USA > New York > Monroe County > Rochester > History of Rochester and Monroe county, New York, from the earliest historic times to the beginning of 1907 > Part 25
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The next journal to be mentioned is the Roche- ester Democrat, which was the outgrowth of the Anti-Masonic Inquirer. The original name of that partisan paper, started by D. D. Stephenson in 1828, was the Balance, but it assumed its second title when it passed into the hands of Thurlow Weed and Samuel Heron a few months later. Mr. Weed retiring in 1830, the paper was con- ducted by Daniel N. Sprague until it was pur- chased in 1831 by Erastus Shepard, who brought the Western Spectator here from Palmyra und consolidated the two. A year later Alvah Strong came into it and it was published by Shepard & Strong until February, 1834, when they absorbe ) the National Republican and changed the name to the Daily Democrat, the weekly issue being known as the Monroe Democrat. The paper be- came recognized at onee as the organ in this sec- tion of the Whig party, which was formed in the year last named. and it was influential in securing the election of William H. Seward to the United States Senate in 1838 and the elevation of William Henry Harrison to the presidency two years later. In the meantime George Dawson was the editor for three years, after which he removed to Detroit. but came back in 1842 and again assumed edi-
torial control, purchasing at the same time Mr. Shepard's share of the business; in 1846 he sol-l to Henry Cook and Sammel P. Allen, the former becoming the editor, the latter the associate editor until he succeeded his chief on the death of the former and remained in that position till 1864. The Daily American was absorbed in December, 1857, the new title being the Democrat & Amer- ican, and the firm name, which before that had Leen Strong, Cook & Allen, becoming Strong. Al- Jen & Huntington; in 1864 William S. King, who had come here from Minneapolis, became the prin- cipal owner, and George S. Tuckerman was the editor for the rest of the year, till D. D. S. Brown purchased the paper at the beginning of 1865 and Robert Carter, a man of the most brilliant attain- ments and comprehensive knowledge, who was con- nected with Appleton's American Cyclopedia in the latter years of his life, beemne' the managing editor, remaining so for four years, when he was followed by Reuben D. Jones, W. D. Storey, Roz- siter Johnson and William A. Croffut, successively.
In the fall of 1870 the Daily Chronicle became merged in the older newspaper and the first num- ber of the consolidation appeared on the 1st cf December of that year, with the title of the Demo- crat & Chronicle, which it has retained ever since. Stephen C. Hutchins, of Albany, was the editor at the beginning, but he retired after two years and his place was taken by Joseph O'Connor, who filled it for nine months; then came Charles E. Fitch, who conducted the paper for several years, until he was appointed collector of internal revenue for this district ; he subsequently removed to Albany. where he has for some time been con- nected with the state department of education; the present writer is indebted to him for much of the information contained in this chapter, thu reminiscences of Edwin Serantom, to which al- lusion has been made earlier in the work, being the original source of most of the details in the primeval portion of the narrative. Mr. Fitch wa. succceled by Ernest R. Willard, who has con- tinued since then without intermission as the edi- tor-in-chief ; the others on the staff are Oliver S. Adams, managing editor; Samuel H. Love and J. 1 .. Kaine, editorial writers ; John Dennis, exchange editor; Leroy J. Bougner, telegraph editor; Mrs. Helen L. Sawin, dramatie critie : Homer A. Row- dl, financial editor ; John Burns, sporting editor :
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Allan C. Ross, correspondence editor; Morris Ad- him and doing much to promote the interests of ams, city editor; Curtis W. Barker, assistant city horse-racing; his daughter became Lady Randolph Churchill, the mother of the English Winston Churchill. editor, with the following as members of the rep- ortorial staff: William A. Miller, Oliver L. An- gevine, Augusta S. Anderson, Gardner B. Ellis, Frank S. Ellsworth, Louis F. Forster, James A. Murphy, Grace Waldo Hall and Richard H. Bar- rett. The newspaper is published by the Rochester Printing company, of which the president is W. HI. Mathews, the secretary and treasurer Nathan P. Pond. It has always been financially success- ful and it has a large circulation, particularly in the towns of Monroe and adjoining counties, of the correspondence from which it makes a spe- cialty.
