USA > Indiana > Allen County > Fort Wayne > Valley of the upper Maumee River, with historical account of Allen County and the city of Fort Wayne, Indiana, Volume II > Part 39
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The next owners were Hon. W. H. Dills, now a resident of Auburn, and I. W. Campbell, who, after a checkered life, is again working at the
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case in a St. Louis job printing office. These gentlemen had shortly before purchased from Hon. John W. Dawson the Fort Wayne Times, democratic, and the two papers were merged under the name of the Times-Sentinel.
In January of the next year, 1866, there was another change, Messrs. E. Zimmerman, best known as the proprietor of the Valparaiso, Ind., Messenger, and Hon. Eli Brown, afterward prominent in Whitley county politics and as member of the state senate, becoming owners. The name of the paper was now changed to that of Democrat. Steam power was introduced and the paper was generally improved. Within the next few years there were many other owners and partners, Judge Robert Lowry, who purchased Mr. Brown's interest in 1868, Robert D. Dumm and L. A. Bruner, a firm known as Burt & Tucker, John W. Henderson and Frank Furste. In the fall of 1870 Mr. Bruner sold his . interest to Hon. William Fleming, who, also purchased Mr. Lowry's interest. R. D. Dumm & Co. issued the Democrat as a morning paper for a short time, but the change was not satisfactory and the evening publication was resumed.
On January 30, 1873, the ownership passed to R. D. Dumm and Hon. William Fleming, who restored the name of Sentinel, and in April, 1874, the paper was purchased by the Sentinel Printing company, com- posed of Hons. A. H. Hamilton, R. C. Bell, William Fleming, S. B. Bond, M. Hamilton, F. H. Wolke and other prominent democrats. The price paid for the paper was $50,000. The Sentinel Printing company had an active existence until the spring of 1877, when the paper passed into the hands of Hon. William Fleming. Until the 16th of April, 1879, he was its sole proprietor, and he then transferred the paper to William R. Nelson, a son of Hon. I. D. G. Nelson, and Samuel . E. Morss, the latter of whom had had principal editorial charge while Mr. Fleming was proprietor. The new firm enlarged the paper's facilities and improved it in many ways, Mr. Morss's keen "nose for news" and his facile pen quickly bringing the Sentinel to the front rank of state papers. The city was raked for local news as with a fine tooth comb, and in every department there was a force and sprightliness that won much favor for the new firm.
On August Ist, 1880, Mr. E. A. K. Hackett purchased the Sentinel and has been since in possession. Under E. A. K. Hackett's manage- ment the paper has been more prosperous than at any time in its pre- vious history. It is now considered not only the best paper in the city of Fort Wayne, but one of the leading papers in the state. It has the exclusive control of the Associated and United press associations, has its own special telegraph wire running into its office and has all the facili- ties for publishing a metropolitan newspaper. The Weekly Sentinel is read by almost every farmer in Allen county, and has the largest circu- lation of any weekly newspaper outside the city of Indianapolis in the state of Indiana. It is printed in its own building at No. 107 Calhoun street, one of the neatest, handsomest and best arranged newspaper
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buildings in the state. It is of brick, 25.x70 feet in size, three stories high, with a basement. In the basement is the engine and press room. The first floor contains the counting room, job printing department and stock room. The second floor contains the editorial, reporters' and tele- graph operators' rooms. The third floor contains the composing room and book bindery.
The American Farmer was established six years ago by E. A. K. Hackett. It has a circulation that reaches all over the United States and Canada. It is published as a premium paper, and is the original publication in that field. It is edited by S. D. Melsheimer and printed in the Sentinel .building.
Thomas Tigar commenced in May, 1843, the publication of a Ger- man paper called Der Deutsche Beobachter von Indiana. The late Dr. C. Schmitz was editor. The publication was not long continued.
In 1856 a German paper called the Democrat was published in Fort Wayne, E. Engler was the editor. The Democrat was short-lived.
The Indiana Staats Zeitung first saw the light in 1858. Mr. G. B. Newbert was its first editor, and its politics were from then until now demo- cratic. The Staats Zeitung seems not to have attracted great attention until 1862, when Hon. John D. Sarnighausen, a scholarly gentleman, came to Fort Wayne and assumed editorial control. He infused into the sheet new life. Within a year or two he became sole owner and the paper has since grown to be a power among the German thinking people of northern Indiana. Mr. Sarnighausen has been in editorial charge all these years except when called to serve his country in the state senate. The Daily Staats Zeitung was established in 1877, and has proved a success from the beginning.
