Chapter XXXVII: Journalism in Orange County (1)

By W. T. Doty.

FIRST APPEARANCE.

From the accessible records it seems that the "art preservative" entered Orange County by way of Goshen in 1788. It appeared next in Newburgh in 1895, {_sic_} at New Windsor in 1799, at Montgomery in 1806, New Vernon in 1833, Slate Hill in 1834, Middletown, in 1840, Port Jervis in 1850, Warwick in 1845, Pine Bush in 1868, Walden in 1869, Cornwall 1871, Monroe 1882, Cornwall-on-Hudson in 1888, Chester 1888, Highland Falls 1891, Washingtonville 1899.

At first thought it appears more probable that Newburgh was the first port of entry, from the fact that the latter early felt the contact of the civilization advancing up the Hudson--practically the only highway into the great unknown interior prior to, during and immediately following the American Revolution; and also as, during the Revolution, Samuel Louden followed the retreating footsteps of the American forces from New York City to Fishkill, printing or issuing, at convenient times, the _New York Packet._ This was issued, it appears, at Fishkill. Why not in Newburgh, where so many great events in connection with the Revolutionary period occurred?

However, Goshen seems to have been a hamlet or village as early as 1714, while Newburgh's first settlement was about 1719, and the records accord to the old county seat the honor of housing the first printing office in Orange County.

In 1788 David Mandeville and David M. Wescott issued the _Goshen Repository._ That they were men of some literary ability is surmised from the fact that they were connected with the Goshen Academy--that ancient and honorable seat of learning--an institution of which, also, Goshen should feel a thrill of pride.

The office of the _Repository_ was, in 1793, near the court house. The _Repository_ was sold to John G. and William Heurtin, in 1800, at which time its name was changed to the _Orange County Patriot._ In 1801 Gabriel Denton secured the interest of William Heurtin, and in 1803 Denton sold his interest to William A. Carpenter, and the name of the paper was changed to that of _The Friend of Truth._ The year following it again changed owners and names, when Ward M. Gazlay became its publisher and it became the _Orange Eagle._ The next year (1805) the office was burned and Mr. Gazlay removed the remains to Newburgh, where the paper, in union with _The Recorder of the Times,_ which Mr. Gazlay purchased, became the _Political Index,_ and this lived until 1829.

According to the record the second journalistic venture in the county was in 1795, when the _Newburgh Packet_ appeared, printed at Newburgh by Lucius Carey, and in 1797 it became _The Mirror_ under David Denniston. Denniston had purchased the paper of Carey (1797), in which year it was announced that the paper was printed by Philip Van Home. In 1798 Joseph W. Barber was the printer, and he advertised, "also, Printing and Book Binding carried on by David Denniston." _The Mirror_ was absorbed (1804) by the _Rights of Man,_ and the latter by _The Recorder of the Times_ in 1805.

In 1799 we hear of the _New Windsor Gazette,_ through the removal of a paper of that name from New Windsor to Newburgh, by Jacob Schultz. How long it had existed at New Windsor is now purely conjectural, but as most of the newspapers of that early period were sort of birds of passage, it is assumed that the year 1799 witnessed the _Gazette's_ hatching at New Windsor and its fledgling flight to Newburgh, where it became the _Orange County Gazette._ It became _The Citizen_ when later purchased by David Denniston.

The year 1799 also brought forth at Newburgh another publication, _The Rights of Man,_ with Dr. Elias Winfield as its sponsor, for whom it was "printed by Benoni H. Howell." David Denniston purchased this paper and merged in it the _Orange County Gazette._ We learn that the _Mirror_ of 1797 was absorbed by _The Rights of Man_ in 1804, and then the _Packet,_ the _Mirror,_ and the _Gazette_ disappear. The _Mirror_ and the _Citizen_ espoused the patriotic political works and probably the religious doctrines of Thomas Paine, who wrote "The Crisis," "Common Sense," and "The Rights of Man," while the _Gazette_ advocated opposite theories. The paper, _The Rights of Man,_ which absorbed the _Mirror_ and the _Citizen,_ represented the Jeffersonian branch of the Republican party, while the _Recorder of the Times,_ claiming to be Republican in politics, represented the Federalists and Burr, then a Federalist.

In 1803 appeared at Newburgh the _Recorder of the Times,_ by Dennis Coles. Then at Goshen the same year, _The Friend of Truth,_ under the management of Ward M. Gazlay, and in 1804 at Goshen the _Orange County Gazette,_ conducted by Gabriel Denton. It will be seen there were, within five years, two _Orange County Gazettes_ in the county--one at Newburgh, one at Goshen. As the former metamorphosed itself into the _Public Index,_ the _Orange Telegraph,_ the _Newhurgh Telegraph_ and the _Newburgh Register,_ with short pauses between, it may be that it had thrown off the first epidermis and was emerging in new form when its Goshen namesake burst into the sunlight.

Montgomery was looming up from its settlement in 1721, or soon thereafter, and in 1810 it was large enough, or felt important enough, to become incorporated as a village. But as early as 1806 the printer or publisher saw an "aching void" in the growing hamlet, to pervade which the _Orange County Republican_ was called into existence that year. It was "published for the Proprietors by Cyrus Beach and Luther Pratt." Who the "Proprietors" were is not in evidence.

It is worthy of record right here that this Montgomery journalistic venture is the only one, up to that date, that lives to-day. Through migration and other changes this _Orange County Republican_ ultimately became the _Independent Republican,_ with a permanent abiding place in Goshen.

That venerable editor and historian, Edward M. Ruttenber, says the _Orange County Republican_ was first published "at Ward's Bridge," the title of the first post-office in Montgomery, so called from the fact that it was located and kept at James Ward's gristmill, where he had thrown a bridge across the Wallkill, constituting it one of the most convenient locations for the delivery of mail matter.

