USA > Iowa > Dubuque County > The history of Dubuque County, Iowa : containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc. > Part 70
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Finally, the increasing number of students obliged the officers to erect enlarged quarters, which were finished ready for use January 1, 1879. These occupy the old site, consisting of a five-story brick, 100x50, with mansard . roof, presenting an attractive appearance, and fitted up with all modern appli- ances.
The course of instruction was divided into three departments, preparatory, commercial and classical, and each department is well patronized by students from Iowa, as also from the neighboring States. The present number is 100.
The Professors are Revs. P. J. McGrath, President, P. Leahy, Vice President, F. X. Feuerstein, Master of Discipline, J. Kuemper, J. Toohil, R. Power and several lay instructors. The board and tuition is stated at $190 per annum.
St. Joseph's Academy .- An institution conducted by the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is located at the corner of Thirteenth and Main streets, and dates its origin to 1844, when the Order, coming hither from Phil- adelphia under the auspices of the Rev. T. J. Donaghoe, Vicar General of the Dubuque diocese, established a convent on the Key West road, nine miles from the city, the first convent in the West. A school was opened here, pat- ronized by the growing generation of the vicinity, and continued until 1858, when it was removed to the present site of St. Joseph's College, at the head of Fourteenth street.
581
HISTORY OF DUBUQUE COUNTY.
In 1868, the quarters now in use were purchased of Judge Dyer for $18,- 000, the institution chartered in 1869, and in 1870 additions were made costing about $2,000. The scholastic year begins on the first Mondays of September and February respectively, and the course of studies embraces departments of music, vocal and instrumental; art and academic, the latter including the ordi- nary and higher branches.
The Sisters are at present building an institution at the head of Mineral street, which will be completed in September, and cost $25,000. This will be appropriated to the uses of a boarding-school. the institute on Main street being reserved for day scholars.
The school is under the direction of twenty Sisters of the Order, and the daily attendance is represented at 150 pupils.
St. Mary's School, in the parish of St. Raphael, was first established in 1843 by Bishop Loras, under whose direction Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary, from Philadelphia, officiated as teachers. At that early day, though the town of Dubuque was rapidly approaching the dignity of a city, there were few places appropriate to parochial or district schools. St. Mary's found quar- ters, however, in a house near the corner of Third and Locust streets, where the school was maintained until 1864. About that time, the Bishop of the dio- cese removed from the domicile south of the cathedral to his present edifice, and the house thus vacated was at once occupied by the Sisters of St. Mary with their school for girls, to which uses the building has been since dedicated.
The course of instruction embraces a complete English course, with music, the languages and elegant accomplishments, taught with such perfection in Cath- olic schools. It is under the direction of twelve Sisters of the Order, and enjoys an average attendance of 250 pupils daily.
Academy of Visitation .- The Convent and Academy of Visitation, located at the corner of Julien avenue and Alta Vista street, is comparatively a new institute in Dubuque, though one of the oldest religious orders in America.
The order was founded by St. Francis de Sales, Bishop and Prince of Geneva, in 1610, at Annecy, Savoy. During the lifetime of its first Superior- ess, Ste. Jane Frances Frenus, Baroness de Chantal, the convents of the order in Europe numbered seventy-two. Since then, it has extended its branches all over the world.
The first community of the order in America was established at Georgetown, D. C., in 1793, from which the remaining branches in this country have sprung. Among these, the Convent of Visitation in St. Louis (the mother house of the community in this city) was established in -1844, and has always been regarded as one of the leading institutions in the West.
The institute was established in Dubuque October 26, 1871, at the corner of Third and Locust streets, where it remained until 1879, when it was removed to the present site-the property, originally owned by Gen. G. W. Jones, having been purchased by Bishop Hennessy from H. T. McNulty, in July, 1875, for $10,000-in which quiet and sacred recluse the work of education is success- fully proceeding.
The academy embraces five departments-senior, academic, intermediate, preparatory and primary-requiring three years to complete, and the scholastic curriculum comprehends the useful, as also the ornamental, branches of learning, for the complete familiarity with which the Sisters of Visitation are justly accredited. The school year is divided into two sessions, with exam- inations at the close of each, in January and June.
The roster of pupils at present writing includes sixty names.
