USA > New York > Warren County > History of Warren County [N.Y.] with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 33
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281
THE COUNTY PRESS.
which this paper soon attained; and the evanescence of the same from the rapid falling off from this encouraging number until the enterprise was pronounced a failure. In August, 1848, while its prosperity was most flattering, the issue was made weekly. On the 29th of November, 1849, T. J. Strong purchased the entire interest and led it through its feeble career to the close, in May, 1853. In 1845-46-47, an annual, or occasional paper, called The Token, was published by the pupils of the Glens Falls Academy.
Zabina Ellis reappears in January, 1851, as the purchaser of the Clarion. Installing his brother-in-law, William Rogers, in the editorial department, and changing the name of the paper to the Glens Falls Free Press, Ellis conse- crated the regenerated sheet to the interests of the Whig party. At the end of the year Rogers, who had conducted the editorial work with signal ability, was superseded by Ellis himself. In 1854 the paper wheeled into the ranks of the new Know Nothing party, and remained its champion while the party remained a palpable fact.
The next effort at attaining newspaper fame in Warren county was made in 1859 by John A. Bentley, a young lawyer, who hired the press and type of the Glens Falls Free Press, and with Edwin Pike for publisher, issued No. I, Vol. I, of a politico-religious paper called the Free Press. Four numbers of this paper were published, and Zabina Ellis resumed the management.
The Free Press establishment burned in the great fire of 1864. Mr. Ellis, having enlisted in the Twenty-second Regiment and been transferred to the Seventy-sixth, he was not at the time of the fire acting as its editor. The pa- per was never resuscitated.
On January Ist, 1847, the Warrensburgh Annual was first published at Saratoga Springs, under the editorial management of William B. Farlin. B. C. Butler, the founder of the Warren County Agricultural Society, was the lead- ing spirit of this new enterprise, but Dudley Farlin was the responsible editor. It was short-lived.
Returning to the Republican, we find that in May, 1853, William Tinsley and his two sons, William T., and James H. Tinsley, purchased the effects of the office, and took possession in the following July. The paper was then a six column sheet, but in September was enlarged by the addition of a column to a page, and a proportionate increase in length. The interest of James H. Tins- ley was bought in April, 1855, and the firm name changed from William Tins- ley & Sons to William Tinsley & Son. In the succeeding March the estab- lishment was sold out to Hillman A. Hall and Meredith B. Little for $1, 100, who continued the publication under the firm style of Hall & Little. During the next two years the proprietorship passed from Hall & Little to Harris & Hall, Little's interest being purchased by H. M. Harris. Next it became Har- ris & Little, Hall's interest passing to the latter, and finally, Mr. Harris became the sole editor and proprietor. He has ever since retained his interest and
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282
HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
made his paper one of the leading Democratic journals of the State and a power in the party. Mr. Harris is a clear and incisive writer, and from his stock of broad information on general matters, gives his paper an unusually interesting character.
H. M. Harris, proprietor of the Republican, was born in Schenectady on the 12th of May, 1833. He began his apprenticeship as a printer in the office of the Granville Telegraph, a weekly published at Granville, Washington coun- ty, in 1849; this paper was the especial organ of the Washington County Mu- tual Insurance Company, then doing the largest business of any insurance company in the world, issuing as many as one thousand policies a week. He remained there two years and in January, 1851, came to Glens Falls and fin- ished his apprenticeship on the Glens Falls Free Press, under Zabina Ellis. The next year Mr. Harris proceeded to New York for the purpose of perfect- ing himself in the art of job printing, and assisted in the publication of a polit- ical campaign paper in Brooklyn in the Scott and Pierce campaign. Returning to Glens Falls after an absence of two years, he became foreman for Messrs. Hall & Little, on the Republican, which he soon after purchased, as above nar- rated. Under his administration of nearly thirty years the Republican has been remarkably successful; it was enlarged in June, 1873, to its present hand- some proportions. The establishment passed through the great fire of 1864, and did not lose an issue. In an editorial in a number succeeding the fire, Mr. Harris wrote as follows :
"Like the Messenger, our material, presses, etc., were nearly all destroyed; but the next day after the fire an extra was issued by the Republican from the Sandy Hill Herald office, and two or three numbers succeeding were issued from the same office." The new material was at once purchased and the paper re-established as previous to the fire.