The two principal journals mentioned in the above sketch as being united with the Democrat may as well be described here. The Rochester American had its first issue December 23d. 1844. It has been stated in some writings that Leonard W. Jerome was one of the original proprietors, but that must be a mistake, for the directory of 1845, which was got out in August of that year, gives his name as an attorney, in partnership with his uncle Hiram K. Jerome, Lawrence .R. Jerome, a younger brother, being a clerk in their office at that time. The paper was published at the outset by Josiah M. Patterson & Co., but the Jerome brothers, one after the other, went into the firm soon afterward and in a short time became the exclusive owners. The editor was Alexander Mann, who will be remembered, by those who can remember him at all, as a man of the utmost kind- ness of heart and thoughtfulness for the welfare of others, particularly of children, besides being well equipped in every way for the journalistic profession ; he left the paper in 1856 and removed to New York, where he was a writer on the Times until he had to yield to the ravages of consump- tion. Associated with him on the American were Dr. Daniel Lee. Reuben D. Jones and Chester P. Dewey, the last named becoming the editor on the retirement of Mr. Mann and remaining so till the absorption of the paper, when he, too, went to the metropolis and achieved an enviable reputation as editor of the New York Commercial Advertiser and afterward of the Brooklyn Union. The Jerome brothers also migrated thither and Leonard became prominent in the world of finance, of society and of sport, laying out the track that was named after
The Daily Chronicle owed its existence to onu of those factional quarrels that sometimes occur in political parties. Roswell Hart had been re- nominated by the Republicans as member of Con- gress in 1866, but there was a dissatisfied element that put up Lewis Selye as a bolting candidate. He was indorsed by the Democratic convention and elected, but after he had taken his seat there was no daily paper here with which his political relations were harmonious, so he started one in November, 1868, largely as a rival of the Demo- crat for the patronage that was considered one of the legitimate perquisites in those days. Ita editorial staff consisted at the outset of Charles S. Collins, William F. Peck (both of whom had been connected with the Democrat, the former as local editor for several years) and Henry C Daniels, who was taken from the Evening Ex- press ; they were joined soon afterward by Isaac M. Gregory, whose bright "Current Topics" in the journal earned for him more than local fame, and those four conducted the paper during the tw. years of its life. Unfortunately the enterprise did not prove profitable and Mr. Selye sold the Chron- icle to Freeman Clarke, who turned it over to the Democrat, the first combined issue appearing at the time stated.
In the autumn of 1859 Charles W. Hebard founded the Times, the name of which was pres- ently changed to the Evening Express, largely in the interest of the workingmen, the price being one cent a copy. In April of the following year three others joined the original proprietor, Fran- cis S. Rew, a veteran journalist, becoming the edi- tor-in-chief, Clark D. Tracy the business manager and William H. Beach superintendent of the job 100m. Becoming then decidedly Republican its price was raised to two cents, the size of the sheet being enlarged at the same time, and a year later the influence of the new paper was greatly strengthened by the addition of William J. Fow- ler as a political writer. The Wilder brothers --- A. Carter, who had been a member of Congress from the state of Kansas and who afterward be- came mayor of this city, and D). Webster-pur- chased a half interest in the Express in 1865, and
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during the campaign of the following year a morning as well as an evening edition was pub- lished, mainly to advance the interests of Roswell Hart in his congressional struggle. The attempt was unsuccessful and the experiment was unre- munerative, so it was abandoned at the end of the year and the Wilders withdrew from the concern shortly afterward. Until 1874 the paper was pub- lished by Tracy & Rew, but in that year a stock company was formed, consisting of those two with the addition of George H. Ellwanger and William C. Crum, the last named selling out in a short time. So it continued for eight years, when the establishunent was purchased by a syndicate, the name being changed to the Post Express, Daniel T. Hunt becoming the business manager, Mr. Rew retiring at the same time and Mr. Ellwanger be- coming the managing editor, with George W Buck as editorial writer and Albert P. Blair as assistant editorial writer. In a few months Mr. Ellwanger also withdrew and George T. Lanigan, a brilliant and versatile writer who had been oa the staff of the New York World, Wweame the edi- tor-in-chief, the force being strengthened at about the same time by the addition of Isaac D. Mar- shall, William H. Samson, George S. Crittenden and others,
Mr. Lanigan, having occupied the editorial chair for a year, was succeeded by Isaac II. Bromley, one of the most accomplished of journalists; then came William Mill Butler, .then Joseph O'Connor, in 1886, at which time the paper became more independent in politics, though still with Republic- an leanings. Two more reorganizations of the company were effected, one in 1889 and another in 1894, when the property passed into the hands of William S. Kimball and associates, with Louis Wiley us business manager for some time. A lit- tle later William H. McElroy, previously of the New York Tribune, was the editor for a brief pre- riod. The journal is now issued by the Post. Ex- press Printing company, publishers of the Post Express and the Farm Stock Journal. The presi- dent is Francis B. Mitchell, the secretary Harold C. Kimball and the treasurer W. G. Mitchell; the managing editor is William II. Samson, the lit- erary editor Joseph O'Connor; the assistant edi- tors are Jacob A. Hoekstra, John A. Hilhard, J. Redfern Mason, Mrs. N. Hudson Moore, Ralph T. Olcott and George C. Bragdon; news editor.
