USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Hampden county, 1636-1936, Volume I > Part 22
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Springfield Newspapers
Hampden-19
CHAPTER XIX
Springfield Newspapers
The first Springfield newspaper was the "Massachusetts Gazette and General Advertiser."
For a time Springfield had a newspaper known as the "Hampden Patriot and Liberal Recorder." It was published weekly, and I have before me three issues, the oldest dated October 3, 1821, and the others April 3, 1822, and September II, 1822. Each issue has four pages, twenty-four by twenty-two. There are three crude illustra- tions in the oldest paper, another had one, and the third none. The most attractive illustration is a little woodcut of a stagecoach drawn by four horses.
One of the papers starts with a scriptural slogan, and continues wholly religious for more than three columns. Much of the space was taken by a lecture on Unitarianism. Next comes a half column fea- turing a new Massachusetts mortgage law, and after that is a two- column article that is caged under the heading Miscellany, although wholly devoted to an article that has for its subject "Facts respect- ing the first establishment of stagecoaches in New England." It was in 1783 that the first line of these coaches was put on the road, and the original projector was Levi Pease, who, in conse- quence has been called "The Father" of the stages. This old gentle- man, who told the experiences related here in his eighty-third year, survived to see every part of the United States traversed by stages that were running with a celerity unequalled in any country excepting Great Britain. For some time previous, Captain Pease, then residing in Somers, Connecticut, had been revolving the scheme in his mind, and at length cautiously imparted it to those he thought might assist him, but his plan met with the most disheartening reception. Some ridiculed his folly, and his friends talked of the ruin he would bring on himself. Among those to whom he appealed in vain was an enter-
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prising Boston man, yet stubbornly convinced that the country was not old enough or prosperous enough to maintain a line of stages. He remarked to Captain Pease, that a century hence, or at the shortest, in fifty years, people might begin to think of such a thing, but it was idle to talk of it before.
Captain Pease became discouraged and was about to renounce all hope of success when he happened to bewail his disappointment in the presence of his townsman, Reuben Sikes, a young man twenty-seven years of age, who made an offer to embark with him in the undertak. ing. They united their small resources, and on the fifteenth of October, 1783, they began running a line of stages between Hartford and Boston. The coach went from Somers to Hartford on Monday morning of every week. There it took in passengers, and on Tuesday morning started for Boston. The coach from Boston set out on Mon- day, came as far as Northborough on Monday night, and on Tuesday morning proceeded to Brookfield, where it met the stage from Hart- ford. Both stages stopped over night at Brookfield, and next morning continued to Hartford and Boston. The running of the stages was altered the next summer, and the coach from Hartford started on Monday morning for Springfield and Palmer up the Connecticut River, and in another two years the line was continued to New York. For quite a while Pease and Sikes drove their own teams. They lacked money to hire drivers, and the line was constantly running them in debt. About four years after the line was established they took measures for getting the chance to transport the mail in the coaches. They believed this would be a great accommodation to the public, and without it the proprietors despaired of being able to sup- port their line, which as yet had not yielded any profit. Captain Pease was appointed agent to appeal to the Postmaster-General. The appeal was made, but was met by a peremptory refusal. The Post- master-General stated in emphatic language that it was not yet time to entertain such a project. The state of the roads, particularly in winter and spring, was such that the mails could not be carried with so much safety and dispatch in carriages, as on horseback, and he therefore declined the proposition.
The next move of the proprietors was to get a petition presented to Congress, and as a result a resolution was passed directing the employment of the stagecoaches on the line from New York to Boston
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in the transportation of the mail. The wisdom of the measure was soon proved, and Captain Pease became contractor with the govern- ment for the whole route. At that time there were only five post- offices on the main road between Boston and New York. These were Worcester, Springfield, Hartford, Middletown, and New Haven. Not many years later, on this same route, there was a post-office in nearly every village.
