USA > Missouri > St Charles County > History of St. Charles, Montgomery, and Warren counties, Missouri, written and comp. from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of their townships, towns and villages, together with a condensed history of Missouri > Part 23
USA > Missouri > Montgomery County > History of St. Charles, Montgomery, and Warren counties, Missouri, written and comp. from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of their townships, towns and villages, together with a condensed history of Missouri > Part 23
USA > Missouri > Warren County > History of St. Charles, Montgomery, and Warren counties, Missouri, written and comp. from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of their townships, towns and villages, together with a condensed history of Missouri > Part 23
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The history of this great industry dates back to the fifteenth cen- tury. Its discovery and subsequent utility resulted from the follow- ing causes in the following manner: Laurentius Coster, a native of Haerlem, Holland, while rambling through the forest contiguous to his native city, carved some letters on the bark of a birch tree. Drowsy from the relaxation of a holiday, he wrapped his carvings in a piece of paper and lay down to sleep. While men sleep progress moves, and
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HISTORY OF ST. CHARLES COUNTY.
Coster awoke to discover a phenomenon, to him simple, strange and suggestive. Dampened by the atmospheric moisture, the paper wrapped about his handiwork had taken an impression from them, and the surprised burgher saw on the paper an inverted image of what he had engraved on the bark. The phenomenon was suggestive, because it led to experiments that resulted in establishing a printing office, the first of its kind in the old Dutch town. In this office John Guten- burg served a faithful and appreciative apprenticeship, and from it, at the death of his master, absconded during a Christmas festival, taking with him a considerable portion of the type and apparatus. Guten- burg settled in Mentz, where he won the friendship and partnership of John Faust, a man of sufficient means to place the enterprise on a secure financial basis. Several years later the partnership was dis- solved because of a misunderstanding. Gutenburg then formed a partnership with a younger brother, who had set up an office at Strasburg, but had not been successful, and becoming involved in law- suits, had fled from that city to join his brother at Mentz. These brothers were the first to use metal types. Faust, after his dissolu- tion with Gutenburg, took into partnership Peter Schoeffer, his servant, and a most ingenious printer. Schoeffer privately cut matrices for the whole alphabet. Faust was so pleased that he gave Schoeffer his only daughter in marriage. These are the great names in the early history of printing, and each is worthy of special honor.
Coster's discovery of wood blocks or plates, on which the page to be printed was engraved, was made some time between 1440 and 1450, and Schoeffer's improvement - casting the type by means of matrices- was made about 1456. For a long time printing was dependent upon most clumsy apparatus. The earliest press had a contrivance for run- ning the forms under the point of pressure by means of a screw. When the pressure was applied the screw was loosened, the form withdrawn and the sheet removed. Improvements were made upon these crude beginnings from time to time, until the hand-press now in use is a model of simplicity, durability and execution. In 1814, steam was first applied to cylinder presses by Frederick Kong, a Saxon genius, and the subsequent progress of steam printing has been so remarkable as to almost justify a belief in its absolute perfection. Indeed, to appreciate the improvement in presses alone, one ought to be privileged to stand awhile by the pressman who operated the clumsy machine of Gutenberg, and then he should step into one of the well-appointed modern printing offices of our larger cities, where he could notice the roll of dampened paper entering the great power presses, a continu-
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HISTORY OF ST. CHARLES COUNTY.
ous sheet, and issuing therefrom as newspapers, ready for the carrier or express. The Romans, in the times of the emperors, had period- icals, notices of passing events, compiled and distributed. These daily events were the newspapers of that age. In 1536, the first news- paper of modern times was issued at Venice, but governmental bigotry compelled its circulation in manuscript form.