Frank G. Patchin ; city editor, James B. Hopkins; telegraph editors, F. T. Harris and Louis A. Es- son ; commercial editor, Richard Atkins; Albany correspondent, Willard A. Marakle; reportoria. staff, Arthur E. Partridge, Hugh Pendexter, A. J. Goheen, John E. Burgess, A. E. Crockett, C. Frank Mirick, Harold II. Moore, Clarence A. Lit- tle. E. Viue Stoddard, jr., Joseph 1 .. O'Connor. The paper maintains a very high literary standard and is a repository of local antiquarian informa- tion.
On the 5th of August, 1879, the Morning Her- ald made its first appearance. It was started by a stock company, of which Samuel D. Lee was the president, Frank T. Skinner the secretary and treasurer. Mr. Læe was from the beginning the managing editor, with Samnel H. Lowe as editor- in-chief, and they held, respectively, those posi- tions for thirteen years, as did Jacob A. Hoek- stra (who succeeded C. Smith Benjamin after the first three months) that of city editor. The of- fices of the newspaper were at first in Smith's Arcade (the old Irving Hall block) and the printing was done on the same press with the Sunday Morning Herald, though the two journais had no other connection with each other, except the very great similarity of name. Within three years the daily had become sufficiently prosperous to warrant it in moving into quarters of its own in the building on Exchange street which it still occupies, the change being accentuated by the use of a Scott perfecting press built expressly for the company. Soon thereafter it enlarged the sheet to an eight-page form and began the publication of a Sunday edition, so that for nearly ten years readers and advertisers were perplexed by the is- suance of two entirely different papers on the Sab hath that were called by substantially the same name. In 1892 & new company took possession of it, Erickson Perkins being the principal owner, and the editorial force was changed, John B. Howe, previously of Utica, becoming the chief editor, Franklin P. Smith (whose demise a few years ago was a loss to journalism) the associate and managing editor and Robert K. Beach the city editor : at the same time Louis M. Antisdale became the business manager, the journal was made distinctly Democratic in politics and the name was changed by dropping out the word
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Morning, so that it has been since then the Roch- poration of the Evening Times company, it is ester Herald.
A few years later it again changed hands, pas --- ing into those of a corporation, of which the prin- cipal stockholders were, and are still, the officers, as follows: John David, president; William G. David, treasurer ; Louis M. Anlisdale, secretary Mr. Antisdale is the editor-in-chief and the staff includes Howard S. Ruddy and William G. David, associate editorial writers; Edgar F. Edwards, city and dramatic editor; Chester F. Craigie, assist- ant city editor ; Harry C. Goodwin, Sunday editor ; Donald T. Fraser, telegraph editor ; David L. Hill, vicinity news editor ; Alexander C. Sullivan, sport- ing news editor, and these reporters: Charles B Stillson, Everett E. Swain, Smuel Persky, Clar- enep J. Albert, Wilton S. Farnsworth, John E Mabie, William A. Scarle, Carl E. Seager, Lily 1. Gracey. The Herald has a wide influence in this section of the state among people of ali classes. It retains its allegiance to Democratie principles, though it shows its independent spirit by sometimes advocating the election of opposing candidates, still oftener by refusing to support those of its own party, and it is eminently fair in its treatment of all national questions.