This was an era of ephemeral journals. In 1853 a single edition of 3,000 copies of a paper called the Glens Falls Advertiser was issued from the office of the Free Press for George C. Mott & Co. It was an advertising sheet contain- ing some original literary and historical matter and an exposition of the busi- ness interests and resources of Glens Falls. Jackson & Seymour, under their firm name, issued a similar paper in 1854. In October, 1853, the first num- ber of a literary monthly called The American Standard, was issued from the Republican office. It was edited by Holdridge & Wait, but was not a pecun- iary success, and died with the eighth number. In 1855 the Hon. A. N. Cheney purchased a new font of type and a press for James Kelley, who began the publication of the Warren County Whig. The paper soon collapsed.
On January 2d the following year the Rev. A. D. Milne, who for some months had been engaged in the publication of a Baptist monthly called The Star of Destiny, purchased the Whig office and started the Glens Falls Mes- senger. Mr. Milne was of Scotch descent, and possessed more than ordinary
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THE COUNTY PRESS.
ability as an effective author, preacher and writer. He wrote a temperance book which was published in an illustrated edition by Shepard & Co., New York, and had an unprecedented sale in this country and Europe, receiving high commendation from the press. He was an easy and vigorous writer, and started the Messenger as a paper "devoted to subjects of a moral and re- ligious character, with the intention of having nothing to do with politics except so far as they may have a direct bearing upon the destinies of the great broth- erhood of man." But being a strong temperance and anti-slavery advocate, the paper in a few months naturally drifted into the support of the Republi- can nominee for president, John C. Fremont. Since that date the Messenger has been an unwavering Republican paper. In the issue dated April 8th, 1858, Mr. Milne, in a valedictory, stated that "feeble health has admonished us for some time that our labors as a publisher and editor must cease," and in- troduced L. A. Arnold as the future editor, who had associated with him Nor- man Cole, to superintend the mechanical part of the business. Arnold acted as editor and Cole as publisher. It was announced Nov. 25th, 1863, that Norman Cole had purchased Arnold's interest and assumed the duties of both publisher and editor. On the last day of May, 1864, the paper was greatly crippled and its office completely consumed in the great fire which swept so disastrously through the village. It immediately sprang from the ashes, but did not emerge from the dark war cloud, which at that time hung over the land, nor did it appear in its full proportions until the 16th of September, when its new cylinder press arrived and the arduous work of publishing and editing so large a country newspaper was fully resumed. Not an issue was lost, however, although the copies intervening between the last of May and the 16th of September were of a smaller cast and different form. A copy of what was called the " Phoenix Edition" of the Messenger, which is herein print- ed, explains itself, and illustrates the condition of the village after the fire of 1864; the difficulties which the publishers encountered in continuing the pub- lication without the loss of an edition, and the style of the paper itself. The copy is as nearly as possible a fac-simile of the original. That issue was print- ed from type borrowed of the Sandy Hill Herald office, on a little hand press saved from the Messenger office during the fire, the work being done in the editor's corn-house.
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
BBlen's essenger.
PHENIX EDITION.
VOL. 9. GLEN'S FALLS, N. Y., FRIDAY, JUNE 3, 1864. No. 23.
A GREAT FIRE !- One of the most destructive fires that ever happened in any village in the Northern States, visit- ed Glen's Falls on Thursday last, May 3Ist, consuming the entire business por- tion of the village and sweeping away the wealth and accumulations of years. The central part of the place is one mass of ruins. Only three stores remain. All the printing offices were destroyed-we saved our little Card Press, but not enough type to set a card .- The morn- ing after the fire we received the follow- ing from the Editor of the Sandy Hill Herald, to whose kindness we are in- debted for type and ink to print this paper :-
"FRIEND COLE: My office is at your disposal. E. D. BAKER."
