USA > New York > Oneida County > Utica > Memorial history of Utica, N.Y. : from its settlement to the present time > Part 45
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The Patrol was commenced by Seward & Williams at Utica on Janu- ary 1, 1815, and was united with the Utica Patriot on January 2, 1816, under the name of the Utica Patriot and Patrol. It was printed for the proprietors by Ira Merrell and was issued semi-weekly, Tuesday and Friday, for about one year, then weekly, on Tuesdays, till 1821. The proprietors, according to its prospectus, were Asahel Seward, William H. Maynard, and William Williams. The name of the editor did not appear in those days on the paper itself. Examination of these old newspapers shows that the part of the editor then was very different from what it is now. What is termed editorial matter seldom appears. The paper was chiefly made up of news selected from other newspa- pers, with the briefest editorial headings and communications and advertisements. In fact the editor literally fulfilled the dictionary defini- tion of the word-one who arranges, prepares, and superintends the publication of the work of others-a much humbler part than that of the newspaper editor of the present time.
The Utica Sentinel appeared in the place of the Patriot and Patrol on March 13, 1821. The cause of this change of name was somewhat pe- culiar. The Patriot and Patrol was Clintonian in its politics, represent- ing the sentiments of a large majority of voters in this district. The politics of the editor changed and the tone of the paper also. An alarming loss of patronage naturally followed. No arrangement being practicable between the parties in interest the Patriot and Patrol, under
the advice of prominent Clintonian lawyers, was dropped by its pub- lisher and the Utica Sentinel, " printed by Ira Merrell for William Will- iams, editor and proprietor," appeared in its stead. The Utica Sentinel was sold to Samuel D. Dakin and William J. Bacon, and by them united with the Columbian Gazette and issued May 6, 1825, under the name of the Utica Sentinel and Gazette, "printed by Northway & Bennett " till April 1, 1828, then by Northway & Porter. Messrs. Dakin and Bacon
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
were joint editors and proprietors from 1825 till 1828, when S. D. Da- kin became sole editor and owner, and in 1829 he sold it to its printers, Northway & Porter. It was published semi-weekly till January, 1829. In 1831 Rufus Northway became the sole proprietor. Theodore S. Gold became editor after Mr. Dakin and continued so till the establish- ment of the daily paper in 1842.
The Columbian Gazette, which was united with the Utica Sentinel, was first published at Rome, August 17, 1799, by Thomas Walker and Ebenezer Eaton by the name of the Columbian Patriotic Gazette, and was removed to Utica and issued March 21, 1803, as the Columbian Gazette by T. Walker, and continued to be so published until its union with the Sentinel in 1825. Eliasaph Dorchester was associated with Mr. Walker in its publication in 1815 and 1816.
In January, 1830, the American Citizen and August 7, 1832, the Utica Intelligencer were united with the Sentinel and Gazette.
The Utica Intelligencer was commenced February 2, 1826, by Will- iam Tracy as editor and proprietor, and was printed by Ira Merrell for one year and afterward by Joseph Colwell till its termination. E. S. Ely succeeded Mr. Tracy as editor May 9, 1828, for two years, and he by Joseph H. Buckingham from January Ist to October 5, 1830.
The first number of the American Citizen appeared June 8, 1830. George S. Wilson was the editor and proprietor. The paper was con- tinued about half a year.
The Elucidator, the organ of the anti- Masonic party, was commenced January 1, 1829, by Beriah B. Hotchkin as editor and proprietor and was published from January 1, 1830, to May, 1834, by William Will- iams as proprietor. Samuel P. Lyman became the editor after the re- tirement of Mr. Hotchkin, January 1, 1833. It was united with the Sen- tinel and Gazette and the combined paper issued May 20, 1834, under the name of the Oneida Whig, " R. Northway, printer and publisher." This paper, in which so many previous ones were merged, continued to be published weekly by R. Northway and his associates for nearly twenty years till October 12, 1853, when it was sold to Lyon & Arthur and the name changed to the Weekly Gazette, J. M. Lyon, editor; and July 25, 1856, it was transferred to N. D. Jewell, C. J. Radford, editor, and the name became Weekly Gazette and Courier, by whom it was contin-
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Ellis H. Roberts.
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THE EARLIEST NEWSPAPER.
ued to January 29, 1857, when its subscription list passed into the hands of Ellis H. Roberts, the purchaser of the Utica Daily Gazette, with which it had been associated from 1842.
