USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > A History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, vol 2 > Part 45
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Young Milne went to the printing office of Leavitt, Trow & Company in Ann street, where Alfred G. Pierce, formerly a 'compositor on the Fall River "Monitor," was employed. Mr. Pierce in- troduced the boy to his foreman, Mr. Flagg. There was no opening at that time, but Mr. Flagg prom- ised him a place as soon as possible. Milne re- turned to Fall River and a few weeks later he re- ceived a call to go to work. Leavitt, Trow & Company employed about forty or fifty men. The firm was engaged in the printing of a number of large books and Young Milne was immediately set to work, with a number of other compositors, on a 1,500 page job. Each man was handed several pages of copy. In a short time, but long before any of the older and more experienced printers had finished their stints, young Milne was back to the foreman for more copy. The foreman was as tounded. He refused at first to believe that the boy had finished with his first allotment. But when the galley of type was shown a new speed marvel was added to the boasts of the shop. The boy was but bearing out the predictions for his success as a compositor which had been made for him in Fall River. By one writer in Fall River he had been referred to as "our office boy John, who sticks type like all possessed." Mr. Jewell, assistant foreman in the office of Leavitt, Trow & Company, declared him to be "a perfect salamander."
Through the system of giving out work to the compositors in the office, an increasingly large share of the copy passed through young Milne's hands. In spite of the fact that he was receiving but two- thirds of the wages paid the other printers, be- cause he was under age, he was doing more work than any of them. His supremacy in speed and accuracy came to be unquestioned, a fact that was definitely decided when Lawrence Cummings, one of the compositors, came to him and said: "John, until you came they called me the fastest com- positor in the office." Cummings, instead of being jealous of the new compositor, became Milne's staunch friend and remained so until his death. This ability to compete successfully with grown men of wide experience was a cheering factor in young Milne's life. Though practically destitute of means and dependent upon his own resources for his
livelihood, he was never without a light heart. So long as there were printing offices he felt secure in his ability to make his way; if he was allowed to go into an office and demonstrate his abiilty to set type he knew that his chances of winning employment were better than even. Upon leaving New York he received a most gratifying commen- dation from his foreman, who said: "John is not only very swift, but also very accurate."
The latter part of 1844 formed one of the most important passages in the young man's life. While he was in New York, Thomas Almy was contem- plating the publication of a new weekly in Fall River. The early deaths of the half dozen or more papers on which both he and young Milne had worked during the preceding six years had not convinced him that Fall River did not offer a field for another weekly. He wrote his belief to young Milne, asking him to return to Fall River and be- come his partner in the new enterprise. Mr. Almy had about $600 in accumulated savings. His young friend, underpaid because he had not yet attained his majority, and requiring practically all he earned for his living, had nothing. That is, he had no money to put into the business. But he had some- thing of equal if not greater value-ability. Mr. Almy, although a good workman, had not had the advantages of much schooling. The studies in
which young Milne had delved in his preparation for college had given him an ability to write that would be of immeasurable help on the proposed paper. All these things were considered in the dis- cussions which preceded the foundation of the "News." Young Milne left the Leavitt, Trow & Company office in New York and returned to Fall River on Christmas eve, 1844. A few days later he and his partner went to Boston and bought an equipment for their office.
How closely these two young men had come to be identified with the newspaper work on this sec- tion was shown by an offer made to them by a number of New Bedford men at about this time. The "Mercury," which supported the Whig party in politics, was the only paper published in New Bedford, and a number of influential citizens de- sired a paper that would disseminate Free Soil prin- ciples. The two young men from Fall River were invited to attend a meeting in the office of Mayor Rodney French. The found there eight prominent men who offered to make them a gift of $1,000 and to guarantee 800 subscribers for the proposed paper at the start. Milne, who had been given a strict religious training, declined to enter into the nego- tiations when he learned that a morning paper was wanted, which would necessitate working on Sun- days, but recommended Edmond Anthony, who then was publishing the "Independent Gazette" at Taunton, Massachusetts. Mr. Anthony accepted the offer and the new paper, known as the New Bedford "Standard," was established in 1850. About this time an offer to take charge of a Providence paper was also declined by Mr. Milne.
