USA > New York > Orange County > The history of Orange County, New York > Part 63
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Then Hon. I. V. Montanye and his son, Lucien, secured the paper. In 1883 the former retired, and Frank Drake secured an interest in the con-
JOURNALISM IN ORANGE COUNTY.
cern, under the firm name of Montanye & Drake. In March, 1892, Mr. Drake became sole owner, and remains such to-day ( March, 1908).
The present proprietor of the Independent Republican, Frank Drake, is a son of that veteran Orange County journalist, Victor M. Drake, and is a "chip of the old block," a good newspaper man. He is making the paper newsy, keen, merry and bright. He changed it from a weekly to a semi-weekly edition, issued on Tuesdays and Fridays. It is a five- column quarto.
The Independent Republican has not always had things its own way in Goshen Democratic politics. In 1843 Hector Vail, son of County Clerk Lebbeus L. Vail, and T. W. Donovan started the Democratic Standard under the firm name of Vail & Donovan. The Standard represented the "Barn-Burners" or Free Soil element in the Democratic party, and in antagonism to the interests represented the "Hunkers" and the Inde- pendent Republican. In 1844 Mr. Donovan retired, and Hector Vail changed its name to the Goshen Clarion. The Democratic factional fight became stronger, and the Clarion had such backers as Lebbeus L. Vail, Asa D. Jansen, James H. Jansen, John B. Booth of Goshen ; Merritt H. Cash, Minisink, and Francis Tuthill of Chester. On the death of Leb- beus Vail, the Clarion, in 1879 was discontinued, the subscription list going to the Independent Republican and the material to Milford, Pa., having been purchased by John M. Heller or James J. McNally, or both, and where it became the Pike County Democrat and later the Milford Herald.
One paper devoted exclusively to theological subjects had its origin in Goshen, and lives to-day to tell the tale. In 1832 the Signs of the Times was started, by Lebbeus L. Vail, a convert from Congregationalism to the Old School Baptist tenets. Between politics and theology Mr. Vail was kept pretty busy. He was a candidate for county clerk on the Demo- cratic ticket, and in 1834 was elected. About this time an earnest young expounder of Mr. Vail's new-grounded faith appeared on the scene. Mr. Vail could not very well run a religious journal and the county clerk's office at the same time, so he turned the Signs of the Times over, body and soul, to the youthful preacher, and Elder Gilbert Beebe took his prize in a wagon, and landed it in New Vernon, near Middletown. Thence he moved it to Alexandria, Va., whence it came to Middletown, where it is domiciled to-day.
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THE COUNTY OF ORANGE.
During the fight in the Democratic party between the "Hard-Shell" faction, representing the pro-slavery element, and the "Soft-Shell," repre- senting the Douglas, Squatter-Sovereignty, or Anti-Nebraska element in the party, in 1854, the Democratic Recorder was started by A. G. Tucker. The Recorder had a short life, and the subscription list and materials were purchased by James J. McNally and absorbed by his Independent Repub- lican.
The next and last paper to appear in Goshen was the Goshen News, in 1888, under James J. McNally, which, as already told, passed into that ever-open haven of refuge, the portals of the Independent Republican, on the death of Mr. McNally, in 1892.
NEWBURGH AND NEW WINDSOR.
When New Windsor leaps into the arena of contest with a journal of uncertain antiquity, but clearly at the daybreak of journalistic chronology in Orange County, she has grounds for contesting the concession that Newburgh was second, or Goshen even first, in the honors due to pioneer- ism in the printing art.
E. M. Ruttenber says: "In 1799 Jacob Schultz removed to Newburgh the New Windsor Gasette, the name of which he changed to Orange County Gasette." It is not in evidence when this New Windsor paper began and it may have been immediately or long prior to its removal to Newburgh.