The following account is mainly taken from the Republican extra, issued from the Herald office :-
About 3 o'clock the flames. were first seen bursting through the roof of the Glen's Falls Hotel kitchen. The alarm was instantly given, Engines, Firemen and Citizens sprang as if by magic to the threatened spot, but owing to a high wind and scarcity of water the flames rapidly spread, in a few moments envel- oping the main portion of the Hotel, and from thence to the Commercial Bank, Rich's Jewelry Store, the Centre House, Glen's Falls Bank, Weed & Sherman's store, law office of Davis and Harris, Keenan & Wing's office, Wing's dry goods store, Ranger's book store, Re- publican printing office, Harris' Boot
and Shoe store, Peat's tailoring estab- lishment and the Mansion House.
Above the Glen's Falls Hotel, the fire had spread to Smith & Ambler's, De- Vol's and Hubbard's clothing stores, Sheldon's drug store, Fonda's, Lasher & Freligh's, Rice's and Cowles & Co.'s dry goods stores, Sisson's drug store, Mes- senger office, Leavens' store, Goodman's- marble shop, Bolles' book store and Colvin's cabinet store. Crossing Glen street the fire first attacked Brown & Byrne's grocery store, and Vanderhey- den's building with Bassinger's jewelry store and Clements' restaurant, and from thence ran rapidly to Ide & Co.'s. boot and shoe store, Farrington's liquor store, the fruit stand of Bevins, Smith's. boot and shoe store, Tearse's grain store-finally arrested by almost super- human exertion at the residence of Mr. Samuel Ranger.
On the west side of Ridge street, the warehouse of Brown & Byrne, Norris' wagon shop, and two dwelling houses were soon enveloped in flames. On the east side the fire communicated with D. H. Cowles & Co., Clendon's drug store, Conkey's daguerrean rooms, internal revenue office, gas office, dentist's office, etc., driving with demoniac fury to the Post Office, Ferriss' law office, Seaman & Richards' candy establishment, Mrs. Brydon & Whiting's millinery store, Traphagan's harness shop, and from thence to the fine residence of Mr. Ezra Benedict, attacking at the same time the dwellings of A. W. Flack and Mr. Ketchum.
285
THE COUNTY PRESS.
Arrested by the solid stone dwelling owned by Mrs. William Peck, on Ridge street, the flames swept down on both sides of Warren st., destroying in their rapid course Vanderheyden's brick building, Kenworthy's hardware store, C. & D. Peck's grain store and lumber yard, DeLong and Co.'s hardware store, the dwellings of Harmon Peck, Doct. N. E. Sheldon, Mrs. Rogers, Methodist, Presbyterian and Universalist churches, Engine House, Fonda's Masonic Block, in which were Vermillia's meat market, Hine & Bartlett's grocery store, the Free Press office, Buswell's gun shop, Senate Masonic Lodge, &c. Onward rushes the devouring element to Baldwin's cabinet shop, the dwellings of Mr. Kellogg, Rev. Mr. Fennel and Abraham Wing, Star- buck & Sanford's wagon shop, the dwel- lings of Seth Sprague, L. A. Arnold, Mrs. Ray, E. T. Johnson, Alvin Cool, M. B. Little, J. Johnson, Doct. Patterson, David Roberts-destroying everything; arrested again, the flames shoot across three buildings, one of which is the old Furnace, and alight upon the dwellings of Mrs. Hawkins and Mrs. Lapham, burning both to ruins.
Down Glen street, on the east side, commencing at the chothing store of Albert Hall, the sea of fire hurls its red and hissing billows, engulfing the entire row to the open space half way down the hill, destroying Hall's clothing store, Mrs. Williams' millinery shop, Star- buck's express office, Ferguson's liquor store, Keeffe & Briggs' store, Bush's meat market, Kelley's grocery, Numan's large hall, a new dry goods store just opened, Austin's paint shop, S. Carpen- ter's saloon, Staples' meat market, Cros- sett's vegetable store, Potter's boot and shoe store, A. N. Cheney's residence, H. Wing's store, Bennett's building, Wil- marth's cabinet shop, Farmer's Hotel, Mechanics' Place, Burdick's planing
mill, Geo. Cronkhite's and L. B. Barnes' dwellings, Rappe's dwelling and grocery.