The Utica Daily Gazette was the first daily paper published in Utica with the exception of the Morning News, published for one month im- mediately preceding and two subsequently by Lyon & Arthur, and ed- ited by Jarvis M. Hatch and C. Edwards Lester. The Daily Gazette was commenced by Rufus Northway, the publisher and proprietor of the Oneida Whig, February 4, 1842. Richard U. Shearman was its editor and Erastus Clark and William Allen were associates for the first year. Ezekiel Bacon was editor for two months following. Alexander Sew- ard became the editor and joint proprietor May 1, 1843, and under the firm name of R. Northway & Co. it was published till the fall of 1853. Dr. H. C. Potter was associate editor from November 1, 1847, and the sole editor from May Ist to September 23, 1850, when he became part proprietor with Northway & Seward. Erastus Clark was Dr. Potter's associate editor till November 1, 1851, when Mr. Seward resumed the editorship with Dr. Potter. The establishment was sold to Lyon & Ar- thur on October 12, 1853, and J. M. Lyon became editor. It was bought by N. D. Jewell, July 25, 1856, who published the paper till January 29, 1857, C. J. Radford being editor, when the name and good will were purchased by Ellis H. Roberts and united with the Morning Herald.
The pecuniary value of these newspapers appears to have fluctuated widely. When the Sentinel was substituted for the Patriot and Patrol by William Williams, in 1821, he was adjudged by arbitrators to pay to William H. Maynard $7,500 for the latter's interest in the old paper, a weekly in a village of 3,000 inhabitants. The Sentinel, thus dearly paid for, was sold to Dakin & Bacon four years later, 1825, for $3,500, which included $500 for the printing materials. Of this sum $3,000 was sub- sequently recovered of the seller for printing a specimen number of the American Citizen, a paper projected and subsequently published a short time by G. S. Wilson.
In 1843, when the population of Utica had become 18,000, R. North- way sold to A. Seward one-half of the Daily Gazette and the Oneida Whig and of the printing office for $2,250. The Gazette was then the only daily paper in Utica and had 120 subscribers, not one of whom lived outside of the city.
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
In 1853 R. Northway & Co. sold their paper and office to Lyon & Arthur for $12,000, the circulation of the daily paper being then about I,200, notwithstanding the existence of three other dailies, the Observer, Herald, and Telegraph.
Meantime in November, 1847, publication of the Oneida Morning Herald had been begun by Robert W. Roberts, Richard U. Shear- man, and Edwin R. Colston: The last named withdrew from the firm in 1848 and Mr. Shearman in 1851, when Ellis H. Roberts be- came editor and proprietor. The Gazette was merged with the Her- ald in 1857, the consolidated paper taking the name of Utica Morning Herald and Daily Gazette. At the same time the Oneida Whig dis- appeared in its weekly,-the same paper which had come down through the Sentinel and Gazette, the Sentinel, the Patriot and Patrol, and the Utica Patriot from the original Whitestown Gazette of 1796. From 1851 to 1872 Ellis H. Roberts continued editor and sole proprietor of the Herald. His brother, Robert W., had charge of the job office.
In the editorial work of the Herald there were associated with him at different times brainy men, among others Samuel Williams, later of the San Francisco Bulletin ; Henry L. Lamb, later superintendent of the bank department of New York; Charles M. Davis, who dropped the editorial pen to take to his death bed. In 1872 Mr. Roberts asso- ciated with himself in the publication of the Herald his nephew, George L. Roberts, and S. N. D. North, under the firm name of Ellis H. Rob- erts & Co. Mr. North withdrew from the firm in 1885 and was for a few years editor of the Albany (N. Y.) Express, from which he retired to accept the secretaryship of the National Wool Growers Association, main office at Boston. Financial difficulties, growing through a series of years, culminated in June, 1890, in the appointment of a receiver for Ellis H. Roberts & Co., publishers of the Herald, Ellis H. Roberts, who had been appointed by President Harrison assistant United States treasurer at New York, being agreed upon for that office. The af- fairs of the old firm were adjusted in a few months and in October, 1890, the Utica Morning Herald plant was sold by the receiver to the Utica Herald Publishing Company, a corporation including among its mem- bers Warner Miller, of Herkimer ; George West, of Ballston Spa ; Jo- seph R. Swan, Charles W. Hackett, J. Fred Maynard, A. D. Barber,
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UTICA MORNING HERALD.
and Ellis H. Roberts, of Utica ; Titus Sheard, of Little Falls ; Clinton L. Merriam, of Locust Grove ; and R. S. Campbell, of New York Mills. This company organized by electing Joseph R. Swan, president ; Titus Sheard, vice-president; Fred H. Wienke, secretary ; and Joseph R. Swan, Charles W. Hackett, Titus Sheard, Ellis H. Roberts, and J. Fred Maynard, trustees. The trustees in turn constituted Mr. Hackett, Mr. Swan, and Mr. Maynard an executive committee. Fred H. Wienke was made business manager and John H. Cunningham editor. Both had been with the Herald several years.
