USA > Indiana > Decatur County > History of Decatur County, Indiana: its people, industries and institutions > Part 35
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"The local feature was first introduced into the paper on 1851, previous (24)
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to which time little attention had been given to local news by either city or county papers. This feature, together with the political ground swell in 1854, started an upward tendency. By the close of the Fremont campaign of 1856 the subscription list had grown to a little over six hundred, a number that, run off on the old hand press, was about the acme of the country pub- lisher's ambition. The breaking out of the Civil War began a new era in the history of the newspaper : men who had not heretofore been newspaper readers now began to read, and those who had read began to read more. The introduction of the power press revolutionized the mechanical side of the business and was a great stimulus to the printer.
"From 1836 to 1841 and again from 1843 to 1850, the Repository, its predecessors and successors, had no competition. In the latter year Oscar B. Hord and Charles R. Hobbs established a Democratic sheet by the name of the Greensburg Gasette. It gave way, two years later, to the Democratic Rifle. Bernard Mullen, editor, which succumbed under the withering frosts of the ensuing November. In 1856 John B. Covington entered the arena with another Democratic paper, which led a wavering career until some- time in 1859. In that year the following notice appears in the Decatur Republican. 'The Democrat office of this place was sold last week at sheriff's sale for twenty-five dollars and twenty-five cents-rather a small price for a printing office.' Whether this paper was styled the Democrat or whether it was a Democratic paper under some other name has not been ascertained. There seems to have been another Democratic paper established shortly after- ward, but its name and founder evidently made little impression on the news- paper world, since neither have been preserved. In 1863 Riley and Mallett, of the Decatur Republican, absorbed the flickering Democratic sheet, and for the succeeding six years there was only the one paper in Greensburg.
"In 1869 Martin Zorger and Martin Blair established the Democratic New Era and this paper, with several changes in ownership, is still in exist- ence. The owners of this paper in succession have been as follows: Zorger, Ed. D. Donnell & James Hart, W. A. Donnell & Sons. J. E. Mendenhall, Allen W. Clark, W. H. Glidewell and Dr. J. W. Rucker, since 1902."
"In 1901 Dr. J. W. Rucker came to Greensburg from Shelbyville and became the editor of the Daily Graphic, which was issued from the New Era office. This was issued until January, 1915, when it was discontinued, although the weekly is still continued.
"Meantime there have sprung up Greenback papers, Prohibition papers, 'Coming' and departing 'Nations,' and more 'Democrats' than you could shake a stick at, all of which have gone down to unmarked and forgotten graves."
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Thus closes the interesting article of the veteran newspaper man, Orville Thompson.
"DIED-MOURNERS SCARCE."
Among the "unmarked and forgotten" papers which Thomson mentions, the historian has located some half dozen or more with definite names and more or less indefinite dates. On March 25, 1863, Burnham & Howell put out the first issue of the Greensburg Fact, a Democratic sheet, but its earthly career was very brief. In November of the same year the Decatur Republican pays tribute to the Fact in the following dolorous fashion: "Died-In this city last week, of starvation, the Greensburg Fact. Mourners scarce." The Saturday Evening Review was started August 2, 1879, by George H. McKee and Robert W. Montgomery and espoused the Republican cause. It was edited with ability and was issued regularly for several years. During the summer of 1878, O. P. McLane, a young teacher of Jackson township, started a Democratic paper in Greensburg under the name of the Decatur Democrat, which, after a brief and meteoric career, succumbed and was merged with the News.
