USA > Maine > Waldo County > Belfast > History of the city of Belfast in the state of Maine, Volume II, 1875-1900 > Part 12
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History of Liberty Lodge, No. 111, Montville, Maine, originally; now Liberty, Maine, from November 8, 1861, to January 1, 1890, with By-Laws of Lodge, and Appendix. Belfast: G. W. Burgess, Printer, 1891, large 12mo.
History of St. George's Chapter, No. 45, Liberty, Maine, from March 10th, 1881, to January 1st, 1890, with By-Laws of Chapter, and Appendix. (Masonic emblems.) Belfast: G. W. Burgess, Printer, 1892, small Svo, pp. 30.
A Brief History of the Town of Unity, 1892.
A Short History of Ancient Pentagoet, Castine, Maine. By Miss B. F. True. Belfast: George W. Burgess, Printer, 1892, 8vo, pp. 11. (Illustrated.)
Eastern State Normal School Echo, March, 1899. Belfast Print- ing Co., 1899, 8vo, pp. 34.
The Romantic Story of David Robertson, among the Islands, off and on the Coast of Maine. By Captain John Pendleton Farrow, Islesboro, Maine. Belfast, Maine: Press of Belfast Age Publishing Company, 1898, 16mo, pp. 283. (1) (Illus- trated.)
Sermons at Unitarian Conference, 1888.
Church Manual, North Church, 1875.
Sunday-School Library Catalogue, North Church, 1888. Gerrish, Theodore. Born in 1846. Clergyman, 1878-81.
Army Life. A private's reminiscences of the Civil War. By Theodore Gerrish, late member of the 20th Maine Volun- teers; with an introduction by Hon. Josiah H. Drummond. Portland: Hoyt, Fogg & Donham, 193 Middle Street. n. d. (1882.) 12mo, pp. 372.
Written during his residence here. It first appeared by instalments in the Republican Journal.
Belfast Jewelers. The Keystone, November, 1891, contains sketches of Belfast and its jewelers, with portraits of Timothy Chase, Hiram Chase, Fred Titcomb Chase, William M. Thayer,
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BIBLIOGRAPHY - 1875-1900
and Samuel Adams, and illustrations showing the interior of the Chase Store, and a portion of Church Street. Milliken, Seth Llewellyn, 1831-97.
The Bonded Extension Bill. Speech of Hon. Seth Llewellyn Milliken, of Maine, in the House of Representatives, March 26, 1884. Washington: 1884, 8vo, pp. 8.
The Tariff. Speech of Hon. Seth Llewellyn Milliken, of Maine, in the House of Representatives, Wednesday, April 30, 1884. Washington: 1884, 8vo, pp. 12.
Speech on the Post-Office Appropriations Bill, May 20, 1886. Washington: 1886, 8vo, pp. 16.
Speech in the House of Representatives, May 12, 1888, on the Tariff. Washington: 1888, 8vo, pp. 16.
Memorial Addresses on the Life and Character of Seth Llewellyn Milliken (late a Representative from Maine), delivered in the House of Representatives and Senate, Fifty-fifth Congress, Second Session. Washington : Govern- ment Printing Office, 1898, large 8vo, pp. 73. (Portrait.)
Containing addresses by Representatives Burleigh, Dingley, and Boutelle, of Maine; Dinsmore of Arkansas; Skinner of North Carolina; Mercer of Nebraska; Hicks of Pennsylvania; Mr. Little of Arkansas; Senators Hale and Frye of Maine; Mills of Texas; Carter of Montana; Raw- lins of Utah; and Gallinger of New Hampshire.
A half-tone portrait and sketch of Miss Mary Emma Pierce,1 of Belfast, the principal and owner of a shorthand school in Boston, appeared in the Illustrated Phonographic World, New York, for February, 1898.
The New England Magazine for September 1898, contained an illustrated article upon Fire Insurance in New England, by Charles W. Burpee, which included a portrait of George Prentice Field, a native of Belfast.