But Mr. Ruttenber says the first paper published in Newburgh was the Newburgh Packet in 1795. The proprietor was Lucius Carey, son-in-law of Rev. John Close, Presbyterian minister at Newburgh and New Wind- sor. Carey sold the paper to David Denniston in 1797. who changed its name to The Mirror, Philip Van Horne (1797) and Joseph W. Barber (1798.) appearing as proprietors.
In 1796 a pamphlet entitled, "An Apology for the Bible," was printed in Newburgh, by David Denniston. It was written by R. Watson, D.D., F.R.S. It is said it was creditably printed and bound.
When the Orange County Gazette emerged from the New Windsor Gasette in 1799, Newburgh had two printing shops where books as well as papers were printed, and the legend is that the Gazette became The Citisen, though Mr. Ruttenber questions this, as none of the issues are to
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JOURNALISM IN ORANGE COUNTY.
be found. As Mr. Denniston was, about this time, connected with the American Citizen, of New York City, this fact may have given rise to the belief that a local Citizen had existed.
The Rights of Man was started in 1799 by Dr. Elias Winfield. Mr. Denniston also purchased this paper, evidently merging it with his Orange County Gazette.
The Recorder of the Times was started by Dennis Cole, in 1803, The Mirror was absorbed by the Rights of Man in 1804, and the latter by The Times, in 1805. Ward M. Gazlay, this year, drove into town with the remnants of his Orange Eagle, whose office had been burned in Goshen, purchased the Recorder of the Times, in 1806, and changed the name to the Political Inder, and it lived until 1829, when it became the Orange Telegraph and the Newburgh Telegraph under Charles M. Cush- man. Under many changes it lived to become, under E. M. Ruttenber, in 1876, the Newburgh Register.
In June, 1822, John D. Spaulding started the Newburgh Gazette. Through a succession of owners it came, in 1856, to Eugene W. Gray, who, in connection with the Gasctte, began the publication of a political paper which he called the Daily News. In 1864 the name of the New's was dropped and Daily Telegraph substituted, and later in the same year it became the Daily Union. In 1866 all the previous titles were droppe 1 and that of The Press substituted, in 1869 the title of Telegraph restored, and in 1876 that of Register.
The Newburgh Journal, started in 1833-4 by John D. Spaulding, became the Highland Courier in 1843, and in 1859, under Rufus A. Reed, it be- came the Highland Chieftain. The establishment came into the posses- sion of Cyrus B. Martin, who resumed the name of Newburgh Journal. and in 1863 began the publication of the Daily Journal, which is continued to-day by Ritchie & Hull.
The Beacon, an anti-Jackson paper, was commenced in 1828 by Judge William B. Wright. Wallace & Sweet, in 1834, published the National Advertiser, and later merged it in the Gasette. In 1849 Thomas George issued the Newburgh Excelsior, which was purchased by E. M. Rutten- ber (May. 1851), who merged it in the Telegraph. For three or four weeks in 1855 R. P. L. Shafer published the Newburgh .Imerican. The Newburgh Times, a temperance paper, was started in March. 1856. by Royal B. Hancock, "as agent for an association of gentlemen." After
THE COUNTY OF ORANGE.
passing into the ownership of R. Bloomer & Son, Alexander Wilson and Charles Blanchard, it became, under the latter, the Newburgh Daily Demo- crat, and lived thus only a few months.
An association of printers, in October, 1875, started the Daily Penny Post, and in 1876 a rival association started the Daily Mail. The Post died in 1876, and in 1877 the Mail was absorbed by the Register.
