USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Fitchburg > Fitchburg, Massachusetts, past and present > Part 20
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On November 24, 1875, Piper & Boutelle started a new daily paper in connection with the Reveille, entitled the Fitchburg Daily Press. It was an evening paper, in size 21 by 31 inches, and was announced as a campaign paper to discuss the issues of the then pending municipal election. It favored the election of H. A. Blood for mayor, who was elected. The Press was continued after the election till Au-
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gust following, when the firm of Piper & Boutelle disap- peared as publishers of the Reveille, and the Daily Press dropped out of existence.
The suspension of the Press was immediately followed by a new daily from the same office, called the Fitchburg Evening Chronicle, the first number appearing August 10th, with the name of Mr. Ezra S. Stearns as editor and mana- ger. The Chronicle was republican in politics, was neatly printed on new type, and ably edited ; but the enterprise was started during a period of general business prostration, and the time had not fully come for two daily papers to be suc- cessfully carried on in the place. Soon after the Chronicle was started, the printing and publication offices were re- moved from Rollstone Bank building to Rollstone Block, over the office of Norcross & Hartwell. Here the two pa- pers, the Reveille and Chronicle, were continued to Febru- ary 15, 1877, when they were both merged in the weekly and daily Sentinel. Thus closed the career of the Reveille, which had had an existence of a quarter of a century, and occupied a prominent position in the journalism of Fitchburg. Mr. J. J. Piper, its founder, had at the time of his death wielded the pen of a skilled journalist for a longer period in the town than any other person.
In January, 1881, Mr. William M. Sargent commenced the publication of a weekly paper called The Fitchburg Tribunc. It was a good looking sheet, 26 by 40 inches, and was issued from an office in Goodrich block, Day street, at $1.50 per year. In March, following, a Daily Evening Tribune was started from the same office, on a sheet 18 by 25 inches. It was a penny paper, the yearly price being three dollars. In the summer of 1881, the Evening Tribune was enlarged to 22 by 30 inches, the price remaining the same as before. In July, 1882, Mr. Sargent disposed of his interest in the Tribunc to J. W. Ellam of Clinton, who con- tinued it, daily and weekly. In April, 1883, Mr. Ellam retired, and the name of E. A. Norris appeared as "mana- ger." In September, 1884, Albert G. Morse became the publisher, and continued the paper to February, 1885, when
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the daily was discontinued and the weekly Tribune became the Fitchburg Weekly News. A. G. Morse was the printer, and J. H. White business manager. The News was issued in quarto form, on a sheet 26 by 40 inches. In May, 1885, Mr. White became the publisher, and continued the New's to February, 1886, when he changed the name to the Monthly Visitor. The Visitor has continued to the present time, un- der the same management ; the name, however, having been changed to Ladies' Home Visitor.
The Fitchburg Enterprise was started in December, 1880, by Thomas C. Blood. It has been published three to five times a year, is a well patronized advertising sheet, and still lives. Each number contains some original as well as some selected reading matter of interest.
The United States Monthly, a sixteen page paper, de- voted to the cause of temperance, good health, right living, intelligence and industry, and advocating especially prohibi- tory measures against the liquor traffic, was started in June, 1885, by H. C. Bartlett ; price, 50 cents a year. It is a neatly printed and well conducted paper, the size of the pages 11 by 14 inches, and has continued to the present time, doing valiant service in the cause of temperance and prohibition. In February, 1887, the price was reduced to 25 cents a year, the size remaining the same.
The Beacon Light, organ of the Young Men's Christian Association, is a small eight page paper, published monthly. Its first issue was in September, 1887. The Parish HIclper is a neat little monthly published in the interest of the parish of Christ Church. It was started in October, 1887.
A sixteen page monthly entitled Good Luck has recently made its appearance. It is largely devoted to advertising. Millard F. Jones is manager, at 155 Main street.
In looking back over the period of journalism noticed, we find the way strewn with the wrecks of numerous enterprises that were from time to time launched upon the waters, weathered the breakers for a brief season, and passed to the inevitable.
In 1854 a Dr. R. Parker came to Fitchburg and offered
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his professional services to the citizens. In August of that year he commenced the publication of a monthly paper called the Fitchburg Homeopathic Journal. It proposed to treat of the medical science of homeopathy "and many other things of importance to every family, whether they believed in homeopathy or not." It was in octavo form and lived three months.
