History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York, Part 64

Author: Peirce, H. B. (Henry B.) cn; Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Ensign
Number of Pages: 1112

USA > New York > Chemung County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 64
USA > New York > Schuyler County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 64
USA > New York > Tioga County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 64
USA > New York > Tompkins County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 64

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

and the Hunkers, and the contest between William Maxwell and Samuel Young. The paper went with the Whig party for Maxwell and against Young, and had the satisfaction of standing with the victors for the first time in the local po- litical contests in the county. In the fall of 1846, Mr. Maxwell was nominated by the Hunkers for member of Assembly, and, pursuing the same policy as before, the Whigs made no nomination, but gave their votes to Mr. Maxwell, and he was elected, defeating the Barnburner candidate, Solomon L. Smith, of Southport, by a majority of about one hundred votes. The Whig share in the spoils of this victory was the election of William T. Lawrence to Congress, who was voted for by the Hunkers, defcating John W. Wisner, the leader and candidate of the Barn- burners. The first daily paper ever published in Elmira was the Elmira Daily Republican, commenced by S. B. & C. G. Fairman, June 1, 1846, and discontinued August 5, of the same year. It was a five-column paper, sold at $3.50 a year, and had a list of one hundred and twenty-five sub- scribers. It was the outgrowth of a mania which existed in those days for daily papers in country villages, arising from the recent invention and establishment of the telegraph. The Mexican war had just commenced, and there was great anxiety for news. There was no telegraph to Elmira, the nearest point of such communication being Geneva or Rochester.

Besides the Elmira Daily Republican, daily papers were thus established in the villages of Auburn, Geneva, Lock- port, Ithaca, and many other places. The Auburn Daily Advertiser was the only one which maintained an existence and became an established institution. In the spring of 1846, S. B. Fairman sold his interest in the Republican to C. G. Fairman, by whom it was continued until Jan. 1, 1850, when Lathrop Baldwin, Jr., became a partner with him. The firm of Fairman & Baldwin continued until Jan. 1, 1853, when Mr. Fairman retired, and was suc- ceeded by R. R. R. Dumars, the firm being Baldwin & Dumars. In September, 1851, the daily edition was re- sumed, and was maintained until the paper ceased to exist, somewhere about the year 1857. In 1855, during the Know-Nothing epidemic, the Republican broke loose from its Whig moorings and espoused the doctrines of the Know- Nothing organization. Mr. Dumars retired and Hovey E. Lowman bought his interest. For some time the firm was Baldwin & Lowman, and afterwards Hovey E. Lowman alone. In the deeline of the Know-Nothing party the paper was bought by Andrew H. Calhoun & Son, but the once powerful Know-Nothing party, which had promised to do so much for it, had brought it to the door of death. Its political inistake was a fatal one, and it could not recover the ground it had lost. And thus when the Know-Nothing party died, this once powerful and popular political organ died with it. It was upon this paper, in the years 1853 and 1854, that the brilliant but erratic young journalist O. R. Burdick, familiarly known as Sparks, flourished most largely in Elmira. He was connected with the press here at brief periods and sundry other times, but never with any special success. Elias S. Huntley, one of the early proprietors of the Republican, is yet living in Elmira, and has been for some time in the employ of the Daily Adver-

242

HISTORY OF TIOGA, CHEMUNG, TOMPKINS,

tiser as city collector. Alvah S. Carter is also still resident here, but has not been engaged in the newspaper trade since he severed his connection with the Republican, in 1843, except as he may have occasionally worked at the case in different offices. William Polleys, since some time in 1852, has been the publisher of the Waverly Advocate. Ran- dall W. Wells is engaged in farming in Vermont. Florus B. Plimpton, who was at one time engaged in editorial work on the Republican, has been for some time an editor on the Cincinnati Commercial. Lathrop Baldwin, Jr., was killed while bravely fight- ing the battles of his country during the Rebellion. Hovey E. Lowman died many years ago at Che- mung.

