USA > New York > Orange County > The history of Orange County, New York > Part 65
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It is practically at this point that we come to the parting of the ways-the passing of the real pioneers in Orange County journalism. The generation has come and gone, so far as activity is concerned, and we find coming on the stage new actors. They were, however, evidently of the same mould of character, infusing into their work their personality, and stamping on their productions the ineffable marks of strong individuality.
SECOND GENERATION
JOURNALISTS.
DRAKE, VICTOR M .- First and clearly foremost in the second generation of early journalists was Victor M. Drake. He was born at Milford, Pa., March 20, 1813. His father was Rufus J., a son of Francis Drake, of Blooming Grove, Orange County, N. Y. From the seventeenth century the family had lived in Orange County, in the towns of Goshen and Chester. His great-grandfather, Joseph Drake, was said to be a lineal descendant of Sir Francis Drake, of Eng- land, who died in 1794. The mother of V. M. Drake was Rhoda Pierson, a daughter of Rachel Bull, whose mother was a sister of Mary DeWitt, the mother of DeWitt Clinton. At the age of eleven years, Victor M. Drake entered the office of the Goshen Independent Republican, where he served as apprentice, journeyman, editor and proprietor of the paper, and in 1846 he became connected with the Newe Jersey Herald, at Newton, as reporter, editor and proprietor, remaining there until 1871. Mr. Drake lived an abstemious, careful, circumspect life, and died in Goshen in 1894, and his remains repose in the cemetery at that place.
Frank M. Drake, the present able and dignified editor and proprietor of the Goshen Independent Republican, is a son of this venerable and respected journalist, who infused a high standard in local journalism, and left a name that should ever be revered in Orange County newspaper circles.
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BEEBE, ELDER GILBERT .- Elder Gilbert Beebe, the editor of the old-school Baptist publication, the Signs of the Times, of Middletown, for nearly half a cen- tury, was the son of David Beebe and Eunice Case. He was born at Norwich, Conn., November 25, 1800, and died May 2, 1881 at his home in Middletown, N. Y. He was of the old-school Baptist faith and was licensed to preach in 1818. In 1823 he married at New York City, Miss Phoebe A. Cunningham, and the same year he was ordained pastor of the Baptist Church at Ramapo, N. Y. After serv- ing pastorates in this church and the Baptist Church at New Vernon, he moved to Middletown, N. Y., in 1847, which place henceforth became his home, where the remainder of his life was passed in editorial work on the Signs, which he moved there in 1848, and in expounding the Baptist faith as stated supply for several nearby churches.
When Elder Gilbert Beebe became editor of the Signs of the Times, a David had entered the theological field, armed with the slings of regeneration, the rocks of inspiration, and the strength of devoutness-backed by a printing press and waiting shrines. He was a worker, and became a power in the land. When Elder Beebe passed away the old-school Baptist creed lost its leader, and no one seems to have risen to take his place; the stage of Orange County journalism lost one of its most picturesque figures, the field one of its unique landmarks-a type of preacher and editor that has already passed, never to return.
MEAD, CHARLES .- A contemporary of Victor M. Drake was Charles Mead, though born six years later, November 19, 1819, at Newburgh. His father was Xenophon Mead, and his mother was Abigail, daughter of Moses Burr, a relative of Aaron Burr. Charles Mead was educated under the then well-known Goshen teacher, Nathaniel Webb. At the age of fifteen years he was apprenticed in the office of the Orange County Patriot, under William B. Wright, who afterward be- came judge of the supreme court of New York State. He went to Carbondale, Pa., in 1839, and remained one year as editor of the Carbondale Journal. In 1841-42 he was employed on Graham's Magasine, in Philadelphia. May 9, 1842, he married Caroline A., daughter of Daniel Worden, of Goshen, who died November 11, 1880. Shortly after his marriage he purchased the Goshen Democrat of the heirs of Frederick T. Parsons. In 1865 he associated with him his son, William B. Mead, and January 1, 1892, sold his interest to Edwin L. Roys. His second wife was Miss Fannie Jackson, of Goshen. Mr. Mead lived a quiet, unobtrusive life, and made his paper a handsomely printed, model conservative Republican journal. He died April 22, 1893, and his remains repose in St. John's cemetery, Goshen.