On July 1, 1901, a Baptist minister at Burney, Charles J. Dickens by name, issued the first number of a small church paper, to which he gave the title of Salem News. The Baptist church at Burney was called Salem, hence the name of his paper. Wishing his paper to have a wider significance, Rev. Dickens changed its name, on August 15 of the same year, to the Baptist, l'oice. It was printed in the office of the Greensburg Standard from the time of the first issue until December, 1902. In July, 1901, Rev. Dickens bought the job plant of Elzo Reed in Greensburg and from the issue of July 20, 1901, to December, 1902, the type was set in his office and the press work done in the Standard office. During 1902 the official state paper of the Baptists. which had been published at Indianapolis, was discontinued and Rev. Dickens succeeded in getting his paper made the official paper of his denomination in the state. It seems that with the adoption of his paper as the state organ of his church Rev. Dickens changed its name to the Baptist Observer. a title which it still bears. It was issued weekly in Greensburg until the latter part of March, 1910, and then moved to Seymour, where it is now issued from the office of the Seymour Republican by J. C. Smith. The plant in Greens- burg was sold to Walter A. Kaler, who at once started the Weekly Democrat. Sometime before leaving Greensburg the Observer passed into the hands of A. D. Berry and W. A. Phillips, the latter soon retiring and leaving the sole management in the hands of Berry, who was in charge until the paper was removed to Seymour.
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The Coming Nation was established in Greensburg in August, 1892, by J. A. Wayland and, while it was published only a few years here. it attained a national circulation of about eighty thousand. Wayland was a socialist of ability, a man of literary facility and built up a paper here which was known throughout the length and breadth of the country. Later, Wayland estab- lished the Appeal to Reason at Girard, Kansas, and made it the leading Socialist organ of the whole country. While still in charge of the paper, he committed suicide in 1912. Wayland was born in Versailles. Ripley county, Indiana, in 1854. While publishing his paper in Greensburg he had his office in the Privett block.
The first issue of the Greensburg Review made its appearance on August 1. 1879, with George W. McKee and Robert W. Montgomery as editors and owners. The paper was an eight-column folio, all home print, and from the outset gained favor with the reading public of Decatur county. It was a weekly publication, issued on Saturday, and gave special attention to county and local news.
In 1884, Mr. McKee sold a one-fourth interest in the paper to the Hon. John Q. Donnell, who took charge of the editorial department and attracted wide attention by his work. On September 1. 1885. Mr. Donnell sold his interest to A. M. Willoughby, who for two years prior had been city editor of the Standard, and the firm became Montgomery & Willoughby. For ten years this partnership existed. In 1884 the paper became a semi-weekly, issued on Wednesdays and Saturdays. July 1. 1895. Mr. Montgomery sold two-thirds of his one-half interest in the paper to Ed D. Donnell, and the partnership of Willoughby & Donnell continued until April, 1897, when Mr. Donnell retired.
On November 1. 1898, the Greensburg Daily Review was established, with .\. M. Willoughby as editor and Dix D. Hazelrigg as city editor. The daily edition was a success from the start, and has continuously grown in circulation and influence until it is ranked as one of the most progressive and up-to-date newspapers in this part of the state.
Desiring to give the people of Decatur county a newspaper worthy of the name and one far superior to all its former editions. the Daily Review Printing Company was formed in June, 1912, and, on the Ist day of July following, the property was taken over by the company. Many improve- ments were made at once. A linotype machine was put in and a large quan- tity of new type and other material was added. A full leased wire news service was installed, which, with improvements made on the general plant. at once pushed The Daily Review thus in the lead of all other Decatur county
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newspapers. This prestige the paper is championing at the present time, and as it intends to employ the same enterprise in the future as in the past its owners confidently anticipate a continued growth in both subscription and advertising.
The Daily Review Printing Company is composed of Will H. Robbins, a well-known farmer and capitalist ; Dan S. Perry, cashier of the Greensburg National Bank; David A. Myers, prominent attorney and ex-judge of the Indiana appellate court ; Fred L. Thomas, well known telephone man, and A. MI. Willoughby, who has been continuously with the Review for thirty years.
The Review has always stood for the best interests of Decatur county and Greensburg, and has labored at all times for the upbuilding of the com- munity, socially, morally and financially. It was the first paper to print an article advocating the location of the Odd Fellows' home in Greensburg, and the splendid institution which is today the pride of every resident of the city is in a large measure due to the efforts of this paper. In short, the paper has always led in efforts for the public welfare, and this accounts in a measure for the hearty support that is given it by the people of the surrounding terri- tory. In politics the Review is Republican, and has always advocated Repub- lican principles, but it is not offensively partisan, as it grants every man the right to differ with it in his opinions, political and otherwise.
