USA > New York > Oneida County > History of Oneida County, New York : from 1700 to the present time, Volume I > Part 35
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The same corporation established the Evening Dispatch December 22, 1898, and bought the Morning Herald property March 6, 1890. The latter paper was printed until March 28, but from March 16 the morning and evening editions were styled Utica Herald-Dispatch. From the Herald a number of men were recruited, including William E. Weed managing editor, William H. DeShon leading assistant, and F. H. Wienke secretary. As an evening journal the con- solidated paper has gained a wide circulation and notable prosperity, as the lineal descendant of the original newspaper in the county.
William T. and Thomas F. Baker founded the Saturday Globe May 11, 1881, and have conducted it with pictures as a marked feature, with conspicuous success. Thomas F. Baker has been from the first editor-in-chief with A. M. Dickinson as managing editor and a corps of assistants. The Globe made for itself a special field and for thirty years has filled it acceptably to its very large clientage.
The Utica Daily Press was issued March 13, 1882, by a combination of striking printers, who gave way the next year to a new corporation. F. A. Eastman was editor for about two years. In February, 1885, George E. Dun- ham was made president and Otto A. Meyer secretary and treasurer, with F. W. Bensberg at the head of the printing rooms. Mr. Bensberg retired after a service of two decades, and Mr. Meyer in February, 1911, when the officers were George E. Dunham, president and editor, and William V. Jones secretary, with Hugh Hughes as managing editor. The Press fills well its sphere as the only morning journal in the county.
Many trade journals go forth from our cities and villages. Several churches have regular bulletins printed, while school and business catalogs are numerous. The publications of the Oneida Historical society have permanent value. Since 1894, with several changes of managers, the Advocate in Utica has stood every week for organized labor.
The intelligence and aspirations of the Italian community has found ex- pression in well conducted weeklies within the last decade, while the Spiritual Hammer since 1910 addresses our Polish residents. La Luce among the Italians survives competitors. The Polish Eagle has folded its wings.
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In Remsen the News, as a weekly, records the events of that busy village. From the press of the Morning Herald several books were published; a Welsh Concordance by Rev. T. T. Evans and Presbyterianism in Central New York by Rev. P. H. Fowler were among the earliest. Curtis & Childs had their imprint on a Genealogy of the Childs Family, Dr. Bagg's Pioneers of Utica and other books. Their successors, L. C. Childs & Son, also belong to the guild of publishers. Thomas J. Griffiths has published many volumes, while George W. Browning of Clinton deserves mention among local publish- ers. Perhaps other names in Rome and the villages belong in this record.
Lack of space alone prevents the recital of a score or more of papers of various classes which have strown the way in all the years, of which since 1887 a score or more have fallen from sight leaving hardly a sign.
The joy of opening the local mine was taken by Pomroy Jones, whose Annals of Oneida County issued in 1851, shows the rich ore. The Pioneers of Utica by Dr. M. M. Bagg published in 1877 and in an enlarged edition in 1892 is a careful, scholarly tribute of local pride. An illustrated quarto His- tory of Oneida County edited by Samuel W. Durant bears the date of 1878. In 1896 Daniel E. Wager presented the result of long and painstaking research in Our County and Its People, a royal octavo with portraits.
The newspapers of the county have always represented the best thoughts and activities of the people and have enlisted some of the most able and best educated of its citizens. In every period the weeklies and the dailies have ranked with the most enterprising and influential in the country. In the printed word not only, but in public service the editors of Oneida county have proved their title to rank with the leaders of men. They have put worthy effort into their current work and the managers have used the shrewdest devices in production and distribution. In the early days they extended mail routes and employed their own postriders for daily delivery. They helped to organize the Associated Press. From the local staff managers and writers have been recruited for journals elsewhere. From the case and the editorial rooms have been summoned chiefs in national departments, representatives in the legis- lature and in Congress, presidents of banks, administrative officers, mayors of cities, postmasters, members of commissions and professors in colleges. Authors of books are numbered among the publishers, and the productions of the press are not the least honorable or beneficial of the contributions of Oneida county to the state and the nation.