In January, 1847, a paper was established called the Chemung Democrat, by L. J. Bush. Mr. Bush had been a clerk in a dry-goods store, and his pre- dilections for Hunker polities led him to do a little scribbling for the Republican in opposition to the Barnburners. So when the Hunker Icaders came to establish this paper in opposition to the Gazette, they installed Mr. Bush as managing man and cditor. The paper had a hard row to hoe during its some- what brief existence, though it was the representa- tive of a powerful political faction, embracing among its leaders such men as Lyman Covell, Timothy S. Satterlee, and Samuel G. Hathaway. Mr. Bush re- mained with the paper perhaps-a year, when David Fairchild took it, and it was for some time in the hands of that gentleman and his son, F. Orville Fair- child. It then became the property of Julius Tay- lor, who, in 1851, issued a daily edition. About that time the Burrs-C. Chauncey Burr, Herman Burr, and Celia M. Burr-shot athwart the literary and newspaper sky of El- mira, and lit down on the Daily Democrat bag and baggage. They gave out that great things were about to happen. They were to introduce steam-power presses. They were to print a newspaper which would rival the metropolitan dailies in ability and value. There had never been any- thing to equal the Burrs in Elmira before. Well, they took Mr. Taylor in and tucked him under the table. They put themselves at the front. They changed the name of the paper to the Daily Karlon, which, since nobody under- stood what it was, or what it meant, was accepted as an evidence that the Burrs were really wiser than anybody else. But somewhow the public stubbornly refused to buy the Karlon any more freely than they had bought the Democrat, and the fortune which the Burrs saw in their great reputations on a daily paper in Elmira vanished from sight. In a short time the whole thing played out, and about December, 1851, the Karlon died, and the Burrs have not stuck to anything in Elmira since.

Next in point of historical order comes the Elmira Ad- vertiser. The third day of November, 1853, saw the first small beginnings of this now widely-circulated and influ- ential newspaper. It was purely a business venture, having no reference either to politics or other controverted questions. Its projectors and publishers, the Fairman Brothers-Sey- mour B. and Charles G. Fairman-were quietly and modestly doing a little job-printing in a little room over the shoe-

store of Stephen McDonald, on Water Street, and they conceived the idea that they might advertise their own business, and at the same time make it pay by advertising the business of others. On that day they issued the little shect of four pages,-three narrow columns to the page, the whole considerably smaller than the pages of " Web-

Photo. by Van Aken.

Charles G. Fairsuam.

ster's Unabridged Dictionary." It had no subscription price, but was circulated free, its revenues being derived from its advertisements. One thousand copies, honest measure, were printed and circulated every day. Every- body in those days came to town in wagons, and the streets were literally full of all manner of vehicles. Water Street and Lake Street were lined with teams from one end to the other, and these, like the old Dutch houses in Albany, had their gable ends away from the sidewalks, so that when one undertook to drive another team through the centre of the street great care was necessary to keep from raking the hind wheels of whole regiments of wagons. To go along this line of double-breasted vehicles, and through their agency to secure the introduction of this little adver- tising sheet into families all over the county and beyond, was the mission of those faithful first carriers, Elihu Car- ter and George Ells. The paper was called Fairman's Daily Advertiser, and that was precisely what it was, neither inore nor less. It had editorials, and it had opinions, but it belonged to no party or faction. It was in theory and in fact thoroughly independent. It accomplished its purpose. It advertised the business of the publishers, and gave them the leading position as job-printers. On the 8th of February, 1854, the name of the paper was changed to Elmira Daily Advertiser, enlarged to five columns on a page, with corresponding increase in length, and offered to the public at the price of $4 a year. At the end of that year, Dec. 31, 1854, the edition in that form was discon- tinued, and the original plan of a free advertising sheet

243

AND SCHUYLER COUNTIES, NEW YORK.

