USA > New York > Chautauqua County > Ellicott > The early history of the town of Ellicott, Chautauqua County, N.Y. > Part 18
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Alvin Plumb, the Harveys and the Hazeltines had determined that a newspaper should be established in Jamestown, and Plumb and Abner Hazeltine had been for several months corresponding and trying to get a practical printer to come in, when they found they had one near at hand, only six miles away. Late in the winter of 1825, Mr. Fletcher, influenced by their urgent solicitations, concluded to enter into the ven- ture. He came to Jamestown and at first lived in the Tiffany store, which at that time was the only vacant building in town, and immediately built a good sized, two-storied frame house on ground now occupied by St. Luke's Episcopal church, and purchased a press, type and other material with but slight aid from any one beyond endorsement. The first number of the Jamestown Journal was issued in June, 1826.
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The day on which that first paper was issued was a memorable one with the good people of Jamestown. The press (a wooden one) was set up in the second story of the house; the stairs leading to the press room were on the north side, on the outside of the house. A number of the prominent citizens had collected in the street in front of S. A. Brown's office near by, anxiously waitng to get the first issue of their first village paper. Boys were plenty in the street, on the stairs and in the room. Young Stowe, the " devil," a relative of Fletcher, was not in a good humor, for with the assist- ance of the boys who crowded into the room, a keg of ink was upset upon the floor. Fletcher scolded, Stow got mad and in reply to some rallying remarks of the boys, seized his ink balls, (then used instead of rollers to ink the type,) and thoroughly blackened the faces of Gust Allen, (the late A. F. Allen, Esq.,) and Niles Budlong, who made their way rapidly down stairs their companions following, screaming, "here comes the devils with the first papers."
The first ten years of The Journal's life was in an- ti-Masonic times, and Chautauqua county was one of the strongest anti-Masonic counties of the state. Dur- ing this period and longer, Abner Hazeltine was the editor of the paper; after him Emory F. Warren (since Judge) now residing in Fredonia, and later Dr. Nel- son Rowe * were the principal writers for the paper. But during the twenty years Mr. Fletcher was proprie- tor of the paper he held himself responsible for its con- duct and published that only which he was willing to
* Nelson Rowe was brother-in-law to Rev. Rufus Murry, of Mayville, one of the first ministers in Jamestown. Rowe studied medicine in the office of Dr. Hazeltine, settled In Ellington about 1845, he followed his brother in-law, Murry, to Michigan and there died about 20 years ago.
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endorse. Some of the editorial articles were from Mr. Fletcher's pen. Every one of his children of both families early learned the art of type setting. Every one of them first and last has been connected with newspapers, and have not only set the type but writ- ten many articles and occasional editorials. They are a family of type setters and writers.
Mrs. Sarah Fletcher died many years ago. Mr. Fletcher married for a second wife Caroline Brooks,. who was the mother of A. Brooks Fletcher, Mary Fletcher, Charles F. Fletcher; and Adelaide Fletcher, who died in childhood. The children of Mrs. Sarah Fletcher were John Warren Fletcher; Maria, after- wards wife of E. A. Dickinson; Lucy, wife of A. Fenn Hawley; Susan, wife of Albemarle Tew; Harriet, wife of Rev. H. A. McKelvy; Cyrus D., who died in Mani- tou Springs, Col., two years ago and Marshall, who died in infancy.