Public prints of more or less longevity, and which require no extended notice, are the Evening Transcript, published by William Latham and Henry Cosgrove; the Indiana Freemason, a monthly, Sol D. Bayless, editor; the Casket, by the students at the Methodist college; the Alert, whose publisher is forgotten; the Plow Boy, an agricultural pamphlet; The True Democrat (pamphlet), by R. D. Turner; The Standard and Weekly, by D. W. Burroughs; the Jeffersonian, the Laurel Wreath, the Call, by W. R. Ream; the Republican, by P. P. Baily; the Boys' World, by W. J. Bond; the Item, by George R. Benson; the Volks- freund, by Rudolph Worch, and the Mail, by W. J. Fowler. The Volksfreund deserves some special mention. The editor was a positive man who wrote strong and fierce leaders and attracted to his paper for a time some of the patronage that the Germans had regularly bestowed upon the older Staats Zeitung.
But all these papers have passed away. In their day they served useful purposes no doubt, but most of them lacked the essential element of presenting the news of the day, and to this fact their early decay can probably be principally attributed.
The Fort Wayne Times, when it had a separate existence, by which is meant before it was merged with the Sentinel, had for editors strong
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writers, and it was a power in local and state politics. It was established in 1841 by George W. Wood. He sold to Henry W. Jones, who con- tinued it until the end of the year 1844. In March, 1844, Mr. Wood commenced a campaign paper called the People's Press, and after the close of the campaign of that year, the two publications were united under the name of the Times and People's Press. A sale of this property was made in March, 1848, to T. N. Hood and Warren H. Withers. On August 31, 1849, Mr. Withers retired and George W. Wood was admitted. Messrs. Hood & Wood continued as partners until Septem- ber 7, 1853, when Mr. Wood leased his interest for one year, to Mr. John W. Dawson. The firm of Dawson & Wood changed the title of the paper to the Times. Within a few months Mr. Hood sold his interest to Messrs. Dawson & Wood. On July 16, 1854, Mr. Wood having retired, Mr. Dawson began issuing the Daily Times. The daily edition was discontinued two years later, but on February 1, 1859, was revived and continued until October, 1864. The publication office was situated at the northeast corner of Columbia and Clinton streets, in the second and third stories. This building, which was known as the Times building, was destroyed by fire March 28, 1860, and was at once rebuilt. The paper and job office were sold in 1865, to Messrs. Dills & Campbell, and was subsequently merged in the Sentinel. Mr. Dawson served for a time as territorial governor to Utah. His widow Mrs. Amanda Dawson, still resides in this city.
The Fort Wayne Gazette, the leading republican organ of northern Indiana, like the Sentinel and Times, has had numerous changes of own- ership, but never since its initial number has it failed to be the consist- ent and stalwart champion of the principles of freedom and equal rights to all men of whatever race or color, under the constitution. It was established as an afternoon paper in 1863, by D. W. Jones, who came from Grant county, Ind., for that express purpose. The first place of publication was the old Times office corner, which has sheltered so many young newspaper enterprises. Mr. Jones was not only the publisher but the editor. A few months later Hon. Isaac Jenkinson purchased an interest and became editor. In October of the same year a new cylin- der press was put in and a portable engine was added to the office. The Gazette thus became the first successful steam printing house in Fort Wayne.
In March, 1864, Mr. Jones sold his interest to H. C. Hartman, esq., and the new firm enlarged the paper to a seven-column folio. Mr. Hartman retired in 1867, and in October, 1868, Mr. Jenkinson sold a third interest to James R. Willard, and a third interest to Amos W. Wright, and in the spring of 1869, the entire business was transferred to these parties. For the next few years changes of ownership were frequent. Gentlemen owning interest in the paper at various times were . . Robert G. McNiece, who had been principal of the high school, and is now a clergyman of much distinction at Salt Lake City, D. S. Alexan- der, M. Cullarton, John N. Irwin and J. J. Grafton. The organization
JOHN D. SARN' GHAUSEN
E.A.K. HACKETT
W. D. PAGE
N. R. LEONARD
C. D. TILLO
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had by this time assumed the form of a joint stock company, and all of the stock was sold to Capt. J. B. White, who sold a half interest to Gen. Reub. Williams and Quincy A. Hossler, now successful publishers at Warsaw.
