History of Scott County, Iowa, Part 53

Author: Inter-state Publishing Company (Chicago, Ill.)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago, Inter-state publishing co.
Number of Pages: 1280

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In 1856, on invitation of the Illinois Republican Central Com- mittee, by which he was deceived in the most shameful manner, he went to Peoria, where he was in charge of the editorial department of the Deutsche Zeitung. IIe remained there until 1861, when he made arrangements with Henry Lischer to assume the editorial chair ot Der Demokrat. which position he has from that time with great ability filled. Mr. Stibolt takes rank among the oldest and most influential editors of the West. For nearly 30 years he has found constant labor in the editorial chair. For the past 20 years his days of recreation would not amount to a dozen.

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY.

And so from very small beginnings in 1851, we have noticed the constant and substantial progress of Der Demokrat-from a weakling, with but few supporters, to a strong concern-the most prominent among the German papers of the State both in wealth and influence.

DAVENPORT MORNING NEWS.

The sixth newspaper enterprise of any considerable magnitude that blossomed into existence here was that of the Morning News, daily and weekly. It appeared in September. 1856, with full out- fit for doing a regular newspaper and job printing business on a large scale-everything bright and new. George N. Harrington and Frane B. Wilkie were classmates in Union College, New York, in 1853-'6. Young Harrington had a brother John, who is yet well remembered by Davenport people as a noted steamboat pilot. He then lived in Davenport, and being a man of some means, and something of a politician withal, offered to furnish George the money to start a newspaper enterprise in this place. In order to secure editorial talent for the enterprise, George Harrington offered Wilkie a half interest if he would take charge of it. He consented, and so the News appeared. When the News was started a hand- some balanee was placed to its credit in one of the eity banks. This was so placed to be used in meeting the expenses of the concern until such time as it would be self-sustaining. John Harring- ton, however, in order to double this capital, bet it all in the pres- idential election, which resulted in the choice of James Buchanan, and the money was lost.

This led to the very unpleasant and unprofitable necessity of running the paper on borrowed capital, on 30 and 60 day paper. This drawback was not calenlated to inspire hope. but still the News had friends and kept on. It was a bright, newsy paper of fonr pages, eight columns to the page. well filled with reading and advertising-for in those days, be it known, that Davenport mer- chants and business men advertised with a spirit that was worthy of the cause. The leading editorials were bright and piquant.

In the latter part of 1:57, under the impression that there were brighter prospects elsewhere, Mr. Wilkie disposed of his interest in the News establishment to his partner, Mr. George G. Harring- ton, who was to assume all the liabilities. On Mr. Wilkie's depart- ure, the paper was for a short time under the solitary management

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY.

of Mr. Harrington. The new state of affairs being unpleasant, Mr. Harrington sought a buyer, and finally disposed of the entire prop- erty to John Johns, Jr., & Co., and left the place.

In 1859 it became apparent that there was no longer any fat liv- ing for two Democratic dailies in Davenport. The News office was for sale. It chaneed that a gentleman, Col. A. Thomas Maguire, came here from Pennsylvania to negotiate for it. Looking the field over in a hurried way, Col. Maguire decided to purchase. A bargain was struck and he went into possession, without payment. He returned to Pennsylvania for his family, leaving Mr. Wallace in charge, and sufficient money to run it a week or two. Return- ing, and finding the receipts and money left with the foreman had not sufficed to keep up expenses, he took alarm and was meditat- ing a retreat. He would have left right away but for the inter- position of mutual friends of the Iowa State Democrat and the News, who proposed a union of the two under one name and man- agement. The Democrat and News became a single paper Oet. 11, 1859, and so remained until April 20, 1864, when the News was dropped from the title.

LE CLAIRE WEEKLY EXPRESS.

In the month of December, 1856, at the instance of the people of Le Claire and those having property interests there, Messrs Harrington & Wilkie decided to start a weekly paper in the " Little Republie." They accordingly visited that city, and, after getting a good list of names, issued two or three numbers of the Le Claire Weekly Express from the Davenport office, when they disposed of the enterprise to two energetie printers in their office, William H. Fleming, and William Craig, who removed the material to Le Claire and opened an office there.

The paper thus commeneed continued with varying success until the fall of 1857, when Mr. Craig disposed of his interest to his partner, who soon strengthened his line by a partnership with Mr. Franeis H. Impey, of Davenport. Mr. Impey, in June, 1858, after a rather barren winter in the newspaper line, sold ont and quit the editorial chair of the Express, and Le Claire also. At that time Mr. Edward Russell, then of Le Claire, now of the Daven- - port Gazette, became associated with the editorshipof the Express, but it was up-hill work. No amount of talent could well sustain a newspaper in Le Claire in those times of financial darkness; so in

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY.