At this time, about 6 o'clock P. M., the centre of the village for blocks was one sea of livid flames. The hurrying to and fro of excited and almost despairing people, men, women and children, the crackling, seething fire, the wild at- tempts to save property, the hoarse commands of the firemen, mingled with the sound of falling buildings, formed a picture which we hope never to look upon again. The main losses, as near as can be estimated, naming each suf- ferer as far as it is possible at the early hour of going to press, are as follows :
Exchange Building, goods and building, loss $25,000-insured for $8,000.
Charles Rice, store and goods, $30,000 -insured 10,000.
Geo. W. Sisson, store and goods, 30,- 000-insured 12,000.
Messenger office, printing material and stock, over 2,000-insured 1,000.
Lasher & Freligh, store and goods, 20,- 000 -- insured 10,000.
W. A. Fonda, house, store and goods, 20,000-insured 5,000.
N. E. Sheldon, store, goods and house, 10,000 -- insured 6,000.
Hawley's store, goods and house, $3,- 000-insured 1,000.
Mansion House and the Glen's Falls Hotel, 20,000-insured 15,000.
M. C. Rich, 3,000 to 4,000-insured 1,000. Commercial Bank, 4,000-insured 2,000.
Rosekrans building and contents, 4,000 -no insurance.
Glen's Falls Bank Building, 6,000-in- sured 4,000.
Ezra Benedict, store and house, 8,000 -- insured 2,000.
Republican office, printing material, 1,- 000-insured 800.
H. M. Harris, boot and shoe store, 600 -no insurance.
A. N. Cheney, house and contents and store, 8,000-insured 6,000.
Ira Green, 500-no insurance.
Doct. M. R. Peck, store and goods, 3,- 000-insured 2,300.
A. E. Smith, store and goods, 3,000- insured 1,500.
J. K. Farrington, store and goods, 5,000 -insured 3,000.
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
Geo. Bassinger, 1,500-insured 1,900. Brown & Byrne, 40,000-insured 8,000. J. H. Norris, 6,000-insured 2,000.
W. H. Gayger, 2,000-insured 1,500. E. B. Richards, 2,000-insured 1,500. Miss Mott, 1,000-insured 800. Mrs. Martin, 1,500-no insurance.
J. T. B. Traphagen, 2,000-ins. 2,000. A. W. Flack, 1,000-no insurance. Seaman & Richards, 1,009-no ins. D. H. Cowles & Co., 40000 -- ins. 11,000. Vanderheyden, 5,000-insured 2,500 S. Benedict, 3,000-insured 1,000. J. L. Kenworthy, 4,000-insured 2,800. Wm. Cronkhite, 2,000-no insurance. C. & D. Peck, 20,000-insured 3,000.
H. Peck and DeLong & Son, 25,000- insured 6,000.
M. E. Church, 5,000-no insurance. Firemen's Hall, 2,000-no insurance. E. H. Rosekrans, 1,000-no insurance. Universalist Church, 3,000-no ins. Albert Hall, 5,000-insured 2,000. John Ferguson, 1,000-fully insured. Keeffe & Briggs, 2,000-insured 5,000. Mr. Benedict, 1,000-insured 200. Mrs. Grace, 500-no insurance. J. B. Cool, 500-fully insured. D. Peck, 1,000-insured 600. Mr. Staples, 2,000-insured 1,000. Wm. Crosoett, 1,500-no insurance. Bennett's building, 4,000-ins. 3,000. M. L. Wilmarth, 4,000-insured 2,000. Farmer's Hotel, 2,000-insured 1,000. Mechanics' Place, 2,000-insured 1,000. Wm. Rappe, 1,500-insured 500. Masonic Block, 20,000-insured 7,000. Numan's Hall, 3,000-insured 1,000. Widow Peck, 2,000-no insurance. Presbyterian Church, 12,000 -- ins. 5,000. Allen Burdick, 5,000-no insurance. A. J. Fennel, 2,000-insured 1,000. Abraham Wing, 8,000-no insurance. Starbuck & Sanford, 2,000-ins. 1,000. C. B. Sprague, 2,000-insured 1,500. Miss Ray, 1,500-insured 800. D. Norris, 1,500-insured 600. Miss Mary Hunt, 2,000-insured 1,200. J. Johnson, 1,000-no insurance. M. B. Little, 2,200-insured 2,000. Doct. Patterson, 1,500-insured 1,200. Mrs. Hawkins, 1,000-no insurance. Mrs. Lapham, 1,000-no insurance.