Newburgh's theological serial publications began in 1824, when the Rev. J. R. Wilson started the Evangelical Witness, a religious monthly of forty-eight pages, devoted to the interests of the Reformed Presbyterian church. In four years (1828), it was succeeded by the Christian States- man, which lived one year. Authorized by the Synod of the same church, the Rev. Moses Roney, March 1, 1836, began the publication of the Re- formed Presbyterian, a monthly of thirty-two pages. In 1849 Mr. Roney removed the magazine to Pittsburg, Pa., where he died in 1854, and his widow continued its publication until succeeded by the Rev. Thomas Sproul. For one year the Family Visitor lived, a monthly quarto, con- ducted by the Rev. David L. Proudfit. Beginning in 1845 he published the Christian Instructor, a thirty-two page monthly. Two years later the Rev. J. B. Dales bought it and removed it to Philadelphia. The Catholic Library Magasine was begun in 1856 by the Catholic Library Association, with John Ashhurst as editor. It was published monthly, and lived until August, 1860.
Newburgh has been a fertile field for the production of newspapers and periodicals of all sorts. As seen above, the religious as well as the secular press felt the popular pulse, and then passed away.
There were also literary ventures more or less pretentious, each bud- ding, blossoming and fading in a short season.
Tables of Rural Economy was issued in May, 1832, by John Knevels. It was a monthly quarto and lived less than a year. The Literary Scrap- Book was a monthly of forty-eight pages, started in 1855 by R. B. Denton. Its life was short. In 1857 Domaski's School began the publication of . The Acorn, which lived until 1859. Some time afterward the title was rescued in a publication by the students of the Newburgh Institute under charge of Mr. Siglar, and again it died.
One of the most profitable of all these literary ventures in Newburgh was that of the Household Advocate, by S. S. Wood, begun in 1867. It was an eight-page monthly and soon secured a large circulation. Mr.
JOURNALISM IN ORANGE COUNTY.
Wood later changed its name to the Household Magasine. It attained a circulation of 60,000, and the writer is one of the many who read its pages with eagerness until it failed in 1874.
Another publication which the writer remembers reading with much pleasure was Home, Farm and Orchard, an eight-page weekly started in 1869 by A. A. Bensel. It lived until the spring of 1876.
During the years of 1872 and 1873 Demorest & Burr issued the Mu- sical Bulletin, a monthly quarto.
In amateur papers there were several. Among them: The Union Jack, by Master A. Ludlow Case ( 1865 to 1873) ; the American Eagle, by Frank S. Hull, aged twelve years (1865) ; The Comet, by Henri Gerard (1871) ; The Inder, by J. Walker F. Ruttenber (1871) ; The Collector, by D. W. Jagger ( 1871) ; The Packet, by W. H. Wood and D. W. Corwin ( 1872) ; The Laurel, by a Milligan ( 1872) ; the Amateur Her- ald, by T. R. Balf ( 1872).
AT MONTGOMERY.
Montgomery seems to have come forth into the journalistic arena.
The Orange County Republican was printed there from 1806 to 1818. It was begun May 6, 1806, and was printed by Cyrus Beach and Luther Pratt. This publication, as already shown in the Goshen notes, was re- moved to Goshen and became the Independent Republican.
In 1833-1834 the Republican Banner was printed there by Calvin F. S. Thomas. In June, 1859, William H. Smith started the Montgomery Standard. The Montgomery Republican was issued in September, 1868. by Lester Winfield, being a continuation of a publication he started at Galeville Mills, Ulster County, in May, 1864, and which he removed to Pine Bush and called the Pine Bush Weekly Casket, in November, 1867. May 1, 1869, the Standard and the Republican united their forces and became the Republican and Standard, under Lester Winfield. In 1896 Lyman H. Taft started the Reporter. Later the Reporter and the Re- * publican and Standard united, and became the Montgomery Standard and Reporter, which it is now ( March, 1908), with Lyman H. Taft as editor and proprietor, and Charles M. Miller, associate editor. It is a large nine- ' column folio, republican in politics, with a decided tendency to be inde- pendent.
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THE COUNTY OF ORANGE.
In April, 1868, Stephen H. Sayer started the Wallkill Valley Times, a large seven-column folio. It was neatly printed, and the office well- equipped, with a cylinder press-a rare acquisition in those days. In 1869 Mr. Sayer issued the Dollar Weekly. In 1871 Lester Winfield pur- chased the Times and the Weekly outfit, and remained in Montgomery until his death a few years ago.
