USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Reminiscences of Worcester from the earliest period, historical and genealogical with notices of early settlers and prominent citizens, and descriptions of old landmarks and ancient dwellings, accompanied by a map and numerous illustrations > Part 31
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Reminiscences of Worcester.
WORCESTER DAILY JOURNAL.
Another paper called the " WORCESTER DAILY JOURNAL." (having no connection with the previous paper of similar name started in 1847.) was started Aug. 30, 1854, by Higgins, Nichols & Plaisted, in Charles Paine's block, corner of Main and Pleasant streets. Oct. 12. following, the firm was changed to Higgins & Plaisted. the editor being Rev. David Higgins. From Jan. 1. 1855, Dexter F. Parker, (afterwards State Sen- ator,) managed the paper, as editor and publisher, in the inter- est of the ". American Republican" or " Know Nothing" party, then just coming into power in the State. From April 3. 1855, it was published by Dexter F. Parker alone, as both editor and proprietor, at the same place, till its discontinuance, May 26, following.
DAILY BAY STATE.
The " DAILY BAY STATE" was started, Sept 1, 1856, and con- tinued about a year and a half, as a democratie organ, printed by T. W. Caldwell, and edited by E. W. Lincoln, assisted by James E. Estabrook. The " Weekly Bay State," published in connection with it. was continued for nearly a year longer by T. W. Caldwell as publisher and printer. The office was in the brick building on the south corner of Main and Exchange streets, opposite the Bay State House, where the " Daily Times" was afterwards printed.
WORCESTER DAILY TIMES.
The " WORCESTER DAILY TIMES " was started July 23, 1860, as a democratic organ by Moses Bates, from Plymouth, as edi- tor and proprietor, and T. W. Caldwell, printer, in connection with a weekly paper called the " Worcester County Democrat" issued on Saturdays, the office being on the south corner of Main and Exchange streets. This enterprise was continued until Feb. 21, 1861.
WORCESTER DAILY PRESS.
The last daily paper started in Worcester, was the " WORCES- TER DAILY PRESS," a democratic organ, begun April 1, 1873, by
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Edward R. Fiske & Co., in connection with the " Weekly Press," office in Crompton's bleck. Dec. 1, 1874, Mr. Fiske relinquished his interest in the establishment to his partner, John A. Spaulding, who continued the daily to June 30, 1877, from which date the weekly alone has been printed. There were both morning and evening editions of the daily a portion of the time.
EVENING BUDGET.
A lively little daily sheet called the " EVENING BUDGET," was printed for a short time during the summer of 1847, by Peter L. Cox in the south wing of the Central Exchange.
WORCESTER DAILY SUN.
The " WORCESTER DAILY SUN" should not be forgetten among the list of Worcester Dailies. It rose and set for the first and last time in a single day, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-ninc.
VETERAN EDITORS.
Four individuals who have longest wielded the pen as skilled journalists in Worcester, are : Isaiah Thomas, John Milton Earle, John S. C. Knowlton, and John D. Baldwin. The suc- cessive services of three of these, upon one paper alone, the (SPY) cover nearly a century. The elder Thomas conducted the paper over a quarter of a century with an influence un- cqualled perhaps by any journalist of his time. While the son does not appear to have kept up the reputation of his father as a business man or editor, others well supplied the deficiency. During the period that Manning & Trumbull, the successors of Isaiah Thomas, Jr., had the SPY, Mr. Earle was a principal editorial contributor, and with other parties succeeded them in the proprietorship, his editorial connection with the SPY, com- prising a period of nearly forty years. Among the editorial contributors previous to Mr. Earle, were William S. Andrews and John Davis, afterwards governor.