In 1663 the Public Intelligencer was published in London, and is credited with being the first English paper to attempt the dissemina- tion of general information. The first American newspaper was the Boston News Letter, whose first issue was made April 24, 1704. It was a half sheet, twelve inches by eight, with two columns to the page. John Campbell, the postmaster, was the publisher. The Boston Ga- zette made its first appearance December 21, 1719, and the American Weekly, at Philadelhia, December 22, 1719. In 1776 the number of newspapers published in the colonies was 37; in 1828 the number had increased to 852, and at the present time not less than 2,000 newspapers are supported by our people. Journalism, by which is meant the compiling of passing public events, for the purpose of making them more generally known and instructive, has become a powerful educator. Experience has been its only school for special training, its only text for study, its only test for theory. It is scarcely a profession, but is advancing rapidly toward that dignity. A distinct department of literature has been assigned to it. Great editors are writing autobiographies and formulating their methods and opinions ; historians are rescuing from oblivion the every-day life of deceased journalists ; reprints of interviews with famous journalists, touching the different phases of their profession, are deemed worthy of publi- cation in book form. Leading universities have contemplated the in- auguration of courses of study specially designed to fit men and women for the duties of the newspaper sanctum. These innovations are not untimely, since no other class of men are so powerful for good or ill as editors. More than any other class they form public opinion while expressing it, for most men but echo the sentiments of favorite journalists. Even statesmen, ministers and learned professors not unfrequently get their best thoughts and ideas from the papers they read. .
NEWSPAPERS.
The Missourian of St. Charles is believed to have been the first paper published in the West outside of St. Louis on this side of the Mississippi. It was established by Robert McLoud before the admis-
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HISTORY OF ST. CHARLES COUNTY.
sion of Missouri into the Union, and while St. Charles was the seat of the State or Territorial government. He was a practical printer and a step-son of Joseph Charless, Sr., one of the founders of the Missouri Republican.
The Missourian was a small folio publication of 20 columns, ac- cording to the best recollection of those still living who remember to have seen it. It was of course a weekly, although for the- time being the organ of the State government. However, when it was first established, though the State constitution had been adopted, the formal act of admission had not been passed by Congress. Those were not the days of the telegraph, and the daily news of the world was not expected next morning, so that a weekly answered every purpose.
The Missourian prospered abundantly during the earlier years of its existence and while the seat of government continued here, and, in fact, became a paper of large influence. It flourished for a number of years after the removal of the capital to Jefferson City; but finally, after passing through various changes of ownership and management, suspended publication, and was never afterwards revived under its old name. It was succeeded by the Clarion, and from that time forward there were a number of newspapers established here from time to time up to within a recent period, all of which passed through varied ex- periences, some failing outright, others being absorbed by more powerful rivals, and all being more or less reorganized, at each of which reorganizations, or at some of them at least, a new name was assumed.
The early history of journalism in this county is briefly given else- where, so that for the purposes of the present chapter only the papers of to-day need be spoken of. In giving sketches of these, however, some of the facts already mentioned must necessarily be gone over, for the journals of St. Charles at this time are more or less the out- growths of former papers, or lineal successors to them, so that in giving a history of these mention must unavoidably be made to their predecessors.
THE COSMOS.
The Cosmos is the oldest paper in St. Charles county, having nearly completed its forty-ninth year. It is descended by regular transfer of offices from the Clarion, mentioned above, which was the organ of the Whig party in this county. The Clarion, as already stated, was owned and conducted by Nathaniel Patton until his death, which occurred in
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1837. His widow, Mrs. Patton, who afterwards became the wife of Hon. Wilson L. Overall, continued the publication of the paper under her proprietorship as Mrs. W. L. Overall, with Hon. W. H. Campbell as editor.
But in 1839 the Clarion was sold by Mrs. Overall to Messrs. Julian & Carr, who ran it, however, only about a year. They sold the office to Berlin & Knipp, who changed the name of the paper to the Free Press, and published it as such until 1842. Overall, Julian & Carr then bought it and published it as the Advertiser for about four years, following which Douglass & Millington became its proprietors. They ran the paper as the Western Star until 1849. Orear & Kibler succeeded them as proprietors, and changed its name to the Chrono- type. In 1852 Kibler retired from the firm of Orear & Kibler, McDearmon taking Kibler's place in the firm. The next year N. C. Orear became sole proprietor. In 1854 Mr. Orear sold to King & Emmons, who adopted the name of Reveille for the paper. Two years later Hinman & Branhan bought the Reveille, and ran it until 1868, when Edwards & Stewart purchased it. They gave it the name of the Sentinel, and ran it as such for six years. Emmons & Orrick now became proprietors of the paper, and gave it the double name of the Sentinel and Cosmos.