Under its embarrassments and changes the Herald retained its hold upon the large constituency it had served so many years. Its new management has maintained its high standard as a Republican news- paper and has added new features of interest. It has a strong editorial and reportorial corps, maintains two correspondents at Albany, one at Washington, and two in New York, a " regular " and " special." It has regular correspondents in each of sixteen counties throughout Central and Northern New York. The Herald was one of the charter members of the New York State Associated Press, whose service it has daily by special wire in its editorial rooms The Herald is the official organ of the dairy interest in Central New York and gives special attention to hops and other agricultural matters. Its managers report that the year 1891 was one of constant progress, the subscription lists of the Morning Her - ald and the Weekly Herald showing large increase.
The first number of the Utica Observer, which is now quoted every day in the year in every part of the Union for its opinions and its char- acteristic method of expressing them, was issued on the 7th of Janu- ary, 1817. It was launched by Eliasaph Dorchester, who was probably not even dimly conscious of expectation that his venture would carry his name down to the end of the century in which it was early begun. The Observer has experienced nearly all the vicissitudes of newspapers of its times and came slowly to solid and permanent prosperity. Within two years after its birth the publication of the Observer was transferred to Rome and its name changed to the Oneida Observer, but a return to Utica and a restoration of its first name, the Utica Observer, soon fol- lowed. The destruction of nearly all the files of this paper in the dis- astrous fire in 1884 makes it impossible to give an accurate history of
61
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
its early years. But it is recalled that Augustine G. Dauby, C. C. Griffiths, E. A. Maynard, John P. Bush, John F. Kittle, Arthur M. Beardsley, Joseph M. Lyon, and De Witt C. Grove were successively connected with its management between 1820 and 1860. Of these only Mr. Beardsley is living. Two of the gentlemen named were prominent in the affairs of Utica. Mr. Dauby was postmaster of Utica for twenty years-from 1829 to 1849-and under four different Presidents. At the same time he was editor of the Observer and his utterances, stately and thoughtful and graceful, were giving a marked character to the paper and were only second in strength and significance to the promul- gations of the famous Albany Regency in the Albany Argus. Mr. Grove, who was the sole owner of the Observer from 1853 to 1867, was a prominent factor in city affairs, and was mayor of Utica at the time of the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion. In this crisis his patriotic services at the head of the city government and as the conduc- tor of the Observer were of great value to the community.
Mr. Grove came to the Observer through the consolidation of the Utica Democrat with the former. The Democrat was commenced by John G. Floyd in 1836 and was successively edited and published by Edward Morrin, Jarvis M. Hatch, Benjamin Welch, jr., Welch & Grove, and De Witt C. Grove. In 1852 party expediency pointed to the union of the papers as desirable and Joseph M. Lyon and De Witt C. Grove came together under the firm name of Lyon & Grove in the manage- ment of the Observer. This partnership was of short duration, how- ever, for it came to an end early in 1853. The Daily Observer was started in 1848. Kittle & Beardsley and Beardsley & Lyon were its conductors until Mr. Grove's connection with it began. After Mr. Lyon's separation John B. Miller was employed as editor for several years and until he was appointed consul at Hamburg about 1857. Mr. Grove then became the recognized editor and so remained until 1883. His connection with the Observer covered a period of thirty years. During all these years, save a part of the first one, there was associated with him in the editorial department E. Prentiss Bailey, who became his business partner in 1867 under the firm name of Grove & Bailey. To this partnership several years later succeeded a corporation of the same name, with a capital stock of $84,000. The ownership, except for the
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THE UTICA OBSERVER.
admission of Col. Theodore P. Cook as a stockholder and trustee, was unchanged. So it remained until ill health compelled the retirement of Mr. Grove. His shares were purchased by Mr. Bailey and the name of the corporation became E. P. Bailey & Co. Coincident with this important change was the introduction of Thomas P. Clarke as one of the owners, and the officers of the corporation thereafter were E. Pren- tiss Bailey, president, and Thomas F. Clark, vice-president and treas- urer. Lansing C. Bailey is the present secretary of the corporation.
