A Twentieth Century History and Biographical Record of Laporte County Indiana, Part 42

Author: Rev. E. D. Daniels
Publication date: 1904
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1273

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But the days of the W'hig were numbered.

The disastrous campaign of 1852 came on, when Pierce was elected over.Scott, and the Whig party received its death blow and was not known in politics afterwards. Its place was taken by the young and growing organization which became the Republican party. The Whig party being dead, the title of the paper was a misnomer, and hence the name of the paper was changed from the LaPorte County Whig, to the LaPorte Union.

In September, 1854, Messrs. Richard Holmes and F. M. Horan came into possession of the paper. In the issue of September 13th of that year, the old management makes its valedictory and the new its salutatory. From the fact that the valedictory is signed only by William Milli- kan, and that in his farewell he speaks continually in the first person singular, it would seem that his brother John had left the paper sometime be- fore. And from the fact that Holmes and Horan say nothing about having changed the name of the paper, it may have been changed sometime before; though possibly not. No change was made in the numbering of the paper, but the first number issued by Holmes and Horan is called The LaPorte Union, Volumne 17, No. 7. Mr. Horan was connected with the Union but a short time. On the fifteenth of the following Novem- ber his name appears for the last time. He sold out to his partner, and in the issue of November 22 the paper bears the name simply of R. Holmes, editor. By January 31, 1855, Mr. Holmes had sold a half interest in the concern to John Milli- kan, and the paper bore the names of J. Millikan and R. Holmes, editors. In his salutatory Mr. Millikan remarks that he left the paper a year and a half before. This makes it certain that he retired from it before his brother William did, who sold it to Holmes & Horan only about five months before. Millikan & Holmes continued issuing the paper until the winter of 1858-59, at which time Mr. Holmes retired, Mr. Millikan con- tinting the business until he sold it to M. & J. Cullaton, in 1866, who continued publishing the paper until the following year.

In the spring of 1852 Mr. L. P. Williams be- gan the publication of the Westville Free Press. The editorial work was done some five miles from Westville, in Porter county, and the press work was done in the Observer office at Valparaiso. This paper was short-lived, dying in its infancy,

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only two numbers of it ever being issued. Major Cullaton and merged the two papers into one L. P. Williams has lived in Washington, D. C. under the name of his former paper, the LaPorte Herald. The last number of the LaPorte Union bears date of Wednesday, September 25, 1867, Millikan and Holmes. The LaPorte Herald went on its way appearing weekly as usual, just as though it had not swallowed another paper. since 1865, where he has a position in the office of the Clerk of the District Court. He is well known there as a man of high standing. But he claims Westville as his place of residence and goes there regularly every general election to vote.

Another and a more successful attempt was made to establish a paper in Westville by the Townsends. This was called the Westville Herald. This is said to have been issued for the first time on May 2, 1856. But Vol. 1, No. 25 bears date of Wednesday, December 3, 1856. The paper being a weekly, this would give the first number the date of Wednesday, June 18, 1856; though there may have been some irregularity in issuing the first numbers. Alfred Townsend was a school teacher in Westville at that time, and Calvin Graham Townsend was a printer. The partnership continued only until the following August, when on account of debt the concern was virtually sold to Samuel Burns, Henly Clyburn and James Concannon; at any rate they took charge of the business, though they still kept C. G. Townsend in the office. But the business not being conducted with any greater success, they prevailed upon Mr. Charles G. Powell to take charge of the office. He consented to do so for six months, ran the business successfully, and at the end of that time agreed to remain for another six months. At the end of the second term he had begun to like the occupation, and though he had a promising offer to take a paper in Iowa, at the earnest solicitation of the people of Westville he consented to remain with them. Therefore, on account of the inducements which they held out to him, he purchased the paper and plant, agreeing to remain at least until after the follow- ing presidential election. He continued its pub- lication at Westville until August 7, 1859, when he moved it to LaPorte and changed its name to the LaPorte Herald.

The first number of the LaPorte Herald bears date of Friday, August 26, 1859, with the name of Charles G. Powell as editor and proprie- tor. From this time until October 1, 1867, the LaPorte Herald and the LaPorte Union were published side by side; but as there was no need of two papers with similar politics in a small city, Mr. Powell purchased the Union of the Messrs.