In 1846 Adolphus Fletcher, twenty years after he established the paper, sold it to his son, John Warren Fletcher, who has since been connected with a num- ber of newspapers here and elsewhere, and who at the present time with his son is publishing and editing the Sugar Grove News. J. Warren Fletcher in 1848 sold his interest in The Journal to Frank W. Palmer, who entered the Journal establishment when a mere boy. He was the sole publisher for several years and the editor as long as he remained with it. He was a strong and ready writer. Palmer from the start was a man of mark; it may be said that he was educated in and for the printing office. He was when a very young man elected supervisor of the town of Ellicott and soon after to the state assembly. He was scarcely thirty when he left a flourishing business here
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and went west in search of a wider field where he might grow; first to the city of Dubuque, Iowa, from thence to Des Moines where he was state printer. I think he served in the state assembly of Iowa. After- wards he was elected as a member of congress. He filled many important offices. Finally he was editor of The Inter Ocean in Chicago, and for several years was post- master of that city. During a large share of the time Mr. Palmer had partners in the business, of the Jour- nal office, first, Frank L. Bailey, and at the close, E. P. Upham. In 1858 he sold his interest to Bishop and Sackett. Four years later a brother of Mr. C. E. Bishop succeeded Mr. Sackett. In 1865 Prentice Bishop died from wounds received in the war of the rebellion, after which Coleman E. Bishop conducted the paper alone up to 1866 at which time Alexander M. Clark became one of the proprietors. Since that time Mr. Bishop has been editor or proprietor, or both, of many papers. After leaving Jamestown he was for some time editor of the Buffalo Express-afterwards he went to New York and was the editor of a paper called the Judge. With all his brilliant talents and consum- mate ability, there is in his make-up too much honesty of purpose, and fearless expression of opinions to suc- ceed well. He is decidedly of the Greeley type of men-plain, honest, outspoken, and a superior writer, He is a terror to the dishonest and designing, and hated by the small fry of writers everywhere. He ranks among the most brilliant writers of the country, and has entered into authorship. If Cole should ever die his epitaph should be-Here lies an honest man; in ability seldom equalled; sincerely hated by the pol- itical and social shams of the days in which he lived.
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At all times and for all occasions his motto was Semper paratus.
In 1868 Mr. Clark became sole proprietor of The Journal, and January 1, 1870, issued the first number of The Daily Journal, with Coleman E. Bishop as edi- tor, which has been continued up to the present day. In 1871, Davis H. Waite acquired an interest in the pa-
pers and in 1875 became sole proprietor. In 1876 Mr. Waite sold the Weekly and the Daily Journal to John A. Hall, under whose judicious management the circu- lation of the papers was vastly increased. Mr. Hall was not only a fine writer but an excellent financial manager. John A. Hall died January 29, 1886.
When we say that his death was a great loss to this town and section of country, in our own estima- tion, we do not fill the full measure of truth. He was one of those men of sterling worth, honor, integrity and mental power, that no community would feel that they could afford to lose. Such men are not quickly nor easily replaced. A memorial of John A. Hall will be found in this volume.
In the spring of 1828 Dr. E. T. Foote and Joseph Waite, Esq., took the initiatory in starting a paper in Jamestown, favorable to Masonry and to the election of Gen. Jackson as president of the United States. Suf- ficient inducements were held out to Morgan Bates, a printer in the eastern part of the state, and he came to Jamestown with his press, type and other material and started the Chautauqua Republican the same year. It was intensely Democratic and anti Anti-Ma- sonic. I do not think that any time since party feeling ran as high in this section of the country as then. To belong to the opposite party was an offense that made enemies of neighbors, was carried into trade
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and business transactions, broke up or divided relig- ious societies, divided families and caused in fathers and sons and brothers the most bitter hatred to one another. Members of churches were accused of every- thing possible, unbecoming a Christian, and were tried in the churches by what they were pleased to call the accusation of "Common Fame," and disgraced without ever knowing who were their real accusers.
Mr. Bates' printing office occupied the ball room on the second floor of what had been the Ballard tay- ern.
Mr. Bates personally was not a supporter of Jack- son and was thoroughly anti-Masonic, but he sup- ported the cause of his employers faithfully and with- out a murmur. He soon, however, found that they either could not or would not meet their engagements in the way of getting support for the paper, and after sinking a handsome sum of money in the venture, sold out to a Mr. Kellogg. During the next three years there were frequent changes in the proprietorship of the paper. After nearly five years of siekly existence, its last proprietor changed its name to Republican Banner. The change was productive of but slight im- provement; finding a change of climate absolutely necessary, Mr. Hamilton, the last publisher, removed the invalid to Mayville, where, after lingering two or three months, it died of consumption.
Mr. Bates was an active business man and a thor- ough, practical printer. His printing adventure in Jamestown was doubtless a great injury to him, one from which he never entirely recovered. After sever- ing his connection with the Republican, Mr. Bates went to New York, and was associated with Horace Greely in publishing the New Yorker. Afterwards he removed
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to Detroit. He was several times member of assembly in the state of Michigan, and at one time Lieut .- Gov- ernor. During the early part of his residence in James- town he married Jennette, the eldest daughter of Dr. Cook, of Argyle, N. Y. Mrs. A. F. Allen, Mrs. Col. Brown and Mrs. W. A. Bradshaw were sisters of Mrs. Bates. Mr. Bates died a few years ago in Michigan, surviving his wife several years, who died from cancer.