John Milton Earle, born of Quaker stock, and himself a life_ long member of "Friends' Meeting," carried much of the
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peculiarity of that sect into his editorial work. His paper was dated each week with Quaker precision, and agreeable to the Quaker formula; and though he conformed so far to common usage as to ignore the " plain language" in his editorials, yet Quaker-like he insisted on a just and fair statement of argu- ment and fact on all occasions. He was especially self-reliant, forming his opinions, and reaching to conclusions for himself ; and when once he had taken a position, it needed a vast shining of the " inner light" to alter or change his views. But then, men knew where to find him, and always on the right side of every moral issue before the public. He wrote with grace and elegance, born of native ability and the constant friction of weekly and daily duty. Much of his writings were in the vein of seriousness upon the weighty matters that moved the public mind. Seldom did he indulge in humor or playfulness, though he loved and enjoyed the sharp encounter of harmless wit. On one occasion only do we remember him as a writer of fiction. It was a little story of about a quarter of a column in length, entitled " Truth is strange, stranger than fiction"-the nub of which was, "I ADVERTISE." It went the rounds of the press forty years ago when it was written, and regularly every two or three years it comes up to view as it moves onward in its un- ceasing revolution. He wrote an easy, flowing, running hand, clear and distinct, indicating none of the tremulousness of age in his later years. Every letter stood out in its individuality, seemingly as self-reliant as the writer. His " copy" would have been unexceptionable, had it not been for what he supposed was an economical habit of his, of writing it upon scraps of waste pa- per, wrappers and margins of newspapers, old envelopes, any- thing at hand that had an inch or two of blank surface unused. A cotemporary, in alluding to this habit, in the notice given of his decease, says of him : "During his service as a member of the Legislature, he was in the habit of writing his leaders in the cars on the way to Worcester, at night, frequently pencilling his criticisms on public men and measures on the blank margin of the Boston JOURNAL. His penmanship was singularly clear and beautiful, and, although the reception of an entire Journal as the ' copy' for a leader was the subject of many jokes in the
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composition room, the printer who drew the 'take' seldom had any difficulty in reading the manuscript."
Hon. John D. Baldwin, the senior partner, publishing the SPY, who is in his nineteenth year of service as the successor of Mr. Earle in the editorial management of the SPY, had previously had eleven years experience as a newspaper editor and man- ager, beginning with the " Hartford (Conn.) Republican" in 1848, subsequently of the " Boston Daily Commonwealth," then the leading organ of the Free Soil or the Republican party in the State, and afterwards of the " Boston Evening Telegraph," and other journals. Mr Baldwin was a delegate to the Re- publican National Convention which first nominated Abraham Lincoln in 1860, and was representative in Congress from this district from 1863 to 1869.
Hon. John S. C. Knowlton, who wielded the editorial pen with uncommon ability and grace for over forty-one years, until his deccase in 1871, was sole proprietor, during that whole period, of the paper started by himself, (the Palladium) which subsequently became merged in the SPY. He was a strong supporter of the coalition between the Democrats and the Free Soilers begun in 1850, mayor of Worcester in 1851 and 1852, State senator in 1853 and 1854, member of the State Constitutional Convention of 1853, and sheriff of the county for over fourteen years from January, 1857, to his decease, July 1, 1871. As an editor, however, he was best known to the interests and politics of the great public outside of Worces- ter. His articles were always fair in their representations of an opponent or an opposing measure, candid and clear in their exposition of his own views, and solid in their argumentative arrangement. He was judicious in his selections. His copy was the delight of the compositors, always prepared to a nicety as he wanted it to go in the paper. His manuscript was an old fashioned round hand, plain as print. If the compositor " followed copy" in word and punctuation, the proof never came back with " changes" and " alterations," those common excit- ants to grumbling and profanity in a printing office. His wit
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was sharp and dry and to the point. We remember an instance which tickled the public amazingly at the time. He and the editor of the SPY were opposing candidates for the legislature, and of course he was defeated, as he knew, and everybody knew he would be, as parties stood in those days. Everybody was on tip-toe to see what he would say about the matter in the next Palladium-and everybody was on the broad grin, when they saw what he did say in about five lines. He made the an- nouncement something like this, according to our best recollec- tion, "The editor of the SPY has been elected to go to Boston this winter, and the editor of the Palladium has been elected to stay at home. The people knew which they could spare best !"