October of that year Mr. Fleming closed the office-the Weekly Express was dead. At the best the struggle for life had been a hard one, and after the financial collapse of 1857 it became hopeless. Politically the Erpress was independent until after the establish- ment along side of it of a Democratic paper, when it became Re- publican.

LE CLAIRE REPUBLIC.

In December, 1858, Dr. James Van Horne, of Le Claire, who had purchased the material of the late Express office, formed with Messrs. Russell and Fleming a co-partnership and started a new paper. the Le Claire Republic, Mr. Russell, editor. and Mr. Flem- ing, printer. It was started as an experiment and so carried on; subscriptions being received at first for six months only, and all con- traets for advertising made to cover that period of time. Twenty- six numbers ofthe Le Claire Republic were issued, when the impos- sibility of success having been sufficiently demonstrated the paper stopped. its light went out; it died in peace, owing nobody. It is a matter of wonder if another similar instance can be found in Iowa newspaper experience: paying as it went; taking no subscrip- tions without the cash; receiving a good share of patronage; and the best paper Le Claire had ever had.

LE CLAIRE REGISTER.

Three months after the discontinuance of the Republic, John Trainor King, then of Davenport. bought the material of the Re- public office and established the Le Claire Register, a Democratic paper, the first of the " Douglas " variety the county had yet had. And the venture met with better success than any of the others; was better supported than they. But the proprietor, apparantly dis- satisfied with the limited field furnished by Le Claire, and perhaps not making anything, notwithstanding the liberal support accorded him, took himself back to Davenport, and with him the material of Le Claire's first printing office. In Davenport, in the third story of Nicholls' Block, he established a Democratic-agricultural paper called The People's Champion and Producer's Weekly Chron- icle. Too top heavy, it died of overmuch name; or removed from under it in a few weeks to re-appear in Muscatine, where, combin- ing the material with that of the old Democratic Inquirer, was started the Muscatine Review, a daily and weekly Democratie paper

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY.

which lived until some time in 1861, when the material was re- moved to Keokuk. Mr. King is still living, a resident of Phila- delphia. we believe.

DAVENPORT DAILY TIMES.

Anno Domini 1858 was prolitie of newspapers. Davenport was a eity of about 12,000 people, who, in their great forbearance, tol- erated five daily and several weekly newspapers. There were in regular standing at that time the Gazette. Iowa State Democrat, Morning News, and Der Demokrat, all struggling to serve the peo- ple and make a living for the proprietors. And yet, notwithstand- ing all this aceumulated weight of talent that had eentered here, and the business capacity required to manage these four dailies, there were those who were dissatisfied-who wanted something better and more of it-claiming that the reading community was not well served.

Mr. Win. T. Clark, of the law firm of Allen & Clark, undertook this work. Along with him in the enterprise he enlisted Mr. Na- thaniel Hawthorne Parker, author of " Iowa As It Is." and for- merly editor and proprietor of the Davenport Commercial and later with the Iowa Register, printed at Camanche.

On the first of September, 1858, Messrs. Clark, Parker & Co. issned from the job office of Luse, Lane & Co., on Perry street, the first number of the Davenport Daily Times. It was a neat seven column paper of folio form, with a goodly amount of reading matter of no extraordinary stamp, and had a rather meager amount of ad- vertising.

DAILY ANTI-KNOW-NOTHING.

In 1854 a class of American citizens of foreign descent becoming disgusted with foreigners formed a political party; entirely secret in its operations, the objeet of which was to keep from office and sys- tematically degrade all citizens whose birth happened to have been on the other side of the ocean. In opposition to such a seheme as this, Mr. T. D. Eagal, for the spring election campaign purposes of 1856, started a daily paper under the above heading. The election past, in which both sides claimed a vietory, the publication of the paper suspended.

BEOBACHTER AM MISSISSIPPI.

The second German newspaper was started in Davenport in the summer of 1856. Der Demokrat had retired from the field of Dem o

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY.

cratie politics, and espoused the Fremont side of the presidential campaign of that 'year. The German Democrats were determined to have an organ, and right away, in the rear of the second story of the Post-office (now Viele's) Block, and on the north side of it was started the Beobachater am Mississippi (Watchman of the Missis- sippi), which was printed on the Iowa State Democrat press for a while, and afterward moved into Grant's Block, on Main street, where the News did its press work, and where it ceased to exist as a Davenport institution

THE TEMPERANCE ORGAN.