The money to start the paper was advanced in equal shares by twenty-four "Patriotic citizens of this county, consisting chiefly of respectable farmers and mostly inhabitants of the town of Montgomery." This excerpt is from a statement in the paper itself of the issue of June 9, 1806. The paper "admitted there was some honesty among Federalists," but was bitterly opposed to Dewitt Clinton. January 18, 1812, Luther Pratt, the publisher then, changed its name to the _Independent Republican_ as more clearly indicating its political policy and views. It was not until 1822 that it was removed to Goshen, four years after James A. Cheevey became its proprietor. He was a Frenchman and a practical printer.

In 1806 appeared another publication, the _Political Index,_ at Newburgh, by Ward M. Gazlay. The latter's _Orange Eagle_ plant at Goshen was burned in 1805, and he had removed the remnants to Newburgh, the Phoenix emerging from these ashes being the _Political Index._ The _Index_ is credited with having, some years later, "apparently consolidated the interests of the Republican party." It gave a "hearty support to the administration of Jefferson and Madison, and to the war of 1812." It is further stated that "its political articles were mainly from the pen of Jonathan Fisk, one of the most able men of the period."

In 1829 the _Index_ passed into the ownership of Charles M. Cushman, who changed its name to the _Orange Telegraph,_ and later to the _Newburgh Telegraph._ In 1839 Mr. Cushman sold it to Henry H. Van Dyck, who, in 1840, sold it to Elias Pitts, who, in 1850, disposed of it to Edward M. Ruttenber. The latter sold it in 1857 to Joseph Lawson, repurchased it in 1859, resold it in 1861 to E. W. Gray, who sold it, in 1864, to George M. Warren, he to Isaac V. Montanye in the same year; he to E. M. Ruttenber in 1865; he to A. A. Bensel in 1867; he to J. J. McNally in 1869, who, in 1874, sold it to Dr. Cooper, of Warwick. In 1876 E. M. Ruttenber again became its owner, and changed its name to the _Newburgh Register._ February 24, 1908, the publication of the _Register_ was suspended.

Here, then, appears the second paper to come down to us from that early period, though only after many ups and down and with kaleidoscopic changes of titles and owners. Mr. Ruttenber assures us that "_The Telegraph,_ although Democratic at all times, opposed the Albany Regency--a fact which led to its purchase by H. H. Van Dyck, or rather the purchase for him. Mr. Pitts, who had been sent to take Mr. Van Dyck's place, very soon fell into the line of thought of his local supporters, and not only approved the Regency, but upheld the 'Free Soil' banner of 1848 with marked ability. In the subsequent changes and revolutions," adds Mr. Ruttenber, "in politics it has maintained the Democratic faith."

An ambitious effort appeared at Goshen in 1808 when Gabriel Denton launched the _Orange County Patriot and Spirit of Seventy-six._ In this publication we recognize the third journalistic venture with sufficient tenacity of life to come down to our own day, though it, too, had to change its title and character somewhat ere it became the present well-known _Goshen Democrat._

From 1808 to 1820 there seems to be a hiatus. There does not appear a single new journalistic venture in that time, although it was in this period, in 1812-13, that the _Orange County Republican_ became the _Independent Republican,_ and in 1822 was removed from Montgomery to Goshen. The war of 1812, impending, progressing and ending, with war's all-demoralizing effects, may account for this cooling of the journalistic ardor for twelve long years.

At any rate, the next new publication to appear in the field--figuratively if not literally--was the _Orange Farmer,_ in 1820, at Goshen. Its founders, Williams and Farrand, were graduates, Mr. Ruttenber says, of the _Albany Plow-Boy_ publication. How long the _Orange Farmer_ ploughed through the journalistic heather of Orange County is not now known, but we never hear of it again. Mr. Ruttenber records that "Samuel Williams, the associate of Mr. Farrand, died at Rondout, June 16, 1878, in his ninetieth year--the oldest printer in the State, and for forty years a member of the Baptist denomination."

In June, 1822, John D. Spaulding began, at Newburgh, the publication of the _Newburgh Gazette._ This passed through many owners' hands, appearing in 1856, under the management of Eugene W. Gray as the _Daily News._ Later it passed a somewhat checkered career in alliances with the _Gazette,_ the _Telegraph,_ the _Daily Telegraph_ (1864), _Daily Union,_ same year, the _Press_ (1866), and the _Register_ in 1876.

The Rev. J. R. Wilson began at Newburgh, in 1824, the publication of a religious monthly of forty-eight pages, under the title of the _Evangelical Witness._ It was devoted to the exposition of the doctrines of the Reformed Presbyterian church, and was continued four years, to be succeeded (1828) by the _Christian Statesman,_ which gave up the ghost after one year's struggle in this cruel, cold world.

An anti-Jackson paper appeared in Newburgh during the campaign of 1828. It was called _The Beacon._ Its editor was Judge William B. Wright.

In 1829 the _Orange Telegraph_ appeared at Newburgh. It was merely our old friend, the _Political Index,_ in a new guise, under the tutelage of Charles M. Cushman, who subsequently named it the _Newburgh Telegraph._

A monthly quarterly appeared next in Newburgh in May, 1832, as _Tablets of Rural Economy._ John W. Knevels was the editor. The people then, as too often now, had no use for rural or other economy, and the quarterly died after a few issues.