A semi-religious paper was started in Jamestown in 1829 by the Rev. Lewis C. Todd, a Universalist min- ister. It was not well supported and was discontinued during its second year. Mr. Todd was at one time editor, and we think one of the proprietors of the Re-
publican. For two years or more he taught a select school in the old Prendergast academy, and was an excellent teacher. During his residence in Jamestown a long protracted meeting was held by an evangelist named Avery, in the Congregational church, at which Hon. S. A. Brown, Dr. E. T. Foote, Rev. Lewis C. Todd and a number of others were said to have " experienced religion;" at least they declared that they had never been thoroughly converted before. Mr. Todd soon became a minister in the Methodist Episcopal church, but some years afterwards returned to the Universalist church.
In 1847 Harvey A. Smith, Esq., started a paper called the Liberty Star. After publishing it about two years he sold it to Adolphus Fletcher, who changed the name to Northern Citizen. Mr. Fletcher published the Citizen for six years and then sold it, as he previ- ously had sold The Journal, to his son, J. Warren Fletcher. This was in 1853. In 1855 J. W. Fletcher changed the name to the Chautauqua Democrat. The Democrat is now in the thirty-first year of its existence
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under that name, the thirty-seventh since its purchase as the Liberty Star from Smith. A. Brooks Fletcher is at present editor and proprietor. During the thirty- seven years, the paper has been owned by several dif- ferent persons and companies, but some member of the Fletcher family has been either owner or part owner since 1849. From the time Adolphus Fletcher estab- lished the first newspaper in Jamestown in 1826, either himself or one of his sons has been proprietor or part proprietor of a newspaper in this town up to the pres- ent time, a period of sixty years. And it would be un- just not to add to the list every one of the daughters, for every one of them were type setters ; every one of them were fair writers and contributed largely to the columns of The Journal, The Star, The Citizen and The Democrat.
In 1872 A. Brooks Fletcher established the Daily Democrat which was published regularly up to 1879, when he sold his interest in the Daily to John A. Hall & Son, who combined it with the Daily Journal under the name of the Jamestown Evening Journal.
After the selling of the Liberty Star to Mr. Adol- phus Fletcher, Mr. Smith started another paper called the Undercurrent in the especial interest of anti-slavery as a political issue. The publishing office of this paper was in the second story of the building then standing on the southwest corner of Third street and Mechan- ic's alley, of which in Chapter XI we shall speak of as an "Inn of court." Jamestown and vicinity at that time was largely anti-slavery, but were far more willing to read the paper than to support it, and it departed this life in the second year of its infancy.
In 1852 Dr. Asaph Rhodes again introduced an anti-slavery paper to the people of Jamestown under
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the name of the Jamestown Herald. It was printed with the same type and published in the same office the Undercurrent had been, and may be said to have been a continuation of that paper. The doctor had been a publisher but a short time when he gladly sold his press and printing material. together with the sub- , scription list and good will of the Herald to Mr. Joseph B. Nessell. The purchaser removed the material to Ellington where he published the Ellington Lumin- ary.
Several papers have started into life but soon died out, since this period-the most important of which was the Standard, an excellent paper, but not enough Democrats in the county to support it-it is not our province to mention these papers of a later date. Suf- fice it to say that The Jamestown Journal and the Chautauqua Democrat, papers of the early days, have lived through to the present, and are hale and hearty, showing neither decrepitude or old age. Each has enlarged with the enlargement of our town and settle- ment of the county. From the first neither has failed to make its weekly appearance, and to the increasing satisfaction of their many readers. The Jamestown Evening Journal is a large, handsome, prosperous paper, now in the seventeenth year of its existence. At the present we have other and well conducted papers in the city of Jamestown, but they are of recent origin, and are not to be spoken of in this volume. It can be no detriment to these excellent papers, for us to express our hope that The Jamestown Journal and The Chautauqua Democrat will be as ably conducted in the future as in the past, and that the children will not permit the papers of their fathers to die out. When we remember that such men as Abner Hazel-
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tine, Emory F. Warren, Nelson Rowe, Frank W. Pal- mer, James Parker, Coleman E. Bishop, John A. Hall and Daniel H. Post in the past have either been edit- ors or leading contributors to the columns of The Journal and Democrat, to say nothing of the host of superior if not brilliant occasional contributors, or of the writers of the present time, we can say that the newspapers of the city of Jamestown, or those who represent them, need not take the most retired seats in a congress of New York state newspapers.