1 Williams & Hossler lost money on the purchase, and in July, 1876, the Gazette was sold to Keil Brothers. D. S. Keil, now deceased, be- came business manager, and Fred W. Keil, editor. Silas McManus, better known as a dialect poet, and W. J. Fowler, were among the best known city editors. Under the Keil management the paper prospered. It was enlarged and its circulation greatly expanded. The owners also began the publication of "patent insides" for country weeklies, and had over 100 on their list when this part of the business was sold to Chicago parties and became the nucleus of the Newspaper Union, an establish- ment which has since grown to vast proportions. The Keils sold the Gazette to Messrs. B. M. Holman and Theron P. Keator, who conducted a remarkably vigorous campaign against the democratic party. In Feb- ruary, 1887, the new proprietors having failed to make good all their financial obligations, on motion of the Keils a receiver was appointed and Judge O'Rourke of the circuit court named John W. Hayden, esq. At the end of a few months the paper was sold by the receiver to Messrs. N. R. and Frank M. Leonard, and has since been conducted by them under the style of N. R. Leonard & Son. The senior partner had been professor of mathematics and astronomy in the Iowa state university, and the junior partner had been a practical newspaper man for many years. On January 1, 1889, F. M. Leonard retired, and the paper is now conducted solely by N. R. Leonard. The Gazette is a clean, honorable, fair dealing journal, and while vigorously republican is always deferential to opposite political views.
The Fort Wayne Morning fournal is the offspring of the Fort Wayne Weekly Journal, which was founded December 14, 1868, by T. S. Taylor and Samuel Hanna. It was originally a republican paper, the object of the gentlemen named being to make it the republican organ of the county, displacing the Gazette. In this attempt they failed and the fournal, after passing through various hands, notably those of Mr. Clark Fairbank and the late Judge Samuel Ludlum, became in 1880, the property of Thomas J. Foster, then state senator, and the price was re- duced to a cent. Senator Foster turned the paper into a dyed-in-the- wool democratic organ and it has remained so ever since. After the deplorable death of Senator Foster the paper was purchased by Ironsides & Co., of Louisville, Ky., who soon sold to M. V. B. Spencer. The latter found the business unsuitable to his tastes and organized a stock company which took the paper. Among the stockholders, besides Mr. Spencer, were Col. C. A. Zollinger, Hon. C. F. Muhler, Hon. Allen Zollars, Dr. L. S. Null, Samuel Miller, M. A. Null, F. C. Boltz, and others. G. W. Lunt was the first business manager under the new regime, and George F. Shutt was the first editor. Mr. Shutt retired and was succeeded by W. P. Cooper and Mr. Lunt was succeeded by Mr. Miller. The latter con- XXI
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ducted the business very successfully, and purchased from the other stockholders nearly all of their holdings. Mr. Miller died in January, 1887, and on the first day of March of the same year the Miller shares were purchased by Col. C. A. Zollinger, who shortly sold to Christian Boseker. The latter conducted the paper with success, increasing its reputation and its circulation, and on June 10, 1889, sold his stock to W. W. Rockhill and A. J. Moynihan, who are now in charge. Mr. Rockhill is president and business manager of the company, and Mr. Moynihan is secretary and treasurer, besides performing the duties of editor. The fournal prints the united press report, and its publishers promise that it will increase its usefulness to the public.
The Daily News .- Perhaps the most successful daily newspaper in Fort Wayne is the youngest, and to careful and prudent management, and a consistent following out of a policy thought to be for the people's best interests, is its success to be ascribed. The Daily News originated with W. D. Page, its present proprietor and editor, who in its establish- ment associated with himself, Charles F. Taylor. The early issues were printed on a plate press and the paper was so small that an oppo- sition afternoon paper sneeringly referred to it as a " hand bill," and prophesied its collapse within ninety days. But what it lacked in size it made up in sprightliness. Its popular city editor, the late A. V. D. Conover, was a brilliant and pungent paragrapher. Within a month the News had a bona fide circulation of 1,600 copies, and to-day it claims to print more papers than any other city daily. In November, 1887, Mr. Taylor sold his interest to Mr. Page, and with it, his half-interest in Poultry and Pets, a monthly publication which leads its class in America, and which is devoted to interests its title sufficiently explains. The Daily News is conspicuous among other successful dailies from the fact that it has never had a dollar of the patronage from the city, county or state gov- ernment, that has been extended more or less generously to all of its rivals. It has carved out an honorable place for itself in the newspaper world, and fills it admirably as " the people's paper."