For some time after the mail began to be carried in the coaches, the proprietors employed persons in addition to the drivers. They were called conductors, and they had to take care of the mails. Besides they acted as agents for the transaction of such business as might be committed to their care on the route, and in the different towns and cities. But it was the proprietors who were responsible for all goods and money entrusted to these conductors. The fare for passengers was six and one-fourth cents per mile. When arriving in Boston, the first stagehouse was at the Sign of the Lamb, in Newbury Street, and the house was kept by Widow Moore.
One curious Congressional contribution in the newspaper consists of sarcastic comments on "The flying man." He had come to the House of Representatives to plead for an invention he had made. Congressman Milnor introduced him as James Bennet, of Philadel- phia, and Mr. Bennet then stated that he had invented a machine by which a man could fly through the air, could soar to any height, steer in any direction, start from any place, and alight without risk or injury, and prays that an Act of Congress may be passed, securing to him and his heirs for the term of forty years "the right of steering flying machines through that portion of the earth's atmosphere which presses on the United States, or so far as their jurisdiction may extend; by which act the honor of the invention will be conferred on the United States." The motion was made that the petition be referred to a committee. Mr. Sergeant opposed, saying that the committee did not undertake to soar into regions so high, their duty being nearer the earth. Besides they had so much business of a terrestrial nature before them that they could not devote their time to philosophical and aerial investigation. There was more discussion, but in the end the motion was laid on the table.
One of the thrills that the old papers gave their readers was "More Pirates Captured," and these were nearby, right down in Cuba.
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Captain Seabury of the brig "Joseph" had arrived at Falmouth and reported that while off Cape Antonio he was boarded from the United States brig "Enterprise" and informed she had captured that morning eight piratical vessels, with their crews, amounting in all to one hun- dred and sixty men, who were now prisoners on board. Captain Kearney's success against the Cuban pirates in breaking up their lurk- ing place and destroying their vessels, and finally capturing one hun- dred and sixty of the pirates, "is unexampled."
Shipwrecks are chronicled, and wars and conspiracies; also agri- cultural distress in England, coupled with increased taxation.
Locally, persons who have died or married get attention, and a shoemaker advertises that he is in his usual place, and that he has lately been furnished with as good an assortment of the most fashion- able stuffs for ladies' and gentlemen's shoes as can be procured in the City of New York. The "subscriber also wishes to employ a LAD between the age of 14 and 16, as apprentice to the business."
Other advertising includes "Cough drops, the most valuable medi- cine in use for coughs and consumptions. Many certificates of its efficacy accompany each bottle." This advertisement takes up most of a column.
A large stove is offered for sale or exchange. It has an open fire- place and a large oven-a very suitable piece of furniture for a family who wish to live snug in one room by one fire.
A tavern stand, toll bridge, blacksmith and wheelwright establish- ment, farm and sawmill are advertised for sale, on the main road from Hartford to Northampton and Westfield, six miles from the flourishing town of Springfield.
In 1822 Springfield had a circulating library, and some of the late publications received were Schoolcraft's "Journal," "Life of Wesley," "Hundred Wonders of the World," "Pirate," by Scott, Byron's "Tragedies," and "Views of Society and Manners in America." The fact was advertised that some books were missing from the library. For instance, 2d Vol. of Irving's "Sketch Book," Ist Vol. of "Ivan- hoe," and so on, ending with "whoever has any of the above- mentioned books belonging to the Library, are requested to return them immediately !"
Besides the circulating library, the town had at least one book store carried on by T. Dickman. He sold law books, but he also
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had school books and stationery, and he emphasized the fact that he had for sale "Martin's Life," 3d edition, and that it was about Michael Martin, the notorious highway robber.
In this issue of the paper was one solitary illustration, a small pic- ture of a stagecoach. This was for advertising the firm of Clark and Crocker, "who would inform the public that they had taken a stand a few rods west of the new courthouse, where they intend carrying on the business of coachmaking and repairing."
Poetry was accepted rather freely, but the type used in printing it was distressingly small. This was a period when William Cullen Bryant had recently become a star among the American poets, and the lesser poets copied his style. One of these had a long poem in the Hampden paper that in a weak way was plainly inspired by the famous Hampshire poet. It was of considerable length and was entitled "Stream of Time." Besides, the editor tells us he was informed that the poem was written by an aged man, author of the "Gloom of Autumn."
