USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Waterbury > The town and city of Waterbury, Connecticut, from the aboriginal period to the year eighteen hundred and ninety-five. Volume III > Part 42
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On June 1, 1868, the American Printing company was organ- ized and came into possession of the newspaper. The change was "rendered expedient," said an editorial announcing it, "by the death of one of the partners, nearly two years ago, and the present delicate health of the senior editor." Mr. Townsend's death occurred on the very day this editorial appeared. Mr. Cooke had gone through a long and exhausting illness in the spring of the previous year, from which he never fully recovered and after which his active connection with the paper was hardly more than nomi- nal. The original stockholders of the new company were E. B. Cooke, Charles Benedict, J. C. Booth, C. H. Carter, J. W. Smith, C. D. Hurlburt, E. M. Hurlburt, G. W. Cooke, M L. Scudder, Jr., J. S. Elton, C. N. Wayland, White & Wells, A. S. Chase and S. W. Hall. The first officers of the com- pany were: E. B. Cooke, president; M. L. Scudder, Jr., sec- retary and treasurer. Mr. Scudder was the business manager of the paper, and, after six months' service as editor by James M. Woodward, he also undertook the editorial direction, and main- tained it until his retirement, January 17, 1870. There was evi- dently a rivalry in his affections between finance and editing, and the former must finally have triumphed, as he is now the proprietor of the Investors' agency in New York. He was succeeded as treas- urer by J. W. Smith, and as secretary and business manager by F. B. Dakin. Major J. C. Kinney, who had been assistant editor since July, 1868, became editor in Mr. Scudder's place, and continued to be such until the end of 1871, at which time the daily was changed from a morning to an evening paper. (See further in the military chapter.) Following his retirement, Mr. Dakin attempted the duties of editor in addition to his business labors, being assisted during a large part of 1872 and 1873 by the Rev. Joseph Anderson, who, although not known to the public as connected with the paper, wrote for it almost daily and contributed a number of note- worthy articles, some of them bearing on important local matters and discussing needed public improvements.
On January 3 of 1873 the office, which had been removed to the White & Wells building on Bank street soon after the organi-
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zation of the American Printing company, was burned out. The paper was issued for a few days from the office of Giles & Son. The loss was small, but the inconvenience was great, and for a week or more the paper was printed on a half sheet.
In the autumn of 1873 Reuben H. Smith, who had been con- nected with the mechanical department of the paper, became editor, the local department being in the hands of Frank E. Beach. Mr. Smith enjoyed the unique distinction, to which none of his pre- decessors attained and none of his successors aspire, of spending Sunday in jail at the command of a judge, Henry I. Boughton, whose judicial character had been discussed in the paper with inju- rious bluntness. Mr. Smith preferred the martyrdom of imprison- ment to the liberty purchased by a fine which he considered unjust, and he went to jail, but other considerations conspired to prevent the expiation of his offence in that way. He came home and con- tinued to serve the people of Waterbury until May, 1878, when he accepted a place on the Springfield Republican. He was afterward editor and proprietor of the Newtown Bee, and is now a resident of Riverside, Cal.
It was in the middle of his term as editor that the death occurred of the venerable founder of the American. Edward Bronson Cooke died on Sunday, January 17, 1875, when nearly eighty-two years years old. On his eightieth birthday he wrote for the American an article of an autobiographical nature, from which some interesting paragraphs may be quoted:
The writer, E. B. Cooke, is " native here and to the manor born," his ancestors on both sides belonging to the early settlers of Waterbury. His grandfather on he maternal side, Captain Ezra Bronson, vas one of the honored and influential men of his time, and resided on what is now Centre square, the site of the old place being near where the house of the Hon. ohn Kendrick now stands. Here, at the ld ancestral residence, the subject of this ketch entered into a life which has been rolonged much beyond the time usually llotted to our race. This event took place [arch 18, 1793. His boyhood was spent in cquiring the rudiments of an education : the common schools, which, however, forded very unsatisfactory means for in- llectual culture as compared with the mmon schools of the present day. . . For a period of nearly sixty years e writer has been practically engaged in s favorite profession, having acted as foreman, editor, reporter and contributor, occasion demanded. In 1844, being encouraged and aided by a few substantial
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friends, he commenced the publication of the American, which was under his per- sonal supervision and management up to the spring of 1867, when for several months he was prostrated by severe sickness from which he has never fully recov- ered. He has attained to the undisputed honor of being the oldest editor in the state. He is aware that in the course of events he will ere long be compelled to lay aside the pen, but to the close of life he will hold in fond remem- brance the events of his professional career, and especially those connected with the American.