In the spring of 1856 the first temperance newspaper was started in Davenport called The Temperance Organ. It was issued from the book and job printing house of Luse, Lane & Co., of which Mr. Price was a part owner. It started as a temperance paper, to per- suade men from drinking to their own destruction, and did earnest service in that eanse. It was a seven-column folio, in new material, and made a fine appearance. It was the first temperance paper in the State, and was published about one year.

DAVENPORT COMMERCIAL.

In the spring of 1854, Mr. Nathaniel Hawthorne Parker started a weekly independent paper in Davenport, its office in the third- story of what was then known as Witherwax Block, southeast cor- ner of Second and Brady streets. It was not a prosperous venture; and in December of the same year he sold out to Mr. Winthrop Atwill, who sought to improve it by changing its name to the Daven- port Courier. He published for a few months only, and closed his office. Hle sold it the next fall to two young men who made an ef- fort to purchase the Daily Iowa State Democrat office. They is- sued a few numbers of the weekly, and retired from the field.

THE DAVENPORT BEE.

Early in the year 1854, Mr. De Witt Carey came here from Ohio and commenced the publication of a weekly newspaper, of the in- dependent sort. It was a folio, seven columns to the page. and had its editorial office in Witherwax Block. Mr. Carey had his work done at the Gazette office. The name of the publication was The Davenport Bee. Its income was about equal to the expenditure :

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY.

but Mr. Carey concluded not to make a permanent business of it, suspended publication, and returned to Ohio, where he died some years ago.

THE CHIP BASKET,

a sort of facetious paper started July 19, 1856, by Hiram A. Reed; published weekly from the office of Luse, Lane & Co., and contin- ued until September of that year, when its editor went upon the Daily News as city editor. It was a small sheet of four columns, and besides making some fun for the publie, made some trouble for its owner, in way of buffetings from the aggrieved.

OTHER PAPERS.

In 1854 or 1855 a paper called the Bridge City Record was started here by Wood, Michener & Co., and was devoted princi- pally to the real estate business, and lived but a few months.

In 1856, the old " silver gray" Whigs published a weekly cam- paign paper in the interest of the Bell and Everett ticket. It was called The Union, and was edited by William H. Brown. The principal expense of the enterprise was borne manfully by James M. Dalzell, John P. Cook, and some others.

In 1856, and for several years thereafter, a religious paper, in magazine form, called The Evangelist, was published here, the work being done in the Gazette office; the editorial room in Lesslie's Block, northeast corner Brady and Front streets.

DAVENPORT DAILY JOURNAL.

The Davenport Times of 1858 was the last new daily until the appearance of the Davenport Journal in 1869, a period of 11 years. Mr. Chas. G. Plummer and Gen. A. H. Sanders undertook to publish this new daily. They bought a complete outfit, and on the 10th day of May, 1869, the first number of the Davenport Daily Journal appeared. The name was copied from the Evansville Jour- nal, the General's first daily. In size it was a seven-column folio, reading matter in brevier, advertisements in nonpareil. The weekly was one column larger. The advertising patronage was liberal as could have been expected with a new paper, and the enterprise opened with a reasonable degree of promise. Gen. 'Sanders was editor-in-chief, and his most inveterate enemy would not say that his pen lacked in force, brilliancy or versatility. He was seconded

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY,

at the editorial table by Mr. W. H. Rossington, one of the best city quills in the State, while in the business department and general superintendency was Mr. Plummer, a man of considerable printing office experience. In short. the Journal had started and come be- fore the public under as favorable auspices as could have been asked for, in every respect save one -- there was no room here for another daily. To a person familiar with the workings of such contests for newspaper supremacy it was not difficult to determine the result.

The Gazette would not die; the Journal must, and did. On the date stated the public were duly informed of its withdrawal from the field, and all patrons were notified that all balances on unex- pired advance subscriptions would be refunded at the office of the paper. And they were. The Journal proprietors were honorable men, and left no unsettled accounts.

The material was purchased by another firm, and reissned No- vember 15. It was carried on until May 20, 1870, when it finally suspended. This was the last attempt to found an English daily in Davenport.