MCNALLY, JAMES J .- One of the men who left their impress on the printing art in Orange County, as well as in Sussex and Pike Counties, was the venerable James J. McNally. He learned the printing trade in the office of the Signs of the Times at New Vernon. Thence he went to Newton, N. J., and worked on the New Jersey Herald. From there he went to Milford, Pa., where, it is believed, he started the Pike County Democrat, which became the Milford Herald, now the
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Dispatch. In the spring of 1852 he went to Goshen and bought the Independent Republican, which, seven years later, he sold to Isaac V. Montanye. In the spring of 1859 he again went to Newton, N. J., this time as the editor and proprietor of the New Jersey Herald. This paper he finally sold and returned to Goshen, and again became owner of the Independent Republican. In 1869 he sold the same to Edward M. Ruttenber. The same year he became owner of the Newburgh Tele- graph, daily and weekly, purchasing the same of A. A. Bensel. In 1874 he sold it to Dr. Cooper, of Warwick. For a short time he conducted a grocery store in Middletown, then became connected with the Carmel Courier. In 1882 he went to Monroe and started the Monroe Herald. In 1888 he started at Goshen the Goshen News, and for a time conducted both of these publications, printing them at Goshen. This he continued until the spring of 1892, when he died, and both publi- cations ceased. Mr. McNally was a good printer, a sharp, witty writer, and an energetic worker. His son, William C. McNally, is the owner and editor of the Ellenville (Ulster County) Press.
RUTTENBER, EDWARD M-Edward M. Ruttenber was born in Bennington, Vt., July 17, 1824, entered the office of the F'ermont Gazette in 1837, as a "printer's devil," came to Newburgh in 1838, as an apprentice to Charles M. Cushman, an old friend of his father, on the Newburgh Telegraph. Three years later he entered the office of the Newburgh Gasette, where he remained until 1845, when he be- came foreman of the Telegraph, then owned by Elias Pitts. In May, 1850, he pur- chased the Newburgh Telegraph, and successfully conducted the same until 1857. It was a weekly, printed on a hand-press. To Mr. Ruttenber belongs the honor of bringing to Orange County the first steam-power press, on which the Telegraph was printed in 1853. In 1851 the Telegraph absorbed the Newburgh Excelsior, and the Gasette in 1857. Early in 1857 Mr. Ruttenber and E. W. Gray began issuing the Daily News from the office of the Telegraph. Mr. Ruttenber sold the plant late in 1857: repurchased it in 1859, soll it in 1861, repurchased it in 1866, and in 1867 sold it to A. A. Bensel. In 1869 he and James J. McNally became owners of the plant. In the autumn of that year Mr. Ruttenber retired, to become part owner of the Goshen Independent Republican, which is 1870, he soll to H. P. Kimber. After leaving that paper he and a younger son started a job printing office in Newburgh. From July, 1863, to January, 1865, when he resigned, Mr. Ruttenber was engaged in the Bureau of Military Records at Albany. Added to his other accomplish- ments Mr. Ruttenber delved deeply and learnedly into historical lore, and became the first authority on Indian nomenclature and the author of four or five valuable historical works. The first was a "History of Newburgh" ( 1859) : the next was a work entitled "Obstructions to Navigation of Hudson's River": next "A History of the Flags of the Volunteer Regiments of the State of New York." A "History of the Indian Tribes of Hudson's River" followed, and is a work that is now in great demand. In 1875 he began in serial form a "History of Orange County." His last work was "Footprints of the Red Men," containing Indian geographical names in the valleys of the Hudson, Mohawk and Delaware, their location and
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THE COUNTY OF ORANGE.
probable meaning. This was issued in 1906, and was published under the auspices of the New York State Historical Association. In addition to his journalistic and historical work, Mr. Ruttenber found time to work in local educational matters, and in 1870 had served twelve years as a member of the Newburgh board of edu- cation. In 1846 Mr. Ruttenber married Matilda A., daughter of Mark McIntyre, of Newburgh, to whom two sons were born: Charles B., who became a musician of considerable repute, and Walker F., associated with his father in the printing business, and editor and publisher of the Newburgh Telegram. Edward M. Rut- tenber died in December, 1907, aged eighty-three years, deeply loved by his family and those who knew him best, and respected and honored by all. He was a man of genial temperament, companionable, and the evening of life found him amiable, courteous, warm-hearted, lovable. Orange County was greatly enriched by his coming, and impoverished by his going. His grave on the banks of the historic Hudson, in the hillside city of his adoption, should ever be kept green.
HASBROUCK, JOHN W .- John Whitbeck Hasbrouck, the son of Richard Has- brouck and Mary Johnson, was born at Woodstock, Ulster County, N. Y., Novem- ber 20, 1821. In 1834 the parents of John W. Hasbrouck removed from Wood- stock to Kingston, where the subject of this sketch completed his education at the famous Kingston Academy, and began his journalistic career in 1845 with the Kingston Journal. In the spring of 1846 Mr. Hasbrouck purchased the Sullivan Whig at Bloomingburg, Sullivan County, but disposed of it in 1851, and the same year went to Middletown, where he started the Whig Press, which later became the Orange County Press, merging finally into the Times-Press in 1906. Mr. Has- brouck retired both from his paper and active journalism in 1868, though his grace- ful pen was never entirely idle until stilled by the Great Destroyer in 1907.