On the day following Mr. Cooke's death the American said edito- rially of its departed chief:
He was a man of warm temperament, quick perceptions and good judgment on subjects which interested his attention, and especially those pertaining to his profes- sion. Up to the time of his severe sickness and prostration in 1867 he was a clear thinker, a ready and vigorous writer, well posted in journalistic matters, possessing, in fact, rare qualifications for his calling, to which he was ardently devoted.
RESIDENCE OF E. B. COOKE, NORTHEAST CORNER OF COOKE AND GROVE STREETS.
The political opinions of "Father Cooke " are well known, especially to those who have been familiar with the columns of the American during the twenty-three years of his active editorship of the paper. Though it was sometimes called "the neutral," the editor never claimed for it that character; but while he aimed, on all important questions, whether local or general, to treat all parties with due respect, he maintained his right to the free expression of his own convictions. When the American started into life the two leading political parties of the country were the Whig and Democratic-the sympathies of the editor being emphatically with the former. With that party he continued to act till the formation of the Republican party and the nomination of General Fremont in 1856 as its standard bearer. From that time till the close of his life he adhered devotedly to the party which gave us Abraham Lincoln as its first president, and carried the country safely through the civil war.
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The steady and vigorous growth of the Waterbury American was due in great measure to the untiring efforts and judicious management of its founder. . Though never able after his sickness to resume editorial work, he took a lively interest in the affairs of the office and made frequent contributions to the paper, his special department being "The Week," which appeared regularly every week up to the time of his last sickness. He also wrote many obituary and other short articles which were characteristic in thought and expression. The last few years of his life were spent mainly at home with his family, where he passed his time chiefly in reading and writing, having at his command the Bronson library and the leading newspapers of the day; these, with the kind attentions of his family and friends, kept his mind employed, to the exclusion in a measure of the infirmities resulting from the shock to his system previously noticed. Naturally somewhat impetuous, he bore his trials with a good degree of resignation, patiently enduring for years much bodily suffering.
Though reared in the Congregational church, Mr. Cooke in later life adopted the Protestant Episcopal faith, and was for many years a member of St. John's church in this city. He was liberal in his views and heartily endorsed whatever in his opinion tended to advance Christianity and thus to make the world better, whether the method of action originated in his own church or not. His remarks to the writer during his last sickness that he " believed he had done some good in the world," will meet a ready affirmative response from all who have known him best; the character and influence of the Waterbury American under his editorial hand will also bear testimony to his usefulness and influence for good.
Following Mr. Cooke's death J. W. Smith was elected president of the company and Frederick P. Steele secretary and treasurer. In 1877 there were important changes in the ownership of the Ameri- can, the following persons becoming stockholders of the American Printing company : A. S. Chase, C. R. Baldwin, Charles F. Pope, Charles S. Treadway, H. S. Chase and C. F. Chapin. Of these A. S. Chase is the only one who was among the original stockholders. From the beginning of the existence of the company, during periods when the success of the daily seemed doubtful, he had far-reaching faith in the future of journalism in Waterbury. His connection with the American (for now more than a quarter of a century) has given to it a consistent course of action through all changes, sym- pathetic with all the interests of the community of which it is a )art, and his influence has been exerted to make the paper in all its ranches intelligent, conscientious and responsible. Mr. Chase was ·lected president and C. F. Pope secretary and treasurer. The job rinting department, which had been an important part of the stablishment since its beginning in 1844, was sold to F. P. Steele. n the following year, 1878, the office was removed to a new build- ng, 99-103 Bank street, which had been erected especially for it, nd the paper was again enlarged.