CHAPTER X.
MEMORIES OF THE PAST-DR. LABAN HAZELTINE'S FIRST VISIT TO THE RAPIDS IN 1814-MOVING INTO THE WILDERNESS IN 1815-TRIBUTES TO DR. HAZELTINE-HIS FAMILY-ANECDOTES OF DRS. FOOTE AND HAZELTINE-DR. S. FOOTE, DR.C.ORMES, DR. W. P. PROUDFIT, DR. HENRY SARGENT, DR. S. I. . BROWN, DR. ODIN BENEDICT-EARLY PHARMACIES AND DRUG STORES.
MEMORIES OF BOYHOOD.
How melancholy and yet how sweet are the mem- ories of by-gone days. The bright and buoyant spring time of youth, when our minds were free from care, our desires reaching no higher than present enjoy- ment, regardless alike of the future and its untried re- alities ! The dear old home with its thousand and one attractions ; the little streamlet where we were wont to build the most wonderful of saw mills and fabulous of bridges ; the old barn where we used to hunt the fair white eggs and tumble on the hay ; Mother's gar- den in which the strawberries and the flowers were so abundant in their season; the sled and icy hill in win- ter ; and the old weather beaten academy on the hill.
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where we acquired the first rudiments of knowledge, and a wholesome dread of the birch-these, in them- selves " trifles light as air," seem to us-now fading as they are in the dim twilight of the past-like the hap- piest portions of our existence.
The home circle of our childhood-blessed para- dise on earth-now only a memory ! The beloved father and mother ; the dear brothers and sisters; with the parents twelve of us in all. Some died in child- hood ; others sought for themselves new homes-but all gone ; now "all in the churchyard lie "-all but brother "Dick" and myself. These are hallowed memories ;- they can perish only with life. Years of cruel buffeting with the cold, unsympathizing world serve only to brighten the links of the golden chain which binds us to the happy past, so mournful in re- view. And now, although our pathway looks steep and rugged, overshadowed by the yew and the cypress, standing solitary and alone in the dark, clouded, murky air of failure, misfortune and grief which no tear of pity can assuage, these memories cheer us, press on our remembrance worlds of love and sympathy, and seem to prepare us with resignation to live through the few short days of our allotted time remaining. Our memories are of the quiet, pleasant village, that was overshadowed by the busy, ambitious town, which has become as if by magic this active, noisy, bustling city.
DR. LABAN HAZELTINE.
Early in the fall of 1814 Dr. Laban Hazeltine, of Wardsboro, Vt., who, in May, 1813, had married Con- tent Flagler, a daughter of an old Knickerbocker fam- ily in Dutchess Co., N. Y., and who had received her
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education at the then celebrated school of Dr. Lyman Beecher in Litchfield, Ct.,-mounted a favorite horse at the house of his father-in-law in the neighborhood of the old Saratoga battle ground and turned his face toward the west. Then, as now, the advice "go west, young man," was constantly given to him desiring to mark out a home for himself. His uncle, Solomon Jones, also of Wardsboro, Vt., had emigrated to the wilds of southern Chautauqua in 1810, the same year that Prendergast located at the rapids, and had several times written for him, and finally sent him a strong appeal, reinforced by an especial invitation and urgent request from Mr. Prendergast to come and cast in his lot with those who had settled at the rapids. Dr. Ha- zeltine arrived at the house of James Prendergast, Sept. 14, 1814, was warmly received, and during his stay made it his home. After visiting his uncle, Solomon Jones, and a few old Vermont friends who had just come in and were scattered through the settlements, he said to Mr. Prendergast that he had come into the wilderness to make it his home ; that he had made up his mind to this before he left the east. He could grow up a good practice in Poughkeepsie ; he had had a strong invitation to go to Brooklyn, and also another to go to Troy. As he came through he was urged by a physician in Utica to stop and go into business with . him, and at;Rochester was greatly tempted to remain, and believed if he had he would have advanced his own interest in so doing. But he started with the in- tention of coming to the rapids, as he had so strongly urged him to do; he had come with the resolve of mak- ing here his future home. He admitted that he had entertained a poor idea of the country before he saw it ; that it was much more heavily timbered than he had