In 1832 appeared another publication--one that time has dealt with so kindly that we find it to-day brandishing, as of old, "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon." The _Signs of the Times_ was started at Goshen in this year by Lebbeus L. Vail as an exponent or expounder of the Old School Baptist theology. The first numbers were printed at the office of the _Independent Republican._ Mr. Vail, though born a Congregationalist--his father, Isaiah Vail, being one of the founders of the present First Congregationalist church of Middletown--became an enthusiastic Old School Baptist through the influence of his wife, Sally, daughter of Wilmot Moore, and her father's family. Like most neophytes, Mr. Vail became very earnest, and gave freely of his purse, his time, and his energies, and the _Signs of the Times_ soon became a recognized factor in Old School Baptist work. This publication was only one of the forms of his contributions to the cause, with no hope of material reward. Two years later Mr. Vail became county clerk. Recognizing in a young enthusiast in the Old School Baptist faith an Elijah in the cause and fit to wear the mantle, he was forced by civic duties to lay aside, he turned over to Elder Gilbert Beebe the entire plant and good will of the _Signs of the Times._ Mr. Beebe removed the office to New Vernon, then a somewhat thriving hamlet with a well-appointed Old School Baptist church, with store, post-office, hotel, blacksmith shop, and the accessories of a live community. The place is on the Shawangunk Kill, on the Orange and Sullivan County line, about four miles northwest of Middletown. Mr. Beebe removed the plant again, this time to Alexandria, Va., whence he returned with it to New Vernon, and in 1847 or 1848 removed it to Middletown, where it still oscillates, as of old, the sword of Gideon. Elder Beebe preached to congregations in Middletown, Brookfield (Slate Hill), Bloomingburg, Van Burenville or Wallkill, and New Vernon. He was an energetic, tireless worker, and built up an immense circulation for the _Signs of the Times._ It became a power in Old School Baptist faith throughout the United States, and was for years--and is yet--the leading publication in this faith. In the sixties Elder Beebe reprinted sermons and Old School Baptist verses in book form, taken from files of the _Signs._ Two volumes were printed and they had great sale. The _Signs of the Times,_ first published as a monthly, became a semi-monthly, which it is now, with thirty pages and covers. It is one of the remarkable and quaint publications in this country to-day. Its contents are a study for the historian, whether of religious or secular subjects. Whatever its other merits, its very quaintness should preserve it from the vandalism of time, the sacrilege of events, and the blasphemy of environment. It stands as a monument to the enterprise, the religious feelings, enthusiasm, aims and forces of a period and a propagandism that seem slowly but surely fading into the twilight of the ages. It is now "Published the first and fifteenth of each month by J. E. Beebe & Co., Middletown, N. Y.," with Elder F. A. Chick, Hopewell, N. J., and Elder H. C. Ker, Middletown, as editors.

The _Newburgh Daily Journal_ was started in 1833 or 1834 by John D. Spalding, which he continued until 1843, when he changed the name to the _Highland Courier._ After his death, August 22, 1853, Mrs. Spalding, his widow, published it until 1855, when she sold it to William E. Smiley. Edward Nixon became its proprietor in 1858, and Rufus A. Reed in 1859, who changed its name to the _Highland Chieftain._

The name was afterwards changed to the _Newburgh Daily Journal,_ which it retains to the present day. On June 1, 1861, Cyrus B. Martin became the owner and its whole character at once radically changed for the better. Mr. Martin was peculiarly fitted for editorial duties and under his able management the paper soon attained a large circulation and eventually gained that high standing and wide sphere of influence, which under the wise control of his successors it has ever since retained.

Mr. Martin remained the owner of the _Journal_ until 1877, when he sold out to the Messrs. Samuel Ritchie, Lawrence C. Bodine and Frank S. Hull. Before the year was up, Mr. Bodine disposed of his interests to his partners, and those two gentlemen have managed the paper ever since, although their interests are merged in the corporation known as the Newburgh Journal Company.

The _Journal_ is housed in a building owned by itself, a handsome, spacious structure, located on the corner of Smith and Third streets, where it maintains one of the most complete printing establishments and book bindery plants to be found in the county.

The _Republican Banner_ existed in Montgomery in 1833 or 1834. or in both those years, with Calvin F. S. Thomas as its publisher, but that is all that seems to be known about it.

In 1834 a handsomely printed weekly appeared in the thriving locality of Brookfield or Slate Hill, known as the _Republican Sentinel,_ or "the _Farmers' Protests Against Political Speculation and Dictation."_

The writer has a few copies of the _Sentinel,_ which show it to have been a highly creditable publication, in its make-up, its typographical appearance, and in its literary features. The issue for April 12, 1834, was No. 6, of Vol. I, and it was "Printed by Tho's P. Evans for the Publisher." May 17 the issue was No. 10, and announced that "The _Republican Sentinel_ is printed every Saturday by D. Yokum for the Proprietor." The issue for June 28 was No. 16, and contained the same announcement as to the printer, but in no issue does it appear who the editor or publisher was. The _Sentinel_ was a five-column folio, improving typographically with each issue, and printed from clean-faced brevier or possibly minion type. When it ceased to exist no one now living seems to know.

In 1834, in Newburgh, Wallace T. Sweet issued the _National Advertiser,_ which was merged into the _Newburgh Telegraph,_ though in what year is not stated.

The _Reformed Presbyterian_ appeared in Newburgh March 1, 1836, with Rev. Moses Roney as editor. It was a monthly of thirty-two pages. In 1849 he removed it to Pittsburgh, Pa.

In 1840 A. A. Bensel began the publication of Middletown's first recorded newspaper venture. He called it the _Middletown Courier._ It was a weekly paper, democratic in politics. In April, 1846, he removed the entire plant to Kingston, N. Y., where he started the _Ulster Democrat._

In 1845, in Newburgh, the Rev. David L. Proudfit began issuing the _Christian Instructor,_ a monthly of thirty-two pages. Two years later he sold it to the Rev. J. B. Dales, who removed it to Philadelphia.

So far as records can be found the first publication to appear in Warwick was an Old School Baptist journal, the _Doctrinal Advocate and Monitor._ This was in 1845 or 1846, possibly earlier. It was published and probably edited by Elder Jewett. In 1846 it was merged with Elder Gilbert Beebe's _Signs of the Times._

Middletown was without a paper from April to July, in 1846. At the latter date John S. Brown began there the publication of the _Orange County News._ It was neutral in politics, and Mr. Ruttenber says it was hardly deserving the name of a newspaper. It died in 1849, the material being purchased by Gilbert J. Beebe for his new paper.