The first issue of the Fall River "News" was printed on, a hard working hand press on the sec-
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ond floor office at No. 5 Bedford street, April 3, 1845. The name had been chosen after many sug- gestions; most of them, high sounding and pre- sumptuous, had been discarded. The junior partner gave expression to his feelings on the question, when one friend suggested "The Spirit of the Age." "How much of the spirit of the age can we express in this little manufacturing village, of which the world has hardly heard, as yet? Our only purpose can be to give the public the news, and let that be our title." The lofty captions in whose origin Pegasus might be traced were laid aside; the elaborate headings which had been "set up," "proved up" and studied were "thrown in" and the plain, straightforward caption, the Fall River "Weekly News," appeared in their place. The task which faced the partners was one of grown man proportions. As Mr. Milne's first biographer said in a volume published in 1890, "One of a Thousand:" "The difficulties experienced in those days, when these two young men undertook the work, were laborious, and their lives self-denying; but by in- cessant application and rigorous economy they achieved success."
Fall River, the field of their labors, had a popu- lation at that time of about 10,000 people. Thc "News" was started with 500 subscribers. All the matter that went into its forms was set by hand by the two partners. Every Wednesday afternoon the paper went to press, each partner running off half the edition on the cumbersome, hand-operated machine. This part of the work came particularly hard on the slightly built, young partner, who was compelled to use all his strength and weight on every impression. Young Milne wrote much of the local news that went into its columns. Within a few weeks after the issue of the first edition of the weekly, Benjamin F. Glasby of Providence was add- ed to the office staff. Mr. Glasby was rated high amond the swiftest compositors of New England, but when he engaged in a contest with young Milne, he was compelled to admit the latter's su- perior speed. His youthful employer set 1,680 ems, long primer, each hour for four successive hours, or 6,720 ems. The remarkable nature of this per- formance may be realized when it is stated that 1,000 ems an hour in long primer was held to be good typesetting.
Dr. Phineas W. Leland, collector of the port of Fall River, was one of the first regular contributors to the columns of the "News." His assistant, Jona- than Slade, wrote items of marine and general in- telligence. John Westall was the author of an article in the first and in numerous subsequent issues. Accounts of accidents and happenings which came under his notice were contributed by Dr. Foster Hooper.
Beginning as they did with extremely limited capital and with an established paper competing against them in a limited field, the two young men had a battle facing them that might well inspire older business men with awe. When their first ton of coal was purchased they could not afford to pay for having it carried upstairs to their office,
so they essayed the task themselves and carried it in in baskets from where it had been dumped on the sidewalk. Henry Fish, a local banker, watched them with interest. "Those boys will make it go," he prophesied. At the end of three years the business began to show signs of ultimate suc- cess, and each partner received $516 for his twelve months of taxing toil. For the two preceding years neither had drawn what he might have earned at his trade. But the "News" was winning the com- mendation of the public for its enterprise and thor- oughness in covering the local field, and the realiz- ation of doing something for themselves and doing that something well spurred the young men on.
A job printing business in connection with the newspaper office was for the first three or four years about all that kept them above water. This branch of the business received a helpful impetus in the acquisition of the work of a thread manufac- turer, Oliver Chace. The spirit of accommodation which the young men had made a part of their business policy was the direct cause of their favor in Mr. Chace's eyes. When he came to them one day and asked them to print him a number of labels immediately, they abandoned the task in hand and did it, although the return was but $1.25. A rival printer had refused to do the work in the time stipulated, a fact that lost him a valuable cus- tomer, and gave to the young publishers of the "News" one of their greatest helps.
After eight years in the second-story office on Bedford street, the "News" moved to the northeast corner of North Main and Market streets, again on the second floor. Up to this time and for several ycars after the partners put back much of the earnings of both the job office and of the weekly into the business. Their old back-breaking hand- press was discarded for a second-hand Adams press, the first power-press to be used in the city. As no mechanical power was at first available, a man was hired to turn the driving wheel, a position which brought him the sobriquet "the power of the press." When Prentiss' laundry was opened in an adjoining building, a belt was run from the laundry engine through one of the printing office windows to the press. A single-cylinder press and a double- cylinder press, with a separate folding machine, came into the office in the course of time, as the subscription lists increased.
