USA > Illinois > Cass County > Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Cass County, Volume II > Part 33
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When Mr. Emmons was elected circuit clerk, he sold his paper to J. L. Dickerson, who re- tained it less than eight months, and then sold it to J. L. Sherman, who changed the name to the Beardstown and Petersburg Gazette, and issued it under that name from December 9, 1852, to about 1854, when, the exact date is not known, it was sold to B. C. Drake, who changed the name to the Central Illinoisan, Mr. Drake continued to conduct the paper as an exponent of the Whig doctrines until the organization of the Republican party, in 1856, when he joined
that party. During the Lincoln-Douglas debate he issued a daily. It is said he continued the daily until the opening of the Civil war, but this cannot be fully verified. He did, however, con- tinue his weekly until 1861, when he closed the office and enlisted as a soldier. A weekly paper named the Democrat was established at Beards- town, March 12, 1858, by W. D. Shurtliff. This was the first Democratic paper to be published at Beardstown, and was edited by Shurtliff and Davis. In 1862 J. K. Vandemark was made the editor. He resigned in the fall and in 1863 Charles R. Fisk and wife bought the paper and continued it until the close of the Civil war. In 1860 a man by the name of Mitchell started a Republican paper, naming it the Gazette ; con- ducted it until the fall of that year, when it was taken over by a number of Republicans as a stock company, and they changed the name to that of the Central Illinoisan.
LOGAN URIAH REAVIS.
The paper was managed and edited by Logan Uriah Reavis for several years, then by the office foreman until March, 1867, when John S. Nicholson took charge. Logan Uriah Reavis was an 'unique character, but an able editor and a man of strong convictions. He was born on a farm in the Sangamon bottom, March 26, 1831, and worked on a farm and early attained such an education as he could from the limited school facilities of the times, but soon qualified himself for teaching and for five years taught the public school at Hickory in the precinct of that name. From about 1861 he conducted the Central Illi- noisan until 1866, when he went to St. Louis. From then on until his death he spent his life agitating the removal of the national capital from Washington to St. Louis, lecturing and writing and issuing pamphlets on the subject. He attracted considerable attention; even the cartoonists took notice and pictured him as going about with the capitol building on his shoulders. Among other volumes, he published a life of Horace Greeley, and his death occurred at St. Louis, April 25, 1889.
MERGING OF NEWSPAPERS.
John S. Nicholson conducted the paper until 1883, when he sold it to James G. Rice, owner of the Cass County Democrat, who merged the two papers under the name of the Illinoisan-
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
Democrat. In October of the same year the paper was sold to Eugene Clark, who dropped the Democrat and called the journal the Illi- noisan, later selling it back to John S. Nichol- son. In April, 1884, it was changed into a semi- weekly, and in 1899 it was consolidated with the Star of the West, as the Illinoisan-Star. H. C. Allard had established the Star in 1888, and made it a daily in 1892. After the union of these two papers, the publishers were Nicholson and Allard until 1902, when Allard retired, and Nicholson and Fulks published the paper for some time, when it became the property of Nicholson and his son, E. E. Nicholson, who edited and published it under that name until the death of John Nicholson, April 19, 1911. From then on it was conducted by the son, the surviving partner, until the spring of 1914, when he sold to Schaeffer and Son, who abandoned the weekly and continued the daily. The plant was consolidated with that of the Enterprise, owned by Schaeffer and Coil. Mr. Coil retired from the firm and the Daily Enterprise was dis- continued. The one remaining plant now at Beardstown issues the Weekly Enterprise and the Daily Illinoisan-Star.
In 1872 a paper named the Herald, which was established by Henly Wilkinson and J. W. Lusk as an "out and out" Democratic paper sig- nified a willingness to support Horace Greeley for president as against Grant. Greeley was that year nominated by so-called Independents, and was endorsed by a great portion of the Demo- cratic party. However, the regular nominee of the Democratic party was O'Conor. At the elec- tion on November 5, 1872, the Democrats car- ried the county for Greeley by a plurality of only seven, and a week following the election, an election taken regarding the removal of the county seat, resulted favorably towards Vir- ginia ; all of which so discouraged the pro- prietors and editors of the "out and out" paper that by the next spring they were "down and out," and the paper was taken over by D. G. Swan, who changed its politics to that of liberal Republican, but this sugar-coated application did not revive its circulation, and it was soon removed to Bushnell. Ill.