The first issue of the Greensburg Daily Times (at that time called the Daily Democrat ) made its appearance on April 9, 1910. It came very quietly and without having been heralded. The usual preliminaries at the birth of an institution as public as a newspaper were dispensed with and the first intima- tion that the public had that another mold for the formation of opinion had been under contemplation, was when the paper made its bow, and its editor handed his "salutatory" to the citizens of Greensburg.
Nor was the manner of its coming into life altogether due to the fact that the people of Greensburg had become accustomed to the birth of news- papers in a community which has seen the start and the finish of at least as many organs of the press as most places of its size can boast of.
Its first editor and owner, Walter A. Kaler, had been in the printing business for many years. He had grown up in a country newspaper and job office, and knew the game in all its angles. Just prior to starting the Times, he had been issuing the St. Paul Telegram, a paper he started in the town of that name in the northwestern part of the county.
Mr. Kaler was an astute and far-seeing man. Although there were already three daily papers (two Republican and one Democrat) then being issued in Greensburg, he felt that another Democratic paper was needed.
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He believed that not only the members of that party, but the people of all parties, would welcome another newspaper devoted to the principles of Democracy.
There had been published in Greensburg for several years just before the first issue of the Times, the state organ of the Baptists. This paper, known as the Baptist Observer, had been sold to Seymour people and the offices moved to that city. The plant was not moved, the presses and full equip- ment being taken over by the Times. Within a few months after its first appearance a company was formed for the purchase of the business. A cor- poration charter was obtained. Of this company, Alexander Porter was president, John F. Russell, vice-president, and Charles H. Ewing, secretary. Mr. Kaler continued as editor and manager until February, 1911, when he retired from the business and moved with his family to Florida.
The Times was first published in the Bracken building on West Main street, just west of Montfort street. In March, 1912, a move was made to the Red Men's building, nearer the public square. The Times was the first newspaper in the county to install modern printing machinery. Its equip- ment was always up-to-date and has always been kept at its best. Its linotype machine was the first to be used in the county.
Charles H. Ewing succeeded Mr. Kaler as editor and manager in Febru- ary, 1911, and two years later Hamilton Mercer, the present editor took charge. Under his management the paper has held to a high plane. The little bickerings so common among country newspapers have never found a place in its columns. Personalities of a disagreeable or unwelcome nature have always been ruled out, and the Times has always been a credit to its managers, its owners, and the party of which it is the organ.
The Weekly Democrat is the weekly edition of the Times.
Hamilton Mercer, editor of the Evening Times and Weekly Democrat, is a native lloosier, but he has been in the newspaper business in several other states. He started in the business on the Anderson Daily Bulletin. Later he went to Marion and became editor of the old Morning News. He was for a short time on the Cincinnati Post and later was editorial writer on the Danville (Ill.) Democrat. Mr. Mercer is author of "The Reproach of Capital Punishment," a work which has distinguished him as a criminologist.
THE DAILY NEWS.
The Daily News was started on January 1, 1894, by Frank Trimble and Ed Lines and was the first daily paper to be published in Greensburg. On
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JAMES E. CASKEY.
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May 1, 1894, Ed Lines disposed of his interests to Mr. Trimble, who after- wards sold out to Harry Matthews, and he in turn sold to James D. White.
The Weekly News was launched in 1898 by the owners of the daily, and it has since been continued by the various editors during their periods of ownership.
All the aforementioned owners have passed to their final reward, the last named. James D. White, dying in November, 1902. The present owner and editor, James E. Caskey, purchased the paper from the mother of Mr. White, soon after his death, taking charge on December 1, 1902. At that time the daily had a circulation of three hundred and fifty and the weekly, five hundred and sixty. At the present time the circulation of the Daily News is two thousand five hundred and eighty and the weekly, one thousand five hundred and sixty. The News stands alone in its field in that its unprece- dented circulation, considering the territory in which it operates, was obtained through meritorious effort.
As this is especially an agricultural county, Greensburg being the active center of one of the richest farm areas in Indiana. Editor Caskey has devoted much time, labor and money towards matters of interest to the husbandry- man. This step, taken when he first assumed control of the Nezes, has been one of his best circulation builders.