The Dispatch occupies a position among Fort Wayne newspapers that is peculiarly its own. It was started a little over ten years ago, and it has been independent in politics, but with a strong leaning at times toward the theories of the greenback party. After the defeat of Gen. Weaver, its candidate for the presidency, the interests of the labor party were taken up. The paper is the uncompromising foe of anything that looks like a clique, a monopoly or a trust, and more than any other city paper its columns bear the personality of its editor, Mr. James Mitchell.
The Freie Presse, at the head of which is Mr. Otto Cummerow, is a daily paper which challenges the older Staats Zeitung for the support of our German citizens. It is of neat appearance, its local and editorial matter are well prepared. From the large amount of patronage secured it is evident that the Freie Presse has come to stay.
George W. Wood, one of the pioneer printers and editors of Indiana, was born in Goshen, Orange county, N. Y., on the 4th day of Septem-
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ber, 1808, and resided in that state, where he learned the art of practical printing, and also devoted much time to the study of the law, until about 1834, when he removed to Ann Arbor, Mich., and thence, in 1836, to Fort Wayne. Here he entered the Sentinel office, then owned by Thomas Tigar, esq., and is entitled to the distinction of being the second news- paper man at Fort Wayne. In 1837 he purchased the Sentinel from Mr. Tigar, and published it until 1840, when he disposed of it to I. D. G. Nelson. A month afterward, he purchased a newspaper establishment from H. B. Seaman, of Defiance, Ohio, and moving it to Fort Wayne, " founded the Fort Wayne Times. In March, 1840, he was elected mayor of Fort Wayne, being the first person elected to that position after the city was incorporated under a charter. He resigned the office, however, on the 5th of July, 1841, and Joseph Morgan was elected to fill the vacancy. February 18, 1843, he leased the Times to Henry W. Jones, who conducted it about two years, when Mr. Wood resumed control of it, combining with it the People's Press and calling it the Fort Wayne Times and People's Press. He continued its publication until March 23, 1848, when he sold it to Messrs. Withers & Hood. In August, 1849, he re-purchased the interest of Mr. Withers, and the paper was conducted by G. W. Wood & Co. until September 9, 1855, when it was leased to Hood & Dawson until the next June, when he sold his entire interest to John W. Dawson. On the 25th of June, 1849, a telegraph line was established from Toledo to La Fayette, and Mr. Wood became the first operator at Fort Wayne, and continued for some time in that capacity. He is also entitled to the honor of establishing the first daily newspaper in Fort Wayne, which he placed under the management of Messrs. Latham & Rayhouser. Immediately after this, he entered the office of Hon. Samuel Hanna, where he remained until the death of the latter, managing the vast public and private interests of that gentleman for many years, and after his death, acted with Samuel T. Hanna, as administrator of the estate. Besides these positions of personal trust, he was appointed register of the land office by President Fillmore, in 1849, and held the office until it was removed to Indianapolis. After the organization of the Ohio & Indiana railroad, he became the agent of the company for the sale of the lands received for stock subscriptions, and from 1854, when the first cars commenced running to Fort Wayne, until 1860, he was ac- tively associated with Samuel Hanna in the management of that corpo- ration. In all these positions he discharged his duties creditably and with honor, and proved himself to be man of large capacity, good judg- ment and incorruptible honesty. He was an uncomproming whig, and an ardent admirer of Webster and Clay. He was remarkably simple and unostentatious in appearance and demeanor, a man of few words, except with his family, and with those whose good fortune it was to be admitted to his intimate friendship. With these he was uniformly genial and companionable. His editorials embodied in plain language, the most forcible logic, and were admirably fitted to the manners and customs of his day. An address upon "Intellectual and Moral Education," pub-
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lished in the Times, November 4, 1843, another delivered before the stu- dents of the Fort Wayne female college, published in the Times and Press, January 27, 1848, and his "Life and Character of Hon. Samuel Hanna," published in 1869, as well as his editorials and eulogies of Henry Clay, are evidences of his abilities and the wide range of his studies. He departed this life Saturday, November 11, 1871, leaving no family except a devoted wife.