1 Miss Mary Emma Pierce, daughter of Captain Wilkinson and Sarah Eliza- beth (Coolen) Pierce, founder and principal of the Pierce Shorthand School of Boston, went to Boston from Belfast in 1891 to study shorthand at the Hickox Shorthand School, and taught in that school for a period of three years, after graduating from it. In 1894 she opened a shorthand school in the Exchange Building, where she remained until 1905, when she moved to the Kimball Building. In 1911 the growth of the Pierce School demanded larger quarters, and it was removed to the new Lawrence Building, corner of West and Tre- mont streets, where it now occupies the greater part of the eleventh floor.
CHAPTER XVIII
NEWSPAPERS
"Republican Journal" - Renounces Democratic Party - Sketch of William Henry Simpson - Sketch of Charles Albert Pilsbury - "Progressive Age" - Advocates Greenback Doctrines - Becomes Democratic - Name changed to "Belfast Age" - Plant destroyed by Fire, and Publication ceased - Sketch of William Maxfield Rust - "Belfast Weekly Advertiser" - "Bulletin and Advertiser" - "Maine Temperance Record" - "Sea Breeze" -"Tax-Payer"- "Searsport Guest," "Castine Visitor," and "Liberty Local" - "Belfast City Press" - "Mission Field Reporter" - "The Patriot" - "The Cream" - "The Girls' Home" - "The Recruit" - Boston Sunday Papers first brought here - Belfast Men connected with Newspapers elsewhere.
TN 1875, three newspapers were published in Belfast, all weeklies, the "Republican Journal," Democratic, of which William Henry Simpson was editor and proprietor, at its present location on Church Street; the "Progressive Age," Republican, owned and edited by William Maxfield Rust, and having an office in the third story of City Block; and the "Belfast Adver- tiser," devoted to news and advertisements. George Washington Burgess was the owner of the latter, and George Emerson Brackett was editor. The office was in Hayford Block.
REPUBLICAN JOURNAL
The 6th of February, 1879, completed the fiftieth year since the publication of the "Journal" commenced, the first number having been issued February 6, 1829. The event was commem- orated by an able editorial of retrospection and of contrast between the old time and the new.
Displeased with some of the Democratic financial tendencies and with the course of certain local members, the "Journal" gradually drifted towards the principles of the Republican party, and on the 3d of July, 1879, announced its future advocacy of the latter. This was a strange transformation, and the more so, because a little later the "Progressive Age," always a strong supporter of the doctrines assumed by the "Journal," embraced those of the Greenback party, and soon became a full-fledged Democratic paper.
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NEWSPAPERS
With the issue of September 30, 1880, Mr. Simpson, after twenty-two years' service, retired from his editorship.
A corporation, called the Republican Journal Publishing Com- pany, was formed, a portion of the stock being taken by Charles Albert Pilsbury and Russell Glover Dyer. The former became editor-in-chief and business manager, and the latter conducted the local department.
In October, 1883, the paper was enlarged by the addition of a column to each page, and a proportionate increase in length.
With the commencement of 1892, the size was changed from a folio of four pages to a quarto of eight, and a new press substi- tuted for the old one. During the year an extension to the build- ing in the rear was erected, for the press, engine, and boiler. In October, Mr. Dyer, the local editor, resigned, to enter the employ of the Dana Sarsaparilla Company. His successor was John Sumner Fernald, who still occupies the position (1900).
WILLIAM HENRY SIMPSON
(From the Annual Report of the Maine Press Association, 1886)
WILLIAM HENRY SIMPSON, late a member of this Association, was born in Belfast, Maine, 24 September, 1825. His father was Captain Josiah Simpson, a native of Sullivan, and a resident of Belfast from 1818 till his death in 1863. William received a common-school education, prin- cipally at the Belfast High School, but was an apt pupil, a great reader, and possessed of a natural taste for literature. At about fifteen years of age he entered upon an apprenticeship in the composing-room of the "Belfast Republican Journal," then published by Cyrus Rowe, where he remained several years, fully mastering the practical details of the profession which he had chosen. He was afterwards engaged for a short time on the "Waldo Signal," at Belfast. In 1846, he was foreman on the "Lime Rock Gazette," published in Rockland, and for a time was reporter on the "Boston Post." In 1850, in company with W. H. Wheeler, he purchased the "Kennebec Journal" at Augusta, purchas- ing his partner's interest in 1853, and selling the paper in 1854 to James Gillespie Blaine and Joseph Baker.