In October, 1854, a small sheet appeared entitled The Fitchburg Daily, printed and published by Plaisted & Bax- ter, at the office in Rollstone block. This was the first at- tempt to start a daily paper in Fitchburg. Its size was 18 by 24 inches : in politics it inclined strongly to native Ameri- canism ; and it survived just three days. Wm. A. Plaisted and John Baxter had been printers at the Sentinel office, but the editor was an adventurer who represented himself to be a doctor, and as having funds enough to "stand it" should the paper not pay for the first few months. The fact was he had little if any money, but obtained credit more than he de- served, and very suddenly decamped, leaving his printers to explain in a parting editorial, that "the human heart is de- ceitful above all things and desperately wicked."
In May, 1855, the Country fournal, a literary paper for the home and fireside made its appearance from the office of the Fitchburg Reveille. J. J. Piper, editor and publisher. It was a large, handsome, well printed sheet, issued weekly, -made up largely of original contributions by well known writers of ability, whose services had been engaged for the purpose,-and bid fair to become a most desirable family paper : but it failed to receive sufficient encouragement, and lived but three months.
In 1857 a small sheet appeared called The Inkstand. It was published monthly as an advertising sheet, by "Captain Sidney," at the furniture store of Sidney D. Willis, and run from March to October. It was a combination of comicali- ties and quaint conceits, characteristic of its editor. It was well patronized and at the end of two months had to be en- larged, and was re-christened Inkstand and Reporter. It was the pioneer of all the advertising papers. Of its two
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editions monthly, the first was on sale at "one cent a copy," while the second, a week later, was distributed gratuitously.
In November, 1869, Rev. George Trask published the first number of The Anti-Tobacco Journal. It was octavo in form, with 24 to 48 pages to a number, and was issued quarterly and as much oftener as funds came in to enable him to do it. It professed to be the organ of the "one man society" in the anti-tobacco crusade, and was filled with spicy, pungent and readable matter in the editor's own pecu- liar style, against the "use of the weed in all its forms." It was never issued very regularly, but was kept up at inter- vals for twelve or fifteen years. The first few years the printing was done in Boston ; but during the latter part of the time it was printed at the Fitchburg Reveille office.
In December, 1865, the Rollstone Mirror, a sheet 20 by 25 inches, started off with a flourish as a weekly local paper from an office in Washington block. It was too spicy to last, and only survived a few weeks. No names of printer or publisher given.
In June, ISSI, a new illustrated paper appeared called the Church and Home. published monthly at West Fitchburg, at 30 cents a year. It was edited by Rev. F. T. Pomeroy, then pastor of the West Fitchburg Methodist Episcopal church, each number consisting of eight or ten pages, II by 16 inches. It was continued through the year and disap- peared.
Among the many advertising sheets of greater or less pretension, that have run for a brief season and then gone "the way of all the earth," may be mentioned the Trade Journal issued monthly, in 1867, by L. J. Brown ; the Wel- come Visitor, in 1872, by O. H. Perry and M. T. Doten ; the Pioncer Pictorial Advertiser, in 1872, by J. E. Man- ning ; The Railway Globe. started in 1874, issued monthly for distribution in the railway trains ; Charles B. Dennis and Charles E. Kirby were the publishers as late as 1878 and `79 : the Fitchburg Monthly Gazette, started in April, 1879, by L. J. Brown, C. E. Kirby manager, continued a year or two; the Commercial Advertiser, started April, 1879, and
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published monthly by John W. Ogden, was continued eigh- teen months.
Some amusing amateur papers have been issued from time to time : The Pioneer by Charles Shepley in 1841 ; The Old Bachelor in 1842 ; The Mt. Rollstone Star in 1848, all by boys in the Sentinel office : The Manifesto in 1850, by the "Junto," at the office in Rollstone block.
The pioneers in journalism, whose names are associated with the papers here during the first twenty years, have near- ly all gone to their reward. William Cushing still remains doing good service to literature at his home in Cambridge.
J. E. Whitcomb left Fitchburg in 1832, changed his name to James E. Wharton, and located in Wheeling, Va., where for some twenty years he successfully conducted the Wheeling Gazette and Times. He removed to Ohio about 1856, and for a year or two published the Massillon News ; and in 1859 started in Brooklyn, N. Y., a new paper called the Brooklyn Daily Transcript. He was born Sept. 2, 1809, and died in Portsmouth, Ohio, November 2, 1881, at the age of seventy-two, leaving a son who is a physician, and a daughter.