The first issue of the "News" was delivered by its publishers. After a few weeks two carriers were employed. One of these was Franklin L. Almy, who, although of the same name as the senior partner, was not related to him. The younger Almy was twelve years of age at that time and he delivered the paper to all subscribers living north of the Quequechan river. Another boy had for his district that section of the town south of the stream, which was to become the nucleus of the greatest cotton manufacturing city in the country. Franklin L. Almy became infected with the fascina- tion of the printer's ink, and in the following Sep- tember he entered the News office as an apprentice. He became a journeyman in 1850, foreman of the
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BIOGRAPHICAL
job office a short time later, and in 1862 he was taken into the firm as a partner. Upon the death of Thomas Almy, in 1882, John C. Milne and Franklin L. Almy purchased his interest in the publishing and printing business, and continued as partners until the second Mr. Almy's death, June 12, 1912.
At the start, the "News" was a Democrat paper, remaining an advocate of the principles of the party until the Democracy went over to the slave-holders of the South just before the Civil War. From the beginning it was a staunch advocate of human free- dom, the cause of temperance, and the best inter- ests of the community in general. Its young pub- lishers gave it a reputation for accuracy and high purpose, and soon brought it to a point of influ- ence and power in the town. An attention to local news unusual in that day made it popular from the beginning. The "Monitor," begun in 1826, went out of existence soon after the War of the Re- bellion. The "Monitor" was Whig in politics and upheld the old, high protective system. Its fol- lowers were the followers of Henry Clay. The young publishers of the "News" inclined to the political faith of the Democrats, under Martin Van Buren, and advocated the introduction of free trade to a certain extent. In many ways it succeeded the "Mechanic," many of the subscribers of that paper changing over to the "News" when it made its ap- pearance.
How stringent were the early circumstances of the young men is shown in an incident of their paper's early existence, an incident which also shows the indomitable spirit that was a noteworthy factor in Mr. Milne's ultimate success. A wealthy and extremely influential resident of the town had become interested in the ambitious spirit displayed by young Milne. After first testing the boy's mettle with a contemptuous denunciation of his paper, and finding pleasure in the sturdy, yet respectful answer, he relaxed his habitually serious expression into a smile and openly complimented the young men on the readable character of the paper. Young Milne immediately returned to the printing office, and obtaining from his partner a bill for two years' sub- scription to the paper, one year of which was al- ready overdue, he hurried to the office of the big man of business. The latter, upon ascertaining that the bill was for two years instead of for the one that he owed, demanded the reason. "Well," was the reply, "we have trusted you for a year, and we thought you might be willing to trust us for a year, now." He received the payment for the two years, $2.00, and won a steadfast friend in the wealthy business man.
Charles Sumner, who added so much to the fame of Massachusetts in the United States Sen- ate, and who figured so prominently in the legis- lative battles over the slavery question, owed his election in no small measure to the virile pen and fiery enthusiasm of Mr. Milne. Sumner was elected April 23, 1851, on the twenty-sixth ballot. He re- ceived 193 votes in the General Court, against 165 cast for Robert C. Winthrop, his opponent. There
were twenty-five scattering votes and two blanks. Eleven days before, on Saturday afternoon, April 12, a meeting was held in Fall River, in response to the following call written by Mr. Milne: "Free- men of Fall River! As you love Liberty and would see the cause of Freedom sustained and vindicated in a National Senate, be on hand and vote for the instructions. As you loathe slavery and would spurn the man hunter from your soil, be there and bear your strong testimony against the detestable Fugitive Slave Law." The meeting adopted resolu- tions instructing the four Fall River representa- tives in the General Court to vote for Charles Sumner for the United States Senate, rather than the Whig candidate, Winthrop. As a result, one of the four, N. B. Borden, elected as Whig, changed his vote and broke the deadlock which had tied the election. Senator Hoar, speaking at a dinner in memory of Charles Sumner, in Boston, in 1894, referred to the effect of the memorable meeting which responded to Mr. Milne's call as "the in- struction ... which decided the great contest when Mr. Sumner was elected Senator in 1851."
