USA > New York > Tioga County > Our county and its people : a memorial history of Tioga County, New York > Part 21
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supervisor of Owego in 1854 and 1856 and trustee of the village in 1832 and 1833. He was one of the original trustees of Owego academy and remained a member of the board until that institu- tion was merged in a free school system, in 1864. He was elected to congress in 1834, and re-elected in 1838. He was postmaster of Owego from 1816 to 1820, and was a deputy United States marshal under Buchanan. When Mr. Leonard began publication of the Gasette, he delivered the papers himself over his route on horse- back. He afterward became an extensive mail contractor and stage proprietor, establishing the first stage line from Owego to Bath, in 1816, and later a route between Owego and Montrose, Pa. He died in Owego May 8, 1876. When Mr. Leonard became post- master, in 1816, his printing office was in the second story of John Hollenback's store. It was subsequently removed to the Exchange buildings on the bank of the river below Lake street. In Novem- ber, 1836, the office was removed to the second story of the first building above the bridge. Mr. Shurtleff kept a general country store on the first floor until September, 1837, after which the store room was occupied by John Bassett.
In the winter of 1837, Dr. John Frank (of whom mention is made in the medical chapter) became a partner with Mr. Shurt- leff, but the relation proved unsatisfactory to Dr. Frank, who com- pelled his partner to re-purchase the interest he had bought in the paper, in May, 1838. Bassett set fire to his store in the night of Feb. 13, 1839, for the purpose of defrauding an insurance com- pany, and the entire Gazette establishment was wiped out of ex- istence. Shurtleff afterward went to New York, where he pub- lished a school book, of which he was the author, and was bank- rupted in the undertaking.
Three days after the fire, Edward M. Marble, who was engaged with his brother, J. Ward Marble, in publishing the Courier at Binghamton, came to Owego with a letter of introduction from prominent democrats, and, having received sufficient encourage- ment here, brought type and a press and revived the Gasette. His office was in the second story of the Rollin block, a large wooden building which occupied the northwest corner of Lake and Front streets. The name of the paper was changed to the Owego and
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Tioga County Gazette, but the old name, Owego Gazette, was restored Nov. 7, 1839. On Dec. 24, 1841, the establishment passed into the hands of Charles C. Thomas with Judge Alanson Munger as editor. The Marbles removed to New Berlin, N. Y. The office was re- moved to the third story of the new brick building which John Carmichael had erected on the north side of Front street, on ground now occupied by the Tioga national bank. July 15, 1842, Thomas Woods succeeded Mr. Thomas as proprietor, and Gideon O. Chase became the editor.
When Marble re-established the Gazette his father-in-law, Mr. Medbury, of New Berlin, N. Y., advanced about $400 to assist him, taking as security a chattel mortgage on the property. The mortgage followed the sale to Thomas and continued a lien when Woods became the owner. Chase continued as editor until Nov. 25, 1842, when the entire establishment was then surrendered to Medbury by virtue of his mortgage lien. In January, 1843, Hiram A. Beebe, who had succeeded J. J. C. Cantine as publisher of the Democrat at Towanda, came to Owego at the solicitation of promi- nent democrats and purchased the Gazette, still subject to the chat- tel mortgage. He removed the office to the northeast corner of Lake and Front streets, up stairs.
About this time came the division of the democratic party into two factions, known as the "Hunkers " and "Barnburners." There was a local controversy over the management of the Tioga county poor house, which institution was in charge of Waterbury Smith, one of the superintendents of the poor, a "Hunker." It was charged that Smith's bill against the county was excessive ; that he had grossly overcharged for provisions furnished to the poor house, and that money he claimed to have been paid had not in fact been paid. In this dispute Smith was sustained by Mr. Beebe and the regular democratic organization, and to obtain possession of the paper the anti-poorhouse faction (Barnburners) induced Woods to foreclose the chattel mortgage. Having suspected the plans of his opponents, Mr. Beebe worked night and day printing the outside pages, containing about a page of legal advertisements, for issues of successive dates about six weeks in advance of the days of publication. An arrangement had been made with Mr.