A paper called the Champion was started Sep- tember 25, 1875. by George Dann as editor, and George Dann. Jr., and George W. Thompson, as associate editors. It was independent in poli- tics, and suspended in the summer of 1876. Then George Dann, Sr., began the publication
of the Cass County Messenger as a Democratic paper. In the latter part of that year, Forest H. Mitchell became associate editor, but in August, 1877, withdrew and was succeeded by W. B. Bennett. In 1879 Mr. Dann sold to J. P. Sailer, who changed the name to the Cass County Democrat. Mr. Sailer conducted the paper until 1SS2, when J. S. Fulks and George W. Martin became associated with him, and a daily was issued for about a year, but it was not a successful venture, so it was sold to Darb. McAuley, who sold to James G. Rice, this being the paper formerly mentioned as owned by Mr. Rice when he purchased the Central Illinoisan in 1883 and consolidated the two. A large por- tion of the population of Beardstown and the surrounding country was German and it was thought that a paper published in the German language would be readily subscribed for and financially sustained. Acting upon that belief, Rev. A. Schaberhorn established the Beobachter Am Fluss, in the year 1877. He did not retain control of it long, but in the fall of 1878 sold to Theodore Wilkins, who changed the name to the Wochenblatt, and continued its publication until his death in 1SS1, when the plant was sold to Ross and Son, who removed it from the city.
NEWSPAPERS AT VIRGINIA.
In the meantime Virginia had been establish- ing and conducting some newspapers-that is, some of its more enterprising citizens had. The Observer was the first. It was a Democratic paper established by Henry H. Hall, a son of the founder of the town, Dr. Hall, and a few others, and it was said, it was started "for the advancement of the town." Mark W. Delahay was the editor, and A. S. Tilden, said to have been a relative of Hon. Samuel J. Tilden of New York, was the practical printer. The paper was issued April 12, 1848, and continued until some time in the fall of 1849, when it was bought by A. S. Tilden and soon thereafter taken to Naples, in Scott County, Ill. The Owl, a society paper, was conducted for a short time in the winter of 1848-9 by a compositor named Dedrich.
The Cass County Times began at Virginia, September 9, 1856, being started by Richard S. Thomas, a neutral in politics, and for the pur- pose of promoting the interests of the Illinois River Railroad in which Thomas and a number of other Cass County people were interested. Early in 1858 he sold to John Bradley Thomp-
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
son, who employed Rev. J. S. McDowell to edit, and Robert M. Taggart to publish it. Late in the same year Thompson sold to Taggart, and in the fall of 1859 the paper suspended and reverted to Thomas, who seems to have retained a lien on it. Thomas sold to Hezekiah Naylor, and that sale appears to bave resulted in the establishment of the Cass County Independent, in January, 1860. He took as a partner Lafay- ette Briggs. The paper was at first neutral, but, Briggs withdrawing, Naylor made it a rad- ical Republican organ, and vigorously supported Abraham Lincoln for president. In 1861 the paper suspended and the plant was removed to Pekin, Ill.
In 1860 a number of radical Democrats, in- cluding Jacob Dunaway, Jacob Ward and Wil- liam Petefish, established the Cass County Union, and secured the services of Lafayette Briggs as editor and manager. In 1863 Briggs quit and Stearns DeWitt Rich became editor and remained with the paper until its demise in 1864. The Cass County Democrat was estab- lished May 8, 1866, with M. B. Friend as first editor, and financially supported by several cit- izens who wished to have a newspaper in the town. After several changes in the editorial staff, the paper fell into the hands of J. G. Fuss and J. N. Gridley, but, owing to some diffi- culty with some of the former associate propri- etors about the nanie, Democrat, Fuss and Grid- ley changed the name to the Cass County Times, and the journal was conducted by them under that name until 1869, when it was sold to Beers and Company, who managed it, with J. K. Van- demark as editor, until 1870, when it went into , obscurity as had so many of its predecessors.
EVOLVING OF THE GAZETTE.