William Lincoln, the accomplished historian, as well as edi- tor, whose pen, probably, did more for the old Ægis than that of any other one man, and Austin Denny of the Yeoman, were removed by death in the midst of their early careers-Mr. Den- ny at 35, and Mr. Lincoln at 42. The latter had outlined a plan of future literary effort, which would have required the full life time of an octogenarian to have executed, and would have been of untold benefit to those coming after him, in the result of his indefatigable historical researches. In 1837 and 1838, under the administration of Gov. Everett, he gathered and edited the journals of the Provincial Congresses, Commit- tees of Safety, the several county conventions, etc., held during the years 1774 and 1775, comprising more than 800 pages- making an exceedingly valuable historical contribution to the history of the country. His " History of Worcester," publish- ed in 1836, is but one of many of like character he would have probably given us on the subject, had he lived to carry out his designs. Mr. Lincoln had a fund of humor which honored every draft made upon it. Our older citizens remember with delight the series of reports made by him as chairman of the Committee on Swine of the Agricultural Society, from year to year, which, for raciness, satire and keenness of wit, have never been equalled anywhere by anybody. For once he consented to act as chairman of the swine committee at the New York State Fair at Albany, and his report was said by the papers
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there " to be the great feature of the day." It is supposed he had a hand in the selection of the last committee with whom he acted in this capacity at the Worcester Fair, for though chosen from the extremes of the county they all bore the ap- propriate family name of " Bacon."
Gov. Bullock and Samuel F. Haven, Esq., cach contributed valuable editorial services to the Ægis for many years.
Delano A. Goddard, for ten years past of the Boston Adver- tiser, was assistant editor of the SPY from 1859 to 1867, and J. Evarts Greene has been assistant editor from 1869 to the pres- ent time. The political character which has always been a marked feature of the SPY, necessitates a combination of edi- torial effort, in the management of both its news and political departments.
VETERAN PRINTERS.
We have mentioned in connection with the various publica- tions that have issued from the Worcester press, the names of the individuals and firms that have been in business as master printers in the city and town. We append a more extended notice of some of them, with whom we have had an individual acquaintance within the last forty years, and who have occupied greater or less prominent positions in life ; as also some notices of the veterans who are still working at the business in sub- ordinate capacities.
DANIEL WARD. son of the late Artemas Ward, register of deeds, is the oldest printer in Worcester, or the one who earliest learned the trade, not being now in the service. He went as apprentice in the SPY office in 1821, after serving as clerk two years in the bookstore of George A. Trumbull, who kept the bookstore in the Oliver Fiske building before Clarendon Har- ris. Mr. Ward went from the SPY printing office in September, 1823, to that of the Massachusetts Yeoman, then just started by Austin Denny, where he worked several years till he went to West Brookfield, working in the latter place several years in the old printing office of Ebenezer Merriam till 1831. Among his fellow workmen in Mr. Merriam's office were the late Moses Spooner and Ephraim Ward Bartlett of Worcester, who learned their trade of Mr. Merriam, and came to Worcester about 1827. After traveling west and south a number of years, Mr. Ward returned to Worcester and worked several years at the printing business for H. J. Howland and others, and in 1845 entered upon his present duties as searcher of records and ex- aminer of titles in the registry of deeds. Mr. Ward is great-grandson of the original settler, Daniel Ward, (see page 31.)
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Reminiscences of Worcester.
HENRY J. HOWLAND, after serving an apprenticeship for seven years to the printing business in Boston, came to Worcester, Oct. 26. 1831, and bought of the late Moses Spooner, then of the firm of Spooner & Church, his half of the printing office in " Goddard's Row," in which were printed the " Mas- sachusetts Yeoman" and " Worcester County Republican," and a variety of job work, but the business not proving satisfactory, after a few months, he sold out to his brother, S. A. How'and, (of the firm of Dorr & Howland, booksellers.) and returned to Boston. In July, 1835, immediately after the completion of the railroad from Boston, Mr. Howland again came to Worces- ter, and set up a press with a small but select assortment of types, &c .. in a wooden building located where " Piper's Block" now stands, and established the book and job printing business in which he continued over thirty years. He at first worked alone. but soon found helpers necessary, and after three months removed to a larger room in Goddard's Row," adjoining the room he formerly occupied. Ifere he was associated in business for a short time, in 1838, with the late Samuel H. Colton, and afterwards for about three years with Moses Spooner. About 1840, the office was removed to the Healy-Burn- side Hall, an old building still standing in the rear of the store of A. L. Bur- bank, which had previously been occupied as a masonic hall, and for sing- ing schools, dancing and other purposes. In 1856, the office was removed to the rooms now occupied by Geo. C. Whitney, and after three years, to the more convenient rooms then just vacated by the SPY printing and publishing office in Butman's row, where it still remains in operation, in the ownership of A. B. Adams.