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HISTORY OF DUBUQUE COUNTY.
Baylies' Commercial College was founded twenty-two years ago, by A. Baylies, Jr., who was one of the first men in the Northwest to establish a school of this character. He founded Baylies & Lincoln's Commercial College in Milwaukee, in 1855, and Baylies' Commercial College in Dubuque, in 1858. In 1859, the College was incorporated under the laws of Iowa, with A. Baylies as President. In 1862, C. Baylies was associated in the management of the College, succeeding to the presidency upon the death of A. Baylies, which occurred in Boston on the 2d day of August, 1863, and, during the following year, the institution was greatly enlarged and improved to accommodate the constantly increasing number of pupils. In 1865, a Telegraph Department, under the direction of F. I. Benson, was added, with complete sets of instru- ments and is a prominent feature of the enterprise.
During the years which followed, frequent visits were indulged to colleges located at the East, additions made to the course of study, and actual business introduced, in order to combine theory with practice, and secure the highest development of business training. The attendance, since 1871, aggregates upward of two thousand five hundred pupils, which clearly shows the steady increase and growing popularity of the institution. In 1873, Prof. C. S. Chap- man was placed in charge of the Penmanship Department, and his collection of "pen work" is one of the largest and best in the United States.
In 1875, the College was removed into new and elegant rooms, built and arranged expressly for the institution, at the corner of Sixth and Main streets, and, in 1877, a complete English Department was added.
The institution has competed for prizes in all fairs of prominence held throughout the West, and, in 1878, captured fifteen diplomas in addition to- two silver medals awarded at the Illinois State Fair.
The scholastic curriculum embraces book-keeping, penmanship, English lit- erature, law, the German and French languages, architecture and phonography, and the school is regarded as one of the most reliable, thorough and desirable in the West.
THE PRESS.
The Archimedean lever which moves the world, first found an abiding-place in Dubuque, and has maintained its ascendency throughout the county from the days when composition and press-work, comparatively new dispensations, were difficult means for the dissemination of news, up to the present day ; and it always will. This great unbridled tongue of the universe, the educator of mankind; this molder and formulator of religion, morality and public admin- istration, will assert its superiority so long as freedom and a republican form of government survive the efforts of ambition tending toward centralization and despotism. But if the republic should, in the future, perhaps beyond the power of patriots to prevent, become resolved into an empire, the press will survive its fall, for the press is the estate of the people and mightier than the government, in the good it dispenses.
Editors who discharge the high trust committed to their care faithfully are the salt of the earth, the wisest, purest and bravest of human leaders, in whose hands the destinies of the country are safe; wise in their appreciation of the situation at critical times ; pure in their devotion to the cause of justice, and brave beyond comparison. No other trade, profession or art has developed a more gallant body of men, or men who have more perfectly illustrated true heroism, than the journalists of America. They have indexed the character of the fraternity on the battle-field, in the scourged city, and, as victims of an unlawful inquisition, suffering imprisonment in defense of honest convictions.
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HISTORY OF DUBUQUE COUNTY.
So, too, the reporters-the men who succeed to important professional trusts-they are equally brave and deserving. They command confidence and advancement; it is never purchased, as some wealthy parent concludes, in his belief that money is the royal road for a son to pursue in the direction of edit- orial eminence. The true reporter-he who has a "nose for news," can dis- tinguish between news and unpalatable platitudes, and possesses the knack of properly presenting his collections-like the true poet, is born, not made. His articles are read because they supply a demand, when the finished theses of a man educated at Cambridge or Heidelberg are committed to forgetfulness.
As there is no royal road to mathematics, so there can be no business so entirely independent of a similar route as the publication of a paper, from the genial "comp " to the managing editor.
The printer-what can be said of him more than has been written by that accomplished journalist, poet and gentleman, Benjamin F. Taylor, formerly of the Chicago press ? "The printer," he writes, "is the adjutant of thought, and this explains the mystery of the wonderful word that can kindle a hope as no song can- that can warm a heart as no hope - that word 'we,' with a hand-in-hand warmth in it, for the author and printer are engineers together. Engineers, indeed ! When the little Corsican bombarded Cadiz at the distance of five miles, it was deemed the very triumph of engineering. But what is that range to this, whereby they bombard ages yet to be ?