The largest and most eye-catching of the newspapers' features was the advertising of alcoholic liquors.
Humor in the old newspaper is perhaps best sampled in what follows :
"Proof that a man can be his own grandfather. There was a widow and her daughter-in-law, and a man and his son. The widow married the son, and the daughter married the old man. The widow was, therefore, mother to her husband's father and consequently grandmother to her own husband. They had a son to whom she was grandmother; now as the son of a great-grandmother must be either a grandfather or great-uncle, this boy was therefore his own grand- father. N. B .- This was actually the case with a boy in a school at Norwich."
The terms of the "Hampden Patriot and Liberal Recorder" were two dollars a year, payable at the year's end. "Advertisements inserted at prices usual in the country. No paper will be discontinued until arrearages are paid." Other advertisements were: "Henry Sterns, directly opposite Court Square, has just received a very exten- sive assortment of choice groceries and liquors-wines, brandy, Hol- land gin, cordials, Irish and Columbia whiskey, London porter, Span- ish segars, raisins per box, very low, superior quality sugars, teas,
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nuts of all kinds, lemons, coffee, chocolate, and every article of West India goods. Mackerel, in half barrels, for family use, very fine."
"Just published and for sale at this office, sermons on the unity of God and on the character of Jesus Christ. By Winthrop Bailey, min- ister of the gospel, in Pelham, Massachusetts. Price, 371/2 cents."
"Canal-At a numerous and respectable meeting from several towns in the counties of Hampshire and Hampden, convened at South- ampton, on the subject of a proposed canal from the north line of the State of Connecticut, at the town of Southwick on the river above Northampton. After several remarks by different gentlemen a committee of nine was appointed to take the whole subject into consideration."
"Clay's ointment for the itch" is advertised, and we are told that "for pleasantness, safety, ease, and certainty, it is infinitely superior to any other medicine known for the cure of that most tormenting dis- order. Price 33 cents a box."
One short column of varying length in the paper has for its head- ing "Patriot." A good example of the messages it carried is this : "We are requested to state that the Rev. John Bisbee, Pastor of the Universalist Society in Western (now Warren), will preach next Sabbath at the chapel near the United States Armory in Springfield."
"Suicide-A coroner's inquest was held in this town on Saturday, over the body of Mr. Shubael Cleveland, aged 34. The verdict of the inquest was that 'he came to his death by taking opium.'"
"For Sale-Copper stills, containing from 30 to 1,000 gallons. Pewter and copper worms. Dyer's kettles and brewer's kettles of varying sizes. Sheet and pig lead. Church bells, 300 to 2,700 pounds; school, ship, clock, door, cow, and sheep bells."
"David Bryant has for sale black, blue, snuff and drab cloths ; printed cassimere shawls, very low; twilled bombazetts; red, white and yellow flannels; merino handkerchiefs, merino fringe and trim- mings, silk and tabby velvets, Italian crapes, damask table linen, fine thread laces, with a variety of other articles making a general assort- ment of dry goods. Also groceries and crockery ware, ground rice; cheap for cash or approved credit, four good muskets, which will be sold low."
"Dancing School-Mr. Stebbins returns his most sincere thanks to the gentlemen and ladies of Springfield for past favors, and most
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respectfully informs them that he is wishing for their continued favors another quarter. Mr. Stebbins is wishing to open another quarter in September, the present month. All favors will be most gratefully accepted. N. B .- Mr. Stebbins will open his school on Thursday, the 12th, at two o'clock P. M., in the hall of the Hampden Coffee-house."
A druggist whose stock included paints, groceries, wines, and choice liquors, "solicits a share of patronage," and offers to receive all sorts of country produce in payment at cash prices. Another drug- gist features confectionery along with his wines and choice liquors, "and a complete assortment of all the nostrums and other articles usually kept in a druggist store."
The proprietor of a Springfield bakery "Respectfully informs the public that he has established his business a few rods north of Court Square, where he will constantly keep on hand large and small Crack- ers; Butter Biscuit; Gingerbread, Cookies and Rusk-warranted of as good quality and as cheap as can be bought in Hartford or New York."