In August, 1848, Gilbert J. Beebe started in Middletown the publication of the _Banner of Liberty._ It was issued monthly as a conservative journal--opposing all the modern ideas of reform in politics, in religion, in laws and in temperance. In 1856 it became a weekly, and espoused the cause of the democratic party. In 1856 Mr. Beebe issued the _Campaign Banner_--a sort of auxiliary to the _Banner of Liberty._ Both were more or less pro-slavery in all their utterances; the particular limb of the democracy to which they clung being known as "Hunkerism" prior to the Civil War, as "Copperheadish" during and after the Civil War. In ante-bellum days both papers attained a big circulation for those times--"fully 27,000 copies," Mr. Ruttenber says. _The Banner of Liberty_ was taken everywhere in the South and Southwest, and below Mason and Dixon's line it was all-powerful. And even north of that line there were many who swore by the Great Horn Spoon and the _Banner of Liberty._ The income was great, and had Mr. Beebe been as astute a business man as he was aggressive in polemics, he would have been numbered with the exclusive few of that day known as millionaires. But Gilbert Judson Beebe was a different type of man. Like his venerable father, he had a principle--right or wrong, but right as he saw it--and pelf was powerless against his adamantine purposes.

His father, Elder Gilbert Beebe, was in position to "roll in wealth." He had a great income from his _Signs of the Times,_ and from his writings and books; he had the machinery of his church to manipulate for his own aggrandizement, if he so willed; he was almost an idol wherever the Old School Baptists had an abiding place in this country; but he disdained all sordid allurements, and, armed with his own peculiar interpretation of the Scriptures, he lived frugally and pounded his theorems and theological dogmas for three and four straight hours every Sunday in one of his pulpits, and during the fortnight in the columns of his _Signs._

The writer of this knew him well; set type a long time in his office in Orchard street, Middletown; fed his presses; helped get out one of his book of songs and sermons, and always held the venerable editor-preacher in respect if not in absolute awe. Looking back at those days from the year 1908, the writer understands better the magnetism which gave Elder Beebe his great power among the people.

This peculiar personality was not lost in his children. In Gilbert Judson Beebe--who made the _Banner of Liberty_ the most powerful pro-slavery journal for years in ante-bellum days--individuality, aggressiveness, polemics, even the most violent dogmatism, were constantly in evidence. Not only did he wield a most trenchant, bitter pen, ever dipped in the wormwood of invective and the gall of expletives--he was an orator as well; and could work his hearers up to a pitch of frenzy or tears. The writer, yet in his teens, was employed on the _Banner of Liberty_ as a "compositor" for a considerable time, and had much opportunity for learning the characteristics of the man.

The _Banner of Liberty_ lost much of its power when the Civil War boomed its terrors over the land. Its circulation fell off daily, but the editor every week just as religiously sailed into the "Lincoln hirelings" with a venom that came near landing him in Fort Lafayette. The writer was one of those "hirelings," and, while "sticking type" in his office had many doubtless indiscreet arguments with the aggressive editor on the issues of the day. Mr. Beebe seemed rather pleased, not to say amused, at the temerity of the boy-printer, and gave him opportunity to expound his "abolition heresies."

As the Civil War went on, the paper continually lost prestige, and when the venerable editor--broken-hearted in the lost cause--died in 1872, the _Banner of Liberty_ became homeless. It was bought by the Benedict brothers, Thomas E. and Gilbert H., and was removed to Ellenville. The writer's recollection is that it was later transferred to Brooklyn, L. I., where it ceased to exist. On this point, however, he may err; however, it did not long survive its talented founder.

Gilbert J. Beebe also, in 1848, started another paper--the _Middletown Mercury._ This paper was less virulent than his _Banner of Liberty,_ and being devoted to local news, attained a considerable circulation. In 1860 Mr. Beebe sold the _Mercury_ to James H. Norton, who had been conducting the _Tri-States Union_ at Port Jervis. Mr. Norton associated with him in this purchase a young printer and ready writer, Isaac F. Guiwits. The two were thoroughly practical men, and soon made their personality and their good taste vividly apparent in their work. The _Mercury_ was enlarged, new type and machinery were installed, and it was not many months before the paper began to grow in circulation and in power. It got better and neater with each issue; its managers seemed to vie with each other in this work. Within five years the _Middletown Mercury_ became famous for being the handsomest newspaper in the United States. For those days, it was a model of beauty. What is more, it became a leading newspaper; its local news was gotten up the best, much attention being paid to this feature--practically an innovation in journalism, strange as this statement may appear to newspaper men and readers to-day. Mr. Norton was a democrat of the pro-slavery type, and his editorial utterances during the war were often vitriolic, notwithstanding which the paper flourished, many paid-up republican subscribers contributing to its success, admiring its journalistic features while cursing its politics. In 1867 Isaac V. Montanye purchased an interest in the paper, and in 1868 became sole proprietor. In 1869 S. M. Boyd became its owner. In 1873 the _Middletown Mail_ was merged in the _Mercury,_ when Dr. Joseph D. Friend and George H. Thompson became its editors and owners. Dr. Friend retired in 1874. In 1878 the _Weekly Argus_ consolidated with the _Mercury,_ which became the _Mercury and Argus._ In 1876 Cornelius Macardell and George H. Thompson became proprietors, with Mr. Thompson as editor, who continued thus until his death in May, 1904. The _Mercury and Argus_ plant remains in the Macardell family, known as the Argus and Mercury Publishing Company, with Cornelius Macardell, president; A. B. Macardell, vice-president and secretary; A. E. Nickinson, treasurer and general manager; A. B. Macardell, editor; Henry P. Powers and Horace A. MacGowan, city editors.

In 1849 Thomas George began in Newburgh the publication of the _Newburgh Excelsior._ E. M. Ruttenber purchased this paper in May, 1851, and merged it with his _Telegraph._

In January, 1850, appeared the first newspaper in Port Jervis, the _Port Jervis Express._ This journalistic venture deserves especial notice from the fact that it was started by a colored man. P. H. Miller--the first publication of such distinction in Orange County, and possibly in the State. The _Express_ was well printed, and ably edited. But it died in October the same year.

The _Middletown Advertiser_ was started in Middletown in 1850 by G. J. Beebe. It was a monthly advertising sheet, and lived two years.