" There at the 'case' he stands, and marshals into line the forces armed for truth, clothed in immortality and English. And what can be nobler than the equipment of a thought in sterling Saxon-Saxon with the ring of spear on shield thereon, and that commissioning it when we are dead, to move gradually on to the 'latest syllable of recorded time.' This is to win a victory from death, for this has no dying in it.
"The printer is called a laborer, and the office he performs, toil. Oh, it is NOT work, but a sublime rite that he is performing, when he thus 'sights' the engine that is to fling a worded truth in grander curve than missile e'er before described-fling into the bosom of an age yet unborn. He throws off his coat indeed; we but wonder, the rather, that he does not put his shoes from off his feet, for the place whereon he stands is holy ground.
"A little song was uttered somewhere, long ago-it wandered through the twilight feebler than a star-it died upon the ear. But the printer caught it up where it was lying there in the silence like a wounded bird, and he equips it anew with wings, and he sends it forth from the ark that had preserved it, and it flies forth into the future with the olive branch of peace, and around the world with melody, like the dawning of a spring morning.
" How the type have built up the broken arches in the bridge of time ! How they render the brave utterances beyond the pilgrims audible and elo- quent-hardly fettering the free spirit, but moving-not a word, not a syllable lost in the whirl of the world-moving in connected paragraph and period, down the lengthening line of years.
"Some men find poetry, but they do not look for it as men do for nuggets of gold; they see it in nature's own handwriting, that so few know how to read, and they render it into English. Such are the poems for a twilight hour and a nook in the heart ; we may lie under the trees when we read them, and watch the gloaming, and see the faces in the clouds, in the pauses; we may read them when the winter coals are glowing, and the volume may slip from the forgetful hand, and still, like evening bells, the melodious thoughts will ring on."
584
HISTORY OF DUBUQUE COUNTY.
The history of the first newspaper and printing press in Iowa was thus detailed in the columns of the Herald, in the year 1869 :
" To John King, of Dubuque, belongs the honor of engaging alone in the first newspaper enterprise in what is now Iowa. He came here from Ohio in 1834, and, having the foresight to perceive that 'Dubuque's lead mines' would attract the elements that would eventually build a prosperous city, he deter- mined, in the fall of 1836, to establish a newspaper in the mining village of Dubuque. He passed the following winter in Ohio, and, in the spring of 1836, went to Cincinnati and purchased a Smith hand-press and the necessary type and material to publish what would now be considered a small weekly paper. The discretion which led him to discover the value of a newspaper in building up Dubuque, led to another discovery-that he wanted a good man to set type and help edit the paper. He found a young man at Chillicothe adapted to his purpose. He was William Cary Jones, afterward a successful editor and pub- lisher in New Orleans, a son-in-law of Hon. Thomas H. Benton, and subse- quently an eminent lawyer in San Francisco, where he died in 1867. Mr. Jones was Judge King's principal assistant the first year. He also imported Andrew Keesecker from Galena. He also set up the first type in Iowa, in the words, 'The Linwoods,' a story which occupied the most of the first page of the first number of the Dubuque Visitor, the motto of which paper was, ' Truth our Guide-the Public Good our Aim ;' the date, 'Dubuque Lead Mines, Wisconsin Territory, May 11, 1836.'
The paper changed owners several times, and the name was changed to the Iowa News, under which name it went down, and the material was sold in 1842 to a stock company and removed to Lancaster, Wis., where the Grant County Herald was established, which was at one time edited by the Hon. H. A. Wiltse, for many years a prominent citizen of Dubuque, and afterward Sur- veyor General of Iowa and Wisconsin.
"A few years later, J. M. Goodhue determined to establish the first paper in Minnesota. He purchased the same old press, conveyed it in the winter to the Mississippi, and moved it by ox power on the ice to St. Paul, where it was for a long time used to print his St. Paul Pioneer.