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Calhoun, publisher of the Advertiser, that in the event of foreclos- ure of the mortgage, the other sides of each issue should be set up and printed at the Advertiser office until new material and a press could be procured by Mr. Beebe. Woods foreclosed the mortgage and took possession of the Gazette office. The result was that for several weeks two Owego Gazettes were published, one being com- monly known as " Woods's Gasette," and the other as the " Poor House Gazette." G. O. Chase assumed editorial control of Woods's paper. The "Hunkers" purchased the Towanda Democrat and removed the press and printing material to Owego early in the spring of 1843, establishing for Mr. Beebe a new office below the bridge in Front street.
When Woods obtained possession of the Gazette it contained more than a page of legal advertising, which he continued to pub- lish, as did also Mr. Beebe in his paper, and both presented bills for payment. Judge Avery, who was master in chancery, and who was associated with the "Barnburners," refused to pay Mr. Beebe, hence a suit to recover. Mr. Beebe succeeded, the court holding that the good will of a newspaper office could not be en- cumbered, and that Woods's purchase by virtue of the chattel mortgage covered nothing except the presses and material. Woods thereupon discontinued publication of his paper and removed the entire establishment to New Berlin.
Thomas Woods was an Irish boy, who came to Owego from Candor. He went to California, where he was for a time successful in gold mining, but subsequently became reduced in circumstances, and died in 1858 of consumption, in a San Francisco hospital.
Mr. Beebe continued publication of the Gazette until 1845, when he sold the establishment to Thomas Pearsall, of Nichols, who had been living several years in Alabama. He took possession July 25. He published the paper eight months, when, owing to politi- cal trouble, he sold it to Stephen B. Leonard, who held temporary possession until March 27, 1846, and then sold it to David Wallis & Son. Mr. Pearsall died June 2, 1881, at the home of his son, Dr. A. T. Pearsall, in Owego. Mr. Beebe went to Westfield, Mass., where in August, 1845, he became editor of the Standard. In 1847 he received a request, signed by thirty prominent democrats of
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Owego, asking him to return to the village and resume control of the Gazette, the circulation of which had been reduced to about 300 subscribers. Accordingly Mr. Beebe returned and repurchased the paper.
The Gazette office, with its presses and material, was burned in the fire of September 27, 1849, and as there was no insurance it was a total loss. As soon as new material could be brought to Owego, publication was resumed, the new paper being enlarged to 28 columns. When the brick building at the northeast corner of Front and Lake streets was erected, the Gazette office was removed to the third story from its temporary office in North avenue, in May, 1850. In May, 1853, the office was moved into Patch's hall, which occupied the third floor of a brick building on the site of which the Chamberlain block now stands. In September, 1855, Mr. Beebe purchased a Northrup cylinder press, the first steam power press used in Owego. In 1866 he built the Gazette block on the east side of Lake street, into which the office was moved in January, 1867, and where it still remains. In 1871, LeRoy W. Kingman purchased a half interest in the paper and it was pub- lished by Beebe & Kingman until September 1, 1880, when Mr. Beebe sold his interest to Mr. Kingman, who is still its proprietor.
Hiram A. Beebe was born March 11, 1817, near Montrose, Pa .. and was educated at the Montrose academy. He became an ap- prentice to the printer's trade in the office of the Montrose Volun- teer, in 1832, serving four years. He afterward became foreman of the Montrose Spectator office. In the fall of 1837, he went to Harrisburg, where he was employed in the Keystone office. In the winter of that year he was press representative for the Pennsylva- nia Reporter in the state senate. In 1838 he went to Towanda to become editor of the Bradford Democrat. He conducted that paper until the spring of 1839, when he went to Erie and became editor of the Observer. After the presidential election of 1840 he returned to Towanda, where he published the Democrat until January, 1843, then came to Owego and purchased the Gazette. While editor of the Westfield (Mass.) Standard, in 1846, he was elected a member of the house of representatives of that state. Mr. Beebe was post- master of Owego from May 4, 1853, to June 30, 1862. He was
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president of the village in 1852, 1861, and 1871. In 1874 and 1875 he had charge of the department of public records in Albany, under secretary of state Willers, succeeding the poet, Alfred B. Street. For many years Mr. Beebe was one of the most promi- nent and influential democratic politicians in the state, associated in state conventions with Dean Richmond, Peter Cagger and other leaders of the day. He was a member of the democratic state committee eight years, and was also for more than twenty years a member of the democratic committee in Tioga county, much of that time being chairman. He died in Owego March 30, 1897.