In November, 1850, Colonel Samuel Fowler--a leading citizen--started the _Tri-States Union_ in Port Jervis. It was a democratic paper, with John I. Mumford as editor. Lucius F. Barnes, a rising young lawyer of Milford, Pa., purchased the paper and edited it until August 10, 1854, when he sold it to James H. Norton. The latter sold the paper in 1861, to G. W. Allen, of Honesdale, Pa., and Wallace W. Farnum, a deaf mute, of Port Jervis. The latter was a practical printer, and remained in the office many years. It was under Allen and Farnum that the politics of the paper changed from democratic to republican. In 1862 Allen's interest in the paper was purchased by Daniel Holbrook, a recent graduate of Harvard College and fresh from the position of principal of the school at the House of Refuge, Randall's Island, N. Y. Mr. Holbrook made it a lively republican paper, ably maintaining the Union cause during the Civil War then waging. September 27, 1869, Mr. Holbrook sold the paper to Foster & Mitchell, of Chambersburg, Pa. In 1871 the paper was purchased by Charles St. John, Jr., William T. Doty, and Alfred E. Spooner. In 1872 Mr. Spooner's interest was purchased by Erwin G. Fowler. All through this year the _Union_ was one of the foremost supporters of the liberal republican movement that led to the nomination at Cincinnati of the lamented Horace Greeley for President. Soon after Greeley's nomination the Union's proprietors issued _The Wood-Chopper,_ a campaign paper which was full of fire and enthusiasm, but died with the ambitions of its martyred presidential candidate. In January, 1873, Mr. Doty retired from the firm to take charge of the _Gazette._ Mr. Fowler retired from the paper later in the same year. In April, 1877, Fred R. Salmon, Mr. St. John's brother-in-law, young and fresh from a commercial school, entered the office as bookkeeper. He displayed aptitude and business qualities from the start--points Mr. St. John quickly recognized--and in 1884 he was made a member of the firm, which became St. John & Salmon, and thus remained until 1894, when the same members became the Tri-States Printing Co. In May, 1895, the firm was incorporated as the Tri-States Publishing Co., which it remains, though on October 1, 1907, Mr. Salmon purchased Mr. St. John's interest and became sole owner.

In 1878 the _Tri-States Union_ was changed from a weekly to semi-weekly issue, but within a year or two was changed back to the weekly issue, which it continues. In 1871 it was changed from a folio to a quarto, which it remains.

In January, 1873, Mr. St. John started the _Port Jervis Daily Union._ It was issued as a morning paper for a year or two, since which time it has been an afternoon paper. It has been edited successively by Ed. H. Mott, E. A. Brown, Henry A. Van Fredenberg, E. G. Fowler, Fred R. Salmon, Charles O. Young, James Bennet, Charles A. Starr, Merritt C. Speidel, and at present by W. T. Doty.

On November 26, 1851, John W. Hasbrouck issued at Middletown the first number of the weekly _Whig Press._ In March, 1868, Mr. Hasbrouck sold the plant to Moses D. Stivers. In 1870 Albert Kessinger bought a half interest in the paper, and the firm was Stivers & Kessinger until August, 1872, when the junior member died. In October, 1872, Mr. Stivers sold the plant to F. Stanhope Hill, who sold an interest to John W. Slauson, and the firm became Hill & Slauson. Mr. Hill sold his interest to Mr. Stivers July 1, 1873, and the firm became Stivers & Slauson. In 1880 Mr. Stivers sold his interest to Mr. Slauson, and Charles J. Boyd entered the firm under the firm name of Slauson & Boyd. This continued until February, 1906, when the whole plant was sold to the Middletown Times Publishing Co., and the familiar old _Press_ lost its identity in the _Times-Press._ It seemed lamentable to see this staunch old paper die. It was the pet of that venerable and conscientious laborer in the literary field, John W. Hasbrouck, and his estimable wife, Dr. Lydia Sayer Hasbrouck. Both labored for years, literally side by side, in the editorial room and in the work-shop of the establishment, and they had built up a fine property. Under its successive changes, in the hands of Messrs. Stivers, Slauson and Boyd the _Press_ had become one of the best country newspapers in the State. Its plant was very valuable, with the most improved machinery, and the whole establishment was shrewdly managed, the paper ably edited, and nothing but the menace of a distinguished rival could ever have induced Messrs. Slauson and Boyd to consent to the disposal of so valuable a plant.

The temperance agitation evidently struck Port Jervis heavily early in the fifties, for in June, 1852, J. L. Barlow and John Dow began the publication of the _Mirror of Temperance._ This lived about eighteen months.

In 1853 another temperance paper appeared in Port Jervis, when John Williams issued _The Sentinel._ It died in 1855. Mr. Williams was a pugnacious Englishman, and while his _Sentinel_ was still on guard, he issued another temperance paper, in the fall of 1854, which he called _The Precursor of Temperance._

With the demise of the latter publication and the _Sentinel,_ in 1855, the starting of temperance papers in Port Jervis ceased entirely. Whether this was due to the complete and perpetual reclamation of the place by the army of temperance agitators that swooped down upon it in the fifties, or to the belief that the warfare was utterly hopeless, is not certain. Any way, the vanquished (or conquering?) John Williams shook the dust of the town from his heels and tarried long enough in Middletown to start the _Hardwareman's Newspaper,_ later the _Iron Age,_ in the office of the _Whig Press._

In 1855 the _Newburgh American_ was issued by R. P. L. Shafer. It had a life of only three or four weeks.

In 1855, at the office of the _Whig Press_ in Middletown, John Williams, who had wrestled with the liquor question in Port Jervis for a few years, started out in a new line. He had Mr. and Mrs. Hasbrouck print for him a trade journal--one of the earliest ventures of this kind in the country. He called it the _Hardwareman's Newspaper,_ and published it monthly. After three years its name was changed to the _Iron Age,_ and it is published yet in New York by David Williams, son of its founder, and is one of the leading trade journals.