Mr. Powell continued to edit and publish the Herald until 1870, when he sold a quarter interest to Silas E. Taylor, and then another quarter in- terest to Mr. Sims Major, after which the paper was published by the Herald Company and called the Saturday Evening Herald. But Mr. Powell bought Taylor out in January, 1874, and bought Major out in 1879, and again became sole editor and proprietor.

The Union was not the only paper which the Herald absorbed. The Hon. Jasper Packard, be- lieving that the county could and would sustain a semi-weekly paper, established the Chronicle. The first number appeared July 18, 1874, and con- tinued to appear twice a week until November 8, 1875, when, on account of the stringency of the times, it became a weekly paper. It took a firm stand against personal abuse in politics. General Packard was a hard and effective fighter but he was a gentleman. On October 8, 1875, he issued the first number of the Daily Evening Chronicle, but at the end of two weeks it became evident that the receipts would not nearly equal the expenditures, and the attempt to establish a daily paper was abandoned. He continued the weekly Chronicle until in May, 1878, when he sold it to Taylor & King, and Edward Molloy became its editor. In February, 1880, arrange- ments were made to unite the Herald and the Chronicle, and it was issued as the Herald- Chronicle. Edward Molloy became the editor, and Archibald Beal, of the St. Joseph Valley Register, South Bend, became one of the con- trolling owners and the business manager. On February 1, 1880, Mr. Beal bought a half interest of the Herald from Mr. Powell. In 1882 Mr. Powell, being about to move to Washington, D. C., sold his other half interest to Mr. Harvey Truesdell, who in his turn sold to Archibald Beal. Since that time the Herald, which in due time dropped the name Chronicle, has been conducted successfully. On July 30, 1888, it began to issue a daily edition, which has been a success from the

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first, and on July 30, 1903, the fifteenth anniver- sary of the birth of the daily, it accompanied its regular issue with a photographic reproduction of the first issue of the daily, and another photo- graphic reproduction of the Herald which was started in 1836. The Herald Company is a strong concern, with an excellent plant for such a city as LaPorte, using up-to-date machinery, and linotype composition. From the foregoing it will be seen that the present LaPorte Herald is the third paper by that name which has been started without any connection or continuity with each other. The first was the Herald started by Orton and Saxton in 1836, and which was con- tinued but a short time; the second was the Herald started by Hagenbuch and Storey in 1838, which was merged into the Indiana Tocsin, then into the Michigan City News, which was burned out and not restored. The present Herald had its source in Westville in 1859, was moved to La- Porte, it absorbed the Union and then the Chronicle, and is still vigorous and growing. Ed- ward Molloy continues to be its editor. The Daily Herald came to be recognized from the be- ginning as a paper which was destined to succeed. People had faith in it. They readily subscribed for and advertised in it. It has increased in size from four pages, with six columns to a page, to eight pages, and from a circulation of between 300 and 400 to 1,200. It has always been con- ducted by the same company that began its pub- lication; though Archibald Beal passed away in September, 1896, and was succeeded by his son, Willis E. Beal.

Mr. Charles G. Powell went to Washington, D. C. the last of July, 1882, where for several years he was in a government position. He re- turned to LaPorte in July, 1894, and started the LaPorte Republican, the first number of which was issued September 1, 1894. It is a weekly, clean, and of a high moral tone, and has a good constituency in the county

Charles Granson Powell is a son of Isaac Powell who was a native of England, and Anna (Heaton) Powell, a native of Windham county, Vermont, who emigrated and settled in LaPorte county in 1840. The father was a farmer and resided in this county until his death in Hanna township in 1863. The mother died at Union Mills in August, 1873. Charles was born in

Monroe county, New York, December 16, 1829. He was married in June, 1856, to Miss Nancy J., daughter of William and Mary A. Ireland, a native of this county, by whom he became the father of four children. He is a self-made man, upright and honest. He was first a Whig, then a Republican ; he has always been staunch, but never an offensive partisan.