The Owego Advertiser was established by Andrew H. Calhoun in 1836, and its first number was printed March 25 of that year. Previous to his coming to Owego, there was no whig paper here, with the exception of S. S. Chatterton's campaign issues in 1828 and 1832. Mr. Calhoun lived at Canajoharie, N. Y., and was induced to come to Owego by prominent whig politicians. He brought his press on a sleigh. The paper was a 24-column folio, 30 by 22 inches. The office was in the second story of Platt & Ely's brick building on the south side of Front street, opposite where Ahwaga hall now stands. In 1847 the office was removed to the second story of the Rollin block, at the northwest corner of Lake and Front streets. In June, 1848, the office was removed to the second story of a building which occupied the site of the pres- ent Tioga national bank. In the fire of 1849 the office was burned, but was afterward re-established, with new presses and material, in the second story of a wooden building on the east side of Lake street. From 1849 to July, 1852, William B. Calhoun, eldest son of the editor, was one of the publishers, the firm name then being A. H. Calhoun & Son.
In May, 1853, the Advertiser (which in the absence of Mr. Cal- houn in Albany, where he was holding the office of appraiser of the public works, was conducted by another son, S. Howard Cal- houn) was sold to a stock company composed of William Smyth, Benj. F. Tracy, Col. N. W. Davis, and nine others. The company leased the plant to Powell & Barnes. Rev. A. V. H. Powell was a clergyman and writer, who came from Batavia, and Myron S. Barnes was a practical printer from Rochester. The name of the
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paper was changed to Southern Tier Times, and the first number v with that name was published June 2, 1853. In October follow- ing the office was removed to the third story of the brick building at the northwest corner of North avenue and Main street. Powell & Barnes having failed at the end of the year to pay the amount agreed upon for the use of the office, the company took possession. Mr. Smyth, one of the stockholders, purchased the interests of the others and became sole owner. The first number under his pro- prietorship was issued June 29, 1854. The name of the paper was V changed to Owego Times, June 7, 1855. In October, 1869, the office was removed to the north side of Main street, opposite Lake street. In 1872 Mr. Smyth's eldest son, William A. Smyth, be- came a partner, and the firm has since been known as Wm. Smyth & Son. Since the organization of the Republican party, the Times has supported its policy and candidates.
William Smyth was born in county Derry, Ireland, June 19, 1819. Having received a thorough classical education, he entered the Royal Academic Institute, in Belfast, from which he was graduated in 1842. He also spent two years in Edinburg uni- versity. He was subsequently three years tutor in a gentleman's family, and still later principal of a classical school in county Derry. He came to America in November, 1847. For a few months he was a contributor to the New York Sun and the New York Observer. He came to Owego in the spring of 1848 and be- came principal of the Owego academy in April. He resigned on account of ill health in the spring of 1854, and then purchased the Owego Times. Mr. Smyth was elected school commissioner of Tioga county in 1857 and 1860, and was chief engineer of the Owego fire department three years, from 1862 to 1864, inclusive. He represented the old fourth ward in the board of trustees in 1863 and 1864, and was president of the village in 1865, 1866, 1867, and 1881. In 1867 he was appointed a justice of the peace. In 1872 he represented Tioga county in the assembly, and in 1873 was appointed deputy superintendent of the insurance department of this state. In January, 1876, after the resignation of Orlow W. Chapman, the superintendent, Mr. Smyth became acting superin- tendent, and held the office until the appointment of John F.
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Smith, in 1877. Mr. Smyth was appointed postmaster of Owego in 1889, and held the office four years. During his half a century of active life in Owego, Mr. Smyth has been foremost in all public enterprises, and a leading spirit in urging and carrying forward measures for local improvement. As a party leader he has been prominent and influential, both as a speaker and writer.
Upon the outbreak of "Know Nothingism," in 1855, Andrew H. Calhoun, who had been seventeen years editor of the Owego Advertiser, began the publication of a weekly newspaper in support of the new American party. It was called the Owego American, and its first number was issued August 23, 1855. Although nom- inally published in Owego, the type-setting and press-work were done in the office of the American Citizen at Ithaca. In the fall election this year Mr. Calhoun was the Know Nothing candidate for state senator and was defeated. After the election publication of the American was discontinued. In April, 1856, Mr. Calhoun went to Elmira, where he purchased the Elmira Republican and America's Own, and merged them into another Know Nothing paper called the Elmira Republic. The Know Nothing party was short lived, and Mr. Calhoun's venture proved an unfortunate one. The daily edition ceased publication in April, 1857, and the weekly was also discontinued soon afterward.