A monthly of forty-eight pages was started in Newburgh in 1855 by R. B. Denton. It was called the _Literary Scrapbook._ Its life was short.

If the temperance workers had abandoned the western end of the county as wholly reclaimed or as irreclaimable, they had an eye or two on the eastern end of the district, and in March, 1856, Royal B. Hancock, "as agent for an association of gentlemen," started in Newburgh a temperance paper which he called the _Newburgh Times._ It passed into the hands of R. Bloomer & Son, who sold it to Alexander Wilson, he to Charles Blanchard, and the latter, in 1867, turned it into the _Newburgh Daily Democrat._ The latter failed in a few months.

In 1856 in the Middletown _Whig Press_ office Mr. and Mrs. Hasbrouck began the publication of _The Sybil,_ a fortnightly quarto. It was edited by Mrs. Hasbrouck, and was a particularly bright, able, fearless publication. It was continued eight years.

An association of students in Domanski's school in Newburgh, in 1857 started _The Acorn,_ a small but pretentious monthly of a literary character. It lived about one year.

In the early part of the winter of 1864 Eugene W. Gray began printing the _Daily Union_ at Newburgh. It was really the _Daily Telegraph,_ which had been suspended for a short time. In 1866 the title of both the weekly and daily was changed to the _Press._ In 1869 the title of _Telegraph_ was restored, and in 1876 it became the _Register,_ which continued until February 24, 1908, when it suspended under financial difficulties, and, as one paper expressed it, "Too much anti-Bryanism."

January 27, 1866, Elder Leonard Cox, a practical printer, began printing Warwick's second paper, which he called the _Warwick Advertiser._ It was a five or six-column folio, neatly printed, well edited and newsy. To-day it is one of the best edited weekly newspapers in the county. It is republican in politics--in fact, has practically always been so. January, 1869, Elder Cox sold the paper to John L. Servin, and moved to Virginia. April, 1874, it was purchased by Daniel F. Welling. He sold it to Stewart & Wilson (August 5, 1876), who sold it to Stewart & Demerest. The office was burned out January 24, 1879, after which it was published by Stewart & Co. Samuel J. Stewart was its editor until Hiram Tate came into possession of the property. Mr. Tate was a practical printer, and was fresh from the office of Mr. and Mrs. John W. Hasbrouck's _Whig Press,_ and had good ideas of what a neat, live newspaper should be--as generally had the graduates of Mr. and Mrs. Hasbrouck's school of practical journalism. It is still in Mr. Tate's possession.

Though short-lived, a bright little specimen of ambitious young journalism appeared in Middletown in September, 1866. It was called _The Rising Sun,_ and was the first venture in this field by Stephen H. Sayer, a recent apprentice in the _Whig Press_ office. _The Rising Sun_ was a literary effort--it might almost be claimed as one of the earliest of the amateur publications, except that its ambitious young editor had higher and more mature aims when, out of the environing nebulae he called into existence his little star of hope. It was a four-column folio, printed from long primer and nonpareil type--the two tolerable extremes--and was listed at fifty cents a year. It was printed in Coe Finch's job printing office at Franklin square in the third floor of the building now occupied by the Middletown Savings Bank. Mr. Sayer announced that "_The Rising Sun_ is not a local paper, but will circulate throughout Maine, Kansas, Iowa, etc., with as much profit to subscribers there as in the State of New York." The writer set type on the first issue of _The Rising Sun,_ and had a sort of god-fatherly interest in this promising luminary, and regrets that one of the too common cataclysms in the journalistic empyrean over whelmed the bright little orb ere its rays had scintillated a single scintillation on either rock-ribbed Maine or bleeding Kansas.

But Mr. Sayer was not extinguished, even if the light of his little _Rising Sun_ was dimmed forever. He was ambitious, and, what is more, determined. When he emerged from this celestial crash, he cast his optics over the universe, and discovered Montgomery, and forthwith hied him hither, and in April, 1868, issued the first number of the _Wallkill Valley Times,_ a seven or eight-column folio, of good appearance, newsy, and well edited. In 1869 he issued the _Dollar Weekly._ Both publications passed into the hands of Lester Winfield in 1871.

In 1869 Mr. Sayer also started the _Walden Recorder,_ at Walden. Chauncey B. Reed took it in 1870, and issued it as the _Walden Recorder-Herald._ Later he dropped the Recorder, and the paper has since appeared as the Walden Herald.

From these ventures Mr. Sayer went to Deckertown (now Sussex), N. J., and started the _Sussex Independent,_ which has always been one of the brightest newspapers in New Jersey. After retiring from the _Independent,_ Mr. Sayer joined the Texas colony of the seventies, and spent some years in the Lone Star State, farming, writing, editing, and making himself generally useful to the inhabitants of the far-away empire of the southwest. He and his estimable family returned to the north in the eighties, and he is now living in well-earned retirement on the old farm, near New Vernon, surrounded by his amiable wife and remarkably bright children--the latter now grown to maturity as useful and honored members of the community.

One of the marvels of success, for a few years, was Wood's _Household Advocate,_ a monthly magazine, started in Newburgh by S. S. Wood in 1867. Later the name was changed to _Household Magazine,_ and it attained a circulation of 60,000 copies. It died in 1874.

Lester Winfield started a paper at Galesville Mills, Ulster County, in May, 1864, which he removed to Pine Bush in September, 1868, under the name of the _Pine Bush Weekly Casket._ The same month (September, 1868), he continued the journey to Montgomery, and called the paper the _Montgomery Republican._ Mr. Winfield succeeded in uniting his _Casket,_ his _Republican_ and Mr. Smith's _Standard_ into one publication, May 1, 1869, which he called the _Republican and Standard,_ which is continued to this day, as the _Montgomery Standard and Reporter._

Early in 1869 A. A. Bensel started at Newburgh the _Home, Farm and Orchard,_ an eight-page weekly. It was a bright, useful journal, devoted to farm topics, and deserved the widest circulation, but it died in the spring of 1876.