ELLIS H. ROBERTS was born in Utica, N. Y., September 30, 1827. His parents were natives of north Wales and came to the United States, the father in 1816, and the mother in 1817, and they located in Utica. The father died when the son was four years old. The lad was trained as a printer. After attending Whitestown seminary for three terms he entered Yale College as a sophomore, working at his trade during vacations. In college he took prizes for English composition, was elected by his classmates first editor of the Yale Literary Magazine, and was accorded the second highest honor of the class when he was graduated in 1850, after winning the Bristed scholarship. He was for
Vol. I-19
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awhile principal of the Utica Free academy, and a teacher of Latin in the Utica Female seminary.
In 1851 he devoted himself to newspaper work, becoming editor of the Utica Morning Herald, and, except for a brief period in 1854, continued his relation to that paper as editor and chief proprietor until 1899. The paper during the Civil War period attracted much attention.
Mr. Roberts was elected as a Republican to the New York assembly from the Second Oneida district in 1866, and was assigned to the committee of ways and means, as well as to others.
In 1870 he was elected to the national house of representatives from the Oneida district, and re-elected in 1872, but was carried down by the Demo- cratic tidal wave in 1874.
In Congress, Speaker Blaine accorded to him a distinction rare to a new member,-of a position on the ways and means committee. He gave much attention to financial measures, advocating the policy of the resumption of specie payment, the funding of the national debt by interest continually de- creasing, the redemption of bonds, and the reduction of war taxes, emphasizing his advocacy of protection to American industries.
Among his addresses in the house of representatives were those on "Pro- tection to the Citizen," "Assaults on the National Credit," "The Revenue and American Labor," "Colorado as a State," "The Treasury and the Taxes," and "The Revenue and the Sinking Fund."
During his service Mr. Roberts was a member of a sub-committee of ways and means which investigated certain matters in the treasury department, and led to the change of the secretary and an assistant secretary. He introduced the bill for the repeal of the moiety laws, and was chairman of a sub-commit- tee of the ways and means to report it. The moiety system had prevailed since the foundation of the government, and gave large profits to many officials, and they and their friends naturally clung to the policy. The bill became a law June 22, 1874.
In 1864 and in 1868 Mr. Roberts was a delegate to the Republican national convention.
The degree of doctor of laws was conferred upon him by Hamilton College in 1869, and by Yale College in 1884.
President Harrison appointed Mr. Roberts assistant treasurer of the United States at New York on April 1, 1889. At their own request, twenty prominent citizens of Utica became his sureties, qualifying for $800,000. He served in that position during the administration of President Harrison, and upon his retirement Secretary Carlisle wrote to him: "The department appreciates fully and commends the admirable manner in which the affairs of the office have been conducted during your incumbency."
In 1893, Mr. Roberts became president of the Franklin National bank of New York, and continued to serve in that capacity until he was appointed treasurer of the United States by President Mckinley in 1897.
In 1868 and again in 1873 Mr. Roberts traveled extensively in Europe, and gave the results of his observations in a series of letters to his newspaper which were entitled, "To Greece and Beyond."
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On the nomination of the trustees of Cornell University in February of 1834, Mr. Roberts delivered a series of ten lectures before the two upper classes in that university upon the protective policy and the logical grounds upon which it rests. A part of the same course, on the invitation of the authorities of Hamil- ton College, was repeated there.
The lectures delivered at Cornell University and Hamilton College were the basis of a volume published by Houghton, Mifflin & Company in 1884, entitled "Government Revenue, Especially the American System."
He delivered addresses at Union College on "The Tariff Justified by Po- litical Economy," and at Syracuse University on "The Currency Problem." He has also addressed the Bankers' associations of Maryland, Virginia, the Dis- trict of Columbia, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana on various financial topics; also on the invitation of the American Bankers' association, he has delivered addresses before that body at its annual session in Richmond, San Francisco and New York.
In the American Commonwealth series Houghton, Mifflin & Company have published two volumes written by him, and entitled "The Planting and Growth of the Empire State." Included in addresses published by the state of New York on Centennial celebrations, are an address on the Battle of Oriskany, and on the Sullivan campaign in the interior and southern part of New York state.
He served as treasurer of the United State under Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt until July 1, 1905, when he resigned. He has since devoted him- self to study and literary work, has delivered addresses before the Oneida His- torical society, the Herkimer County Historical society, the Utica Free academy, the Men's clubs of various churches, and before different associations and chapters, and his pen has been busy for magazines and journals and other- wise. His home is in his native town.