In May, 1858, Mr. Simpson purchased the "Belfast Republican Journal," his salutatory appearing in the issue of 7 May, and from that date until October, 1880, he was editor and proprietor. Indeed, it may be said he was the "Republican Journal," so closely was he identified with it, and so indelibly was it stamped with his individuality. It is not a stretch of imagination to say it was Simpson's paper. He seemed to possess, in a large degree, the qualifications for his profession which are born in the man and not added to him. Besides, he had the advan- tage of a thorough knowledge of the mechanical details of publishing a
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HISTORY OF BELFAST
newspaper, gained from a practical experience at the case and in the pressroom.
Politically, he came from Whig stock, but after the disorganization of the Whig party, he was a member of the Democratic party for years, and his paper was an able exponent of its doctrine; but in 1879 the policy of the paper was changed to Republican. He was a ready writer, possessed of a keen wit, a retentive memory, an aptness of illustration, and much dreaded as a controversialist. His high order of executive ability was indicated in his office routine, his establishment from the quad-box to the Hoe press, and from the devil to the foreman, being the best of its kind, and a model as a whole.
Mr. Simpson never married. He seemed not to care for travel, but was wedded to home comforts, and spent most of his time and life at the pleasant family residence in Belfast. He was not a seeker for public or political honors and offices, and was often tempted to declare that the only office he wanted was his newspaper office. Still he was not backward in sustaining local business enterprises, or in partaking of social duties and pleasures. In 1848 he was interested in the Maine Telegraph Company, was its first operator in Belfast, and subsequently became a director of the company. He was also a director in the Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railroad Company, and in 1876 was Commissioner from Maine to the Centennial Exposition.
He died 3 November, 1882, and I cannot more fittingly close this brief notice than by quoting from his address before this Association in 1876. The words were prophetic. Speaking of the country editor, he said: "His life fulfils the injunction, 'Act well your part, there all the honour lies.' And when the reversed rules of his paper tell us that its editor has passed beyond the dark curtain that shrouds the illimitable future, the sympathetic tear that springs in the eyes of many house- holds where he was known and appreciated, will be the tribute of respect to the memory of a friend and a good man, and testify that the world is better for his having lived in it."
George Emerson Brackett.
CHARLES ALBERT PILSBURY, about forty years of age, when he became connected with the "Republican Journal," is a native of Calais, and the son of the late Hon. Albert Pilsbury, a prom- inent lawyer and politician of eastern Maine, who died in Hali- fax, N. S., in 1872, having been Consul there under Presidents Pierce and Buchanan. His mother was a Belfast lady, the daugh- ter of the late Zacheus Porter. Mr. Pilsbury had been clerk of an important congressional committee. For ten years he acted as the Washington correspondent of several leading papers in New York and other cities, and at one time edited the Washington "Sunday Herald." His newspaper career embraced the follow- ing: In New Orleans from December, 1865, to May, 1868; editorial and literary contributor to the "New Orleans Daily
WILLIAM MAXFIELD RUST ISIS-1888
WILLIAM HENRY SIMPSON 1825 1882
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NEWSPAPERS
Times"; contributor to "De Bow's Review." In Baltimore, May, 1868, to May, 1869; night editor of the "Baltimore Gazette," correspondent for the "New Orleans Times." In Washington, D. C., May, 1869, to May 1879; correspondent of the "New Orleans Times," "Baltimore Gazette," "Savannah News," "Mo- bile Register," "Atlanta Constitution," etc .: and managing edi- tor of the "Sunday Herald"; on the editorial staff of the "Daily Union"; congressional reporter of the "National Union" (daily); as well as special correspondent for New York and Western papers. He continues to edit the Republican Journal. (1913.)