April 22, 1869, James H. Norton, of Middletown late of the _Mercury,_ and William H. Nearpass, of Port Jervis, began the publication in Port Jervis of the first tri-weekly paper in this county. It was called The _Evening Gazette._ It was a five-column folio, printed from new bourgeois type. It was newsy, bright, chatty, and entertaining from the start. Within a few weeks The _Family Gazette_ appeared from the same office, and was issued weekly. Within a year the latter was enlarged and became the _Port Jervis Weekly Gazette._ The _Evening_ and the _Weekly Gazette_ soon attained big circulations, and have since continued to reach a large class of readers. Both were neutral in politics for years. Mr. Norton retired from the concern in 1871. Ed. H. Mott, of Honesdale, becoming associated with Mr. Nearpass in the publishing and editing of the paper. October 1, 1872, George A. Clement, a young New York lawyer, purchased the establishment, and turned it into a Republican organ, supporting General Grant in his second presidential campaign. July 1, 1873, William T. Doty, of Port Jervis, and William R. Waller, of Monticello, leased the plant. Mr. Doty becoming editor and business manager, and Mr. Waller taking charge of the mechanical department. In 1874, Mr. Clement sold the plant to Jesse M. Connor, a Port Jervis merchant, who, in turn, disposed of it to Hon. Charles St. John, ex-congressman from this district. Soon afterward Mr. St. John sold the plant to Ezra J. Horton, of Peekskill, and William T. Doty, and the paper became democratic. In 1875 the co-partnership between Mr. Horton and Mr. Doty ended, Mr. Horton retiring, and in October, 1876, Mr. St. John again became owner of the plant for two issues, when he disposed of it to William H. Nearpass. The paper has since been democratic. W. T. Doty continued as editor for several years, being succeeded by James J. Shier, of Middletown, and since his death, by Mr. Nearpass as editor. Associated with Mr. Nearpass in the management and ownership of the paper was Abram Shinier, A. M. May, James J. Shier, and since the eighties the paper has been conducted by the Gazette Publishing Co., with W. H. Nearpass as president and editor, Evi Shinier as secretary and treasurer and business manager, with Mark V. Richards as associate editor, and James Skellenger as city editor. The tri-weekly edition was changed to an afternoon daily issue (except Sunday), and to an eight-column folio, January 17, 1881.

In January, 1869, Isaac F. Guiwits started the first daily newspaper in Middletown. It was issued at four o'clock every afternoon, except Sunday, and was printed at the office of the _Middletown Mercury,_ then located over what is now Hanford & Horton's news store on North street. It was a five-column folio, printed from brevier type, and was a model of neatness, sprightliness, and paid much attention to local news. Mr. Guiwits was an elegant writer, brimful of wit--a thorough all-round printer and "newspaper man," an apt pupil of the master journalistic mind, James H. Norton, and he made the _Daily Mail_ a bright paper. But it didn't pay, as a daily, and April 28, 1869, Mr. Guiwits issued the _Middletown Mail,_ a weekly publication of six columns (folio), this succeeding the _Daily Mail._ Some months later Mr. Guiwits sold the _Mail_ plant to Evander B. Willis, a printer, stenographer, and reporter. A year or two later Dr. Joseph D. Friend became the owner of the _Mail._ In 1873 he made an arrangement by which the _Mail_ was consolidated with the _Mercury,_ when Dr. Friend and George H. Thompson became the proprietors of the combined publication. The _Mail_ was a local newspaper, with democratic tendencies, but it never cut much of a figure in the newspaper life in the county, after it ceased to be a daily, though Mr. Guiwits and Dr. Friend were both fine writers, and Mr. Willis was popular. Dr. Friend, the genial, the easy-going, the friend, has long since passed away, but his memory is ever green with the few who yet linger--aye few--who associated with him in journalism in those early days. Mr. Guiwits went to Kansas City, and Mr. Willis to California.

The second experiment of publishing a tri-weekly paper in Orange County began in the office of the _Orange County Press_ when Stivers & Kessinger (Moses D. Stivers and Albert Kessinger), on May 24, 1870, issued the first number of the _Middletown Evening Press._ October 26, 1872, the tri-weekly became a daily under the name of the _Middletown Daily Press,_ and continued until merged with the _Middletown Times_ in February, 1906, under the name of the _Middletown Times-Press._

The first journal to be issued at Cornwall, or Cornwall-on-the-Hudson was called _The Cornwall Paper, a Local Record of Things New and Old._ It was published by P. P. Hazen, of Cornwall, in conjunction with A. A. Bensel, of Newburgh, issue No. 1 appearing April 15, 1871. So far as known no other issue of the paper ever appeared.

May 24, 1875, Miss S. J. A. Hussey started the _Cornwall Times,_ which, lived six years.

In 1875 Isaac V. Montanye started the _Middletown Argus,_ a weekly paper. It was merged with the _Mercury_ in 1876, and January 27, 1876, the _Daily Argus_ came forth and still does valiant service. The _Daily Argus_ was started by Cornelius Macardell, Sr., who had money as well as brains, and he made the _Argus_ and the _Mercury_ live democratic papers. George H. Thompson, who soon after leaving college became connected with the concern, and his ready pen and many other good newspaper qualities, soon won the attention of Mr. Macardell, who installed him as editor, which position he retained to his death. The present editor is A. B. Macardell.

An association of printers in Newburgh in October, 1875, started the _Daily Penny Post,_ as a representative of labor and union interests. While the _Post_ was struggling for existence the _Daily Mail_ was started by a rival organization, in 1876. In June of the latter year the _Post_ was discontinued, and having evidently accomplished its purpose, the _Mail_ merged, in 1877, with the _Register._

It was in 1876 that the _Newburgh Register_ came into existence, with many vicissitudes and owners, as previously explained, but finally emerging from the _Telegraph_ under the able management of the lamented Edward M. Ruttenber. The _Register_ later passed into the hands of Herbert P. Kimber & Co., who made of it a bright, newsy, democratic paper. Succeeding Mr. Kimber as editor were John A. Mason, Francis Willard and A. L. Moffatt, the latter of whom fought the Bryan element of the democratic party so vigorously that his retirement from the paper in 1907 was a matter of much rejoicing in the ranks of the reigning element of the party in Orange County. The recent editor of the _Register_ was John V. Tucker, whose utterances were evidently more in harmony with the views of the democratic county committee. But the _Register_ suspended publication February 24, 1908.