The fire which has been mentioned occurred on the morning of March 2, 1884. The flames in a few hours devoured the Observer office and nearly $1,000,000 in neighboring property. The loss of E. P. Bailey & Co. largely outran their insurance and was a most serious blow. But it enabled them to adopt new and broader plans and to obtain a plant of the most modern description, and thus make their facilities such as belonged to newspapers of the first rank in circulation and influence. A site was purchased for a building which was to be devoted exclu- sively to the business of the Observer. This site was on the south side of the lot of the government building on Franklin street, and this fort- unate location promised to provide always an unobstructed light to the building which should be erected upun it-a consideration of no little importance in the business of an afternoon newspaper. The new structure was at once recognized when finished, by publishers and the public, as complete in its adaptation to its purposes. The Hoe perfect ing press and the stereotyping machinery are on the same floor as the counting-room, and visitors from city and country are welcomed daily to witness with delight the production of eight - page newspapers, printed on both sides, folded and pasted at a speed of 10,000 copies per hour, and to occasionally also see four page supplements for the daily or the weekly printed at twice this rate. Intricate as is this won- derful machine, and fine as are its necessary adjustments, it has never failed to supply the daily editions of the paper. The editorial and mail- ing-rooms are on the second floor; the stock-room (which sometimes holds from ten to twenty tons of waiting rolls of white paper) is on the third floor; while the fourth story is devoted to the use of foreman, proof-readers, and compositors. The editor is Mr. Bailey, who is as- sisted in the daily preparation of the paper by editorial writers, local
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
reporters, a telegraph operator, and a staff of correspondents numbering in all some thirty persons. The steadiest and greatest advance of the Observer in circulation and popular favor has been in these later years, and its strides have lengthened as its independence in politics and its faithfulness to the moral and social interests of Utica and Central New York have been made increasingly manifest. Today the daily circula- tion is fully twenty times as large as it was when Mr. Bailey's connec- tion with it began.
Early in 1882 the printers employed on the Utica Herald expressed dissatisfaction with their wages and sent in a petition for an increase, which was not granted. Negotiations of this character were unsuccess- ful, and finally a week's notice was served on the proprietors that if an advance was not given the men would quit work the following Saturday morning. The week passed and the office declined to accede to the terms proposed, and refused to compromise at any figure. The men left Saturday and that night the wage-workers of the city had a meet- ing and decided to start a daily in opposition to the Herald. A job printing office on Columbia street, owned by H. M. Greene, was secured, a stock company with shares at $25 organized, and the union printers issued the first copy of the Press on the morning of Monday, March 13, 1882. It may be interesting to note how the paper came to be called the Press. No thought had been given to the choice of a title until the work of making the paper was well under way. The resources of the job room were limited and there was no font suitable for a head-letter. The proprietor had once been connected with The Rensselaer County Press and had an old electrotype head-line among the rubbish and refuse. Some one found it and with a saw cut out the two middle words, leaving The Press, and that became the name of the paper. It was a matter of convenience rather than choice. The first issue was a typo- graphical crazy quilt, made up of innumerable styles of type. In a few days the paper moved to an office of its own, upstairs on Seneca street, where it remained till the following May, when it went down town to No. 7 Broad street, whence it went to its new building, No. 17 Main street, in November, 1891. At first the stock of the company was all owned by the printers. There were various changes of stockholders from the start till February, 1883, when a new company was organized
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THE PRESS.
which included some of the leading business and professional men in the city. Shortly after its re-organization Col. F. A. Eastman, ex-post- master of Chicago, was made editor and continued in that capacity two years. In February, 1885, a majority of the stock came into the hands of Otto A. Meyer and George E. Dunham, and the latter was made presi- dent and the former secretary and treasurer of the company. Colonel Eastman resigned as editor and Mr. Dunham, who had been with the paper since July, 1882, and lastly as city editor, became the editor, and Mr. Meyer continued as business manager, a position he had efficiently filled for two years previous to the transfer of the controlling interest. F. W. Bensberg has been associated with Messrs. Dunham and Meyer, and besides being a large stockholder has charge of the mechanical de- partment, the three constituting the executive committee of the directors.
The Press circulation started with a boom occasioned by general sympathy in the city with the printers. Since 1885 its growth in every way has been both rapid and substantial, so much so as to be widely commented on by newspaper people throughout the State. The Press is independent in politics and in a great measure owes its success to its uniform promptness in getting the news and accuracy in its publication. It seeks to be emphatically a newspaper. The Press purchased a lot near the New York Central station and in the spring of 1891 com- menced the erection of a building especially designed for its own use and sole occupancy. The structure is 110 x 22 feet, four stories above the basement, of brick with brownstone trimmings. When finished it was equipped with the most modern machinery and appliances, including a Scott perfecting press capable of printing from 12,000 to 15,000 com- plete papers an hour. The building and its fixtures are counted almost a model and have been visited by newspaper men from all sections. A weekly edition is published every Friday morning. The Press is a four-page paper five days in the week and eight-paged on Saturday. The weekly is eight pages.