THE TRUE RADICAL

was established in 1867, by a stock company composed largely of Germans, of which Mr. Frank 1. Jervis was the editor-in-chief. It appeared on Saturday, March 9-of quarto-form ; of good size ; issued weekly at 82.50 per year, and at the height of its prosperity enjoyed a good circulation, and had many interested readers. One of its chief peculiarities was its reprints of scarce free-thought literature. Rousseau's Confessions of a Savoyard Curate ; Pitts' Letter on Superstition ; Sir W. Drummond's (Edipus Judæcius ; Laurence's Essay on Functions of the Brain. and other rare traets were published in full in its columns. It finally declined and died of a combination of fatal disorders, but was in many respects one of the brightest and most interesting papers ever printed in this country. It was printed by the stock company for over nine monthis, when the material was sold to Mr. Jervis and Adolphus G. Smallfield, who continued its publication on Harrison street, two doors above Third, west side, until the 7th of January. 1969, when it expired.

SUNDAY MORNING TIMES.

A weekly literary paper with this name was started in this city at the job oflice of Charles G. Plummer, by B. HI. Evans & Co., on the 5th of February, 1571. After a career of four or five weeks it suspended, and was succeeded by the Sunday Morning Star.

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY.

SUNDAY MORNING STAR.

This was also a literary paper, printed by Charles G. Piummer, the columns of which were enriched by articles from the pens of Mr. Ben. H. Barrows, Frank I. Jervis, and other pleasant writers. It was a very handsome folio sheet with ornamental heading, corners and double rule border, after the fashion of the New York Ledger. It failed, however, to meet the expectations of its pub- lisher, and it suspended on the 11th of June, of the same year in which it started.

THE SOLDIERS' FRIEND

was a small folio six-column sheet published by C. Augustus Havi- land, who was also its editor. It was started as a helper to its owner's soldiers' war claim operations, and finally drifted into politics. In pursuit of a broader field and a surer fame, it removed to Chicago in 1869, when it was changed into a semi-literary pub- lication. called the Gem of the West.

LE CLAIRE CITY ENTERPRISE.

In May, 1855, a man named Robert W. Lawrence, having ob- tained the material of the Camanche Register, brought it into Le- Claire, and started a Democratic paper, called the LeClaire City Enterprise. On his leaving. the Enterprise became the property of II. H. King, who operated it until 1859, when he quit the news- paper field, and the material was returned to Camanche.

SCOTT COUNTY REGISTER.

This paper, a weekly, was established in LeClaire, April 11, 1866, by Gilbert W. Hunt, on material brought there from the Jackson County Sentinel. On the 14th of December following he took Clint Parkhurst as partner, and it was printed by Clint Park- hurst & Co. until Feb. 2, 1866'7, when Mr. Hunt became sole proprietor, and continued its publication until April 18, 1867, when he sold it to a corporation of Republican politicans. This combination, with Dr. Gamble as editor, ran the paper until April 17, 1868, when they sold it to C. W. Hills, who printed it about six months, when the material was removed to Wilton, Iowa, hav- ing been purchased by Bacon & Eaton, for 8600.

THE LE CLAIRE PILOT

was started in LeClaire, Jan. 6. 1877. by Mr. H. L. Barter, on material previously used in the publication of the Port Byron

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY.

Weekly. March 22, 1879, Mr. L. R. Witherell became a part- ner, and continued until the 29th of April, 1879, when he disposed of his interest to Mr. W. C. Thornton. The Pilot was suspended in the fall of 1880.

THE IOWA WORKMAN,

a semi-monthly paper, devoted to the interests of the United Order of Workmen, was moved to this city from Kellogg, Iowa, in 1878, by Mr. W. C. MeBeth, its proprietor. It is now owned by the Iowa Workman Company. Frank Rohm as business manager. It is edited by the Rev. W. S. Messmer, and is said to have a wide circulation among the fraternity.

WESTERN WEEKLY.

In 1872 a small weekly printing office was brought here from Wilton by a man named Clark, who for some time printed a small temperance paper in the second story of the building now occupied by Bills & Block, Main street, next door south of the Democrat office. In time this merged into a larger paper called the Western Weekly, for the publication of which a stock company was sought to be formed. Mr. D. E. Jones, formerly editor of the New York Weekly Sun, and later of the Chicago Congregational Herald, was editor for five months during the last year of the Western Weekly which closed its uneventful career in August, 1874.

THE BLUE RIBBON NEWS

is the fourth temperance newspaper organ established in this city Its first issue appeared on the 28th of February, 1578. under the ownership and editorial control of Dr. J. B. Morgan. On the 28th of March following, Mr. George W. Calderwood, of Greenville, Ohio, became its editor; and on the 22d of May following, Mr. Ed James, of Cross Roads, Scott Co., became half owner and city editor. July 4. 1878, Mr. Solon HI. Fidlar, its present editor-in- chief, assumed the chair till then occupied by Mr. Calderwood: and Mr. James retired from the firm on the 12th of September follow- ing. In the city department he was succeeded by Mr. A. J. Flem- ing. the ownership reverting to Dr. Morgan.