During the Civil war no man did more to inspire a spirit of true patriotism and keep the county loyal and hold her to the performance of her full duty to the government, than Mr. Charles G. Powell. He was then editor and proprietor of the LaPorte Herald, which at that time was pub- lished weekly ; and every issue contained the latest war news and many well written letters which had the true ring to them from LaPorte county soldiers in the Union army. But Mr. Powell was a tower of strength chiefly in his editorials, in which he discussed the issues which were before the country in a very able manner. His writings were calm and unimpassioned, considerate of the position and feelings of his opponents, but at the same time they were clear-cut and unmistakable in their tone and statements. His arguments were sound, and of a judicial rather than of a persuasive character, and were well calculated to carry conviction with them. These editorials are detracted from somewhat by the fact that they have a homely, domestic and local cast which probably was quite necessary ; but if this quality could be eliminated they would, if collected and published, make a readable volume of essays, and a valuable contribution to the literature of our Civil war. But even as they are they are very interesting and instructive reading; and in our opinion no man in the county, whether he went to the war or worked loyally at home, did more effective work to sustain the government than did Charles G. Powell, both by his editorials and by the general conduct of the LaPorte Herald.

In discoursing of the Indiana editors who have been in the harness for over thirty years, the Editor and Publisher of New York city says : "One of these is Charles G. Powell, editor of the LaPorte Republican. His career dates from the early 50's, when he became editor of the Westville Herald. He removed his paper to La- Porte, where in course of time it absorbed the Union. There was an interval for a few years

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in his editorial work, while he held a government position at Washington, but on his return he established the LaPorte Republican, which he has edited with marked ability ever since. It is now fifty years since he began his editorial career, and his pen is as polished and vigorous as it was in his youthful days."

After the Indiana Tocsin was removed to Michigan City, as related above, the Democratic party had no organ in LaPorte until the estab- lishment of the LaPorte Commercial Times, at the beginning of the year 1852. The Times was founded by E. A. Graves, who soon left it, and the paper passed into the control of Messrs. John C. Walker and John W. Holcombe, editors and proprietors. By another year Dr. Orpheus Everts was associated with these gentlemen, and did the principal part of the editorial work until about the year 1857, when George H. Sweet became associate editor. In the congressional campaign of 1858 John C. Walker was a candidate for Congress against Schuyler Colfax, who was elected. After his defeat Mr. Walker assumed personal supervision of the Times. Soon after, Flavius J. Clark became the editor, then a young man named Palmer, and lastly Henry Higgins. At first the paper was called the LaPorte Com- mercial Times, then the Republican Times, and lastly simply The Times. It was always a straight Democratic paper. In the campaign of 1860 it stood for Douglas instead of Breckenridge, and with the defeat of its candidate .it died. In its last issue, November 10, 1860, its proprietor, who had become Colonel Walker in the Union army, offered it for sale, and not finding a pur- chaser suspended its publication. John S. Weller was publisher of the Times in 1852 or 53, and local editor in 1860.

Says the Editor and Publisher: "Northern Indiana is the birthplace of the editorial associa- tion of the state, the first meeting for the forma- tion of an editorial association being held at Plymouth, June 14, 1859. At that meeting twen- ty-three newspapers north of the Wabash river were represented by twenty-eight editors and pub- lishers. Colonel John C. Walker, of the LaPorte Times, was chairman, and Peter S. Bailey, of Fort Wayne, and Daniel McDonald, of Plymouth, were selected secretaries."

Not long after the suspension of the Times,

Platt McDonald, afterwards of the Plymouth Democrat, established the LaPorte Democrat, which was published during the war and sus- pended about the year 1867.

From the suspension of the Democrat until April 15, 1869, LaPorte was destitute of a Demo- cratic paper, which want was keenly felt by those of that political faith. Even many Republicans felt that in some respects there could be a better government policy. In 1872 occurred the Liberal Republican defection from the ranks of the old Republican party. At this juncture H. E. Wads- worth and John B. Stoll establised the LaPorte Argus.

H. E. Wadsworth is a product of the Hoosier state, born near Kendallville, Noble county, March 3, 1839. This family is an old and promi- nent one in the United States, the first member to cross the ocean from England being William Wadsworth, who reached this coast in 1632. He was a trader and after residing in Dubury, Massachusetts, for some time, moved to Hart- ford, where he was among the first residents. His son, Captain Wadsworth, is known in history as having determinedly ordered his men to "drum, drum," and when the lights were put out he seized the Connecticut charter and secreted it in the hollow root of the famous "Charter Oak." The father of our subject, E. Wadsworth, was born in Hartford, and there grew to mature years. When a young man he decided to seek his fortune in the then far West, and came to the Western Reserve in Ohio, where he remained for some time. Later he moved to Noble county, Indiana, and located a farm in an Indian sugar camp. In that county were passed the closing scenes of his life. He was married in the Buckeye state to Miss Phoebe Ulmer, a native of Maine, and H. E. Wadsworth was one of a family of children born to this union. It is literally true that he "was born among the Indians, in a sugar camp, and rocked in a sap-trough." He received the rudiments of an education in the common schools, and subsequently attended the academies of that region, thus securing a fair amount of learning. He remained with his parents until the age of twenty-five years, and then engaged in the hardware business at Ligonier, Indiana, the same county. From there he removed to LaPorte coun- ty in 1869 and established The Argus, in company