"In 1858, the old press, after twenty-two years' service, was placed on wheels, and, again by ox-power, hauled over the prairies, through the forests, around the lakes and through streams, to Sioux City Falls, a town on Big Sioux River, in what is now called Dacotah Territory, about fifteen miles from the southeast corner of Minnesota, and within a mile or two of the northwest corner of Iowa. Here was printed, in that year, the first paper in that Terri- tory, then unorganized. The paper was called the Dacotah Democrat, edited by Samuel Albrecht. In the fall of 1862, the town was burned by the Sioux Indians, who killed many of the inhabitants, and rendered the place desolate for many years. The small building containing the press was among those burned. The 'bed' of the press was warped by the heat, its 'lever' was stopped for the last time, it had given its last 'impression,' and lay among the ruins of Sioux City Falls.
" This old pioneer press, therefore. printed the first newspaper on the imme- diate banks of the Mississippi, the first in Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Dacotah Territory. It was worked over twenty years in the valley of the Mississippi before it became the first press in the great valley of the Missouri, and yet the old press, associated so intimately with the settlement and develop- ment of four States and Territories, was manufactured in the first of the North- western States only forty years ago."
585
HISTORY OF DUBUQUE COUNTY.
In August, 1841, the Miners' Express was established in Dubuque by Avery Thomas, who afterward had his name changed by legislative enactment to that of Lewis A. Thomas, still a resident of Dubuque. In the following spring or summer, he sold the establishment to A. Keesecker and D. S. Wilson, who sold to George Greene.
In 1844, the late Hon. H. H. Houghton, for many years the able and dis- tinguished editor of the Galena Gazette, came to Dubuque and established the first Whig or opposition paper-the others, up to that time, having all been Democratic-and called it the Iowa Transcript, but in a few months he sold out to W. W. Hamilton and Henry Wharton, who ran it for a few months, when Mr. Hamilton retired, and the paper was continued by Wharton & McCraney, Orlando McCraney becoming the junior partner. Mr. McCraney soon tired of the business and sold to a Mr. Hill, who, with Mr. Wharton, sold the press and fixtures to the Hon. William Vandever, who removed the same to Rock Island.
The next newspaper venture was that of A. P. Wood, Esq., still a resident of the city, who brought material from Iowa City, and started the Dubuque Tribune.
The next paper was established in 1848 by Orlando McCraney, and was called at first the Democratic Telegraph, although the paper was from the first a staunch Whig paper, and supported Zachary Taylor for President. This paper was for a time edited by W. W. Coriell, but soon came under the sole man- agement of Mr. McCraney, who continued its publication until 1852, when he sold the good will and subscription list to A. P. Wood, of the Tribune, and removed the material to Fairfield, Iowa, and there established the Fairfield Ledger, which paper is now the third oldest paper in the State, never having changed hands but twice.
It should be added that the first daily papers published in Iowa are claimed, first, for a daily published by H. D. La Crossit in Muscatine, which lasted but two weeks, and, second, for the Tribune, published in Dubuque in 1851. The Iowa Visitor is mentioned in the history of the Dubuque Herald.
The Herald was first issued as a weekly and semi-weekly on the 19th day of April, 1851, by Harrison H. Holt, D. A. Mahony (since deceased), W. A. Adams and A. A. White. Its success was instant and pronounced, and, on the 4th of July of that year, its popularity was further augmented by the issue of a daily edition. In the same year, the death of Mr. White created a vacancy in the force of pioneers to whom belongs the distinguished honor of having published the first daily paper put forth in the State of Iowa, which was filled by F. J. Stanton, who also purchased the interest of Dr. Holt, Mr. Adams disposing of his claims to the same purchaser. Later, Messrs. Mahony and Dorr purchased the interest of Mr. Stanton, and, for a number of years, wielded the editorial quill.
The paper of that day would scarcely be recognized as a city production in this age of improvement and progress ; nevertheless, it was eagerly sought after, and played its part in the drama of life, attended by success and applause. The Herald was a folio of ordinary dimensions, with seven columns to the page, and issued to subscribers for $5 per year, "in advance."
On the 19th of May, 1853, it was decorated with a "hat band," beneath which was promulgated that the paper would be "devoted to the vindication of the rights of the people and the interests of the Northwest."' The announce- ment was also made that the Herald had been appointed the official organ of the city, and would thereafter publish the Council proceedings and city ordinances.
586
HISTORY OF DUBUQUE COUNTY.