On May 1, 1878, R. H. Smith was succeeded as editor by C. F. Chapin and the policy of the American was conformed still more to ts professions of political independence than it had been since Mr.
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Cooke's active control had ceased. F. E. Beach continued at the head of the city department. At the close of 1878 Mr. Pope resigned his offices and was succeeded by C. R. Baldwin, and in 1883 Mr. Chapin was elected to the office of secretary in addition to that of editor. Soon afterward came the severest test of the courage of the American in the practice of its independent preach- ing. In 1880 it had supported Garfield for the presidency, and had given to his administration and that of Arthur, who suc- ceeded him, cordial support. As the national convention of 1884 approached, the figure of James G. Blaine cast its shadow across the future of the Republican party, which had not experi- enced national defeat in a quarter of a century. It is not necessary or fitting to review here the objections to Mr. Blaine. Suffice it to say that those which the American urged were so conclusive in its own judgment and so binding on its conscience that it could not put them aside when they proved unavailing to prevent his nomina- tion. It accepted the alternative of a Democrat with regret, but without hesitation. The contest which its action challenged was with some of its best friends, and it was fierce and bitter. Hostility to the political opinions and editorial teachings of the paper was aimed also at its business interests, and deliberate, persistent effort was made to deprive it of advertising and destroy its circulation. Many advertisements were taken out and many subscriptions stopped. The forces behind this attack were strong and influential, but they were feeble when matched against the fair-minded com- mon sense of a community that had read the American for forty years and had always found it-except during the war when all men were partisans-an exponent of independence so far as the times admitted. In spite of these attacks its growth in advertising was never so rapid as during those months of the campaign, and at the close its circulation was larger than it had ever been before. The judgment of the newspaper was confirmed by the votes of the people, they testified that its conscience was theirs, and the right and duty of a newspaper to stand by its convictions were confirmed. During the campaign the American said little of its own affairs. It printed the news and its opinions thereon, attending strictly to its business. When the election was over and the decision of the people rendered, it published the figures of its circulation, invited advertisers to inspect the books, and answered the questions of the curious and relieved the anxieties of the friendly in an editorial containing the following significent utterances:
The American is chiefly a business enterprise. It expects to give every one of its patrons his money's worth, and it asks of him payment for nothing more than he gets. Its chief end is to gain readers by printing what people want to read, the
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news; and it throws in its opinions on this news, and on all matters of human inter- est as they come along, for good measure. These opinions are its own, and they are not to be paid for by an advertisement or a subscription. Not being able to suit those opinions to the liking of everybody, we have to be satisfied with forming them on such principles of honesty, wisdom and conscientiousness as we are blessed with, trusting them to appeal on their merits to similar principles held by our readers. They are formed, in each case, as nearly as possible without particular regard to the fortunes of individuals and political parties, but with special attention to the theories, principles and convictions to which the paper has always been devoted. In short, the American is an independent newspaper. In maintaining, after the nomination, the ideas which it entertained before it, it abused no trust. It exercised simply the right which every paper not a party organ enjoys, and which the American has steadily maintained for itself-the right to be honest with itself and its readers and true to its own convictions. It has steadily denied, as a newspaper, the obligation of allegiance to the Republican party or the Democratic party. It supported Garfield as an independent journal in 1880, and as an inde- pendent journal it supported Cleveland in 1884.
The American wants all the readers it can get. But it must gain them, as in the past, on its merits as a newspaper and not on the shade of its political opinions. No Republican by his patronage has won the right to dictate its political course, and no Democrat by his patronage can acquire that right. It hopes to deal fairly by all men, whether Democrats or Republicans. It hopes to be honest, reason- able and just. Its success and prosperity depend upon the success and prosperity of the communities with which it has been identified for forty years, and such Influence as it has shall be devoted to their maintenance. It asks no completer indication of its course and no plainer evidence of public confidence than that to which it invites attention to-day.
It ought not to be necessary for the American to define its position again.