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with J. B. Stoll, who afterwards became the proprietor of the South Bend Times. At that time there was no Democratic paper in north- western Indiana, and this filled a long felt want. It was then about one half its present size. Mr. Stoll was with our subject over a year, and in October, 1870, his interest was purchased by Messrs. Wadsworth and Kessler. The Argus has always been Democratic, its editorial policy has been directed by good judgment, and its repu- tation as one of the best newspapers in this part of the state was well established. Mr. Wadsworth has ever been an active worker for the interests of the Democratic party. The paper he edited is generally credited with having considerable to do with changing the Republican majority of 500 to a Democratic majority of 1,000 in the county. Mr. Wadsworth served as postmaster during President Cleveland's first administration. Pre- vious to this, in 1875, he was elected by the legislature a director of the Northern Prison, and he had the vote of his party for re-election, but the party was in the minority. He has served on the state central committee several times, and has filled other important positions, but has never been known as an office-seeker. In the year 1871 he was married to Miss Sarah Van Akin, a native of Hudson, Michigan. Three children have been given them : Laura, Dudley L., and Lula.

The Editor and Publisher says: "John B. Stoll, of the South Bend Times, is another editor on the shady side of the thirty mark. He estab- lished the Ligonier Banner soon after the close of the Civil war, and was editor of that paper (which he purchased at Elkhart) and the LaPorte Argus, which he also started. He is now editor of the South Bend Times, and he has been unin- terruptedly engaged as editor ever since he en- tered the newspaper business, nearly forty years ago."

Mr. S. I. Kessler retired from the firm at about the time of the establishment of the Daily Argus, which was in 1896, and was succeeded by Dudley L. Wadsworth, and the new firm was known as the Wadsworth Company. In a few years they were bought out by Joshua A. Chaney and both the Wadsworths retired from the pub- lishing business, though Mr. H. E. Wadsworth has retained his connection with the press as a writer of editorials.

Meantime, in 1898, the Bulletin had been started in LaPorte by those who were more radi- cal and pronounced in their advocacy of Mr. William Jennings Bryan and the doctrines for which he stood. This paper passed through sev- eral hands and had rather a checkered existence until it came into the possession of Mr. Graham P. Taber, who conducted it for a time, and then it was consolidated with the Argus. The Bulletin for some time had published a daily edi- tion, and the Argus-Bulletin, as the consolidation is called, continued both the daily and the weekly editions. The new firm was known as the Taber Chaney Company. They conducted the business until 1903, when steps were taken to dissolve the partnership, which was decided by Chaney sell- ing to Taber. But as Chaney purposed to con- tinue in the business, and with a company at his back to start another daily called the LaPorte Democrat, Taber finally sold out to the Argus- Bulletin Company, which filed articles of incor- poration with capitalization of $20,000. The personnel of the company is as follows :-

President, Edward F. Michael ; vice president, Fred Henoch; secretary and treasurer, J. A. Chaney. The directors are Frank C. Mann, Nathan D. McCormick, William W. Hans, Her- man W. Sallwasser, Fred Henoch, Edward F. Michael and Joshua A. Chaney.

The company has moved into new and more commodious quarters on Michigan avenue, it has installed a new and rapid printing press, set up new machinery, bought new type, and has made many improvements in its plant. Harry B. Darling is editor.

Besides the Daily Evening Chronicle men- tioned above, other early efforts were made to establish daily papers in LaPorte, without success. On January third, 1859, B. B. Root and Jasper Packard issued the first number of the Daily Union. Three months afterward Mr. Packard retired from it. By hard work Mr. Root kept it alive two months longer, when it ceased to exist. The Cullatons made a similar attempt in 1866 but it lasted only a week. The time had not yet come when a daily paper could be established with facility in a small city, but it came later.