The Cass County Courier was established July 25, 1866, by John S. Harper, the veteran "starter" and editor of newspapers. It was Re- publican in politics, and after a few issues, L. S. Allard became the editor and proprietor. In 1867 he turned it over to Leroy Carpenter, who was soon succeeded by H. C. Allard, a son of the former proprietor, and in 1870 the name was changed to the Virginia Courier, and was owned and edited by H. C. Allard, who in Oc- tober, 1871, changed the name back to the Cass County Courier. Allard sold an interest to N. M. Purciance, but soon repurchased it. The pa- per did not prosper, and Allard sold a half in-
terest to Mathew Summers, in 1872, and the paper was continued under the new name of the Gazette, beginning February 23, 1872, and has been continued under that title ever since. On March 14, 1873, Allard sold to Summers, and in August, 1875, the latter sold an interest to Joseph Anderson. These two continued together until late in the winter of 1875, when Mr. Sum- mers died. The paper suspended for a brief period, but resumed on February 26, 1876, with A. M. Brownlee, and II. C. Allard, a former proprietor, as editors and publishers. Allard withdrew in August, 1877, and later the same year Mr. Brownlee sold to Trevanyon L. Mathews and W. H. Thacker. Mr. Mathews was a member of the Thirty-third General As- sembly as a Republican from Cass County, elected in the fall of 1882. He was the last Republican representative from the county of . Cass. Subsequently he moved to Nebraska, and became a United States marshal. W. H. Thacker was the William H. Thacker whose poem, "The Scene of Frontier Days," appears elsewhere in this work. Mr. Thacker did not remain long with the paper, but soon sold to Mathews, who in turn sold to Allard in 1879. Allard sold to Charles M. Tinney, in April, 1881, and he conducted the Gazette from then until July 19, 1913, when he sold to Henry McDonald, who had been for a number of years his busi- ness manager. Thus it will be seen that Mr. Tinney was the owner and editor of a newspa- per in Cass County for thirty-two years, a longer period than it has been the lot of very many persons to sit in an editorial chair. It was during all that time a Republican paper in a county that was continuously a Democratic county by overwhelming majorities. Yet Mr. Tinney made his paper a very popular one, and what was of still greater importance, a finan- cial success. He became widely known through his paper, throughout the entire state, and be- came the president of the Illinois Newspaper Association. He has the unique distinction of having served as private secretary to two gov- ernors, Richard Yates and Charles S. Deneen. Mr. Tinney was born in Marion, Grant County, Ind., November 11, 1850. In 1859 he was taken by his father to Pekin, Ill., where he attended the public schools, and later spent a year in a college in Iowa. He returned home and studied law, being admitted to the bar in 1873. After two years' practice in his home town, he came to Virginia, where he entered into partnership
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
with Cashias M. Whitney, a distinguished lawyer who was at that time the district state's at- torney for the district in which Cass County was situated. The county seat fight was on for the last time in Cass, and the firm of Whitney and Tinney was among the number of lawyers en- gaged in that memorable contest. About 1879 Mr. Whitney moved from Virginia, and the partnership was dissolved, and in 1881 Mr. Tin- ney purchased the Gazette, as has been stated, and practically abandoned his law practice. Had he seen fit to remain to practice, it is certain he would have become one of the leading lawyers of central Illinois. Mr. Tinney continued his residence at Virginia until he sold the Gazette, when he took up his legal résidence at Spring- field, where he had in fact been living ever since his entry into the Governor's office as pri- vate secretary. After the close of the Deneen administration, Mr. Tinney became secretary of the Business Men's Association of Spring- field, which office he still holds.
OFFICIAL ORGAN OF COUNTY.
The Virginia Enquirer was established by Reemsten and Company, the company being John S. Harper, July 3, 1875. After nine weeks the company revealed himself to the public as John S. Harper, publisher and editor. In November of the same year he sold to a syndicate com- posed of Ignatius Skiles, William Easley, Charles Crandall, Cash. Whitney, Samuel Petefish, and others, who secured Thomas M. Thompson as editor and J. J. Bunce as publisher. In a few weeks the paper was sold to W. T. Dowall. Wil- liam T. Dowall and Company became publishers in January, 1876, with Forest H. Mitchell as manager. On March 23, 1877, Mr. Dowall sold to John Frank, J. M. Beatty became editor for a short time, and Mr. Frank remained with the paper until September, 1882, when R. H. Norfolk became the editor, and continued as such until March 29, 1884. Mr. Beatty then became the owner and editor and kept the paper until No- vember 15, 1890, at which time he sold to Charles A. and William Schaeffer. William Schaeffer sold his interest to Charles Schaeffer in April, 1891, and on September 26 of the same year, Mr. Schaeffer sold to Finis E. Downing, who con- ducted the paper until September 7, 1899, when he was succeeded by his son, Harry F. Downing. H. F. Downing continued as editor and publisher until March, 1904, when Albert Hinners, who
had been for six years county superintendent of the public schools, bought a half interest. In 1906 Mr. Hinners resold his interest to his part- ner, Mr. Downing, but on January 1, 1910, again bought a half interest in the plant, then becom- ing the associate editor, and on November 1, 1911, became sole proprietor and editor, and has continued so to the present time. The paper is the official organ of the county by resolution of the county board and is in a flourishing con- dition and a well conducted and well edited paper.