In October, 1889, C. R. Baldwin resigned his office and retired rom ownership in the American Printing company. Henry S. Chase succeeded him. In 1892 there was further concentration of wnership caused by the retirement of Charles S. Treadway. The resent stockholders and officers of the American Printing company re A. S. Chase, president; H. S. Chase, treasurer and manager; C. . Chapin, secretary and editor.
Arthur R. Kimball has been associate editor since 1881. Charles T. Burpee, who succeeded F. E. Beach as city editor in 1883, retired 1 1891 to accept the position of assistant editor of the Bridgeport tandard, and is now on the staff of the Hartford Courant. Mr. Beach igaged in newspaper work in Ansonia, Norwalk and Willimantic, id afterward in Southbridge, Mass., and is now editor of the erkshire Courier. Other members of the editorial staff at present e Orrin A. Robbins, Walter A. Bown, Harry M. Loomis and mes M. Sullivan. Mr. Robbins has been connected with the merican, with a brief interval of absence, since 1857, and was long foreman of the composing room before entering upon his present sition. Mr. Bown came to the paper in 1875, was foreman from
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1883 to 1886 and has been proof-reader and editorial contributor since. Others who were connected with the staff for several years, but have retired, are Samuel M. Stone, Christopher F. Downey, William R. Mattison, Joseph O'Neill and John H. Curley. Mr. Stone has been for several years court reporter in New York for the United Press Local News.
John S. Deacon (see page 840) was in charge of the advertising department for about twelve years. He was succeeded by Charles H. Keach, and the assistants in the counting room are Bertrand C. Pike, Edward T. Crooker and William L. Pressey. Others who have been employed in this department are William M. Oakley, Walter F. Baldwin, Arthur D. Noble, L. S. Brackett, Andrew J. McMahon, Louis J. Carder and Philip Hampson. Frank T. Parsons has been foreman of the composing room since 1885. David Hull, foreman of the press room, has been connected with the company since 1867. He was assisted for a number of years by Jean Ingraham. Joseph H. Devereaux has been chief of the mailing department since 1881. The record would not be complete without mention of Henry E. Rhoades (H. E. R.), Maurice Splain (Maur) and Thomas J. Campion, the American's correspondents at New York, Washington and Hart- ford respectively; and also of another, Henry W. H. Satchwell, who for twenty-seven years had a more varied connection with the office in all its departments than any other man. Mr. Satchwell entered the office first in May, 1857, and remained until the job department was purchased by F. B. Steele in 1878. During that time, while nominally connected with the mechanical department, and for many years foreman of the job office, he nevertheless, as he has himself expressed it, filled every place except the editorial chair, having had a hand in reporting, in telegraph work, in the mailing room, counting room, press room and composing room.
A feature of the American which is worthy of note, and which gives it strength and character, is the local correspondence from contributors in nearly a hundred towns and villages in western Connecticut. These correspondents are usually men and women of substance and authority in their respective communities, giving to what they write the value of reliability and the influence of good judgment through a wide section. This department of the paper has grown with the development of towns and the spread of popu- lation, until it is wide reaching in circulation and influence .* The
* For a number of years there was an association of the American's correspondents, which held annual meetings of great profit and enjoyment, with a dinner, speeches, poems and miscellaneous papers. These meetings were discontinued, owing to the difficulty of getting together so large a number so widely separated at a place and a time convenient to all, but the spirit of news enterprise and loyalty to the newspaper has not flagged or declined since the association was dissolved.
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telegraphic news service has also developed, keeping pace with the rapid extension of electrical facilities. For several years the American has had its own wire and its own operator in the service of the great United Press and the New England Associated Press in immediate touch with the news centres of the world. From 1884 the difficult and responsible duties of this important branch of the American's news service were in charge of Edwin L. Rockwell, until 1895, when he was succeeded by Wilber F. Hammond, Jr.