Mr. Roberts has served as president of the Fort Schuyler club, the Oneida Historical society at Utica, of the Patria club, the St. David's society, and the Phi Beta Kappa Alumni association, New York; as president of the Yale Alumni association of Washington, and of the Washington Economic society, and the Men's society of the Church of the Covenant. He is a member of the Cosmos club and the University club of Washington, the Archaelogical society of that city, and of the National Geographical society. In January, 1905, he was appointed by the president a member of the commission for the annual ex- amination of the mint.
He was married June 21, 1851, to Elizabeth Morris of Utica, New York, who died July 20, 1903.
The potential influence of Ellis H. Roberts, editor of the Utica Herald, a paper of large circulation in northern and central New York, proved of great assistance to Conkling. Roberts was of Welsh origin, a scholar in politics, strong with the pen, and conspicuously prominent in the discussion of economic issues. When in Congress (1871-75) he served upon the ways and means committee. In 1867 his friends sent him to the assembly especially to promote the election of Utica's favorite son, and in his sincere, earnest efforts he very nearly con- solidated the Republican press of the state in Conkling's behalf. During the week's fierce contest at Albany he marshalled his forces with rare skill, not for- getting that vigilance brings victory.
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After the elevation of Roscoe Conkling to the United States senate, Mr. Roberts became a candidate for the office of representative in Congress. The opposing candidate was Alexander H. Bailey of Rome. Mr. Conkling desired the election of Roberts, but as Bailey was also a friend of Conkling, the senator refused to use his power to elect Mr. Roberts, and Mr. Bailey was nominated and elected. This offended Mr. Roberts, but afterward the differences of the two were somewhat ameliorated, and Mr. Roberts succeeded Bailey in Congress. In 1874 the candidate against Mr. Roberts was Scott Lord, the partner of Mr. Conkling. At this time Conkling and Roberts were at swords points politically, because of jealousies and offenses which each charged against the other Conk- ling and his friends supported Lord, and Mr. Roberts was defeated. The dif- ferences of these two prominent men was a great detriment to the state, and particularly to Oneida county, and it has always seemed to their friends that these differences should have been adjusted, that the public might have reaped the benefit of their valuable services.
RICHARD U. SHERMAN was born in Vernon, Oneida county, N. Y., in 1819. He was the son of Willit H. Sherman and Catherine Schoolcraft, who was a daughter of Lawrence Schoolcraft. He was educated at the common school, and graduated from the Utica Free academy in his fourteenth year. He was trained for a merchant, but he had a taste for politics, and soon became in- terested in the famous campaign between Harrison and Van Buren. He con- ducted a paper in Utica during that campaign, and was editor of the Utica Gazette. In 1844 he conducted the Herkimer Journal, and in 1846 was editor of the Oswego Daily Times. In 1847, in company with Erastus Clark, he es- tablished the Daily Evening Gazette at Rochester. This was the only daily paper in the state of New York that supported General Zachary Taylor for president. In the fall of the same year he returned to Utica, and in connection with Robert W. Roberts he established the Utica Morning Herald, and was editor of that paper. In 1851 he was elected clerk of the assembly, which posi- tion he held until 1857, except for one year, when his party was in a minority in the house. He was member of assembly in 1857. He was the author of the Clerk's Manual, which has ever since been an authority in the legislature at Albany. In 1856, when the assembly was about evenly divided between Republicans, Democrats and Americans, there were several weeks' contest over the speakership, and it fell to Mr. Sher- man's lot to preside during that time, and in a bitter fight of this description his remarkable ability as a presiding officer was made evident to every one. He had presided so satisfactorily that he was elected clerk, although his party had less than one-third of the votes in the house. In 1860 he was made assistant clerk in the house of representatives, and for ten years held that position at Washington, but resigned in 1870 to take charge of large estates as executor, administrator or trustee. He had a political controversy with Senator Roscoe Conkling, and they became estranged. He was a great admirer and friend of Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, followed Greeley into the Liberal-Republican movement, was nominated for representative in Congress in 1872, but was defeated by Ellis H. Roberts, the Republican candidate. In 1874 he was elected to the assembly. He was candidate for speaker of the as-
RICHARD U. SHERMAN Editor
E. PRENTISS BAILEY Editor
ELLIS H. ROBERTS Editor
DEWITT C. GROVE Editor
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sembly, and would have been elected except for the fact that Francis Kernan was candidate for United States senator, and it was thought unwise to press him for speaker as against Mr. Kernan's chances for United States senator, and he, therefore, withdrew from the contest. He was re-elected to the assembly in 1875, and was the unanimous choice of his party, which was in the minority, for speaker. He served on important committees, and was the leader upon the Democratic side. He was appointed state fish commissioner to succeed Governor Horatio Seymour in 1879, and served until 1890. In this capacity he rendered the state great service in restocking the lakes of the Adirondack region with desirable fish, and protecting the forests from depredations by un- scrupulous lumber dealers and others. He was president of the New Hartford Canning Company, Ltd., and director in several other important industries; was trustee and president of the board of directors of the Butler Memorial hall in the village of New Hartford, several times president of the village, a promi- nent mason, and a member of several clubs and social organizations. He rep- resented the fourth ward of Utica in the board of supervisors for several years, and was chairman of that body in 1854.