The Cosmos had been established a short time before, and was the principal office at the time of the consolidation. W. W. Davenport succeeded Emmons & Orrick as the proprietor. He dropped the name Sentinel from the paper altogether, and continued its publication as the Cosmos until 1872. It was then purchased by W. A. McHenry and C. C. Davis, who owned it jointly and published it under the proprietorship of McHenry & Davis for nearly five years. January 1, 1877, McHenry became sole proprietor. Four years later, December 31, 1880, he sold to Charles Gatzweiler, Henry Sanford and Dr. J. W. Davis, who bought it with the intention not only of continuing the publication of the Cosmos, but of also issuing a weekly Republican German paper, the Republikaner, from the office. But on the morning of January 1, 1881, the next morning after they had purchased the office, it was destroyed by fire in the conflagration of the Mittleberg Opera House, together with all the files of the paper, its type, presses, and other materials and fixtures.
With nothing but the good-will of the paper left, the new owners proceeded energetically to repair their losses ; and, although but three days remained for them to make up and publish the next weekly issue of the Cosmos, such were their courage aud enterprise that on the
HISTORY OF ST. CHARLES COUNTY. 219
following Wednesday, as usual, the paper appeared the same as if no fire had occurred, except that it was reduced in size to a twenty-eight column paper from thirty-six columns, which it previously contained.
Shortly after the destruction of the Cosmos office by fire a stock company was organized for the continuance of its publication. Judge F. W. Gatzweiler became president of the company and Charles Gatz- weiler secretary. Dr. J. W. Davis, one of the prominent stock- holders in the company, continued as editor. Since that time its publication has been continued under the proprietorship of the stock company, known as the St. Charles Publishing Company, and with Dr. Davis as editor.
Like all leading papers, country journals as well as those of the cities, the Cosmos has been built up to its present prominence and in- fluence by years of hard work, economy and good management, and by being conducted earnestly and faithfully in the interest of the public upon whom it relies for support and success. No leading and suc- cessful journal can be established in a day or a year. It requires years of patient toil and the exercise of the best business judgment, as well as strict fidelity to the public interest and both ability and experience in editorial management. The growth of the Cosmos not only since it was given its present name, but prior to that time through all or nearly all of the different changes of name and management it has undergone, has been steady and substantial. Originally a small folio of about twenty columns as the Clarion, it was enlarged from time to time, and increased in circulation and influence, until it has become one of the leading country journals of North-east Missouri. Not only that, but in a business point of view, it now occupies a position of thorough independence. It has long been a valuable and paying piece of newspaper property.
The Cosmos is a four-page, thirty-six column paper, 28x44 inches in size and has a circulation of about 2,000. The office build- ing is one of the finest, outside of St. Louis and Kansas City, in the State. It is a large, handsome two-story brick block, the first story being fitted up and occupied as business houses. In the second story there are a number of fine offices for attorneys and other professional men ; and, besides, the Cosmos office. The latter is divided into editorial, compositors' and press-rooms ; and being built and fitted up expressly for these purposes, they are veritable patterns of con- venience and neatness. The office is also supplied with a full job printing " plant " and the Cosmos company are prepared to do as
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good work in the job printing line as can be had in this part of the State.
In 1883 the good-will and the subscription list of the St. Charles Journal, a sprightly Democratic paper, established in 1880 by Messrs. T. G. & G. S. Johns, was purchased by the Cosmos, or the St. Charles Publishing Company, which added considerably to the circu- lation and influence of the Cosmos. The Republikaner, a weekly German Republican paper, which it was the purpose of Messrs. Gatz- weiler, Sanford & Davis to publish from the office of the Cosmos, when they purchased it in December, 1880, has been printed and pub- lished from this office regularly every week from that time since. The Republikaner is one of the leading German Republican papers of the interior of the State, and has a large circulation and a good advertis- ing patronage.