The newspaper from time to time advertised "For sale at this office." Usually that meant some book or pamphlet. One such pamphlet was entitled "A Reply to a letter from a Trinitarian to a Unitarian," price 121/2 cents. It was a very warm subject at that time.
"Water! Water! Water! I am a well digger, and would respectfully inform the citizens of this and adjacent towns that I con- tinue to sink wells, and perform all other business connected with my profession-such as taking up old wells, sinking those deeper which have become dry, blasting rocks, and laying down aqueducts."
"A volatile aromatic snuff-prepared by a doctor," is advertised and we are informed that it has been selling for ten years in almost every part of the United States. It is very fragrant to the smell and stimulating to the spirits and is put up in elegant bottles, that retail at fifty cents each in Dickman's Bookstore.
POETRY THE INSENSIBLE FAIR William unsheathed his shining blade, Then fixed the point against his breast And gazed upon the wondering maid, And thus his dire distress expressed :
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"Since cruel fair ! with cold disdain, You still return my raging love; Thought is but madness-life is pain. And thus at once I'll both remove !" "O stop one moment," Celia said; Then trembling hastened to the door; "Haste, Sally !-- quick !-- a pail, dear maid ! This madman else will stain the floor !"
"Lake serpent, an animal more than thirty-seven feet in length, and resembling the Cape Ann sea serpent, has been seen on Lake Ontario. When first discovered he lay asleep on the water; but when approached nearer, he raised his head several feet, and with incredible velocity darted through the water in a serpentine direction, creating a foam as he passed along."
"Olympic Theatre, for a few evenings. Mr. Blanchard respect- fully informs the public that he has erected a suitable building where he will begin his performance with mathematical and philosophical experiments, too numerous to mention. Master George, the young Hercules, will perform his Olympic feats of balancing. Miss Eliza- beth, the flying phenomenon, only seven years of age, will go through pleasing equilibriums on the slack wire, and conclude her performance with a fashionable song. The whole to conclude with Mrs. Blanch- ard's grand performance on the tight rope, in a style far superior to anything of the kind that has been seen in this town. Performances begin at seven o'clock in the evening. Admittance, fifty cents front seat, back seat twenty-five cents."
On September 8, 1824, appeared the first issue of the "Springfield Republican." Its founder, Samuel Bowles, at this time twenty-seven years old, was a Hartford printer. He came from a Roxbury family of quality, and one of his ancestors was John Eliot, the famous mis- sionary to the Indians.
Editor Bowles' father, the first Samuel in the line, was a boy of thirteen in Boston when the Revolution broke out. Toward the end of the war the family moved to Hartford, and there young Bowles set up as a grocer, and is said to have prospered "in a small way," so small, in fact, that when he died, all he left to Samuel, his youngest son working in the grocery shop, was a watch and the family Bible.
The next year the boy was apprenticed as a printer, having an older brother as his guardian, and continuing to live with his mother,
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who took boarders to make ends meet. When the apprenticeship ended he tried various things in the printing and newspaper field, and then came an offer from the Springfield Federalists, which he accepted. What they wanted was a newspaper medium that would express their viewpoint on public affairs, and they loaned him $250 which he returned in due time with interest at six per cent. Mr. Bowles bor- rowed $150 more and bought type and other printing equipment.
He hired a crude hand-lever press, and not until some years later was he able to buy it. With such slender resources, but with a habit of economy and perseverance, and not least, with the encouragement of a wife never afraid of putting her shoulder to the wheel, the "Springfield Republican" was founded.
Mr. Bowles began by doing nearly all his own work and attempt- ing nothing beyond his ability. He was proprietor, publisher, editor and devil; he set his own type and ran his own press. Without delay he advertised for a boy to serve as apprentice, but seemed to have some difficulty in finding one.
The press, and the things that went with it, and his household goods and family were poled up the Connecticut River from Hart- ford to Springfield on a flatboat, and there the press was hauled from the river bank by oxen.
In that straggling town of 4,500 inhabitants, scattered in widely separated hamlets, he started a paper which is still controlled by Bowles' descendants.