AT SLATE HILL.
Reference has already been made to a well-printed paper issued in Slate Hill or Brookfield, in 1834, the Republican Sentinel. The writer has several well-preserved copies of this neat publication, but when it passed out of existence is not now known. The name of the editor does not appear, nor of the publisher.
Slate Hill in that day was a thriving settlement, and doubtless would have continued to grow had not the Erie railroad come to Goshen in 1842 and to Middletown two or three years later.
IN MIDDLETOWN.
It was in 1840 that the first printing outfit landed in Middletown. In that year A. A. Bensei started the Middletown Courier, a democratic weekly, which he continued until April, 1846, when, apparently scared by the entrance of the Erie railroad, he "pulled up stakes" and never stopped until his outfit was landed in Kingston, N. Y., where he started the Ulster Democrat.
The Orange County Newes was the second venture in Middletown. This was started in July, 1846, by John S. Brown, and it lived until 1849. It was neutral in politics and evidently in almost everything else, and, it is said, hardly deserved the name of a newspaper.
About 1847 Elder Gilbert Beebe came into town with his Old School Baptist Signs of the Times, which he removed from Alexandria, Va., as already explained. This publication continues, changed somewhat in form but not in method or substance, and remains a monument to the peculiar tenets of the faithful band of adherents of a sturdy theological doctrine. For many years it was printed in the "meeting house" on Or- chard street, where the Denton residence now stands, and directly oppo-
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JOURNALISM IN ORANGE COUNTY.
site the residence of Elder Beebe. A few years ago, and some time after the death of Elder Beebe, the plant was removed to the upper floor of the brick building at the west corner of East Main and Roberts streets, and the "meeting house." a plain brick structure, stands on the corner of Roberts and Cottage streets. The Signs is published by J. E. Beebe & Co., and is edited by Elder F. A. Chick, of Hopewell, N. J., and Elder H. C. Kerr, of Middletown.
In 1848 Gilbert Judson Beebe started the Banner of Liberty. It was at first published monthly, eight pages with four columns to a page. After 1856 it became a weekly publication, the same size. It was a rank pro- slavery paper, and opposed and assaulted all lines of modern thought or suggestion of innovation or iconoclasm. This style of polemics met a hearty response in the South and Southwest, and the paper attained a circulation of 27,000 copies. For years it was printed in the old frame structure then known as the Pinkus Building on East Main street, next to the Holding House. When the Civil War broke out its circulation and income were greatly cut down by the interruption of mail communication between the North and the South, and the death of the talented but ob- durate and intractable editor, after the war, left nothing for the Banner of Liberty to do but to go somewhere and expire. It did. It went to Ellenville, and shortly was heard of no more.
In 1856 Mr. Beebe published a Campaign Banner.
Gilbert J. Beebe also started in 1848, and in this case may fairly be said to have "established" the Middletown Mercury, which as else- where stated, became one of the brightest country newspapers in the United States under James H. Norton and Isaac F. Guiwits.
Mr. Beebe printed another paper in his early and more ambitious days. From 1850 to 1852 he ran out an advertising monthly for gratui- tous circulation. It was called the Middletown Advertiser.
The next paper to appear in Middletown was The Whig Press. It was started November 26. 1851, by John Whitbeck Hasbrouck, a young man from Ulster County. In 1866 he changed its name to the Orange County Press. This concern, always prosperous and influential. but which finally merged with the Times and became a part of the Times- Press ( February 1, 1906), had an eventful career, which is best summed up in the following brevities taken from the last issue of the Daily Press, February 28, 1906:
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THE COUNTY OF ORANGE.
Established November 26, 1851, by John W. Hasbrouck, and conducted by him for about seventeen years.
April 9, 1868, purchased by Moses D. Stivers and conducted by him for twenty months.