Originally the predecessor of the Cosmos, as we have stated, was a Whig paper, which it continued to be for a number of years. After- wards, under a change or changes of management, it became Demo- cratic. During the Civil War and for a time afterwards it was Repub- lican in politics. The Cosmos, proper, was established as a strictly Republican paper, and so continued until 1877, when it became neutral in politics. But under its present management it has been avow- edly independent. The Cosmos treats all political questions in a thor- ough spirit of independence and fairness, turning neither to the right nor to the left to shield Democrat or Republican from responsibility for his public acts. Whatever is worthy of commendation in either party it approves heartily and without prejudice, and whatever cen- surable, it condemns without hesitation or fear and in the most positive manner. But pre-eminently it is devoted to the material welfare and social well being of the people of St. Charles county. Every public enterprise, tending to promote the best interests of the county, re- ceives its most hearty support, and all movements of a moral, benev- olent, educational, or religious character, worthy of approval, find encouragement and help in its columns. Dr. Davis, the present editor of the paper, has been connected with it in this capacity for the last 11 years. Of his experience and ability, as a writer, we have already spoken in a sketch of his life, which appears in the biograph- ical department of the present work. Still, it would be less than proper to add here that the success of the Cosmos during his connec- tion with it is largely due to his good judgment, industry and force in the editorial management of the paper.
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HISTORY OF ST. CHARLES COUNTY.
ST. CHARLES NEWS.
The St. Charles News was established in 1863 at Wentzville, a thriving little town 20 miles west of St. Charles, by Wm. S. Byran. Under his management it continued until 1870, when, to enlarge its field, it was removed to St. Charles and an interest in the paper was sold to F. C. King, son of Hon. A. H. King, a former member of Congress. Its publication was continued with increased success until 1874, when it was sold to the St. Charles News Company, a stock company. This company continued its publication until December, 1875, when it passed into the hands of P. A. Farley, an attache of the St. Louis Republican, who brought it to a high state of prosperity. Upon his death, in April, 1883, the paper was sold to James C. Holmes, its present proprietor. Mr. Holmes, by his superior and careful management, close attention to details, good editorial judg- ment and fearless, outspoken views of party policy and management, has brought the News to the front as the leading exponent of Demo- cratic principles in the Eleventh Congressional District. While achieving a prominent position as a political organ, the department of home news and local happenings, the peculiar domain of the country journal, has not been neglected, as the thousands of readers in St. Charles and adjoining counties, to whom it is a welcome, weekly visi- tor, can testify. Its constantly increasing list of subscribers show the appreciation in which it is held by the community. With increased facilities for news-gathering there is every reason to expect that there will be in a short time but few homes in St. Charles county into which the News will not enter. In connection with the News office, Mr. Holmes has a thoroughly equipped job office, filled with the latest faces of job type, fast presses, paper cutters, blocking machinery and a large stock of blank goods kept constantly on hand, from which he turns out some of the neatest and best executed job work west of St. Louis. We append a few extracts from journals and individuals of recent date, showing the enviable reputation the News is achieving under the management of Mr. Holmes.
The News is certainly a great aid in advancing the prosperity of St. Charles .- The Trade Journal.
We know of no country newspaper that gives more indications of thrift and prosperity, than the St. Charles News. It certainly deserves all of its apparent prosperity, for it does much to promote and en- hance the prosperity of St. Charles .- The Iron Review.
The News is assuredly the leading newspaper of St. Charles, in all
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that goes to make a live, progressive and modern journal .- Columbia Sentinel.
The St. Charles News is certainly the newsiest paper in Eastern Mis- souri .- Springfield News.
The St. Charles News is one of the ablest conducted journals in the State. We welcome it to our sanctum .- Wellsville Democrat.
The News is an enterprising journal, fully abreast of the times .- Decatur Review.
The News is a most welcome visitor to my office. I do not see how any citizen of St. Charles can dispense with it .- S. F. Covington, Cincinnati, O.
I am more than pleased with the News. It is certainly making great progress .- E. A. Lewis, Judge of the St. Louis Court of Appeals. I congratulate you on the success you are evidently achieving .- E. L. Noonan, St. Louis.
I have found the News a most excellent advertising medium. I am well pleased with the results of my advertising in it .- A. J. Crawford, St. Louis, Mo.
ST. CHARLES DEMOKRAT.