The year 1824 in the Connecticut Valley was a time of simple ways and small beginnings.
When the young printer from Hartford began publishing his newspaper, the town's leading institutions were the arsenal overlook- ing the region from the east and the First Church on lower land beside the river near the spot where the original settlers had built their first meetinghouse. The town was growing slowly; two hun- dred hands were employed at the arsensal and, in 1826, 15,500 muskets were made.
The first issue of the "Republican" contained no local news. It was painstakingly made up of articles and items selected from the latest available editions of papers printed in New York and Boston, and possibly Philadelphia.
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Events that took place in Washington were not reported in print at Springfield until eight days afterward. When the roads were heavy with winter snows or deep with spring mud, the delay was sometimes greater. It is a curious fact that in the early issues of the "Republican" there was news about nearly everything but the life of Springfield itself. However, the newcomer gradually found time
PALMEN IN/ CLARKS MASTERS TAILOR
FUSTEN. CLOTHING.V.
THE FIRST HOME OF THE "SPRINGFIELD REPUBLICAN"
to look around, and probably the apprentices who began to be taken into the editor's home broadened his outlook. An account of work being done to enlarge the plant of the United States Arsenal was the first piece of local reporting. According to the newspaper, the cele- bration on July 4 was "a respectable gathering of gentlemen" met to hold the patriotic exercises which were then customary. After much speechmaking and the reading of an ode, they went to the arsenal and there a banquet was held, while "toasts" were announced from the ends of the tables, and drunk to the music of discharging cannons. A good deal of gunpowder was burned that day, and those who drank all the innumerable toasts which were offered with the for- mality of the time, we can imagine grew as tired as the gunners. The toast Editor Bowles offered was "The Connecticut River-a natural canal ---- may it be made navigable without the aid of locks."
The founder of the "Republican" has often been described as solemn, earnest and undemonstrative. That he lacked humor has
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been taken for granted. And yet, in November, 1825, we find the publisher giving warning that "we shall publish no marriage unless the writing is accompanied by a piece of wedding cake and a little wine, if convenient,-but we are not particular as to that."
In the next issue he says, "We must apologize to the ladies this week for not being able to supply them with a few marriages to read, but we expect a supply after Thanksgiving."
The founding of the "Daily Republican" marked the entrance on the stage of an eighteen-year-old youth, who was destined to become one of the great figures of American journalism. The announcement of the Daily began: "We have resolved to try the experiment of a daily paper in Springfield. Two years since, we proposed the matter to the public, and consulted some of our friends who dissuaded us from it as an unprofitable undertaking. We commence now without a single subscriber or advertiser promised. After continuing the pub- lication six months, or a year, if we find it too much of a loss, we shall stop." There were five weekly newspapers in the town, and they found it difficult to make ends meet.
The third Samuel Bowles was born in Springfield in 1826. He was brought up in a frugal household, where, as a small boy, he shared his bed with the youngest of his father's apprentices, while two others had their bed in the same room. The day in that household began with breakfast at six o'clock the year around, and at seven the master and apprentices were at work, doing a general printing busi- ness in addition to producing the newspaper.
It was the father's intent that his oldest son should learn the printer's trade just as he had himself, but the boy had little skill with his hands. If a kite was to be made, or so much as a nail driven, his younger sister was apt to be called to his help. All through life his hands were long, pale, and delicate, and had an air of helplessness. Some lack of physical vigor seems to have kept the boy out of hardy sports, and in manhood his health was never robust. His favorite occupation was reading.
When he left school at the age of seventeen he went into the "Republican" as office boy. One of the employees was Chauncey White. There was a time when he contracted to print both daily and weekly, and the printing included all the work of production-even to folding, packing and directing papers. It was further agreed that
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White, in accord with the methods of the period in paying for sub- scriptions, was to accept in part settlement orders for such things as "groceries, dry goods, clothing, and farmers' produce for the supply of his family and apprentices, so far as he may want such supplies." In this way the farm products that often were turned into the
SAMUEL BOWLES
"Republican" as payment for subscriptions were then transferred to a local grocery.
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