RUSSELL GLOVER DYER was born in North Haven, Maine, 19 November, 1844, and died 19 April, 1911. He entered the navy, joining the bark Ethan Allen and served two years during the Civil War. In January, 1868, he became connected with the "Journal" in the composing-room, and later was made city editor. In 1889 he went to Portland as Grand Secretary of the Odd Fellows' organization.
PROGRESSIVE AGE
In 1878, the "Age," whose support of Republican principles had been for some time wavering, renounced its allegiance, and became the organ of the new Greenback party. In 1883, the paper was enlarged in length and width, increasing its size to the extent of three columns. From 1880 to 1886, John Sumner Fernald was the local editor. Upon the death, in June, 1888, of Hon. William Maxfield Rust, its editor and proprietor, it was managed by Lucius Holcomb Murch, its former local editor, assisted by J. W. Emery. At the beginning of Volume 35, in September, the establishment was sold to the Pendleton Bro- thers, of Islesboro, one of whom, Mark P., became its editor. Mr. Pendleton was the younger son of Mark Pendleton, of Islesboro. He graduated at the Maine Wesleyan Seminary, and was a young man of ability and experience as a writer. Mr. Pendleton having been elected to the Legislature from his native town, Mr. Murch acted as editor during his enforced absence. In 1889, the office was moved to Nos. 56 and 58 High Street.
The paper had always been a folio sheet of four pages. In Christmas week, 1891, it adopted the quarto size, having ten pages of six columns each. A new heading, drawn by Percy Sanborn, gave an engraving of the city. On December 14, 1893,
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HISTORY OF BELFAST
the establishment was sold to a corporation called the Belfast Age Publishing Company. Hon. William Pitt Thompson acted as editor for a year, and Charles Swan Bickford was business manager until the following February. Frank H. Colley was local editor. Frank I. Wilson took charge as editor-in-chief upon the retirement of Mr. Thompson. Wayland Knowlton, Esq., was local editor; Orrin Joseph Dickey, of Northport, took his place in September, 1895. Under the new régime, two more pages were added. In October, 1896, the office was transferred to Peirce's Parlor Theatre, at the corner of Main and Franklin streets. On the 19th of February, 1899, its plant was entirely destroyed by fire. Although the loss was partially covered by insurance, the publication of the paper ceased. Mr. Wilson re- moved to Massachusetts.
WILLIAM MAXFIELD RUST
(From the Annual Report of the Maine Press Association, 1889)
WILLIAM MAXFIELD RUST, formerly a member of this Association, was born in Washington, Maine, 14 December, 1818, and died at Bel- fast, Maine, 14 June, 1888, in the seventieth year of his age. His father was William Rust, of Boothbay; his grandfather was a soldier of the Revolution; and politically he came of Democratic stock.
Mr. Rust received only a common-school education with an aca- demical fitting, and was a successful teacher for several years. He studied law in the forties, and was admitted to the Lincoln Bar in 1845, practicing in Washington, then in Damariscotta in 1851. In 1852 he removed to Belfast, where he resided till his death. He commenced the practice of law at Belfast, but soon abandoned it for the editorial profession, in which he labored for thirty-five years.
In 1854, 1 July, the first number of the "Progressive Age" was issued as a campaign sheet, with Mr. Rust as one of its principal contributors, and in October of the same year it was permanently established with him as editor and one of the publishers, and three years later he became sole proprietor and editor, which position he retained until his death.
The "Age" was started as an exponent of the principles of the then new Republican party, and for many years was an able advocate of those principles, but in 1878, Mr. Rust differed from the party on the currency question and ably and boldly supported the Greenback theory and party. In 1880 and 1884, he espoused the doctrine of modern Democ- racy, and his paper continued to advocate the principles of that party.