It was he who advocated and caused to be held the first corn school in this county, so agriculturists everywhere familiar with the policy of the News, are unstinted in their praise of the man who has so successfully con- trolled its destinies for more than a decade, and show their appreciation by their most liberal and continued patronage. This advocacy of better seed corn and scientific farming on more advanced lines, has had its desired results, for today no county of the state stands higher in quality or quantity of its products-land area under cultivation considered.
Mr. Caskey at present has a boys' corn club of one hundred and six members. During the initiatory year he furnished fine seed corn free, and encouraged the boys to raise better corn than their fathers by offering to the winner a free trip to the farmers' short course at Purdue University. The winners were to be determined from those raising either best ten ears of corn, best single ear or largest yield on a single acre. To date he has personally paid the expenses of such trips for twelve boys, who each spent a week at the experiment station of the university.
In 1914, impressed with the idea that motorists, travelers through the country and even the rural mail carriers would find it a convenience and a pleasure to know who lived here and there as they journeyed the highways of
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the county. Mr. Caskey assumed the huge task of painting each rural resi- dent's name on his mail box. This enterprise, Mr. Caskey shows, was done at no expense to the owners, and was a gift from the News. Previous to sending men into the country to letter the boxes, it was made plain that the lettering of a box carried no obligation. It was a gift, and the five thou- sand two hundred and fifty names on boxes in this county today, underscored with words suggesting and heralding the News, is but one sample of many of what the News is doing in the community where it flourishes. Today as a result of this enterprise on the part of the Newes. Decatur county stands alone of all the counties of the United States where the rural mail service is extended, that has a solid service of this sort. Immediately following this. Editor Caskey distributed free metal mail boxes in Greensburg, and every residence in this county is now supplied with such.
The News aims to interest, inform and entertain, not any special class, or kind of people, but the great mass of Decatur county readers in general. Che slogan of the editor-in-chief has always been, "Get the news," regardless of expense, and "get it first." The paper has never attempted to compete with the metropolitan dailies, confining its efforts solely to an "up-to-the- minute" service of all news of Greensburg, various towns and countrysides in the county.
This policy of all the news, all the time, handled with absolute fairness and accuracy, which applies to political as well as general news stories, are pre-eminently responsible for the Daily News being a welcome visitor into so many of the homes of this county where it is a source of interest, enter- tainment and pleasure.
ST. PAUL NEWSPAPERS.
The history of the St. Paul papers has been difficult to trace owing to the fact that no files have been preserved. The first paper in St. Paul was the Press, which seems to have began and ended its existence in 1860. The second paper in the town was the Democrat, which was started in 1868 by Elias Barnes, but it was doomed to a short career of only a few months. It was then removed to Greensburg, where it proved no more successful and. after a few more months of futile struggling, it was quietly laid away to rest. The next paper in St. Paul was the Register, which first made its appearance on October 15, 1879, under the management of J. F. Hankins. It lasted about two years, the last issue being dated August 1, 1881. The paper was then moved to Greensburg and the name changed to the Decatur Democrat,
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with Thomas Greenfield and Hankins as editors and owners. If there was a paper in St. Paul from 1881 to 1890, it has not been discovered. On January 6, 1890, Cox & Trissal issued the first number of the St. Paul Mail, but just how long this paper was published has not been ascertained. Cox left the firm in the latter part of July, 1891, to accept a place on the Indi- anapolis Sun and, according to the best evidence obtainable, the Mail shortly afterward breathed its last. The next St. Paul paper to try its fortune in the town was the Telegram, which appeared under the management of Walter A. Kaler on March 17, 1905. Kaler continued as owner and editor until Novem- ber I, 1909, when he disposed of the plant to Ora C. Pearce, the present editor. Pearce was only eighteen years of age at the time he took charge of the paper, but, despite his youth, he made it a success from the start. It is a six-column folio, independent in politics, devoted first of all to local news and advertising, and is receiving hearty support in the community. The office has sufficient equipment to do all kinds of job work and, with its lino- type machine, is able to turn out work on short notice.