Andrew Hamilton Calhoun was born in Boston, Mass., April 1, 1798. He lived in that city until early manhood, when he removed to Canajoharie, N. Y., thence removed to Owego in 1835, and founded the Advertiser. After the suspension of his Know Noth- ing paper in Elmira, Mr. Calhoun removed to Albany. While living in Owego he was elected justice of the peace, and served one term. He was two years clerk of the state senate, in 1848 and 1849, and was canal appraiser in 1851 and 1852. In 1863 he was appointed clerk in the appraiser's department in the New York custom house, which position he held during the remainder of his life. He died in Brooklyn, December 17, 1874. Mr. Cal- houn was a sarcastic, pungent, and able writer in the days when political rancor and vindictive personalities far exceeded anything of the present day. He was a warm friend of Millard Filhnore, William H. Seward, and other prominent men of his day.
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In the spring of 1848, there was another division in the denio- . cratic party of this state, which resulted in the establishment in Owego of the Tioga Freeman, the organ of the "Free Soil" faction of the party, the first number of which appeared May 2. It was owned by a stock company, composed of Judge C. P. Avery, Judge Thomas Farrington, John J. Sackett, Gideon O. Chase and others, many of whom had been members of the "Barnburner" faction in 1843. John Dow was publisher and Mr. Chase the editor. The circulation and advertising patronage of the paper were large, but through lack of business ability on the part of the management the paper proved unprofitable, notwithstanding the fact that nothing was asked by the company for the use of the establishment. However, in September, 1850, publication was discontinued, and the presses and material were taken to Port Jervis, where the Tri-States Union was founded.
The Freeman office was over Charles Pumpelly's store, a wooden building which stood directly opposite the present Ahwaga house. In the fire of September, 1849, the building was burned, but the presses and type were safely removed. The press was placed in Front street, a little east of Church street, and while the remains of more than one hundred buildings were still smoking, extras were printed on the press, giving an extended account of the con- flagration, the largest and most destructive in the history of Owego. During the remainder of its existence, the Freeman office was over Fay's drug store, a wooden building which stood on the north side of Main street, opposite Lake street.
When John Dow was publishing the Freeman the motto printed at the head of the paper was :
"Here shall the Press the people's rights maintain,
Unawed by influenee and unbribed by gain."
It is related that one day a printer changed it to read :
" Here shall John Dow the people's rights maintain,
Unawed by Beebe and unbribed by Calhoun,"
and the whole edition was printed and distributed before the change was discovered.
Gideon O'Linn Chase was born at Cambridge, Washington county, N. Y., March 29, 1808. Six years afterward the family
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removed to Camillus, N. Y., where Mr. Chase learned cabinet making. He came to Owego in 1832 and worked at his trade in Gen. I. B. Ogden's shop until 1841, when he opened a grocery store. He became active in democratic politics, and as he was a fluent speaker and possessed of an agreeable personality, he became one of the prominent leaders of the party. He was elected to the as- senibly in 1844, and was afterward under-sheriff of the county. When the publication of the Tioga Freeman was discontinued, Mr. Chase became landlord of the Tioga house in North avenue. In 1853 he was appointed local freight agent of the New York and Erie railroad company, and was afterward station agent at Smith- boro. He removed to Atchison, Kansas, in 1859, where he pub- lished the Atchinson Union until November, 1860, but then sold out and returned to Owego. In June, 1862, he was re-appointed sta- tion agent at Smithboro, which position he held until his death. March 26, 1887.
St. Nicholas was a monthly magazine, published at the Gazette office. The first number appeared in April, 1853. The idea was taken from the Knickerbocker magazine, the only publication of the kind at that time, and which St. Nicholas resembled in make up and arrangement of matter. Its pages were a little smaller than those of the Knickerbocker. It was published only one year. The volume contains ten numbers, those of the months of December and January and of February and March being double numbers. Only five complete volumes are now known to be in existence. The prominent feature of St. Nicholas was the highly valuable series of papers relating to early history in the Susquehanna val- ley, written by Judge Avery, who obtained his information from the earliest settlers in this part of the state ; and to Judge Avery belongs the credit of having gleaned and recorded much early history of this county, which otherwise would have been lost. The manuscripts from which the Susquehanna valley history was written are now the property of the Wisconsin historical society. The chief contributors to St. Nicholas were the poet Charles A. Munger, who wrote some excellent papers entitled "The Susquehanna Angler," in imitation of Isaac Walton, and a serial novel entitled "Francis Felton," the scene of which was laid
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in Owego. The linmor of the magazine was in a department called "Our Stocking," a melange of good things contributed to each issue by Thomas C. Platt, written in his peculiar vein of clever and gos- sippy pleasantry. Other contributors were Guy H. Avery, Charles T. Ransom and George S. Leonard.