Mr. Rust occupied many positions of trust and honor, local, county, and State. In 1859, he was attorney of Waldo County; in 1868-69 he represented Belfast in the Legislature and took a prominent position in that body; in 1875, he was one of the Amendment Commissioners,
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NEWSPAPERS
and also Judge of Probate for Waldo County; in 1883, State Senator from Waldo County.
There were but few in Maine who had so many years' continuous service in editorial work as he, and he was reckoned as one of the ablest. His editorials showed force and originality, and one thing could always be said of him - he had the courage of his convictions, and never hesi- tated to advocate by pen and speech whatever he claimed to be right.
It was my fortune to have been personally acquainted with him for many years, and though to strangers he often seemed to present an appearance of brusqueness, and sometimes of apparent unsociableness, yet I can testify that to his friends and associates such appearances were deceitful, and in his home, as a husband and parent, his nature and character were of the kindest, and most agreeable and affectionate.
His later years of life evidently seemed to have been rendered some- what unsatisfactory by failure to obtain political preferment to which it seemed to us he was entitled as a party worker and leader.
He had a love for newspaper work, and it may truly be said he died in the harness, as he lived, and as he must have wished the end to be, for the very last issue of his paper, prior to his death, contained evidences of his lifework. He was a worker to the end. (See also p. 139.)
George Emerson Brackett.
MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATIONS
BELFAST WEEKLY ADVERTISER. This paper, after an existence of five years, appeared on January 18, 1876, on a half-sheet, which announced its indefinite suspension.
THE BULLETIN AND BELFAST ADVERTISER, a neatly printed, eight-page monthly, was established by George Emerson Brack- ett, July 1, 1878, with a subscription price of fifty cents a year.
THE MAINE TEMPERANCE RECORD, an eight-page quarto semi-monthly sheet, devoted to the temperance cause, and published at one dollar a year, was established by George Emerson Brackett, in January, 1884, and still continues.
THE SEA BREEZE, devoted to the interests of the Northport Camp Ground, and published during the season there, first appeared in July, 1879. Charles J. Burgess was its first publisher, and J. L. Williams, editor. Two years later, George Emerson Brackett & Company became its editors and proprietors, and George Washington Burgess was its printer. It has been twice enlarged. In 1883, it was published in quarto form on tinted paper, with pages twelve by nine inches: four columns to a page. Its regular publication ceased in 1894, but an occasional whiff, on holidays or the like, is still felt, with a cheery blast at Christmas-time.
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HISTORY OF BELFAST
THE TAX-PAYER, a local campaign paper, was published semi-monthly for a short time. The first number is dated January 4, 1882. Its purpose, as stated, was a readjustment between the city and the Moosehead Lake Railroad Company. In addition to the editor-in-chief, it had nine associates.
With the close of 1883, the "Searsport Guest," "Castine Visitor," and "Liberty Local," three small papers devoted to the interests of the towns whose names they respectively bore, and printed by Charles J. Burgess & Company, were suspended, after a brief existence. They were folios, size, twenty-two by fourteen inches, and the same matter was used for the outside pages of all.
THE BELFAST CITY PRESS, a folio of four pages, twenty-nine by twenty-three inches, first appeared August 24, 1886. It was owned by a corporation, called the Belfast Publishing Company, of which Charles Baker was president. Hon. Emery Board- man, assisted by John Sumner Fernald, were at the heads of the editorial department. Its existence was brought about by the unfortunate local railroad dividend contest. It continued until January, 1889, being then merged in the "Progressive Age."
THE MISSION FIELD REPORTER, a quarterly magazine, edited by Rev. R. H. Bolton, a missionary of the Church of God, was issued during a portion of 1893, from the "Belfast Age" job office.
THE PATRIOT, a weekly paper, edited by Wayland Knowlton, and published by the Patriot Publishing Company, made its appearance January 16, 1896. It was a seven-column folio, with patent outside, and advocated the Populist cause. It disappeared after a brief and irregular career.