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expected to find it, and that it would, he feared be a tedious work to clear the land, convert it into farms, and make it habitable for anything more civilized than Indians. But he was not discouraged ; he had come with the fixed resolve of remaining. He was young, stout and healthy, and believed he could endure pri- vations equal to the best of them, and there was some- thing in the deep wilderness of the country that charmed him, and made him wish to become a part of it. He desired to buy a home, or have one built for him at the rapids and a farm within a mile of it ; he would then return to Dutchess county and be back again by the first of June following. Mr. Prender-
gast advised him to locate either on the northwest corner of Main and Fourth streets, or where Mrs. Ormes now resides; both locations were then cov- ered with a deep forest. But the doctor took a fancy to the locality of the Blowers house on the west side of Main street. He liked the deep gulf with the swamp stream running through; he liked the house which was large, framed from oak and well built, and he thought the big blacksmith shop would make just such a barn as would please him. The three lots oc- cupied by Blowers belonged to Judge Prendergast and were quickly conveyed to the Doctor, the considera- tion being $440 and that included the transforming the shop into a barn and certain improvements in the house, possession to be given the following first of May. This with the improvements to be made was considered as just one-half the value of the property. He also bought the article of 100 acres of land on lot 40 on the west side of what is now Warren street ex- tending from the present Busti line north to near the rise of ground on Prospect street. Nathaniel Kidder,
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who afterwards settled at what is now called North Warren, cleared the first twenty-five acres, and the late Ezbai Kidder split the rails and set up the first fence enclosure. During his stay at the rapids in Sep- tember, 1814, Dr. Hazeltine took the charge of several sick persons which required him to ride through the wilderness ten to fifteen miles daily and detained him nearly four weeks after he was otherwise ready to re- turn to the east.
Two or three days before the Doctor's return he was called to M. Frank's (probably Michael.) On ar- riving there he found a dozen or more of the settlers collected. The purpose was to induce him to return and settle at the rapids, many believing he would never come back. Learning the object of the meet- ing he assured them that he should certainly return if he lived. After partaking of a hearty dinner of ven- ison, coon and johnny cake, Uriah Bently said to him, "Labe, I believe you are a fraud. I will bet you a cow you will never come back." Well if I did not you
would lose your bet. "No I shouldn't, I would go all the way to Saratogue and take it out of your hide." John Frank bet a pair of sewed boots, M. Frank a pig, Mr. Steward one dead buck a year for five years. Mrs. Plumb 10 yards of the best tow cloth she could spin and weave. The account says, "They all bet something, but they were not bets so far as I was con- cerned, and I made up my mind they were gifts to in- duce me to come back. If I had intended not to come back I certainly should have changed my mind after this meeting. It was a happy time for me." "I have been back nearly six weeks and all came in with their bets to-day excepting Uncle Liphe who was here and says he shall_certainly pay during the first snow this
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fall and James E. who shows me the greatest compli- ment by not paying. Next to Uriah's cow and calf, the most useful present just now is * Aaron's 20 bushels of oats -my poor horses need them. May they all have health and be prospered is the best I can wish them, in the great labors before them in this deep, howling wilderness."
As we copy this transaction it is not easy for us to consider that it occurred 73 years ago, and that the actors, then young and full of energy and bright an- ticipations for the future, have all passed away.
Dr. Hazeltine left the rapids on the morning of the 28th of October for his long ride of over three hun- dred miles through the wilderness and did not arrive in Saratoga county until after the middle of Novem- ber, having in less than four months rode on horsback twice the whole length of the state and in addition one month's ride in the wilderness and a large por- tion of that distance without roads. From Saratoga he went down the river to Poughkeepsie where his wife was residing.
On the sixth of April, 1815, with three heavily loaded wagons and three riding horses, (two of which were occasionally used in harness,) he started for his new home in the wilderness. One of the wagons contained 1200 pounds of medicines purchased in Al- bany, a quantity of farming implements and a box of books. Their progress was slow and tedious and to add to their misfortunes during the third week of their
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