In 1861 James Buffinton was elected to Congress from the Fall River district, and he named Mr. Milne clerk of the House Committee on Accounts. Thus it was that Mr. Milne spent five or six months at the national capital during the early part of the Civil War. He was there when the first battle of Bull Run was fought. He saw the troops march out of Washington, pass General Scott in review, and onward to where they were to meet the Confederate Army. He was in the midst of the stirring scenes at the nation's headquarters during the troublous times that followed. When he was not engaged in his duties at the Capitol he visited the various hospitals in the city in search of Fall River boys who might have been wounded in the army campaigns. On one of these visits, after a two-mile tramp through mud ankle deep, he met Mrs. Rebecca L. Pomeroy, matron of Columbia College Hospital. Mrs. Pomeroy had helped the wife of President Lincoln care for their little son Tad, during the illness that resulted in his death. From her Mr. Milne heard, at first hand, the touch- ing story of the Martyred President's terrible suffer- ing; his agony at the bedside of his dying son; and his equally great sorrow at the realization that the country was in the midst of a mighty conflict. Mr. Milne had stood at the gate of the White House grounds as the little white coffin was borne out.
Among the incidents related to Mr. Milne by Mrs. Pomeroy, one was stamped indelibly on his mind. It had an intimate bearing on one of the most important acts in President Lincoln's life, and Mrs. Pomeroy, relating it but a few weeks after its occurrence, made Mr. Milne feel it as keenly as though he himself had figured in it. President Lincoln, filled with gratitude for the help Mrs. Pomeroy had given during his son's illness, often went to the hospital after the boy's death and took Mrs. Pomeroy for a drive through the streets of the capital. One afternoon while they were taking one of these drives, sadly discussing the overwhelm-
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ing problems that faced the nation the while, Mrs. Pomeroy half unconsciously placed her hand on the President's shoulder and said: "It seems, Mr. Presi- dent, that you have been raised by God to free the slaves. Why don't you do it?" Lincoln seemed to weigh the question for a moment, then he answered: "Well, Mrs. Pomeroy, if it is the will of God that I am to be the instrument in His hands by which the slaves are to be freed, He has but to make it unmistakably known to me and it shall be done, no matter what the cost." On January 1, 1863, Mr. Milne saw in Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation another answer to Mrs. Pomeroy's question. Mr. Milne resigned his position at the Capitol after six months and returned to Fall River. He was elected a member of the Fall River Common Council in the same year, 1861, and served for five years.
A daily edition of the "News" had been started in 1859. Ten years later the paper had outgrown its printing office, and land was purchased at the corner of Pleasant and Second streets and the present News building erected. On August 2, 1869, the first issue was printed in the new quarters. The paper was of four pages, three of which were given over to advertising. A steady growth and im- provement have gone on since. The old hand-set methods gave way almost entirely to linotype machines; the old flat-bed presses were abandoned in favor of the modern machines which print from stereotyped plates; and the pages and size of the page were steadily increased until the present twelve-page, eight-column paper is produced, four and a third times as large, with three editions daily.
Mr. Milne was urged in 1884 to become a candi- date for the Legislature and, although he declined to make any effort toward his own election, friends who felt that in him Fall River would have a strong representative at Boston worked in his behalf, and had him elected. He served for the five years fol- lowing. As a member of the Committee on Bank- ing and Charitable Institutions, he forwarded many projects of interest and help not only to his own constituents in Fall River but to the people of the whole State. A bill which he introduced and ad- vanced through the successive stages to its en- actment as a law was declared by one of his col- leagues to be "the most important thing done by the committee on banking for five years." Mr. Milne's measure was intended to increase the sta- bility of savings banks in Massachusetts, a purpose which it admirably achieved, if the unanimous en- dorsement of savings bank treasurers throughout the State can be taken as a criterion. The law amended the savings bank regulations by making the division of surplus in extra dividends discre- tionary with the trustees instead of compulsory. An immediate effect of the change was an increase in the bank's stability. A guarantee fund provided for in connection with the new regulation formed a last reserve which assured the depositors their money in case of trouble.
Mr. Milne's ability to write bright lines of verse in a humorous vein was exemplified at the end of
his first year in the Legislature. Near the close of the session, on June 2, 1884, during an afternoon given over to mock activities, Mr. Milne read a review of the year in verse. The review was en- thusiastically received, its keen summaries of the important happenings and contests of the House, and the evidence of a deep understanding of both its characters and incidents, receiving more than passing notice. During a recess of the House later, Mr. Brackett of Boston was called to the chair, and Mr. Dresser of Boston, after a few in- troductory remarks, offered the following resolu- tion, which was unanimously adopted: "Resolved. That our hearty thanks are due and are hereby tendered to our esteemed fellow-member, Mr. John C. Milne, of Fall River, for his most entertaining and felicitous poem, read before us on June 2, and that we ask a copy of the same for publica- tion." Among those who heard the reading was one of the State printers. He enjoyed the lines as much as any of the members and printed the review for the legislators without cost.