During the first three years, Mr. Howland printed an edition of Lincoln's History of Worcester, and the catalogue of books in the American Antiqua- rian Society, with several smaller books and many pamphlets, and afterwards many volumes of law and historical works, for publishers at home and abroad, besides many publications on his own account, including the " Worcester Almanac, Directory and Business Advertiser," twenty-eight years from 1844 to 1871, and every variety of pamphlet and business printing. Besides these, he commenced in 1832, the " Family Visitor," a local religious weekly paper, which was continued for some months by Moses W. Grout. In July, 1838, the " Christian Reflector," a weekly Baptist Anti-Slavery paper, edit- ed by Rev. Cyrus P. Grosvenor, and published by a board of managers, was commenced in his office, and printed for them for three years and a half, when it was removed to Boston, and afterwards united with the " Christian Watchman." For about eight months, in the absence of Mr. Grosvenor, the editorial charge of the Reflector was left with Mr. Howland. For eight years from 1849, the " Sunday School Gazette," edited at first by Rev. E. E. Hale, was printed once in two weeks by Mr. Howland for the Unitarian Sunday School Society. Elihu Burritt's " Christian Citizen" was printed by him for two years ; and also the " Advocate of Peace," the monthly organ of the American Peace Society. edited by Mr. Burritt, for several years subsequent to 1847. Dr. Calvin Newton's " Medical Eclectic," afterwards the " Wor- cester Journal of Medicine," was printed at his office monthly several years, till after the death of Dr. Newton in 1853. Previous to the election in the fall of 1860, the " Worcester Republican," a campaign paper edited in the interest of Hon. Eli Thayer, by Thomas M. Lamb, was printed in this office weekly for eleven weeks.
In 1864, Mr. Howland sold his printing office and business to two of his employees, Messrs. Adams & Brown, (the first of whom still continues the business.) He is still to some extent engaged in the business, though not at present owning an office. Having finished his three score years, Mr. Howland shows no sign of decline in physical or intellectual vigor, but ex- hibits the strength and robust figure of his best days.
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JAMES LAWRENCE ESTEY is the second oldest practical printer in the city. He learned his trade with Griffin & Morrill, printers and publishers of the National Ægis, beginning in March, 1829, when the office was in the old Fiske building. After finishing his time, he went to Lowell, where as a member of the firm of Dearborn & Estey, he published for a time the Lowell Patriot. He resided in New York City from 1834 to 1840. He returned to Worcester in 1840, taking a position in the Spy office. In 1855, he removed to Pawtucket, where he was engaged in the job printing and lithographic business as a partner in the firm of Pearce & Estey. He came back to Wor- cester in 1856, and was foreman for H. J. Howland until 1862, since which time he has been with Charles Hamilton in the job department of the Pal- ladium office.
EDWARD R. FISKE commenced his trade in Worcester in October, 1837, with Mirick & Bartlett, on the " Worcester Palladium" and " Worcester Republican," the latter being afterwards merged in the " Palladium." Mr. Fiske formed a partnership with Samuel D. Church in May, 1841, under the firm of " Church & Fiske." They published of the " Worcester Waterfall,"' a temperance paper, afterwards burned in the fire of the " Central Exchange" in 1843. The " Waterfall" was then sold to Jesse W. Goodrich, publisher of " The Cataract." After the fire, Church & Fiske printed the Palladium for three years in the Central Exchange. Mr. Fiske was then engaged for a few months printing the State Sentinel with R. B. Hancock, and sold out to Peter L. Cox. He was afterwards connected with the SPY as book-keeper for some years.
Mr. Fiske began business as a book and job printer in November, 1851, in Flagg's block, and was burned out there in 1853. He bought the Daily and Weekly Transcript in April, 1855, with Werden Reynolds, and they publish- ed it one year, and then transferred it to Wm. R. Hooper. Mr. Fiske be- gan the publication of the " Worcester Daily Press," April 1, 1873, in Crompton's block on Mechanic street, where he has been located since its erection in 1869, his location having been for several years previous on Foster street. Mr. Fiske relinquished his connection with the " Press" newspaper in Dec. 1874, transferring his interest therein to his previous partner, J. A. Spaulding.