In July, 1579. Dr. Morgan disposed of the News to E. W. Brady, and in Angust of the same year the name was changed to the Northwestern News, from the fact that other temperance move- ments, using different colored ribbons, as the red. white and pur-

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY.

ple, did not like the appellation of the Blue Ribbon News, feeling they were not so well represented. In November, Mr. Brady changed the form from a quarto to a folio of eight columus to the page. The paper, after an experience such as all temperance papers usually experience, is now upon a paying basis.

Edward W. Brady, publisher of the Northwestern News, has had an active life. He was born in Allegheny Co., Penn., Feb. 22 1826. At the age of 18 months he was taken to Washington County, in the same State, where he was reared on a farm, and where at an early age he began to " earn his bread by the sweat of his brow," laboring on a farm and in a mill owned by his step- father. He learned to read in the Sabbath-school, and was after- ward permitted to attend the common schools of his native State for one year; therefore the knowledge he has acquired has princi- pally been outside of the school-room. When 21 years of age he returned to Allegheny County, and worked on a farin until the fall of 1849, when he came to Iowa and located in Louisa County, where he remained until 1858, his occupation while there being that of a farmer, and for a time in business in Wapello. As stated, he came to Divenport in 1858, where he engaged in the anction and commission business, and then became an insurance agent, removing to Lafayette, Ind. Returning to Davenport he traveled as a salesman for a farming implement house, and then for a window-shade manufactory in Rock Island. In a few months he became a partner in the concern, and finally, in 1874, sole pro- prietor, the manufactory meantime being removed to Davenport. Ile now sells his goods in 26 States. In 1860 Mr. Brady married Lydia F. Weaver, in Davenport, by whom he has had six children, fonr boys and two girls. In May 1881, Mr. Brady established the Inter-State News, an eight-column folio, which has met with good snecess, and is recognized as a good advertising medium by all classes .

THE DAVENPORT WEEKLY TELEGRAPH

was started in this city, Jan. 26, 1878, by Edward J. Jennings and his son, Vincent Jennings, with the former as editor. It was a nine-column folio, with "patent insides;" was printed in the Gazette building, and "devoted to the interests of the people." It survived but a few months, and the material was laid away.

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY.

DER BANNER.

In 1870 a daily German newspaper of this name was started by a stock company in this eity. It was Democratie in politics; was first edited by Dr. De Haas, of New York, who remained with it but a few months. It was unprofitable from the start. The stock- holders sold it to Mr. Joachim Snidt, who changed its name to the Deutscher Anzeiger. Its original office of publication was in the Gazette building, Perry street; but it was by Mr. Sindt removed to Schmidt's Block, Second and Harrison streets. The material was several years ago sold, and on it is now printed the Museatine Zeitung.

TIIE DAVENPORT FREE PRESS

made its sprightly bow March 30, 1878, edited by Mr. Moses, as a literary and sporting paper. It never bowed again-more's the pity, for its editor fought space with a raey quill.

CHAPTER XV.

ILLUSTRIOUS AND PROMINENT DEAD.

Scott Connty has furnished some of her ablest and best men to people " The City of the Dead." It is here proposed to give short sketehies of some of the prominent ones who have passed away.

ANTOINE LE CLAIRE.

Antoine LeClaire was born Dec. 15, 1797, at St. Joseph, Berrien Co., Mich. His father was a Canadian Frenchman, his mother, the grand-daughter of a Pottawatomie chief. In 1808 he estab- lished a trading post at Milwaukee, Wis., exchanging mann- faetured articles for various kinds of furs. In 1809, he engaged more extensively in the business, in connection with John Kinsey, at Chicago (Fort Dearborn then), Ill. In 1812, thongh sur- rounded with the Indian tribes with whom he was trading, and who, through the influence of British emissaries, were generally hostile to the United States, Mr. Le Claire espoused the American canse, engaged actively in the service-was in the contest at Peoria, where, with others, he was taken prisoner. The prisoners were confined at Alton, Ill., but were released during the same year.

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History of Scott County, Iowa, Part 53

Author: Inter-state Publishing Company (Chicago, Ill.) Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Chicago, Inter-state publishing co. Number of Pages: 1280

Author: Inter-state Publishing Company (Chicago, Ill.)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago, Inter-state publishing co.
Number of Pages: 1280