Since the changes in 1877 the paper has been enlarged three times. In 1894 and 1895 the company erected on Grand street (with a frontage also on Leavenworth street) handsome and substantial buildings carefully planned to make the most complete and conven- ient publishing establishment within the needs of such a paper as the American. They are furnished with a new and expensive press, stereotyping apparatus and type-setting machines, and supplied with the most modern mechanical equipment throughout. These buildings were occupied in 1895.
The return of the American after 1877 to a policy of political independence was strictly in accordance with all its traditions and its professions from the very beginning, and with its practice, except during the war and for a time after Mr. Cooke's retirement, when it was for several years a strictly partisan organ. But from its birth, as long as it was the custom of newspapers to carry a motto on the title page, the American declared itself "Independent of Party and Sect," and this is its policy and practice still .*
G. L. TOWNSEND.
George Larmon Townsend, the eldest son of Charles and Lucy (Peck) Townsend, was born in Middlebury, December 1, 1827. He received his education in the common schools and in the academy of the town. He was employed for some years in New Haven as a teacher. He removed to Waterbury in 1851, and became the busi- ness manager and assistant editor of the American. He was promi- nent in the order of Odd Fellows, and was Past Grand Master of the Grand lodge of Connecticut. On May 27, 1856, he married Emma Roberts, daughter of Joseph Hurlburt. Their children are Lucy Hurlburt, married to Charles S. Treadway; Ellen Roberts and Emma Cooke. Mr. Townsend died June 5, 1868. The obituary notice referred to above appeared in the American of June 12, 1868.
*On December 14, 1894, the fiftieth anniversary of the American was recognized by the publication of i special edition, giving the history of the paper during the half century and a number of historical and reminiscent articles from those who had been connected with it. Among these were M. L. Scudder, D. B. Lockwood, Mrs. J. C. Kinney, Dr. J. Anderson, R. H. Smith, C. W. Burpee, S. M. Stone, C. R. Baldwin, W. H. Marigold, O. M. Pickett, W. A. Bown, F. T. Parsons.
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C. F. CHAPIN.
Charles Frederic Chapin, son of Enoch Cooley and Harriet (Abbe) Chapin, was born at South Hadley Falls, Mass., August 3, 1852. He prepared for college at Wilbraham academy, and grad- uated from Yale in 1877, in the same class with Henry S. Chase and Arthur Reed Kimball. He had served an apprenticeship as printer in the Lowville (N. Y.) Democrat and the Lowville Journal and Republican, and in college his special interest in journalism mani- fested itself in various ways. He received the highest journalistic honor at Yale in his election as chairman of the board of editors of the Yale Literary Magazine.
On graduating he came at once to Waterbury, and became con- nected with the American. Having learned in the counting-room the newspaper business on its practical side, he assumed the edito- rial management, and in a brief period imparted to the paper a character for ability, independence, firmness and breadth which it had not hitherto possessed and which few papers in New England can claim. By a self-assertion which was persistent, but unobtru- sive, good-natured and considerate, he made his personality felt throughout the establishment, and the same qualities, pervading the columns of the paper, secured for him an unsuspected mastery in the minds of a steadily increasing constituency. His style has been well described as "always forceful and always temperate." The hardest blows are given, it has been said, "in quiet, clean-cut sentences. Every word tells, because it is driven home by the hammer of a cold fact." Well equipped for literary work of a more permanent kind than the newspaper calls for, he has nevertheless confined himself closely to the newspaper field. His only ventures outside of it are an essay or two on journalism and a few chapters in this History of Waterbury.
On October 12, 1877, Mr. Chapin married Katharine A. Mattison of South Shaftesbury, Vt. They have three children, Carl Mattison and twin daughters, Barbara and Marjorie.
A. R. KIMBALL.
Arthur Reed Kimball, the son of Jesse Merrill and Elizabeth (Robbins) Kimball, was born February 1, 1855, in New York city. He prepared for college at the Hopkins Grammar school in New Haven, from which he entered Yale. He pursued the academic course, and graduated in 1877. He passed the following year in the Yale Law school, and then removed to Chicago and was admit- ted to the bar. After a brief period of teaching, he left Chicago for Des Moines, where he became, in 1880, the city editor of the
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