The Sunday Tribune was founded in May, 1877, by Dennis T. Kelly and T. F. Baker. It was successful from the start, and its first office was located at the corner of Broad and Genesee streets. The present pro- prietor, H. E. Devendorf, became interested in the fall of 1877 and sole
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
owner in 1883. The office was removed in 1878 to the corner of Broad and John streets, where the paper, then an infant, expanded and grew until it became entirely too large for those quarters. For nearly two years the machinery of the old office was entirely inadequate to meet the demands made upon it and it was only by means of the most inces- sant labor that the entire edition. could be handled on Sunday. Then, too, for some years Sunday trains were few and far between. None were run on the Rome and Watertown or Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroads. To offset this the Tribune tried some interesting experiments which have never been met in. the way of enterprise by any newspaper in this section. For years it maintained a pony express Sunday mornings from Utica to Waterville. At the time of the strike on the Central road pony expresses carrying the Tribune were run as far west as Rome and as far east as Little Falls, and the readers had their papers on time, though not a wheel moved on the railroad. For three months in the summer of 1891 a special edition of the paper was made ready at 1:30 A. M. for the St. Lawrence River and northern points, and it found its way into Philadelphia, Gouverneur, Canton, Potsdam, and Norwood, where heretofore it had been a stranger. The Tribune reached Clayton with this edition at 6 A. M. and Alexandria Bay at 8, and the number of papers printed for this route in the height of the season reached 1,000. From June 15th to October Ist in each year the Tribune is sold in Richfield Springs and the towns between that popular resort and Cassville Junction. The Tribune is cosmopoli- tan in its circulation. It is read by the rich and the poor, the high and the low. Its circulation is between 7,000 and 8,000.
The Utica Saturday Globe was founded May 21, 1881, by William T. and Thomas F. Baker. The circulation grew so rapidly that enlarged quarters were obtained three times before its permanent home in Whitesboro street was built in 1886. Two enlargements were neces- sary here, and since the completion of the last the Globe doubtless occu- pies more room than that devoted exclusively to the publication of any newspaper in the State. The circulation during 1891 averaged 165,354 copies and on occasions has risen to 269,175 and 268,536. A. M. Dickinson is editor-in- chief ; associate editors, Timothy H. Sweeney, Hugh P. McCabe, Frederick G. Reusswig, Ward Hunt Johnson, Byron B. Merrill, John Aloysius Cogley, and William R. Merrell.
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DEUTSCHE ZEITUNG.
In the year 1853, after there had been started in Albany and Syra- cuse German newspapers, a movement was set on foot in Utica to found a paper for the German population of the city and vicinity. About a dozen of the then well known citizens of German descent, among whom were Charles Bierbauer, Frank Sang, John M. Hahn, J. W. Wasmer, Capt. A. Brendle, Joseph Leuthaeuser, Joseph Faass, Paul Keiser, Fred Koelbel, and others, formed a stock company and founded a paper, the name of which was Central New York Demokrat. Messrs. Timm and Brand, two efficient printers from New York, were the first printers and Dr. H. Soden its first editor. About two years after the twice- a-week sheet passed into the hands of Paul Keiser, alderman of the Sixth ward, and he changed the name of the paper to the Oneida Demokrat. In 1858 the paper was published by Paul Keiser & Co. (Paul Keiser, Henry Jost, and J. C. Schreiber). In 1860 Paul Keiser resumed the publication of the paper again alone with J. C. Schreiber as its editor. In 1865 the latter bought the then weekly published paper of Paul Keiser and he returned it to a semi-weekly publication. In 1872 the paper was made one of the official papers of the city of Utica. Its proprietor and editor, J. C. Schreiber, changed the name of Oneida Demokrat to its present title, the Utica Deutsche Zeitung (Utica German Gazette), and issued it three times a week. The Utica Deutsche Zeitung gained under the management of its editor and proprietor, J. C. Schreiber, great influence among the German population of Utica and Central New York and has a large circulation. Since April 1, 1891, the Zeitung is published by a stock company, with J. C. Schreiber as president and editor and John C. Fulmer as secretary and treasurer. The com- pany has been incorporated under the name of the Utica Deutsche Zei- tung Company. The paper is in a flourishing condition, its circulation is very large, and it is gaining steadily in public favor. Independent in politics it has gained entrance into almost every German family in our city and vicinity. The present proprietors are enterprising men who are looking forward to make of the Utica Deutsche Zeitung a daily paper.
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