While he filled the editorial chair of the Utica Herald his editorials ranked among those of the best writers in the entire country. As a sample of his editorial work we will quote from the first editorial he wrote, which appeared in the Utica Morning Herald November 1, 1847, while he was yet a very young man: "To the public: We shall be the engine of no clique the organ of no faction. Our aim is to promote the unity of the Whig party, to maintain its integrity, to disseminate and extend its principles, and contribute to the extent of our humble means towards its success, and the perpetuation of its policy of government. * * * Upon all questions which are foreign to the objects had in view in the establishment of this sheet, and which may threaten to distract and divide the Whig party and prevent its harmonious and vigorous action the Herald will, as in duty bound, avoid participation. To agitate and embitter the public mind with injudicious excitement and recrimination is not our pur- pose. We shall, therefore, endeavor to abstain from acts which are liable to produce such consequences. We believe that differences in sentiment, habits and employments, can be more easily harmonized or tolerated, where parties differing entertain mutual kindness, than where uncompromising hatred is the rule of action. With this exposition of our intentions, we submit ourselves to the favor of the public, from whom we have already shared liberally, and a pledge of our individual and associated effort in promoting the welfare of our fellow citizens."
Mr. Sherman died February 21, 1895, at New Hartford. January 13, 1845, he married Mary F. Sherman, a very distant relative, and they have had six chil- dren: Richard W., a civil engineer and twice mayor of the city of Utica; Stal- ham W., who died in 1894; Mary Louise, wife of Henry J. Cookinham of Utica; James S., vice president of the United States; Sanford F., president of the New Hartford Canning Company; Willet H., who died at New Hartford in 1868, aged about six years.
DEWITT CLINTON GROVE was born in Utica, December 16, 1825. He was of English descent, and his father was a soldier in the war of the Revolution. On
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his mother's side he was German. Mr. Grove received a limited education, and left school at the age of ten years. He was, however, a student, and became quite proficient in Latin, Greek and Hebrew. In recognition of his acquirements Madison University (now Colgate University) in 1861 conferred upon him the degree of master of arts. At the age of 13 he became a printer, and, except for a few months in 1844 when he studied law, he followed the business of a printer and publisher all his life. In February, 1846, he became one of the proprietors and editors of the Utica Democrat, the organ of the branch of the Democratic party known as the "Barnburners," or the radical faction of that party. He became quite prominent in politics before he was a voter. In 1852 Franklin Pierce was elected president, and the two wings of the Democratic party became harmonious in central New York. The two Democratic papers in Utica were consolidated in 1853, Mr. Grove becoming the chief proprietor of the Daily Ob- server, then the leading Democratic paper in central New York. In January, 1867, he formed a partnership with E. Prentiss Bailey, who had long been his associate on the paper. In 1873 the partnership was changed to a corporation, the members of the corporation being Mr. Grove, Mr. Bailey, and Theodore P. Cook. From 1857 to 1860 Mr. Grove was alderman; in 1860 was nominated and elected mayor, and was re-elected twice afterward. In the fall of 1860 he was the Democratic candidate for representative in Congress against Roscoe Conkling, but the district was republican and Mr. Conkling was elected. It is related of Mr. Grove that while he was mayor the Abolitionists appointed a convention to be held in Utica, and that a mob had threatened to break it up. Although Mr. Grove was a Democrat and opposed to the Abolitionists, yet he notified them that they would be protected in their meeting, and personally conducted the speakers to a place of safety to save them from a hostile demon- stration. He took ground with the Union on the breaking out of the Civil War, and presided at the first large patriotic meeting in Utica, at which such great statesmen as Roscoe Conkling, Francis Kernan and Hiram Denio took a prom- inent part. About 1883 his health failed, and he retired from the active man- agement of the newspaper, going to New York to be with his son and daughter. His health did not improve, and on March 17, 1884, he died in New York City. His funeral occurred in Utica, and he was buried in Forest Hill cemetery. Mr. Grove married Caroline L. Pratt and had two children, Edwin B. and Mrs. Frank M. Gregory, both of whom are dead, and there remains no one who bears the name at the present time.