The entire loss will reach nearly to one million dollars.
-The insurance is being promptly paid by the different companies; their
agents, arriving here soon after the fire, are rapidly settling claims. The loss is as follows :
Home, New York $65,000
Hartford, Conn. 40,000
City, Albany . 16,500 Dividend Mutual, Glen's Falls. 22,000 Glens Falls Co. 3,000
City Hartford, Ct. 5,000
Massasoit, Springfield, Mass. 5,900
Liverpool and London. . 5,000
Phoenix, Brooklyn 2,200
Security, New York . 8,300
North American, Hartford. . 1,400
The total loss on buildings has been footed up to $260,000, and on merchan- dise at $300,000. About one hundred and twelve buildings were burned, in- cluding some sixty stores, &c.
At an adjourned meeting of the citizens of this village held this after- noon a committee of five was appointed to make equitable distribution among the sufferers by the late disastrous fire, of such contributions as have been and may be made for their relief. That com- mittee consists of Col. A. W. Morgan, Jerome Lapham, Stephen L. Goodman, Walter A. Faxon and Enoch H. Rose- krans. A further committee of nine, of which A. Sherman is chairman, was ap- pointed to consult with property owners in regard to the time and mode of re- building upon the burnt district, and endeavor to · secure a uniform style of building, as far as practicable, which shall be both substantial and ornamen- tal.
The citizens of this place are very grateful to the Firemen of Sandy Hill and Fort Edward, who came as it were on the wings of the wind to our assis- tance, and who, with our own " Defiance" and "Cataract," nobly fought the de- vouring element. Had it not been for their aid, much greater would have been the ruin.
The citizens of Troy have con- tributed and sent up over eighteen hun- dred dollars towards relieving the great- est sufferers by the fire, with word that " more will be sent." The recipients will be exceedingly grateful to the donors.
At the time the fire broke out, we were printing the first side of the Messenger, which was all destroyed, with press, and nearly everything else in the office.
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THE COUNTY PRESS.
-The Messenger office was insured for $1,000, which has been promptly paid. There was a mortgage on the office of $500; after paying this with interest, we have left, out of the insurance, only four hundred and sixty-eight dollars and thirty-three cents. Those who are in- debted to the Messenger will see that we need all that is our due, and we trust they will promptly respond, that we may be enabled to procure material for printing the Messenger on a larger sheet than this. With our next issue we pro- pose to send bills to all subscribers in arrears, and all others who feel disposed to aid us in getting a new press, may pay in advance, for as long a period as they can afford, and they will be credit- ed with the amount and the paper sent the full time-or paid in advertising-if it be for a thousand years, Providence permitting. Money may safely be sent by mail.
-Already "shanties " are being built along the streets, and quite a number of our dealers have resumed business. The funds and valuables in the Banks came out all right. The Commercial Bank is now located in the insurance building, to which the Internal Revenue Collector's office has also been removed. The Glen's Falls Bank is in the brick dwelling house nearly opposite the American Hotel. The post office occupies the place for- merly known as Judge Hay's office, on Park St. G. W. Sisson's drug store is opposite the American Hotel, on Bay St. The MESSENGER office is now operating in a cornhouse, one mile north of the old place, on the Lake George road.
All property taken from the fire, the owners of which have not been found, should be left at the new stone church on Glen St., where it may be identified.
Our files of the Messenger were burned, and we will be thankful for back num- bers returned to us.
-Hardly room enough this week for the letter just received from the 118th Regiment.
-Gen. Grant is pounding away at the very doors of Richmond.
MARRIED .-- In Greenwich, May 23d, by Rev. Mr. Abbott, Mr. Wesley Allen, of this village, to Miss Abbie White, of Sandy Hill.
S SUPREME COURT .- The Dividend Mutual Insurance Company against Albert N. Cheney, George W. Cheney and Lucinda Cheney, his wife.