The Jeffersonian was established at Virginia by John J. Bunce, April 3, 1870, and was duly issued from week to week until it was discon- tinued, December 26, 1873.
NEWSPAPERS AT OTHER POINTS.
At Ashland, John S. Harper, the veteran editor and publisher, who claimed and possibly had the distinction of having started more news- papers in Illinois than any other person, estab- lished on March 2, 1876, the Weekly Eagle. After seven issues the weekly was dropped as a part of the title and the paper for four months was conducted as the Eagle, and then sold to A. F. Smith, who removed it to Virginia, and started the Temperance Bugle in July, 1876, con- tinuing this journal until February 27. 1879. A paper named the News was published at Ash- land for a few years, being first issued in the summer of 1879. John J. Smith was the editor in 1880, and the matter has been lost track of since, but some time about 1883, A. E. Mich con- ducted the Sentinel, although whether he bought the old plant, or secured an entirely new outfit, is not known. In a short time he sold to S. Darb. McAuley and Company, who in a short time sold to I. H. Stanley, a lawyer who was the proprietor and editor until about 1896, when the plant was sold to Mann Brothers. They kept it for a year, and on May 15, 1897, it was sold to P. W. Bast, who has ever since maintained it, and has published an excellent country newspaper, with a large subscription list and a paying job and advertising depart- ment.
The village of Chandlerville has had several newspapers. The New Era was established February 7, 1874, by J. J. Bunce and Son. The Cass County Journal was established by Charles A. Pratt, August 5, 1876, and conducted as a Democratic paper until August 3, 1878, when
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
he sold it to John W. and Gilbert Skaggs, who changed the name to the Independent. John W. Skaggs edited the paper only one month, after which time the other brother bought his inter- est and managed the paper as editor and pub- lisher until December, 1879, when he sold to Ebenezer Spink. In 1881 Mr. Spink resold to Gilbert Skaggs, but after an absence of 'one year from the editoral sanctum, Mr. Spink again purchased the paper and changed its name to that of the Sangamon Valley Times, and under that pastoral title issued the paper regu- larly every week until 1887, when he again changed the name, this time to the Chandler- ville Times, which it has born to date. E. O. Spink became the business manager in 1904, and in 1908 purchased the plant and continued as both editor and manager until the summer of 1911, when the present editor, Ora Shank- land, became the owner. The paper is a well printed, well edited weekly, and is liberally patronized by the people of the village and community. Regular files of this paper are re- tained in the office.
The Arenzville Independent was established about 1908, with R. J. Hoagland, a practical printer, as proprietor and editor. He continued the paper until his death in 1911, and from that time until the present, his widow, Mrs. Anna S. Hoagland, has conducted it with the assistance of Lloyd S. Yeck as editor. It is a weekly pa- per and has a good circulation in the south- western part of the county, and that part of Morgan County bordering on Cass County on the southwest. It is to be regretted that so few of the publishers kept files of their papers. Newspapers may not seem of great importance at the date of their publication, but as time passes many changes occur in every neighbor- hood, and especially in the smaller towns and villages, the early settlers die, some remove to other parts of the country, and many things seemingly insignificant in themselves happen week after week. The local papers give a moving pieture of the transitory things of life, and ought by all means to be preserved. Very few copies indeed of any of the many newspa- pers mentioned in the foregoing brief outline of the press of Cass County, can now be found, and could they be had for perusal, they would aid very materially in correcting the many errors that unavoidably creep into historical writings. . The Virginia Gazette and the Virginia Enquirer have files for a number of years back, and there
may be others of the county papers also having files preserved, but we have not had access to them if they can be found.
OTHER PUBLICATIONS.
There have been other publications of more or less literary and historical value, long since out of print, accredited to Cass County.
