "southern lady," in St. James Cathedral, Toronto, Illinois.

[5][7] Hyde had a brother, Horace L., also a journalist, who was found dead on a railroad track near Jefferson City, Missouri, on January 23, 1879.

[1][4][9][10] Hyde began his newspaper career around the time of the adoption by Congress in 1854 of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which effectively repealed the Missouri Compromise, stoking national tensions over the extension of slavery.

He wrote editorials for the Belleville Tribune in defense of Stephen A. Douglas, the principal backer of the legislation, and then took a partnership in the newspaper.

[1][3] In 1856 he edited the Sterling (Illinois) Times[3] and also worked actively for James Buchanan, the successful Democratic candidate for president.

[3][4][11] In 1859, he made a trip in a balloon with three other men, from St. Louis to Jefferson County, New York, an estimated eight hundred miles, a distance flight that was not bested for half a century.

[1][4][13] Hyde was a loyal supporter of Samuel J. Tilden and played an important part in bringing the 1876 Democratic National Convention to St.

[15][16][17] It was said that when Hyde returned to St. Louis, "he found that the alleged disgrace attached to the asserted Washington spree had preceded him, and his blood began to boil.

[16] On March 1, the Post-Dispatch printed a verse which, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, gave the idea "that Mr. Hyde had been mistaken by Washington people for a walking whisky-still.

The St. Louis Globe-Democrat reported that Hyde "had a valuable private library in his room, [and] rushed up to save some of the books" by throwing a dozen of them out a window before his retreat was cut off and he "incontinently plunged through the fire," escaping with a few minor bruises.