MOSES SFOONER, who came here about 1827 from Brookfield, where he learned his trade of Ebenezer Merriam, was connected here for several years with different partners in the printing business, (as stated elsewhere,) after which he did the press work for the following newspapers, as a specialty, having his office from about 1841 in the basement of the Healy-Burnside Hall, afterwards on Pearl street, and lastly in Butman Block : Daily and Weekly Spy, National Ægis, Christian Reflector, Christian Citizen, Cataract and Waterfall, Monthly Temperance Journal, Daily Journal, Daily Tran- script and Weekly Ægis and Transcript, Evening Gazette and Weekly Ægis and Gazette. Mr. Spooner died April 26, 1867, aged 63.
EPHRAIM WARD BARTLETT came here about 1827, from Brookfield, where he learned his trade of Ebenezer Merriam, and after working awhile on the " Yeoman," went into company with Charles A. Mirick, in the Central Ex- change. He was the first regular letter-carrier or "penny post," in Wor- cester, remaining in the service from 1849 until the day of his death, April 13, 1872, aged 59.
ELIAS T. BEMIS came here in 1838, and learned his trade of Mirick & Bartlett in the Central Exchange. He has been foreman of the composing department of the SPY office since 1853.
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Rev. ALBERT TYLER, of the firm of Tyler & Seagrave, now proprietors of the Job and Book department of the old SPY office, where both partners learned their trade, is the fourth in age among the older printers in the city. He is a native of Smithfield, R. I .; was born in the " Thornton house" near Slatersville, where the first Quaker school in New England was kept for many years by the celebrated Edward Thornton ; was educated at the Smith- field Academy under the instruction of Prof. James Bushee, (now of Wor- cester) ; was a seat-mate at this institution of Samuel S. Foss of the Woon- socket Patriot ; worked at farming a season for Wm. O. Bartlett, Esq., now occupying the front rank among the leading lawyers of New York City, and by his recommendation found an opportunity to learn the printing business with John Milton Earle, the publisher of the Massachusetts SPY. He came to Worcester, the first day of December, 1838, on the top of the Providence stage. Here the amplest opportunity was afforded a boy of literary taste to gratify his desires in that direction-the newspapers of the day and the peri- odical literature of the time, with ample files of the best and standard maga- zines of the past thirty years were at his disposal after working hours. That he revelled among the good things thus accessible hardly needs to be stated here. Of course, he began to write. During his apprenticeship, the Wor- cester Magazine was commenced, edited by J. Milton Thayer, Esq., now gov- ernor of Nebraska. It was printed at the SPY office. The contributors to this publication were among the leading literary men of Worcester,-Dr. Hill, Dr. Smalley, Gov. Washburn, S. F. Haven, Esq., William Lincoln, Elihu Barritt and others. It seemed an act of temerity, but the print- er's boy ventured one day to put a contribution for the magazine in the hands of the editor. He received it with an expression of countenance which plainly indicated his misgivings concerning its acceptance. Before the day was over, however, the contribution was put in the foreman's hands with orders to put it in type for the magazine-the editor remarking he " was never more surprised in his life at anything, than in reading the boy's article." This was not the last of his writing for the magazine. He con- tributed much anonymously to the papers here and in Boston, and seldom was it that an article failed to appear when thus contributed. We can re- member a series of communications to the Emancipator (Boston) the organ of the Liberty party, in reply to a series of articles signed " Lex" in the SPY aimed at the motives and purposes of that party, which for terseness and vigor were so far models in their way as to be ascribed to the pens of quite a number of the prominent Liberty party leaders here,-nobody once thinking of the boy in the printing office, who quietly kept his own counsel.
In the meantime the boy was attentive to his business, and was rapidly advanced from the menial duties of the younger apprentices to the responsi- ble work which had usually been allotted to the eldest in the office. Inherit- ing a good degree of mechanical talent, it was easy for him to do things re- quiring skill, which were difficult or beyond the ability of many other boys to do. Apprenticeship in those days always extended until the boy was 21 years of age-the compensation, board and $30 for the first year, $35 for the second, $40 for the third, and so increasing until it reached $50. Be- fore the regular close of his apprenticeship, the boy was promoted to a fore- manship in a new office by the liberality of his employer. During the ex- citement of the Clay campaign in 1844, there was an impromptu celebration of the 4th of July by the Whigs of Barre-and on the occasion the necessity for a new Whig paper for that section was discussed and resolved upon, and in two week's time 500 subscribers were obtained, the printing material pur- chased, help secured, and on the 26th, the first number of the Barre Patriot was issued with the name of Albert Tyler on the sheet as printer. The sub- scription rapidly went up to a circulation of 1500. Here he remained for five
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