WESTPORT NEWSPAPERS.
The Westport Independent was established in 1886 by Rev. Leroy Hirsh- burg, a Methodist minister, who issued the paper several years and then dis- posed of it to Carl Shafer. About 1899 the Westport Courier was started by Dickens & Morgan and advocated the principles of the Republican party. On July 14, 1904, the Courier sold out to the Independent, and Shafer became the owner and editor of the new paper, the Courier-Independent, the name by which the paper is still known. Shafer continued in charge of the paper several years and then sold it to Joseph Tucker and James E. Nicely. Later Tucker acquired the sole interest in the paper and issued it until 1913 when he disposed of it to T. W. Robinson. In March, 1914, Robinson sold it to James H. Keith after an ownership of eight months. Keith has built up the paper since he has acquired it until he now has a first-class sheet, which finds its way into seven hundred homes in Decatur and surrounding counties. There appears to have been a paper by the name of the Decatur Journal pub- lished in Westport in the eighties, but no definite information concerning it has been obtained.
CLARKSBURG BUDGET.
On July 10, 1909, the first issue of the Bi-Weekly Budget, the only paper ever published in Fugit township, made its appearance in Clarksburg. It was a two-column, four-page sheet (five and one-half by eight inches) and
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was published by two Clarksburg boys, C. G. McCracken and J. C. Smith, the office being located in the home of the former. On May 1. 1911, the office was moved to the Brodie blacksmith building and on July 22, of the same year, the paper was enlarged to a three-column sheet. The paper was moved, on January 1. 1912, to its present location in a room erected for that purpose by C. E. Kincaid. In the spring of 1912 the partnership was dis- solved, McCracken taking over the management, and Mr. Smith removing to Cleveland, Ohio, to engage in other business. On July 5, 1912, the paper was made a weekly and the word "bi-weekly" dropped from the title. Since that time the Budget has gone steadily onward, endeavoring to give its read- ers the news of the community, free from all political bias. It would not do to leave a discussion of this paper without making mention of its editor. Mr. McCracken is an invalid and unable to walk. He does all of his work in a chair and deserves a great deal of credit for the effort he has made to give his community such an excellent little paper. He is assisted in the office by his sister, who runs the small foot-press on which the paper is printed.
CHAPTER XV.
AGRICULTURE.
Horace Greeley, addressing a gathering of farmers at the Tippecanoe fair grounds at Lafayette, in 1871. said :
"Indiana farmers are slovenly. They grow more weeds to the acre than any other locality in the world, with which I have had any acquaintance. They try to cultivate too much land. Their crops do not show the increase they should, only showing an average of twelve bushels of wheat to the acre. when it should reach twenty-five. The hay crop is not cut soon enough and a very large amount of it is lost on this account. The ground is plowed too shallow. It should be plowed deep, so as to enable grains to take deeper hold and thus withstand our frequent droughts."
This general indictment of Indiana farmers, made forty-five years ago by Mr. Greeley, was doubtless justified at the time. and no doubt the condi- tions he mentioned obtained, in a measure, in Decatur county. But since that time there has been a tendency to diminish the size of farms held and the gospel of deep plowing is now universally accepted. While the weeds have the same tendency to grow that they exhibited then, they are kept cut back along the roads and fences and their presence among growing crops is no longer tolerated.
Early settlers had considerable to contend with. when they attempted to raise a corn crop. It is said that in the fall of 1822 the squirrels traveled much and ate nearly all the corn in the county. But Decatur county pioneers were persevering folk, and the mere failure of a corn crop was not sufficient to daunt them. They cut their wheat with a hook, trampled it out with horses, cleaned it on a sheet and hauled it to Cincinnati, where they sold it for thirty-seven cents a bushel. They also found a market there for fox and coon skins at ten cents each, which helped a little in alleviating financial stringencies back home.
The first steam threshing machine to be used in the county was tried out by Jackson & Butler on the J. E. Robbins farm, one mile south of Greens- burg, July 12, 1859. Several hundred farmers, coming from all parts of the county, were present to witness the test.
The most important farm crop of pioneer days is no longer cultivated.
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