Notice is hereby given that in pursu- ance and by virtue of a judgment of fore- closure and sale rendered in the above en- titled action on the 22d day of April, 1863, the judgment roll whereof was filed and the judgment entered in the Warren Coun- ty Clerk's office on the 10th day of May, 1864, I shall expose for sale and sell at public auction to the highest bidder, as the law directs, at the Glen's Falls Hotel in Glen's Falls, Warren County, New York, on the 25th day of June, 1864, at ten o'clock A. M., the premises and property described in said judgment as follows :
" All that certain piece or parcel of land situate, lying and being in the village of Glen's Falls aforesaid and bounded as fol- lows, to wit : Beginning in the center of the Plank Road leading from Glen's Falls to Lake George and at the southwesterly corner of Orville Cronkhite's land " [now owned by the Glen's Falls Insurance Company], " and running thence north sixty-six degrees east along said Cronkhite's land eleven chains and eighty-three links to Jaines Sisson's land , thence south along said Sisson's land two chains and sixty-one links; thence south sixty-six degrees west ten chains and eigh- teen links to the centre of said Plank Road ; thence north twenty-nine degrees west along the centre of said Plank Road two chains and thirty-seven links to the place of begin- ning, be the same more or less."
Dated May 10th, 1864.
D. V. BROWN, Sheriff. By WN. COSGROVE, Deputy. S. BROWN, Plff's Att'y, Glen's Falls, N. Y.
E XECUTORS' NOTICE .- Notice is hereby given to all persons having claims against Benjamin S. Thomp- son, late of the town of Chester in the County of Warren, deceased, that they are required to exhibite the same with the vouchers thereof to the subscribers, Henry Thompson, one of the executors of the last will and testament of said deceased, at his dwelling-house in said town of Chester, on or before the 4th day of Sep- tember next.
Dated March 3d, 1864.
HENRY THOMPSON, ISAAC TOWSLEY, Executors.
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
During the following ten years it prospered so well that it was encouraged to celebrate the 4th of July, 1873, by still another enlargement of an addi- tional column on each page. On the 2d of July, 1875, it celebrated the ad- vent of the grand water system of this village by first running its presses by hydraulic power. On the Ist day of February, 1882, Mr. Cole associated with himself F. A. Bullard, the firm name being Norman Cole & Co. - a relation and style which still exists. On the 7th of July, 1882, the Messenger was again enlarged to thirty-six columns. In an editorial of that issue, after a succinct retrospect, the purpose of the paper is set forth in the following language : -
" We shall aim to make the Messenger the most reliable and the best news- paper in the county, by constantly guarding its columns and keeping out false reports and sensational and degrading matter that floods upon the press from every direction, and by sifting out and printing that which is good and true. We shall endeavor to so condense the news as to give a faithful weekly sum- mary of the important events of the world, paying especial attention to home matters and all that interests or affects our town, county, state or nation." It is only fair to say that the purpose of the publication as above expressed has been faithfully adhered to, and is the leading characteristic of the paper to- day.
Norman Cole, at present at the head of the firm publishing the Messenger, was born in the town of Queensbury near Glens Falls, June Ist, 1835. His father, Levi Cole, and his grandfather Isaac, were both blacksmiths and re- membered as noted for good honest work. When Norman was eight years old his father died, leaving a widow with four" children of whom Norman was the oldest. The limited means left was soon absorbed, except the homestead of ten or twelve acres of land, on which he had to labor o his utmost for the support of the family. Three months of schooling in the winter of each of several years constituted the public educational advantages of the boy ; but he studied, read and thought a good deal outside of his school days, which, with the careful and intelligent training of his mother, gave him a solid foundation of character as well as the basis of a fair education. It was contemplated finally that Norman should learn a trade, but his mother could not entertain the thought of his leaving home; neither did he incline towards any of the va- rious occupations mentioned, until printing was mentioned, which, as he now expresses it, came to him like an inspiration, and he resolved to learn that pro- fession. He did not begin the attractive handiwork until the December follow- ing his twentieth birthday, but he was armed with a wonderful determination to master it, and of course success awaited him. He has risen to an honora- ble position in the great field of journalism and can look back upon his life, as far as it has passed, as one well spent.
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