December 3, 1869, firm of Stivers & Kessinger formed, the junior member being Albert Kessinger, who died in the summer of 1872.
May 24, 1870, a tri-weekly edition was started, issued Tuesdays, Thurs- days and Saturdays.
October 15, 1872, F. Stanhope Hill and John Whiting Slauson bought the paper under the firm name of Hill & Slauson.
October 26, 1872, this firm discontinued the tri-weekly known as the Evening Press, and started in its place the Middletown Daily Press, issued afternoons.
July 1, 1873, M. D. Stivers bought Mr. Hill's interest, and the firm of Stivers & Slauson was formed and continued seven and one-half years.
December 14, 1880, Mr. Stivers sold his interest to Charles J. Boyd, and the firm of Slauson & Boyd was formed.
July 24, 1883, Slauson & Boyd issued the first number of the Orange County Semi-Weekly Press-the first semi-weekly local paper in this section, and a pronounced success from the start.
August 1, 1883, M. D. Stivers again became part owner of the Press, and the firm became Stivers, Slauson & Boyd, continuing for about seven and one-half years.
March 1, 1891, Mr. Stivers sold his interest to his partners, and the firm of Slauson & Boyd for the second time came into existence.
February 1, 1906, merged into the Times-Press, after an honored and prosperous record of more than fifty-four years.
The term of service with the Press of each proprietor in round num- bers is: John W. Hasbrouck, seventeen years; Moses D. Stivers, nine- teen years ; John W. Slauson, thirty-three years ; Charles J. Boyd, twenty- five years; Albert Kessinger, three years; F. Stanhope Hill, one year.
Reference has already been made to The Hardwareman's Newspaper (1855), The Sybil (1856), The Iron Age (1858), The Rising Sun (1866), The Mail, daily and weekly (1869), The Standard ( 1874?). The Argus, weekly (1875), daily ( 1876), The Liberal Sentinel ( 1881), The News ( 1883). The Jeffersonian (1886?), The Forum (1897), and the Worker's Advocate ( 1899?).
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JOURNALISM IN ORANGE COUNTY.
THE PRESS IN PORT JERVIS.
Printing was introduced into Port Jervis by a colored man, P. H. Miller. Of his personality the writer is unable, at this day, to learn a thing-whence he came or whither he departed. He began the printing here of an independent Whig paper, which he called the Port Jervis Express, early in 1850. It was neatly printed, a five or six-column folio, and reflected credit on its founder. It was printed in an office on West Main street, on the west side of the canal. That section was then about all there was of Port Jervis, though the Erie had arrived, and started a station near the Delaware River which it called Delaware. The people of "the Port" objected to this name, and for a long time strife was keen between the residents and the Erie company over the name, the advo- cates of "the Port" finally winning.
The Erpress saw the tail end of this fight, before its life of nine months drew to a close.
In November of the year ( 1850) when the Express passed away, the Tri-States Union was started. Its founder was Col. Sam Fowler, a Jersey- man who had acquired considerable land in the village, all within the boundaries of the present city. He was ambitious, had money, vim and a purpose. He built a palatial home on the banks of the Neversink, erected the Fowler House, and was proceeding to make Port Jervis the booming town of the east, when financial disaster overtook him, and, to the great loss of the town, he left it never to return, his vast interests involved in hopeless incumbrances.
But before he left he started the Tri-States Union, and it lives to-day. It was a Democratic newspaper, with John I. Mumford editor. The" Union has had a number of owners, and had its ups and downs, but it always managed to appear on schedule time, and in usual form, though at times during the Civil War it was sorely pressed to imitate many of its exchanges-when it was almost impossible to buy, beg or steal white paper-and appear in wrapping paper, or in "any old thing." It is now a six-column quarto, with a large circulation, has an afternoon edition of the Port Jervis Daily Union, seven-column folio, has two of the latest Mergenthaler linotype machines, and is of the concern that issues one of the leading agricultural papers of the country, The New York Farmer.