Another of LaPorte's periodicals is the Catho- lic American, published in the interest of the Benevolent Legion, a fraternal order of the

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Roman Catholic church. It was started in 1898, the magazine bears date of December, 1901. Dur -. and is edited by Mr. Harry B. Darling. It is a monthly, and is well sustained.

Among the publishing ventures of LaPorte should be included that of The Crisis. This periodical was started in March, 1852, by the Rev. Henry Weller, afterwards pastor of the LaPorte New Church Society. The first number was issued for April 15, 1852, eight pages quarto. It was published in a little frame building which still stands at Weller's Grove, and which has been used for several years as one of the cottages of the New Church summer resort at Stone Lake. Of this periodical, Rev. Mr. Weller was the edi- tor, and his son, John S. Weller, was the pub- lisher. The publication was designed to advo- cate and promulgate more liberal views than those held generally by the religious body with which Mr. Weller was connected. It was edited and conducted with a great deal of ability, and was of a religious, philosophical and literary nature ; though by many of Mr. Weller's brethren it was thought to be somewhat erratic. In 1855 the paper was issued weekly, under the same name, in an octavo form of sixteen pages; but in the following year it was put back into a semi-month- ly of the same size. In 1858 its form was changed into a large quarto of eight pages. In 1865 its name was changed to that of The New Church Independent. The editor, Rev. Henry Weller, passed away on June 7, 1868, after which it was conducted by his son, J. S. Weller. In 1870 it absorbed The New Church Monthly, a magazine published in Philadelphia by the Rev. B. F. Barrett, an exceedingly able and scholarly man, after which it was called, The New Church Independent and Monthly Review, Weller and Metcalf publishers. Under this title it was pub- lished monthly, in magazine form, at $2.00 per annum; with the exception of the year 1878, when it was published fortnightly, in quarto form. In 1873 it was moved to Chicago, where it was issued until it suspended publication. Mr. John S. Weller passed away in 1895, after which it was conducted by his sons, Walter, Sam and George, with the assistance of Mr. Metcalf, whose ad- herence to the family was quite pathetic. From sheer affection for the publication he worked upon it until he became a tottering old man, and almost until his dying day. The last issue of

ing much of its long career it had a large circula- tion, not only in the United States and Canada but in Europe and other countries, and it always had a wide influence. Probably no publication ever issued from LaPorte ever had a greater in- fluence in shaping human thought, especially on religious and philosophical subjects which, dur- ing the time of its publication, were agitating the. public mind.

To return to Michigan City, after the first Michigan City News was destroyed by fire in. 1853, the next paper was the Transcript, a Whig newspaper established in 1854 by Richard W. Col- fax. In 1855 he sold it to Hickock and O'Brien. Mr. Colfax lived only about a year longer, dying in the spring of 1856. The new management changed the name of the paper to the Michigan City Enterprise. At the close of the year 1855, or the beginning of 1856, the proprietorship again changed, Mr. L. B. Wright becoming the owner- and publisher, who continued its publication until April, 1859, at which time he sold it to Mr. Thomas L. Jernegan. He conducted it until June, 1863, when, failing to make it pay, and securing a position as assistant paymaster in the United States navy, he left Michigan City, and for two years and a half the paper was suspended. But on his return Mr. Jernegan resuscitated the Enterprise. On May 18, 1869, the city council made it the corporation newspaper for the follow- ing year. In 1880 Thomas L. Jernigan still owned and conducted the paper, which was still a weekly. He sold it to Lewis Morrill in the spring of 1881. Charles J. Robb was then work- ing on it as general manager and editor. Mr. Morrill sold a half interest in it in the fall of 1881 to W. C. Brundage, and the firm name be- came Morrill & Brundage. But Brundage sold back to Morrill in the fall of 1882. During a meeting of the Methodist Episcopal conference a daily edition was now published called the Every Day Enterprise, which existed but a short time. Mr. Morrill borrowed the money with which to buy Mr. Brundage's interest and this led him into financial difficulties. Through certain legal complications the paper in 1884 passed into the hands of C. E. Claypool, then of the Delphi Journal, and in about eight weeks thereafter, the legal difficulties not being settled, the paper-

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A Twentieth Century History and Biographical Record of Laporte County Indiana, Part 42

Author: Rev. E. D. Daniels Publication date: 1904 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1273

Author: Rev. E. D. Daniels
Publication date: 1904
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1273