One of the most bitterly fought measures of the session was that which sought to divide the town of Sandwich and create the new town of Bourne. The review speaks of the bill as follows:
There's Kimhall, who among the famous things he's known to do,
Brings in a bill dividing our hig Sandwich right in two; The present shape of that old town makes half the people mourn,
Who ask another may he made, and called the "town of Bourne."
After telling of the battle which waged between the proponents and opponents of the measure, Mr. Milne described its disposition in these words:
Then Murphy to the rescue comes, like bravest of her sons, And Boardman mingles in the fight with all his heavy guns; But all in vain, the good old town of half her size is shorn, And while she mourns the "taking off," henceforth it must be "Bourne."
At the first meeting of the new town these lines were read into the minutes.
Anti-vaccination, a matter that is being given the earnest consideration of the State's legislators today, was an agitated question in 1884, also, and as in the present instance it was a Fall River man who in- troduced the bill. Mr. Milne's review in telling of its defeat said:
There's Dr. Stow, who represents our famous Border City, Sits with the other members of the public health committee, Then comes again into this House and startles all the nation With thundering philippics against "that humbug-vaccination," While all around sit calm and smile-their minds and nerves unshaken, --
His logic fails to "vaccinate"-his matter has not "taken."
As a member of the Committee on Charitable Institutions Mr. Milne turned his talent for writ- ing to a helpful and inspiring purpose. Each year, with other members of the committee, he made regular visits to the institutions throughout the Commonwealth. The children in the State Pri- mary School at Monson won his especial interest. On his second visit there, on May 18, 1885, and
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Engravedby Campoel Brothers New
M.D. Border
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BIOGRAPHICAL
on his third visit, on May 26, 1885, he addressed the pupils, in verse, with checring, inspiring words. By vote of the committee these two addresses were printed and presented to the school for the inspira- tion and guidance of the scholars.
Among a number of important works of interest to Fall River accomplished by Mr. Milne while in the Legislature were the securing of the free use of the water of the North Watuppa pond by the city, and a grant of $100,000 for the erection of the Superior Court House on North Main street.
Almost as remarkable as his record in the news- paper field is that of Mr. Milne's connection with the local banking business. When the Pocasset Na- tional Bank was organized in Tiverton, in May, 1854, he was one of its first board of directors. He continued in that position for forty-nine years, or until the time that the bank lost its identity in a merger with the Massasoit and National Union banks, forming the present Massasoit-Pocasset Bank. Mr. Milne lived to see the other members of two boards of directors pass away, as well as the two treasurers and two cashiers. The Pocasset started at the corner of South Main and Rodman streets, then a part of Tiverton, with Oliver Chace as its president, and Samuel Hathaway, Weaver Osborn, John C. Milne, and William H. Taylor of Fal: River, and Moses Baker and Gideon H. Durfes of Tiverton, as directors. Mr. Milne was the youngest director. As one after another of the members passed away, each was replaced by a new man, until Mr. Milne found himself with an entirely new board. More remarkable, still, he lived to see each of these six members of the second board pass away. William Henry Brackett, the first cashier, vas succeeded by Edward E. Hathaway, who died May 11, 1911. Mr. Hathaway was a boy when the Pocasset Bank was started. He was succeeded as cashier by William F. Winter, who survived Mr. Milne only four months, his death occurring Feb- ruary 10, 1919. Mr. Milne was serving with the third complete set of directors, when, in 1903, the governor of the Commonwealth insisted upon the separation of State and National banks. The P. - casset was occupying rooms with a State bank and went out of existence. Mr. Milne was one of the Pocasset directors carried over to the Massasoit- Pocasset, of which institution he was a director. Dur- ing its forty-nine years' existence Mr. Milne repeat- edly declined the presidency of the Pocasset. Since June 9, 1862, Mr. Milne had been a trustee of the Citizens' Savings Bank, and since June 10, 1884, he had been the president of that institution. He had been a member of the board of investment, also, for forty-one years.
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