The Tri-States Union was first issued in a small building somewhere
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THE COUNTY OF ORANGE.
near where the Hubbard Building now stands, opposite the Fowler House and the present Erie depot ( 1908). Later it was removed to the old frame building Nos. 55-57 Pike street, now the four-story brick structure built by George Lea and occupied by Mason & Son, drug- gists. The early 60's found it located on Pike street, over the Union store, in the second floor of the two-story frame structure at No. 100 Pike street now (March, 1908) occupied as the Central or Northrup's meat market. Thence it was removed by Foster & Mitchell ( 1870) to the Creegan Block, No. 76 Pike street, over what is now Laidley's drug store. Next (1872) it was removed to the rear of St. John & Malven's, now the Gordon Company foundry building, on Sussex street. In 1873 it was removed to No. 81 Pike street, now Collin's news and confection- ery store, and in 1882 to its present location No. 112 Pike street, in the Farnum Block.
Port Jervis has survived many severe temperance agitations. The most acute stage seems to have been in the extreme youth of the place- when impressions ought to be most lasting and beneficial. Between 1852 and 1855, it had three papers devoted to the cause of temperance. The first was the Mirror of Temperance, started in June, 1852, by J. L. Bar- low and John Dow. This Mirror reflected its surroundings for about eighteen months, and then faded away. It was a handsome paper, well printed and ably edited.
In 1853 an Englishman, John Williams, took up the fight where the Mirror dropped it, and started The Sentinel. With the proverbial pug- nacity of a "Johnny Bull," Mr. Williams thought he needed more paper weapons with which to fight the "drink evil," and so, in the autumn of * 1854 he issued a campaign paper which he called The Precursor of Tem- perance, and which died with the fall campaign. The Sentinel lived until 1855, in which year Mr. Williams went to Middletown and in the H'hig Press office began issuing the Hardwareman's Newspaper, the precursor of the Iron Age, the leading organ to-day of the iron industry in this country, and which is now-or was recently --- published by his son, David Williams, in New York City.
April 22, 1869, James Henry Norton and William Henry Nearpass began the publication of the Evening Gasette. It was a five-column folio, set in bourgeoise type, was published tri-weekly, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Soon afterward appeared the weekly edition, The Family
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JOURNALISM IN ORANGE COUNTY.
Gusette, afterward changed to The Port Jervis Weekly Gasette. It was started on the third floor of the brick building then just built by Cook & Burrell as an umbrella factory at No. 92 Pike street, now ( March, 1908), occupied by Johnson & Stoll's furniture store. Thence it moved to West- brook's Hall, the third floor of the building now occupied by the J. W. Dalley Co., Nos. 66-68 Pike street ; thence to its present quarters in the Mondon Building, 90 Pike street, corner of Pike and Ball streets. The tri-weekly became a daily afternoon issue, January 17, 1881. It is now a well-equipped office, has a Mergenthaler linotype machine, and all the accessories of a good country newspaper.
E. G. Fowler's Morning Call appeared on Sunday morning, April 4, 1880. It was printed in the Masterson Building, No. 10 Ball street. The Morning Inder appeared in an upper floor of the Hornbeck Building, now the Swift Beef House on Jersey avenue. The Sunbeams and Farm Guide were issued from The Union office, and Church Life and Academy Miscellany from The Gazette office. The Bulletin is the name of a two- column folio that is issued occasionally in political and exciting local cam- paigns, from the press of printer P. J. Gaudy, on Ball street. It doesn't appear very often, but when it does it makes a sensation.
AT WARWICK.
The beautiful village of Warwick, the "Queen Village" of New York State, has two well-established, ably-edited, well-printed and influential weekly newspapers, reflecting with no exaggeration the sentiment and conditions of the Warwick valley-a land rich in nature's bounties, lav- ishly endowed with all the charms of rural romanticism and pastoral fervency.
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