John Page went to Norwich, Conn., in 1832, and started a new paper called the Independent Republican. He spent the last years of his life in New York working at his trade as compositor ; and died there in October, 1856, at the age of forty-six years. A letter in the Fitchburg Sentinel of Aug. 31, 1860, gives some interesting particulars of his history.
Benaiah Cook went to Keene, N. H., where he published for some years the Cheshire County Republican, and about 1846 started The Philanthropist, and in 1850, the American News, both temperance and anti-slavery papers. The latter paper he conducted to the time of his death, August 8, 1852, at the age of fifty-one.
Mark Miller went to Albany in the autumn of 1834, where he engaged in wood and copper engraving, which occupation he followed in that city and at Rochester till 1848, when he removed to Racine, Wis., and published the Wisconsin Farmer till 1854. In 1862 he removed to Des-
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moines, and started the Homestead, which he edited till 1870 ; then he established the Western Pomologist which he continued till his death, April 9, 1874, at the age of sixty- four. He was a clear and fluent writer, was thoroughly versed in the practical knowledge of horticulture, and being a skilful engraver was able to illustrate as well as write, which gave to his contributions to the literature of horticul- ture especial value.
George D. Farwell, Mr. Cooke's successor, on leaving Fitchburg gave up printing and engaged in mercantile busi- ness at St. Louis, Mo., in connection with steam-boating on the Mississippi river. He died at St. Louis, Sept. 12, 1850, from the effects of cholera, at the age of thirty-five.
Rufus C. Torrey, after leaving the Courier, turned his at- tention to teaching, and while thus engaged wrote the His- tory of Fitchburg, which was published in 1836. In 1838 he went to Alabama, read law and engaged in the active practice of the profession. He filled, from time to time, various positions of honor and trust ; was state senator, state solicitor, and judge of the county court. He died at Clai- borne, Ala., Sept. 13, 1882, at the age of sixty-nine years.
John Garfield came to Fitchburg in 1831. He was a na- tive of Langdon, N. H., where he was born April 10, 1815, and died in this city August 19, 1885, aged seventy years.
William S. Wilder, after retiring from editorial labor, was for a time assistant postmaster of Fitchburg. He left here in 1846, and thenceforward was largely engaged in mission work in the city of New York. He died there, April 18, 1887, at the age of eighty-two years.
William J. Merriam, after disposing of the Sentinel, turned his attention to the law ; but after a few years gave up that profession and engaged in the drug business, which he con- tinued till his death. He died in this city, October 7, 1887, at the age of seventy-two years.
The facts and figures in the foregoing sketch are a mere outline of journalism in Fitchburg. It remains for the histo- rian to clothe these bare details with a life and interest which the importance of the subject demands.
CHAPTER XIV.
BIOGRAPHICAL.
N the history of Fitchburg for the last half-cen- tury there are those who have been identified with the manufacturing and other business, who have not been mentioned in the preceding pages. Some of this number have retired from active business, while others are not now living. Several have passed away during the present year.
COLONEL IVERS PHILLIPS, now a resident of Boulder, Colorado, was for many years connected with the manufact- uring and other business interests of Fitchburg, as well as the railroad interests of Worcester county. Both of his parents were natives of Fitchburg, but about the time of their marriage moved to Ashburnham, where on the twenty-eighth day of July, 1805, their son Ivers was born. At the age of seven years he came with his parents to Fitchburg, remain- ing until 1837, when he removed to Worcester, but returned to Fitchburg in 1844.
In 1860 he once more made Worcester his home, giving up business there in 1873 and going to Colorado. After spending the greater part of nine years in travel he built a fine residence in Boulder and settled down, probably for the remainder of his life.
Mr. Phillips first became interested in the manufacturing business here in 1844, buying two mills at public auction. These he operated one year, in company with A. L. Ackley,
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when he sold his interest in the stone mill to Mr. Ackley and bought the latter's interest in the Rockville Mill, which he continued to operate until the flood of 1850.
During the six years previous to 1850, Mr. Phillips built two mills, with stone dams, the brick house now occupied by E. D. Works, and (with one or two unimportant exceptions) all the houses north of Mr. Works' on both sides of Phillips brook, besides several other houses.