A wall map of the county, with plates of the towns and villages and some biographical mat- ter, was once published, with an outline of the various precincts as they were constituted at that time, and also some lithograph pictures of business and residence buildings in existence at the time of publication, some of which are still standing and in use. The map has, also, a list of the business interests of the towns and villages, a perusal of which would revive many pleasant and interesting recollections of early days. The date of the publication does not ap- pear on the map, but as Hezekiah Naylor is given as proprietor of the Cass County Inde- pendent, and as he held that position only dur- ing 1860, it is but natural to infer that this map was issued some time during '60 or '61. The lithographs are very good pictures. Henry F. Kors, for several years circuit clerk of this county, is authority for the statement that the pictures were made from ambrotypes taken by a Dr. J. W. Sherfey, who, at that time, was a teacher in the Beardstown public schools, and, as a side line, conducted a-picture gallery. Mr. Kors further says that he was a boy then and traveled around with the doctor from place to place in a spring wagon; that the parapher- nalia was carried in a large box, which was also used as a "dark room." and that his job was that of chief bottle washer and plate cleaner.
The next publication of this character was an atlas map of Cass County, published in 1874, which is also illustrated by a number of litho- graphs, especially of farm residenees, and shows a marked improvement and flourishing condition of farm property in the county. A standard atlas of Cass County was published in 1899. Publications of a purely literary character have been issued from the press of Cass County, and some of the writings of Cass County authors have been published elsewhere.
HON. JOSEPH HENRY SHAW.
Joseph Henry Shaw was born at Boston, Mass., July 25, 1825, where his father, Joseph Shaw, was a book publisher. In 1836 Joseph
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
Shaw came to Morgan County, Ill., bringing his family with him, and located on a farm. There the son, J. Henry Shaw, which name he has always been known by and called, worked for his father until he was twenty-one years old. He attended such, schools as were in ex- istence near him, but gained much of his in- formation and learning from newspapers and periodicals which his father brought home with him from newspaper offices of Jacksonville, where he frequently went to assist the publish- ers and editors. After arriving at the age of twenty-one years, he was advised by the Hon. Richard Yates, then a prominent man of Jack- sonville, to study law, and upon his consent to do so, loaned him law books from his own library. Mr. Shaw made rapid progress in mastering the mysteries of Gould's common law, pleading and other works of the noble science of law, and, although devoting his time also to work on the farm, yet, when he was twenty-five years old, he felt sufficiently ad- vanced in the knowledge of his choseu profes- sion to present himself for examination that he might acquire a license to practice. He was ad- mitted to the bar in 1850, and removed to Beardstown, this county, where he began the practice of his calling, and there lived the balance of his life. He acquired a fine prac- tice and became an influential citizen. He was an excellent speaker, although not an orator in the highest sense; expressed himself well in clear English, and was forceful in arguments before the court and jury. He devoted consid- erable time to literature, and produced many splendid articles for the newspapers and maga- zines. He also wrote several poems and was endued with something of the true spirit of the poetic muse. Had he devoted himself ex- clusively to literature he would, most surely, have attained distinctiou in that line. His "Legend of Monsoela," a recital in rhyme of an imaginary battle between the Muscoutens and Miamis, Indian tribes formerly occupying and contending for supremacy of the Mound Vil- lage on the present site of Beardstown, is in- teresting and as nearly true to facts as many of the legendary occurrences of Indian history. It appears in full in Perrin's "History of Cass County." In 1876 the Congress of the United States, upon the suggestion of President Grant, passed a resolution requesting every city and county to appoint some suitable person to de- liver on the fourth of July of that year, an
address which should contain a brief account of the local history, that it might be perpetuated. Mr. Shaw, on account of the fact that he had given some considerable study to the early history of the county, as well as for his well known ability, was appointed to deliver the ad- dress for Cass County. Hence, on July 4, 1876, Hon. J. Henry Shaw, of Beardstown, deliv- ered an address which he had prepared, entitled, "Historical Sketch of Cass County," which was subsequently published in pamphlet form by the Cass County Messenger. It comprises fifty-three pages, and is a very interesting work, and withal quite valuable historically. Mr. Shaw was elected a member of the Thirty-second Gen- eral Assembly from Cass County, and was again elected a meruber to the Thirty-fourth As- sembly, but his health having failed, April 12, 1885 he died very suddenly at his hotel at Springfield, during attendance on the legislature.
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