This German weekly is published at St. Charles, Mo., every Thurs- day, by J. H. Bode, editor and proprietor. It was established in 1852 by Hon. Arnold Krekel, now United States circuit judge of the West- ern District of Missouri, who was its editor for 10 or 12 years. The first issue of the paper appeared on January 1, 1852, with O. C. Orear, and Jac. Kibler as publishers, who were at that time also pub- lishing an English sheet called the Chronotype. The issue of the first copy of the Demokrat created quite an excitement and under leading Germans, who were headed by Mr. Krekel, went to the Cal- ifornia House, where they had quite a jollification over the birth of the " baby," which was destined to play quite a role in the course of years on the local stage. The Demokrat was a paper advocating Democratic principles ; supported James Buchanan, and later Franklin Pierce, for the Presidency. The first two years the paper was pub- lished by Messrs. Orear & Kibler, when it passed into the hands of Messrs. Gustave Bruere, who had arrived from Germany, a book- seller by trade, and Jul. Hiemer, a practical printer. These two gen- tlemen conducted the paper with Mr. Krekel as its editor for about four years, when it passed into the hands of Mr. G. Bruere, retaining Mr. Krekel as editor. Mr. Bruere conducted the paper till January 1, 1864, when the present editor and proprietor bought a half interest, and it was then edited by them. In course of years the paper had affiliated itself with the Republican party and supported Fremont for the Presidency, afterwards Lincoln and Grant. In the so-called Liberal
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movement it supported Horace Greeley. Bruere & Bode conducted the paper for two years, when the former retired, being elected county clerk, and Herm. Lindeman, assistant editor of the Westliche Post, bought Mr. Bruere's interest. The firm was then J. H. Bode & Co., who conducted it for a year and a half, when it passed into Mr. Bode's hands solely, who made large improvements, in the way of machinery, placing a card press and a cylinder press for printing of the paper in the office, being the first press of that kind ever brought to the town. In 1870 Mr. Bode sold an half interest to his brother William A. Bode, who conducted the paper under the name of J. H. & W. A. Bode for two years in such successful manner that the cylinder press proved too small and a larger Hoe cylinder was bought, which is now in the establishment, and driven by water power, in connection with two other smaller presses. After the unfortunate Greeley movement the paper went back to its " first love," advocated Democratic princi- . ples and Democratic candidates for the Presidency, as Tilden, Han- cock and Cleveland. It was one, if not the first, German paper in the State which advocated the nomination of Mr. Cleveland for the Presidency. January 1, 1880, the paper passed into the hands of Mr. J. H. Bode, the present editor and proprietor, on account of the continued sickness of his brother. The office is now one of the best equipped country offices in the State. It is the oldest German paper in the State, having been published since its establishment in 1852 without interruption.
KATHOLICHER HAUSFREUND.
The Katholicher Hausfreund, a German Catholic household paper, was established at O'Fallon by Rev. Father Brockhagen about eighteen months ago, and by his ability, enterprise and industry has been placed upon a safe footing, in a business point of view. As a busi- ness enterprise it is now an established success. The Hausfruend is a representative German paper of the Catholic Church, and has proved to be a valuable auxiliary in the great work of Christianity in this part of the country, and under the beneficent influence and teachings of the Church. It holds a warm place in the hearts of true German Catholics wherever it is known and circulates. It is edited with marked ability and sincere, earnest piety, and a spirit of Christian love pervades all its discussions of religious questions. Father Brockhagen is a strong, vigorous writer, a man of strong mind and thorough culture, and a man whose heart is not less fitted for the work before him than his head. It was no ordinary undertaking to estab-
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lish a representative German Catholic paper at a small interior town, as he did, and no man of an ordinary stamp would have made the venture, much less have made it the complete success which has crowned the energy and enterprise of Father Brockhagen.
The Hausfreund is an eight-page, forty-column paper, 13x20 inches in size. It is printed in clear, good type, and presents a neat and at- tractive appearance. It is well filled with good reading matter, largely of a religious character. But, as the name of the paper indicates, it gives considerable attention to the wants and interests of the house- hold generally, and therefore supplies its readers with much matter of general interest. The Hausfreund is a welcome visitor in every house- hold where it enters, and is steadily growing in circulation and influ- ence. It is well patronized by advertisers and is one of the prosperous Catholic journals of the country. Father Brockhagen deserves un- qualified credit for the success he has achieved with the Hausfreund and the good he is doing in this, as in other fields of usefulness.
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