In May, 1850, a reservoir dam in Ashburnham gaye way and the flood came rushing down through the valley, carry- ing everything before it. One of the mills recently built, together with a portion of the dam, was made a total wreck, and the other mills badly damaged. Mr. Phillips' Rockville Mill, one dwelling house and store were totally demolished. The flood came so suddenly that Mr. Carter, the clerk in the store, had not time to secure the money in the drawer, but seizing the books upon the counter "ran for dear life." He reached the door none to soon, for the books were swept from his arms and he only succeeded in saving his life by springing into a tree and remaining until the flood subsided.
For several years after the flood Mr. Phillips continued to invest in manufacturing property, buying, building or sell- ing, but did not confine his operations to that alone. As president of the Hotel Company he had charge of the build- ing of the present Fitchburg Hotel, and as contractor built the present city hall; as president of the Fitchburg & Worcester Railroad Co., took down the four wooden bridges on the road and replaced them with substantial stone arch bridges, also built the Old Colony freight house in Fitch- burg.
For more than twenty years Mr. Phillips was continu- ously employed in railroad positions. He was an early advocate of the Vermont & Massachusetts railroad and a director, also a director of the Fitchburg & Worcester rail- road and the second president of the board. Subsequently he was a director and president of the Agricultural railroad, now a part of the Old Colony, and also of the Boston. Barre, & Gardner railroad, now operated by the Fitchburg railroad.
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Upon taking charge of the Fitchburg & Worcester railroad in 1849, the debts of the corporation amounted to more than one-half the cost of the road. After the first year regular semi-annual dividends were paid and when Mr. Phillips left the road in 1866, there was but one debt outstanding amount- ing to $2,000, and money enough in the treasury to pay it.
In military affairs Mr. Phillips was an enthusiast. In 1827 he was commissioned a lieutenant, in 1834 he was colonel. Declining further promotion, he resigned May 26, 1835, having been an officer eight years and not yet thirty years of age.
In 1853 he was a member of the Massachusetts senate and from 1862 to 1869 assessor of Internal Revenue of the Eighth Massachusetts district, also for several years a trustee in the Fitchburg Savings Bank and a director in the Fitch- burg National Bank. For ten years past he has been a director in the First National Bank of Boulder, and its presi- dent for a portion of the time.
STEPHEN SHEPLEY, son of Stephen and Amelia Shattuck Shepley, was a native of Shirley, Mass., having been born in the south part of that town, Dec. 29, 1818. His early ancestors came from York, England, and settled in Groton, Mass. Of one branch of the family, Chief Justice Shepley of Maine was a distinguished representative.
Mr. Shepley came to Fitchburg in 1844, and during the winter of that year and of IS45 taught school in the brick school-house, which stood on the corner of Blossom and Crescent streets. Soon after, he entered into partnership with his brother Charles Shepley, in a wooden building, nearly opposite the Sentinel office. Here they kept a book- store and also took charge of the post-office. In 1846 the firm of S. & C. Shepley moved into the Torrey & Wood block and occupied the store which is now used as a meat market. Here Mr. Shepley remained till 1871, when he moved into the savings bank block, then just completed.
On Jan. 15, 1848, Charles Shepley (who was a popular and promising young man) died, and Stephen continued
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alone until 1852, when he sold the business; but the next year he formed a partnership with Rodney Wallace, then of Rindge, N. H. They bought back the business from Mr. H. R. Phelps, the gentleman to whom Mr. Shepley had sold it, and opened the store as wholesale and retail dealers in books, stationery, paper and paper stock. This business was a successful and increasing one. Mr. Shepley and Mr. Wallace continued in partnership for twelve years, when they dissolved, Mr. Shepley taking the book and stationery business and Mr. Wallace that of paper stock. Afterwards Mr. Shepley took as partners, successively, Mr. B. W. Eddy, Mr. Henry W. Stearns and George W. Baker. June 3, 1879, within seven months of his death, he severed his con- nection with the store, on account of ill-health.
In 1864, in company with Rodney Wallace, Benjamin Snow and S. E. Denton, he entered into the business of paper-making, but retired from it in about a year. He died Jan. 18, 1880, of heart disease, from which he had suffered for some years.