resumed, there being also a weekly edition at $1 a year. In about six weeks, or Feb. 19, 1855, the regular daily paper was again issued, and has been continued without interruption since. In June, 1855, the paper was enlarged to six columns. In subsequent years it was enlarged, first to seven, then to eight, and finally to nine columns, its present size. In 1865, as soon as the Western Union Telegraph extended its lines to Elmira, it became a mem- ber of the Associated Press, and from that date began its large circulation over the adjoining counties of Steuben, Allegany, Cattaraugus, Schuyler, Yates, Tompkins, and Tioga, in New York, and Bradford, Tioga, Potter, and Ly- coming, in Pennsylvania. In December, 1855, Colonel F. A. De Voe became interested in the business affairs of the office, and continued in such connection until 1864, when Luther Caldwell, with C. G. Fairman, became the proprietors. In 1868, following the death of S. B. Fairman, James S. Thurston became a partner in the concern, and remained such until the organization of the Advertiser Association, in October, 1870, by which it has since been published. The officers of the Association are as follows : President, Charles G. Fairman ; Superintendent and Treasurer, R R. R. Dumars; Secretary, Ausburn Towner. Trustces : C. G. Fairman, R. R. R. Dumars, J. T. Rathbun, E. N. Frisbie, J. I. Nicks, G. L. Smith, I. F. Hart, Ausburn Towner, H. D. V. Pratt. Editor, C. G. Fairman ; Asso- ciate Editor, I. F. Hart; City Editor, Seymour Copeland ; News Editor, J. K. Fairman. The opportunity which gave the Advertiser its original position and influence was the organization of the Republican party. Its beginning was contemporaneous with that event, the decline of the Know- Nothing party, and the abandonment of the Whig party. It became naturally the successor of the old Elmira Re- publican as the representative of the opposition to the Democratic party. It promptly espoused the Republican cause, and has been the recognized representative of that party continuously since. In the historical sketch of El- mira and Chemung Valley, published in the city directory for 1868, is the following reference to the Daily Advertiser, from which we quote : " Like all newspapers, the Advertiser has seen its dark, anxious, financial days, but happily, by tlie timely interposition of some good, live genius, it was able to weather the most desperate emergencies ; and now, established on a firm basis, it is the best-paying paper in the Southern Tier. The Advertiser is a living illustration of the growth and progress of the city. Dating its ex- istence only to 1853, since then it has advanced by equal strides with the city prosperity, favored as that has been favored, or momentarily depressed as that has been de- pressed. The war developed a new necessity, which has since become the marked feature of the paper, namely, the daily publishing of news by telegraph from all parts of the world. At first an arrangement was made with the Erie Railway Company to get the most important night dis- patches sent to the New York Associated Press. This was im perfectly accomplished, according to the state or use of the wires and the varying intelligence of operators, but the idea was a great advance on the old style of no news at all, except that which was stale or two days old. This ac- complished, only whetted the appetite for something better.

It was an uncertainty, but the proprietors of the paper dared to risk the venturesome undertaking,-to enlarge to greater dimensions and join the New York Associated Press. After some opposition on the part of newspapers whose circulation would thereby suffer some interference, the privilege was granted by the payment of the usual initiation fec for a morning daily paper, $3500."

Speaking of Mr. S. B. Fairman, this account says, "To him the Advertiser owed most for a wise foresight and eco- nomical management during its later years. His organiza- tion and financial system in conducting a daily paper has been almost reduced to perfection. It was his delight to study out improved methods and put them in actual appli- cation. By his enterprise the Advertiser was enlarged to its present dimensions (1868), since which it has taken on a new life and vigor, and has largely increased its circula- tion, although at an unpropitious season for trade and busi- ness. It never attained so high a position of influence as now,-never did it have an equal number of paying sub- scribers, and a list showing constant daily additions."

Mr. S. B. Fairman, one of the founders of the Daily Advertiser, died in 1868, from the effects of injuries re- ceived at the Carr's Rock disaster on the Erie Railway. Colonel F. A. De Voe, for many years connected with the paper in a business capacity, as also with the Elmira Gazette, is still a resident of the city, a dignified gentleman of the olden school, respected for his virtues, and honored for his life of patriotism and usefulness. Mr. M. Ells, now of Watkins, in the early days of the Advertiser, was connected for some time with its editorial department, doing vigorous and effective work. Samuel C. Taber, Esq., was city editor from 1868 to 1872; in which capacity he acquired a wide reputation as a paragraphist, and for the possession of those peculiar and popular newspaper qualities which are intuitive and not taught in the schools. We have known a great many heavy writers who were trained in the colleges, but the bright paragraphs and the sparkling humor of the Press come only of early contact with the ink-tub and the lye-brush. Mr. Horton Tidd, who for many years was an editorial writer on the Gazette, is now, we believe, at Mon- ticello, Sullivan Co., which was his place of residence before coming to Elmira. William C. Rhodes removed to New York, but died at Clinton Prison, of which he was agent and warden, a few years since. Irad Beardsley went to Cleveland, O., over thirty years ago, and was for many years connected with the Cleveland Plaindealer. If living, he is probably still in that establishment. Horace E. Purdy is now the editor and publisher of the Free Press in this city. Since his brief connection with the Gazette in 1840- 41, he has had a varicd and extensive experience in the newspaper line. In large towns and small, in strong papers and in weak ones, in the East and in the West, he has been thoroughly through the mill. His knowledge of ths news- papers, and of the prominent men of the country, local as well as State and national, is hardly surpassed. His memory is tenacious, and his opportunities have been great. He is regarded as the printer's encyclopædia. He seems now to have adopted his starting-place as his final home. Cyrus Pratt was in Elmira some fifteen or cighteen years ago, employed in the mechanical department of the Daily Ad-