With the issue of October 27, 1854, the name is changed from the Herald to the Express and Herald, caused by a consolidation of these two papers, the result of a compromise, says the editor. For over three years there had existed an unpleasant controversy between the Miner's Express and the Dubuque Herald. This dissension had grown and spread, until it culminated in the election to Congress of a man whom the paper denounced as totally unfit for the position. Under this condition of things, a compromise of the differences existing between members of the party, seemed to be demanded. The union and consolidation of the organs in Dubuque, representing the two divisions of the party, was, of course, the first and paramount object to be attained. This was brought about by mutual concessions between the proprietors of both estab- lishments. The proprietors state that nothing shall be spared in the future to render the paper a sound and faithful exponent of the principles of the Demo- cratic party, and thereby to merit its confidence and support.
Though this announcement was promulgated October 27, the first edition of the combined venture was put out on the day previous, when Mr. J. B. Dorr published his retirement from the editorial management, though, in a business point of view, his interest remained the same as theretofore. The paper was enlarged, the price increased to $7 per annum, and improvements so numerous completed that the new dispensation appeared, even to the manner born, as something not only calculated to illustrate the intellectual resources of its readers, but to please the most fastidious of Locofocos in politics, but it was, and continues to be, Democratic, without compromise or according concessions. W. H. Merritt and D. A. Mahony were advertised as the responsible editors, though the paper was published under the firm name of Merritt, Mahony & Dorr.
On Tuesday morning, August 28, 1855, Mr. D.A. Mahony resigned his con- nection with the Express and Herald, and accompanied his valedictory with the statement that the future management of the paper devolved upon Messrs. Dorr and Merritt, his late partners, for whom it would be to say, what its future course would be, though he had no doubt the paper would be made still more deserving of the patronage of the community than it ever had been.
The new firm, in commenting upon Mr. Mahony's retirement, observed that they parted with him, from the management of the editorial department, with more regret than had been experienced for many a day. As the editor of a public journal, he had been fearless and independent in the advocacy of an enlightened policy and the denunciation of wrong and error. He had exhibited more of that versatility of talent and genius, which is required for conducting a journal devoted to the discussion of so great a variety of topics as come under the consideration of the editor of an American newspaper, than, perhaps, any man who has occupied any similar position in the West, certainly in the State of Iowa. The highest compliment is paid to his ability and con- scientious sincerity, and the hope is expressed, that, when he shall have been restored in health and vigor, he will again aid to enlighten and instruct the readers of the Herald and Express.
The paper was thereafter, and until May 3, 1856, ornamented with a head- line, in full-face lower case, signifying that the proprietary, as also the editorial interest in the Express and Herald, was controlled by J. B. Dorr & Co. After the date above mentioned, the firm name disappeared, though retained on the weekly ; the daily appearing to have been continued without the name of any responsible editor as piloting its course, or able to furnish such satisfaction as
587
HISTORY OF DUBUQUE COUNTY.
an aggrieved subscriber not unfrequently seeks. Without a head, so to speak, it supported Buchanan and Breckenridge during the campaign of 1856, and urged the Cincinnati platform as a solution of the woes which were thought to threaten the country. When the result was made known without doubt, the Herald rejoiced, because it was the confirmation of a popular nomination ; because it elevated a great and good man to the highest office in the gift of the Republic, and because it proclaimed the complete establishment of a principle upon which rests the fabric of our institutions-the principle of self-govern- ment.
On the morning of October 5, 1856, the firm name of J. B. Dorr & Co. as publishers is restored, also the locum in tenens, to wit, Globe Building, corner of Fifth and Main streets, its birth-place, by the way.
As the paper increased in years and strength, its appearance as an exhibi- tion of journalistic excellence and typographical art proportionately improved. Business became brisk, and the time of the editor so generously trespassed upon by other duties and professional engagements, that in March, 1857, an advertise- ment appears at the head of the editorial page, notifying ambitious Faber drivers, and young men whose fathers, being wealthy, conclude that the divinity which shaped the ends of their progeny, intended them for the managing editors of a cosmopolitan paper, that an assistant editor would be nego- tiated with. He must be a gentleman of ability and have had some experi- ence in the editorial profession ; in addition, his political sentiments must be thoroughly Democratic, of which he must furnish unexceptional references in addition to credentials as to character, ability, industry and political anteced- ents.
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