THE CREAM. This was the title of a monthly publication, the first number of which appeared in January, 1897. It had twenty- one pages, eleven by sixteen inches in size, with four columns to the page, inclosed in an attractive cover. The subscription price was one dollar per year. The paper was made up of stories, poetry, and family reading-matter. Of the first issue twenty-five thousand copies were printed. Hon. E. F. Hanson was editor and business manager. It suspended publication in June, 1898, and the Belfast Cream Company, a corporation which was its pub- lisher, went into the hands of a receiver.
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NEWSPAPERS
TWILIGHT, a monthly paper of twelve pages in magazine form, was commenced in September, 1899, with E. E. Pilsbury as editor and publisher.
THE GIRLS' HOME, a paper issued quarterly under the aus- pices of the Children's Aid Society of Maine, was first published in July, 1896. The editorial committee consisted of Mrs. Eliza A. Diekerson Burrington, Rev. George Sherman Mills, of Bel- fast; Mrs. Georgia Pulsifer Porter, of Oldtown; Mrs. Florence Collins Porter, of Caribou. The object of the paper is to further the interest of the "Belfast Home for Friendless Girls."
THE RECRUIT. This was a small monthly, established in 1897 in the interest of the Sons of Veterans, the editor being Orrin Joseph Dickey. On 19 February, 1899, with the destruction of the "Age" office, where it was printed, its publication ceased.
In May, 1898, during the Spanish difficulties a small sheet, called the "Daily Bulletin," and containing the latest tele- graphie war news, was issued by the Belfast Printing Company. It was of short duration.
The only other newspapers published in Waldo County during the past quarter of a century were the "Weekly News," a four- column quarto, issued at Searsport, from August, 1893, to August, 1894; the "Winterport Advertiser," a semi-monthly quarto, begun in 1894, and still existing (1900), and the "Yankee Blade," which was published weekly at Brooks from December, 1895, to November, 1898, and afterwards monthly until its removal to Waterville in the fall of 1899. "The Farmers' Exchange" was published at Brooks in 1872-73.
For the first time, on June 23, 1880, Boston Sunday newspapers were sold in Belfast the day of their issue. They arrived early in the afternoon by a hand-car from Burnham.
BELFAST MEN CONNECTED WITH NEWSPAPERS ELSEWHERE
In 1890, Charles Swan Bickford bought an interest in the "Brunswick Telegraph."
Edward Havener Kelley. Born 27 September, 1869; gradu- ated from the Belfast High School in 1886, and from the Uni- versity of Maine in 1890. He engaged at once in journalism in which he still continues, having been for a number of years managing editor of the "Bangor Commercial," Bangor, Maine.
CHAPTER XIX
BELFAST FREE LIBRARY
Founded by Paul Richard Hazeltine - Erection of Building - Description - Application of Wilson Fund - First Trustees - Librarians - Donation by Mrs. Richard (Ann Maria Crosby) Chenery-Portrait of the Founder - Donation from Rev. George Warren Field - Portrait of Nathaniel Wilson - Branch Library at Citypoint - Bequest of Rev. George Warren Field - Donation by Mr. Albert Crane in Memory of Albert Boyd Otis - Statistics - Bulletins - First Catalogue - Statement of Funds.
A MONG the numerous charitable bequests made by Paul Richard Hazeltine, who died 18 March, 1878, was the following: -
At the decease of my wife, Harriet H. Hazeltine, I give and bequeath to Belfast, in the State of Maine, my adopted town, $20,000 for a Public Library, the use of which to be forever free to the inhabitants of said town, under certain necessary restrictions, to be agreed on by the regularly authorized authorities of said town or city for the time being, and for the proper management of said bequest. I direct that a hand- some, substantial, fireproof building be erected on some suitable spot in said city, sufficiently large for such library, with a polished marble slab or block placed in the front of said building, inscribed, -
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