The youngest of the Rochester dailies started under the name of the Appeal, a five-commun, four- page paper, which was put on the streets November 7th, 1887. It was simply the mouthpiece of the striking printers of that time, and one-half of it- spare in that issue was devoted to a statement of what they considered their grievances and a presen- tation of their side of the case. Its sales. at on? cent a copy, were so great that its continuation, which was not originally intended, was determined upon, and just a week later the Times appeared. which, with Louis A. Esson as editor and F. S. Reid as associate writer, was for some time struck off on an old flat bed press in a printing office on South avenne. With several successive changes of ownership under different corporations, involving the alteration of the name to the Daily Times, then to the Rochester Times and finally, on Murch Ist, 1889, to the Evening Times, which is its present title, it passed on October 1st, 1901, into the hands of John E. Morey and S. Powell Puffer. by whom, with the subsequent addition of Guy W. Ellis, Howard . W. Shannon and William Thomp- son to the directorate of stockholders in the cor-
now published. From South avenue its quarters were soon moved to the Beehive building on Aque- Anet street. then to 42 Main street East, and last- ly, on October 1st, 1901, to 36 State street, where they still remain, these varions changes all indi- cating an increase of prosperity, as shown by the purchase of perfecting presses and the gradual enlargement of the sheet until it reached its present size of seven columns to the page. Since reaching the age of six months it has taken the telegraphie dispatches of the Press News asso- ciation. In July, 1890, the experiment of a Sun- day edition was tried, but it was not remunerative and was given up within two years. The staff as now constituted consists of S. Powell Puffer, edi- tor : Elwin J. Webster, associate editor ; Roy Ches- ter Kates, managing editor: Charles H. Wright, city editor : Frank A. Wood, Western New York «litor: William H. Mangan, sporting editor ; Bern- ard Joseph Haggarty, Albany representative, and the following reporters: Clark II. Quinn, Allan Manzer Franklin, Harry Jerome Dodgson and Walter A. Stewart. The Times has a very wide circulation and is regarded not so much as the organ of any political party as an advocate of the rights of the people.
The first German newspaper in this city was the Allgemeine Handelsblatt.started in 1848, which lived but a short time, the next being the Anzeiger des Nordens, which ran as a weekly and tri-weekly for nine years, with Lonis Hurz as editor, begin- ning in 1852. Established in the same year was the Beobachter am Genesee, published as a weekly, with Rev. Mr. Haass as editor, and afterward pro- prietor; it was sold in 1856, when it became a distinctly Republican organ, to Adolph Nolte, who had been the editor for the previous year and who then dropped the last two words of the title, mak- ing it a daily in 1864 and enlarging it in 1873. In 1883 its individual existence came to an end for it was then merged with the Abendpost, which had been established the year before by Julius Stoll as an independent paper, with Herman Pfaefflin as editor; for several years the Abend- post und Beobachter was edited by Messrs. Pfaef- flin and Nolte, until the death of the latter, short- ly after which the former retired. In 1853 W 1 .. Kurtz began the publication of the Rochester Volksblatt as a Democratic paper. it being the
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daily edition of the Anzeiger; after several changes of ownership it came into the possession of Louis W. Brandt, who continued as editor and proprietor until his death in July, 1881. For two years his widow carried it on, after which it was owned and edited for more than ten years by Dr. Edward H. Makk, an experienced journalist who had come to the city shortly before that. Several other Ger- man papers were published during the period that we have been considering, of which the longest- lived was Von Nah und Fern, a weekly, from 1874 to 1878. In 1889 the Deutsche Zeitung appeared as a weekly and continued so till February, 1899, when it became a daily, with Andrew Piehler as publisher and editor. On March Ist, 1902, it was merged with the Abendpost und Beobachter, and on that day the name of the consolidation was shortened into the Abendpost, which has thus ab- sorbed all the other German papers in Rochester and is found sufficient to supply the daily and semi-weekly pabulum of the fifty thousand Ger- mans who are residents of the city. It is issued by the Rochester German Publishing company, of which Julius Stoll is the general manager. The editorial staff is composed of Julius Loos, editor ; Carl Dannhauser, city editor; Miss Flora Stoll. telegraph editor. and Herman Kocher, associate editor.
The sixteen thousand Italians who are located here, more or less permanently, feel that they must have a weekly to keep them in touch with the sunshine that they have left at home, so the Corriere di Rochester is published for their bene- fit. The Dutch, too, though there are not many of them. have a paper of their own, Oud Holland, also a weekly.