In 1877 the _Cornwall Reflector_ was started by John Lee. Later H. H. Snelling became editor. The paper lived until the latter part of 1888.

In 1879 James C. Merritt started the _Cornwall Mirror_ at Highland Falls. In 1895 it was merged with the _Cornwall Local._

On April 4, 1880, appeared in Port Jervis the first number of the _Sunday Morning Call._ It was a five-column quarto, neatly printed, ably edited, and destined, as its first number indicated, to make a stir in local social, political and religious circles. It was published by Erwin G. Fowler and A. L. Moffatt, with Mr. Fowler as editor. The latter was bright, witty, ready and fearless, and he girded on his editorial armor and leaped into the arena of local polemics with an ardor and a fearlessness that, for a time, set the town in a furor. He attacked the validity of the bond issue for the Monticello railroad, and came near having the bonds repudiated by the people in accordance with court decisions in similar cases. His iconoclasm aroused the frenzy of those most exposed to his vitriolic assaults, and they sought to muzzle his _Call,_ with the result that the last issue of his fearless paper appeared in December of the same year.

April 23, 1881, appeared in Middletown the _Liberal Sentinel,_ an independent weekly quarto, with John W. and Mrs. Lydia Hasbrouck as editors. The paper was never profitable to them, but it enabled these two benevolent people to again take up, for a time, the battle for human rights--a struggle in which they had practically sacrificed the bloom of their youth and the fruition of years. Mr. Hasbrouck has gone to his reward, after a life of struggle, in his own quiet, unassuming way, with the adverse forces of environment for the betterment of humanity. His noble, self-sacrificing companion through years, yet lives, a martyr to conventionality, a lover of the good, the pure, the true. May her declining days be as peaceful and as beautiful as the summer flowers that shed their fragrance and their luster around her own beautiful habitation on Linden avenue's fair lawn.

On the eighth of September, 1881, was issued at Port Jervis in the office of the Tri-States Publishing Co., the first number of the _Orange County Farmer._ It was a six-column quarto, and, as its name indicates, was devoted to the interests of the farmer, dairyman, and pomologist. The idea was one of the many conceptions of the fertile brain of Charles St. John, Jr., then the head of the Tri-States Publishing Co., a former supervisor of the town of Deer Park, a son of former Congressman Hon. Charles St. John, a young man who, ere he was out of his teens, was a leader in all the athletic sports of his native village, Port Jervis, active, energetic in business, and brimful of plans and ideas. He was one of the leaders in the county in the liberal republican movement that, in 1872, led to the nomination of Horace Greeley for President, and made the _Tri-States Union_ and the campaign publication, _The Woodchopper,_ red-hot champions of the Sage of Chappaqua. In starting the _Orange County Farmer_ Mr. St. John built far better than he knew, as subsequent events proved. The first number was, editorially, the joint production of himself and his brother-in-law, Fred R. Salmon, then a bookkeeper in the office of the _Tri-States Union._ Mr. Salmon had been active in the business department, but developed talent in connection with reportorial and editorial lines, and did some clever agricultural work for the first and for many succeeding issues of the _Farmer._ He was for some time known as managing editor of _The Farmer,_ though after the first issue Erwin G. Fowler, late of the _Sunday Call,_ and a former editor of the _Daily Union_ and of the _Middletown Press,_ and a lover of horticultural matters, became the active editor of _The Farmer,_ with Mr. Salmon as the business manager. Under this joint control, with more or less supervision of Mr. St. John, _The Farmer_ rapidly grew in popularity, in circulation, and in influence. In 1890 Mr. Fowler and John J. Dillon, then connected with the office and now manager of the _Rural New Yorker,_ purchased _The Husbandman,_ an agricultural paper at Elmira, and both retired from _The Farmer._ Mr. Fowler's successor was William T. Doty, and Mr. Dillon's successor in the business department was William F. Wade, now of the _Rural New Yorker._ In 1894 Mr. Fowler was again on _The Farmer's_ editorial staff and remained until 1897, when declining health forced his retirement--and his death in 1904 deprived the literary and agricultural world of one of its brightest workers, the social world of one of the most amiable, lovable, benevolent members, and Orange County's musical set an able leader.

Mr. Fowler's successor on _The Farmer_ was Henry A. Van Fredenberg, for years editor of the _Milling World_ and the _Lumber World,_ both of Buffalo. Mr. Van Fredenberg was born in Montague, N. J., was educated in the schools of Port Jervis, early became a school teacher, and had charge of the schools at Sussex (then Deckertown), N. J., when he entered the editorial harness on the _Sussex Independent,_ and developed rare talent, which quickly secured his recognition as a writer, a paragrapher, reporter, and editor. When he was called to the editorial chair of the _Orange County Farmer_ he had years of editorial experience, was a botanical scholar, a marvelous linguist, a proficient mathematician, had a rare knowledge of chemistry, geology and pomology, and was a careful student in dairy and agricultural matters generally. That _The Farmer_ has prospered beyond all expectations under his wise and able editorial management is not saying too much. Started as a county agricultural paper, it steadily grew out of its local bounds into State reputation, and then into national and now into international importance, with a circulation now (March, 1908), quoted at 25,000, with subscribers in almost every civilized country in the world, besides going into every State in the Union. It is quoted everywhere, its editorial utterances and contributions are transferred to other tongues, and it is recognized as one of the leading dairy journals of the world. This marvelous growth and influence outside its own county led its managers to change its title in 1897, when it became _The New York Farmer,_ as more expressive of its character and the scope of its work and operations. At this time (March, 1908), Mr. Van Fredenberg is still the editor, and _The Farmer_ is now a seven-column quarto, issued on Wednesday of each week.