John W. Dawson, a well known member of the early Allen county bar, and also distinguished as an editor, was born October 21, IS20, a son of John Dawson, an early settler of Cambridge, Ind. John W. came to Fort Wayne in 1838, and became a clerk in the office of his brother- in-law, Col. Spencer, receiver of public moneys. Beginning with 1840, he studied two years in Wabash college, and then entered the law office of his brother-in-law, Thomas Johnson. In 1843 he was admitted to the bar, and then practiced at Augusta, the old county seat of Noble county. He practiced afterward at Fort Wayne, and attended law school in Kentucky, but his health failing, he did not return to Fort Wayne until 1843, when in company with T. H. Hood, he leased the Fort Wayne Times, a whig paper, then owned by G. W. Wood & Co. Mr. Dawson became its sole proprietor in 1854, and through this organ became a leader in the new anti-Nebraska party. This party nominated him for secretary of state, and he made a vigorous canvass. Shortly after the inauguration of President Lincoln, he was appointed governor of Utah. His administration was vigorous, and he so incurred the hatred of the saints, that on his return from Salt Lake he was way-laid, robbed and maltreated so that he never fully recovered from the effects of the outrage. Mr. Dawson was an honest politician, of strong convictions and courage to stoutly maintain the right as he saw it. His death occurred September 10, 1877.
John D. Sarnighausen, veteran editor of the Staats Zeitung, is the son of a prominent civil officer in the former kingdom of Hanover, and was born October 31, 1818. He attended the colleges at Stade and Lune- burg, and the university at Gottingen. and became teacher and minister. In 1860 he came to this country, and to Fort Wayne in 1862. He was at first engaged as editor of the Indiana Staats Zeitung, then a small weekly paper owned by Messrs. A. F. Simon and Fred. Meyer, which he bought in 1863, and changed it to a tri-weekly paper in 1867, and to a daily in 1877. The weekly was of course continued. Connected with him as partners were Mr. A. C. Kampe from 1866 to 1868, when the partnership was dissolved by mutual consent, and later, Mr. L. A. Griebel was associated with him from 1876 to 1882, when the latter re- tired, having been elected auditor of Allen county. Mr. Sarnighausen was elected as a democrat on the independent ticket, state senator from Allen county in 1870, by a majority of about 400, but lost his seat through trickery. In 1872 he was re-elected on the democratic ticket as senator from the counties of Allen and Adams by a majority of 6,184, and in 1876, as senator from Allen, Adams and Wells (under the
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new apportionment law of 1873), by a majority of 6,630. In 1877 and 1879 he, was chairman on the committee on education in the Indiana senate. When Mr. Sarnighausen assumed the editorship of the Staats Zeitung he found not a single copy of the paper, nor a file, nor a copy- book, nor any other papers in reference to the former years of its exis- tence. The paper had been established in October, 1858, but had until January, 1862, when he took charge of it changed proprietors and edi- tors time and again and none of them had taken the slightest interest in it, as it was considered an enterprise with which not only no money but much loss was connected. Since 1863 it has been under the same con- trol and will continue so long as life or health of the present owner will permit. It is in politics a strong and effective supporter of the demo- cratic party.
William David Page, editor and proprietor of the Daily News, is a lineal descendant of Luther Page, an officer in the English army, who came to America a few years after the landing of the pilgrims at Plymouth Rock, and settled in Massachusetts. From the latter came all branches of the New England Page family. David Page, paternal grandfather of William D., was prominent as a manufacturer in Ver- mont a century ago. His wife was Elizabeth Minot, of Massachusetts, a member of the well-known Minot family, after whom was named the famous light-house, "Minot's Ledge." . Rev. William Page, father of William D., was a prominent Presbyterian clergyman of a half century ago; was a graduate of Middlebury college; preached for some years in New York city, and was afterward for many years prominent in home missionary work in the early days of Michigan's history. He numbered among his close personal friends such well-known characters as William Lloyd Garrison, Garrett Smith, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry Ward Beecher, John G. Saxe, and nearly all the leading Presby- terian clergymen of his time. William D. descended, on the maternal line, from a French Huguenot family, named Durand, the maiden name of his mother being Frances Sheldon Durand. She was born at Beth- lehem, Conn., in 1807, and is still living, having been an intelligent and deeply interested witness of the progress of this country during the most remarkable century in the world's history. Mr. Page, the editor and proprietor of the News, was born at Monroe, Mich., August 16, 1844. He began his career as a printer at eight years of age, at Adrian, Mich., being locked in a room without any companion, and com- pelled to learn the rudiments of the "art" of type-setting by simple practice with the letters before him. He attended grammar school at Ann Arbor at twelve. Subsequently finishing his trade at Adrian, he was working as a journeyman printer at Milwaukee when the war broke out in '61. He enlisted in Company B, Fifth Wisconsin, and par- ticipated in the quelling of the memorable bank riots at Milwaukee, which grew out of the collapsing of the old wild-cat banks of the state, and was mustered out of the service early in June, by order of Brigadier- General Rufus King, on account of youth. Then having his attention
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