While there are at present no separate Sunday newspapers in this city, it was the successive and continuous publication of those journals that final- ly compelled both the morning dailies-one of them, at least, with great reluctance-to put out a regular edition on that day. The first one of the kind was the Sunday News Letter, published and edited by Charles S. Collins just after the merger of the Chronicle (of which he had been the editor) with the Democrat in December. 1820: before a year had gone by he went to Troy to as- sume the editorship of the Times, and that was the end of the News Letter. Its place was almost immediately filled by the Sunday Times, started by
William S. Foster, which went through many rapid changes, its longest term of stability being when it was in the hands of William F. Peck and Henry C. Daniels as editors and proprietors. Cy- rus D. Phillips bought in and then Abram E. Wollf in 1878, when its name was changed to the Sunday Tribune; after that Clifton & Marshall ran it for a little while and then Flannery & Hill; its existence terminated in 1882. Dolphus S. Barber and C. Smith Benjamin began the publicn- tion of the Sunday Morning Herald December 31. 18;6; a little later the latter retired, Joseph L Luckey buying in and being the editor for several years; the paper, which was always independent in politics, was discontinued in 1894. The Sunday Truth was lagun in Isso and was conducted for a few years by Hume II. Cale in the interest of the labor element.
Of journals connected with the agricultural in- terests there have been a goodly number, more in former years than there are at present. Of theac the first was the Genesee Farmer, a weekly, es- tablished in 1830 by Luther Tucker & Co. and edited by Naaman Goodsell ; nine years later Mr. Tucker removed it to Albany and united it with the Cultivator, but this only caused the appear- ance of the New Genesee Farmer, which was start- ed by Elihu F. Marshall and Michael B. Bateham, the latter being the editor. After many changes it became the property of Daniel D. T. Moore, afterward mayor of the city, with Dr. Daniel Lee as editor and Patrick Barry as conductor of the horticultural department; some years later Joseph Harris became the proprietor and edited it with marked ability till he sold it to Orange Judd, who removed it to New York and made it a part of the American Agriculturist. From 1850 to 1868 Moore's Rural New Yorker, owned and edited by D. D. T. Moore, exerted a wide influence not only on necount of its large circulation but because of its high literary character : in the last-named year it was taken down to New York and published there. Fleeting periodicals of a similar nature need not be mentioned in detail, and it will be sufficient to state the principal ones now in exist- ence, as the Farm Stock Journal-already alluded to in connection with the Post Express -- Green's Fruit Grower and Home Companion, Vick's Fami- ly Magazine and the National Nurseryman.
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A few words must be said with regard to re- cf particular professions, trades or callings. Per- ligious journalism, in which field the first appear- haps the labor reform journals might seem to call for some description, although they also were evanescent, many of them coming into existence for the furtherance of some particular object and expiring when that had been obtained or had been shown to be hopeless of accomplishment. To say nothing of those previously referred to in other connections, the leading papers of this character were the Workingman's Advocate, started in 1839; the National Reformer, in 1848; the Rochester Mechanic, in 1875; the Striker, in 1877; the In- dependent Worker, in 1878, and the Laborer's Ad- vocate, in 1882. The present representative of that class is the Labor Journal. ance was that, in 1827, of the Observer, a semi- monthly, edited by Rev. Mr. Sill ; its life was not long, for after being sold in 1832 to Hoyt & Por- ter its subscription list was soon transferred by them to the New York Evangelist. The Genesze Evangelist endured for a longer season, even for thirteen years; having been originated in 1846 by Rev. John E. Robie, and noteworthy as being the first religious weekly in the United States to be published for one dollar a year, it finally went the way of so many of its associates, being re- moved to New York in 1859. Those were the principal, though by no means all, of the peri- odicals not avowedly devoted to the interests of The foregoing sketch has not been intended to be complete; the writer has not attempted to cover the ground with absolute thoroughness or to men- tion even all the periodicals that were quite popular in their day, such as the Gem and Ladies' Amulet, published by Edwin Serantom in the early thirties, but, rather, to state with accuracy what facts are given and to take a comprehensive view of journal- Ism in Rochester. any one denomination. Of that class there have been, from first to last, a very large number, none of them permanent in their nature and not re- quiring specific mention. The same is true of the host of pamphlets issued, to be sure, at stated in- tervals, the organs of various charities, such 8+ the hospitals and the orphan asylums, and the still larger number of those committed to the interests
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