244

HISTORY OF TIOGA, CHEMUNG, TOMPKINS,

vertiser. Brinton Paine, after his retirement from the Gazette, for a long time conducted a drug-store in this city. He dicd some twenty-five years ago. Thomas Maxwell, full of honors and of years, has also long since passed away. Of the two chief pioneers in Elmira journalism, -Ransom Birdsall and Job A. Smith, -little beyond the fact that they lived and printed newspapers is known. They both sleep beneath the clods of the valley. If these old veterans, who printed "at least four hundred copics weekly," werc, like Rip Van Winkle, to wake up and come back again, they would find much to surprise them. We have a dream that in the " sweet byc and bye" other men are yet to live who will look back upon the present, of which we boast so much, with the same feeling that it was the day of small things as we now peer into the past, and speak of the puny efforts of our pioneer predecessors. If what is here put upon record shall furnish the men of the future with the evidence that there was progress among the ancients, and that ac- cording to the light they had they did as well as they could, it is quite as much justice and consideration as can reason- ably be expected from a people who never saw us and who will only know us through the mist of history. Let us hope they will give us the credit, which always belongs to the fathers, of having lived in a pure age. It will be the only consolation for us, as it is for our fathers, as an offset for the misfortune that they didn't know much.

The Horseheads Philosopher was established April 5, 1855, by Samuel C. Taber. It was one of the most sprightly and charming weckly papers ever published in the county. It was independent in politics and religion, with a strong squinting toward Hindooism, as the Know-Nothings were then called. In 1856 it became an adherent of the Demo- cratic party, supporting James Buchanan for President. In 1857, when William C. Rhodes was elected inspector of State prisons, it was consolidated with Elmira Gazette, of which paper Mr. Taber then assumed the management.

The Chemung County Republican was established at Horscheads in 1856, by William T. Hastings. It was under the editorial management of Mr. A. M. Wightman. It was afterwards under the editorial conduct of Florus B. Plimpton, also for some time of William Dowling. About 1858 it was discontinued and consolidated with the Elmira Weekly Advertiser.

The Elmira Daily Press was established on the 30th day of May, 1859, by R. R. R. Dumars, P. C. Van Gelder, and James H. Paine. It was independent in politics, and was established strictly as a business venture. It met with indifferent success under different publishers, and was finally, some time in 1874, merged with the Daily Gazette.

The Saturday Evening Review was issued by Wheeler & Watts, March 13, 1869. It was non-political, with literary ambitions. R. M. Watts, Managing Editor ; Ira F. Hart, Associate. It was an cight-page paper, about the size of the New York Ledger. It was printed on finc paper, with clean new type, and presented a very elegant appearance. It was the idea of R. M. Watts. The paper was quite popular with the people, and was accorded a liberal support in Elmira. But it was an expensive paper, and being devoted to literary purposes, it failed to receive a patronage which made its continuance desirable. At the

end of a year Mr. Watts retired, and Mr. Wheeler con- tinued the publication for six months, and then the enter- prise was abandoned. In reference to it, after its discon- tinuance, Mr. T. K. Beecher said, "Sweet literary sister, thou art too fair for this rude city; too costly in thy apparel for our small finances."

The Husbandman was established August 19, 1874, by an association of farmers connected with the Elmira Farmers' Club. Charles Heller, Esq., is the president of the association, and William A. Armstrong and Jonas S. Van Duzer are the editors. The paper is in the interest of the farming community, is ably managed, and has met with gratifying success as a business venture. Its circula- tion is general, and extends into various States of the Union. One of its chief fcatures is the weekly publication of the discussions of the Elmira Farmers' Club. These are regularly reported, very fully and completely, by Wil- liam A. Armstrong, the secretary of the Club, whose work in that respect has not only been remarkably well done, but of great benefit both to the Club and the farming community everywhere.