ELIJAH PRENTISS BAILEY was born in the, town of Manlius, near Fayette- ville, Onondaga county, N. Y., August 15, 1834, the eldest son of the Rev. Wes- ley and Eunice (Kinne) Bailey. He inherited an inclination toward news- paper work, for his father, although a Methodist minister, devoted the greater part of his life to newspaper work. In 1842 the Rev. Mr. Bailey removed with his family to Utica, where, at the request and with the support of Alvan Stewart and other prominent Abolitionists, he founded an Abolition paper known as the Liberty Press.
E. Prentiss Bailey's early education was received in a private school and in Hyde's Academy in Fayetteville; and after the family removed to Utica he attended the Advanced School and Barret's Latin Grammar School. At the
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age of 12 he left school and entered his father's office, there to learn the trade of printer. He remained in the office of the Liberty Press until 1853, when De Witt C. Grove, then the publisher of the Utica Daily Observer, offered him an opportunity in that office. At that time John B. Miller was editor of the paper. Mr. Bailey was reporter, telegraph editor and all 'round journalist in this office until in 1857 Mr. Miller was appointed by President Buchanan, United States consul at Hamburg. Mr. Bailey then assumed the duties that Mr. Miller had relinquished; and, a singular comparison between the newspaper of that day and the publication of to-day is offered in the fact that for a term of years he was practically the only man doing any of the strictly journalistic work on The Observer.
In 1867 he purchased an interest in the paper, and the firm of Grove & Bailey was formed-a relationship that continued for thirty years, lacking three months. In that same year he became the managing editor of the paper; and since 1883 has been the editor-in-chief. In 1883 the corporate name of the firm was changed to E. P. Bailey & Co., as it still remains.
Since that day in 1846 when he entered his father's office to learn the print- er's trade to the present time Mr. Bailey's interests and activities have been centered in the newspaper business; and he is to-day regarded as the dean of the profession. It is not probable that there is any other man in the country who has had so long a connection with one newspaper as Mr. Bailey has con- tinued with The Observer. Under his guidance it has come to be a recognized power among the Independent Democratic papers not only of the state, but of the country, and to his personality this is chiefly due. On the 9th of October, 1903, the employes of The Observer signalized the arrival of Mr. Bailey's fiftieth anniversary in the office by the presentation of a loving cup, the presentation speech being made by Isaac Ryals, pressman, whose term of service in the office somewhat exceeded that of Mr. Bailey himself. It is a point not impertinent to the subject of this sketch, as a commentary on the manner in which he, as editor and chief owner, has conducted the constantly growing business of the concern, that there is probably to be found nowhere in the city an office or factory where there are to-day so large a proportion of employes who can point back to ten, twenty, thirty, forty or fifty years of service as may be found in The Observer office. To the credit of Mr. Bailey's management it can be said that he has not bowed to any demand for cheap, corrupt or questionable pub- lications. His constant endeavor is to hold full high the standard of clean journalism, and to present to the public a newspaper worthy to be read around any fireside. As an editorial writer, in certain lines, Mr. Bailey has few equals in the country, and, perhaps, no superiors.
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