Mr. Shepley was an active business man and was pros- pered in his private affairs ; but not only in business, in every department of public life he was equally active, and was honored by his fellow-citizens with many offices of trust. He served on the school committee, and as a representative to the legislature in 1853, as a trustee of the public library, trustee of the Fitchburg Savings Bank, as a director of the Fitchburg National Bank, as a member of the State Board of Agriculture, and of the Massachusetts Genealogical and Historical Society, as well as in other place's of responsibility. He took great interest in historical subjects, especially in town history, and many valuable facts in the History of Fitchburg have been obtained through his researches. In 1876 he read a paper on John Fitch, in the town hall in Lunenburg, which was carefully prepared and very valua- ble. In agricultural matters he also took great interest, and was a valued member of the Worcester North Agricultural Society. He added greatly to the interest of the meetings of the Fitchburg Board of Trade by reading papers at vari-
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ous times, prepared by himself, and full of new facts and useful information. He was a social, genial, practical man, well read upon almost all subjects, and a most agreeable acquaintance.
GOLDSMITH F. BAILEY was born in East Westmoreland, N. H., July 17, 1823. When he was three years old his widowed mother removed with him to Fitchburg, where his early education was obtained. At the age of seventeen he began an apprenticeship as a printer in the office of the Bellows Falls Gazette, of which paper he afterwards became publisher. In 1845 he commenced the study of law in the office of William C. Bradley of Westminster, Vt., but com- pleted it in the office of Torrey & Wood in Fitchburg. In the year 1848 he was admitted to the bar, and in the same year he became a partner in the law firm of N. Wood & Co. In 1856 he was chosen representative from Fitchburg to the legislature, and in the years, 1857 and 1859, respectively, he was elected to the state senate, where he served first as a member and then as chairman of the judiciary committee. Through these early years of life he was constantly rising in the respect and confidence of his fellow-citizens, and in the fall of 1860 he was chosen by the republicans of the ninth congressional district to represent them in congress.
Thus, at the early age of thirty-seven, he found himself on the threshold of an apparently brilliant future, with an enviable reputation as a lawyer, a legislator and a citizen. But now it was that he found himself in the grasp of that fatal disease, consumption, and nothing could stay its prog- ress. He visited Florida for his health, and returning, took his seat in congress during the extra session, and again went to Washington in December ; but was soon obliged to resign his seat and return to his home, where he died May 8, 1862.
Mr. Bailey seems, in an unusual degree, to have won the confidence and esteem of all who knew him. He was a witty, agreeable companion and a true-hearted, generous man. In business he was thorough, in thought clear and rapid, with almost intuitive perception of the motives of men.
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The Boston Advertiser said of him at the time of his nomina- tion to congress :-
"The republican convention in the Ninth, or Worcester district, yesterday nominated for congress Goldsmith F. Bailey of Fitchburg. This is a strong nomination. We have witnessed with pleasure Mr. Bailey's course in active service in both houses of the legislature ; quiet and unob- trusive, he has made his influence widely felt. Indefatigable in the committee room, with a mind well stored with the principles of law and of justice, in debate quick to appre- hend the points of argument on all sides, impartial in form- ing his own opinion, lucid in its expression, he is the sort of man who makes the most useful legislator." Other Boston and Worcester papers spoke of the nomination in a similar vein.
In our cemetery, overlooking the village, stands a plain marble shaft, erected to the memory of Goldsmith Fox Bailey by his friends. Upon it is inscribed the Latin word, resurgam (I shall rise again). It is a touching tribute to his memory, for it shows that the instinctive, consoling thought of his friend was that a life of such promise, so cut short, must be rounded out and completed where disease and death have no home nor abiding place.
C. H. B. SNOW, son of Dr. Peter B. Snow, was born Aug. 7, 1822. A native of Fitchburg, as was his father, and here he spent his whole life. He was a graduate of Harvard College, in the class of 1844, and commenced the practice of law in 1848, having studied with Messrs. Wood & Torrey. For several years he was a law partner with Hon. Amasa Norcross, but for the last eleven years of his life he was connected in business with Judge T. K. Ware, under the firm name of Messrs. Ware & Snow. At the time of his death, Sept. 18, 1875, he was state senator from this district. For many years he was a prominent member of the board of school committee and board of trade, chairman of the board of trustees of the public library, and clerk of the vestry of Christ church. His social standing,
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