The defection, in the latter part of the year 1871, of a large number of the prominent men from the Republican party who organized the Liberal republican party, resulted in the publication of the Ahwaga Chief, the first issue of which appeared February 23, 1872. The editor and proprietor was Horace A. Brooks, a prom- inent republican politician, who had been county clerk from 1861 to 1870. At the conclusion of the presidential campaign of 1872, in which the Ahwaga Chief supported Horace Greeley, the paper was discontinued, having proved a losing venture. Mr. Brooks removed the establishment to Elmira in January, 1873, where, in company with Colonel James S. Thurston and P. C. VanGelder, he subsequently began the publication of a Republican-Methodist temperance weekly called the Southern Tier Leader. In June, 1874, Mr. Brooks sold his interest in the paper to Colonel Thurston, and in July assisted in establishing a grange newspaper, now defunct, called The Husbandman. Mr. Brooks died in Owego July 19, 1896.
The Owego Christian Tribune was an eight-page religious monthly, in size 13 by 24 inches. It was published in 1867 by John F. Seaman, and lived only a short time.
In 1871 Charles H. Keeler, who had been conducting a job print- ing office in Owego and issuing a small advertising sheet for free circulation, known as the Trade Reporter, converted the paper into a weekly newspaper, called the Tioga County Record. The first number was published March 18, 1871. August 3, 1885, the paper was sold to Clayton S. Scott, who subsequently received Odell J. Watros as a partner, and the firm is now known as Scott & Watros.
At the time of the Greenback agitation, in 1877, Merritt E. Web- ster, a former employe of the Gazette, who was conducting a small job printing office, formed a partnership with Benjamin B. F. Graves and began publication of a weekly paper called the Work- ingman, Its first number appeared November 1, 1877. August
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9, 1878, George M. Jordan became editor and publisher. The paper died a natural death with its issue of February 28, 1879. Jordan was a harness maker, with a cacocthes for journalism. Subsequent to the demise of the Workingman he became the publisher of the Newark Valley Herald.
B. B. F. Graves, with the old Workingman plant, issued the first number of a temperance organ called The Family Journal and Tem- perance Advocate, Jan. 18, 1879. Only five numbers were published, the last one being issued Feb. 15, 1879.
The Resolute, another temperance organ, followed the Advocate. It was published by a company of which John L. Matson, John J. Hooker, and Van Ness Russell were the trustees. The company purchased the old Workingman plant. The first issue was dated April 12, 1879. It expired peacefully with its issue of Nov. 8, 1879. G. M. Jordan was at first its editor, and afterward it was published by Jordan and G. W. Tyson.
George F. Cameron, who was proprietor of a news office in Lake street, published one number of the Tioga County Greenbacker. It appeared Aug. 22, 1878.
The first issue of the Owego Blade, a weekly paper, appeared Jan. 1, 1880. John McCormick, who had been foreman in the Times office had obtained possession of the old Workingman plant. Wm. H. Young, who had discontinued the publication of the In- dependent at Candor, removed his printing material to Owego and with the two plants McCormick & Young launched their venture on the sea of journalism. It was republican in politics, and ap- pearing at the time of the " Half Breed " and "Stalwart " republi- can quarrel, it espoused the cause of the "Stalwarts." In Decem- ber, 1880, Young sold his interest in the concern to McCormick. In November, 1881, Captain Eugene B. Gere purchased a half in- terest in the Blade and became editor of the paper, while Mc- Cormick had charge of the mechanical department. In January, 1882, Capt. Gere purchased McCormick's interest.
The first issue of the Owego Press, a small monthly newspaper, devoted to the interest of free schools, was published by Charles R. Burnette, the proprietor of a job printing office. It appeared Sept. 1, 1886, and expired with its twelfth number.
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