The Horseheads Journal was first issued April 16, 1858, by W. E. & H. A. Giles, and by them published about a year. It was re-started by Clizbe & Hinton some time in 1866. Mr. Clizbe left in a few weeks, and the paper was continued irregularly for about three years. It was first an independent paper, but afterwards became Republican. It was purchased by Thomas J. Taylor, Sept. 15, 1869, and has been regularly published by him since that time. Under Mr. Taylor's management it was until last fall a Republican paper. Since then it has been published as an organ of the Greenback party. In August of the present year it was removed to Elmira, and its name changed to Chemung County Greenbacker. Mr. Taylor is a veteran in the newspaper business, having published a paper at Havana, in what is now Schuyler County, as far back as 1840.

The Horseheads Free Press was established May 9, 1873, by Horace E. Purdy. It is a Democratic sheet. January 1, 1878, it was removed to Elmira, and is now printed here, retaining a habitation also at Horseheads. The large experience of Mr. Purdy as a newspaper man has been elsewhere referred to.

There was a paper printed in Horseheads for a short time, about the year 1836, by J. Taylor Brodt. It was called the Chemung County Patriot and Central Advocate. At that time, when the old county of Tioga was divided and Chemung County was erected, there was a sharp rivalry between Elmira and Horseheads for the honor of the county-seat. At this distance of time it may scem to have been an unequal contest. But it was not. Elmira was then but a rural village at one side of the county, while Horseheads was almost the geographical centre. There were no railroads, and a difference of a few miles was of essential consequence. This paper was established to advance the interests of Horseheads in that contest, which having been finally decided against that village, the paper was discontinued.

There was also for a short time, and at spasmodic inter- vals, some half-dozen years ago, a little paper printed at

245

AND SCHUYLER COUNTIES, NEW YORK.

Van Ettenville. It hardly, however, got sufficient standing to be accorded a place in history.

The American's Own was the title of a large nine-column weekly issued for a short time in Elmira during the Know- Nothing epidemic. It was published by the then pro- prietors of the Elmiru Republican, and was edited by " One of 'Em." Its career was brief, not excceding thrce or four months. It was a great deal easier for that party, during its brilliant and conquering existence, to get votes than it was to sustain newspapers.

The Daily Bazoo was issued in the fall of 1877, by E. C. George. It was the advocate of the Labor Reform movement, succeeding the great strikes of that year. It was a very small sheet, and sold for a penny. In the spring of the present year it was considerably enlarged, and the name changed to Evening IIerald. It was unable, how- ever, to get a paying patronage, and was continued only a few weeks.

The Sunday Times is the title of a paper established near the beginning of 1878, by Mr. D. T. Daly, and is still issued by him. There had been two or three previous attempts to issue Sunday papers, but none seemed to get a foothold until the appearance of the Times.

The Leader was a weekly paper, issued in February, 1874, by an association of which James S. Thurston was the principal manager. It was the impulse of a political interest in the Republican party antagonistic to the Daily Advertiser. It did not meet with success, and something over a year ago was discontinued.

The Chemung County Journal, a weekly newspaper, was established March 2, 1875, by Frederick Wagner. It has recently been discontinued. It was printed in the German language, and its circulation confined, of course, almost exclusively to citizens of that nationality.

The Elmira Enterprise, monthly, printed and published by Miss Libbie Adams, a young lady of fifteen summers, belongs probably to the class of amateur journals, but is worthy of mention here. It was first issued in January, 1874. The young lady sets the type, prints the paper, edits and distributes it herself. Her cheery voice and greeting as she leaves it at the doors of her numerous and kind subscribers make her many warm friends throughout the city. With quite remarkable energy, judgment, and ambition, she has sustained this worthy enterprise for several years.

Aqua Gloria is the name of a little sheet published six times a year by Dr. Wales, of the Water-Cure. It is devoted to the purposes of that institution. It has a large and general circulation throughout the country. Its first issue was made Feb. 1, 1874.

The Sybil is a paper issued quarterly by the young ladies of the Elmira Female College. It is similar in character to collegiate papers issued by the under-graduates of other institutions of learning.

The Bistoury is a quarterly, issued in magazine form, published by Dr. T. S. Up De Graff. It has a large circu- lation throughout the country generally. At one time it mounted up to 22,000. It is devoted to purposes of health and medical topics generally, with special reference to sur- gery and diseases of the eye and ear. Its several depart-

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York, Part 64

Author: Peirce, H. B. (Henry B.) cn; Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Ensign Number of Pages: 1112

Author: Peirce, H. B. (Henry B.) cn; Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Ensign
Number of Pages: 1112