Mr. Hasbrouck married Miss Lydia Sayer, M.D., of Warwick, N. Y., July 27, 1856, who still survives him. He found in this cultured lady a true helpmeet, one with ready brain and brawn, and together, hand in hand, they traveled down life's pathway, with a harmony seldom paralleled, and the parting of the ways found them with silvered heads and the harvest of autumn goldened by the rays of life's declining sun.
HASBROUCK, DR. LYDIA SAYER, was born December 20, 1827, in the town of Warwick, N. Y. She early determined to fit herself for a professional life, and graduated at the Higiea Therapeutic College in New York, with the degree of doctor of medicine. Mrs. Hasbrouck's life-work has been chiefly that of an edu- cator, lecturer and physician, and her connection with Orange County journalism was of brief duration. For eight years she was editor of her husband's paper, the Sybil, a semi-monthly reform paper, and she started a paper called the Liberal Sentinel.
MONTANYE, ISAAC V .- Isaac V. Montanye was born May 3, 1825, on the eastern slope of the Shawangunk Mountain near New Vernon, and died December
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JOURNALISM IN ORANGE COUNTY.
26, 1906, in the eighty-second year of his age. He entered the office of the Goshen Independent Republican in the early forties, as an apprentice under Victor M. Drake. In 1846 Mr. Montanye and John S. Clark purchased the Independent of the late Moses B. Swezcy, who had succeeded V. M. Drake. Later Mr. Montanye pur- chased Mr. Clark's interest, and, in 1853, sold the paper to James J. McNally, and in 1875 became, for the second time, the owner of the Independent Republican. A few years later he again sold the plant to James J. McNally. In 1876 he became owner of the plant for the third time, having this time purchased it of T. P. Mc- Elrath. In 1883 he disposed of his interest to his son Lucien Montanyc, and Frank Drake. He had been connected with the State Journal in Madison, Wis., the Mer- cury at Middletown, the Telegraph at Newburgh, the Index at Port Jervis, and the Record at Washingtonville. He started the latter two papers, and was connected with the Record when he died. Mr. Montanye installed the first cylinder press, turned by hand, in Orange County, which he set up in the office of the Independent Republican in 1850, replacing the old hand-press. He also installed the first news- paper folding machine in the Middletown Mercury. In 1870 Mr. Montanye was elected member of assembly from the second district of Orange County, and later secured an appointment in the New York custom-house. In 1899 he resigned this position, and, with his grandson, Montanye Rightmyer, established the Orange County Record at Washingtonville.
MARTIN, CYRUS B .- Cyrus B. Martin appeared in the field in 1861, when he became the purchaser of the Highland Chieftain, and changed its name to the Newburg Daily Journal, which it retains to this day.
Mr. Martin was born in Argyle, Washington County, N. Y., September 6, 1830, and having carly learned the printer's trade, was employed as a compositor on the Albany Journal, where he remained from 1850 to 1855, when he became one of the editors of the Chenango Telegraph, published at Norwich, N. Y. He con- tinued on this paper until he purchased the present Veteburgh Daily Journal in 1861. Upon severing his connection with the latter publication in 1877, he re- turned to Norwich, where various interests demanded his care and attention. He became president of that great industry known as the David Maydole Hammer Company, and also president of the Chenango County Bank. He departed this life some years ago while still actively engaged in business duties.
RITCHIE, SAMUEL .- Samuel Ritchie, who as editor and part proprietor of the Newburgh Daily Journal, and president of the Newburgh Journal Company, has been connected with that paper for over thirty-one years, was born at Larne, Ireland, July 3, 1836. He was the son of Robert L. and Sarah E. Ritchie, and came to Newburgh in 1839, where, with the exception of one year. he has resided ever since. He was for many years connected with the Newburgh Daily Journal in a reportorial capacity and as city editor, and on March 1, 1877, with Messrs. Hull and Bodine, he purchased that paper from Cyrus B. Martin, and became its editor, remaining such to the present time.
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THE COUNTY OF ORANGE.
Mr. Ritchie has long been recognized as an able editorial writer, and being pos- sessed of a keen wit, he wields a trenchant pen. His kindly nature, however, has ever rendered him cautious against wantonly injuring the feelings of others, and now, in the evening of life, he reaps the reward of his upright conduct, in the regard and esteem of his fellow-men.
HULL, FRANK S .- Frank S. Hull, for many years part proprietor of the New- burgh Daily Journal, and at present the vice-president and treasurer of the New- burgh Journal Company, was born in Newburgh, June 6, 1853. He became while a boy highly interested in printing and successfully carried on several amateur periodicals. Upon the retirement of Cyrus B. Martin, in 1877, from the manage- ment of the Newburgh Daily Journal, he was one of the three gentlemen who pur- chased the former's interest, and has remained connected with that paper ever since.
TUCKER, JOHN F .- John F. Tucker was born in Poughkeepsie, N. Y., on July 3, 1850, and after leaving school became connected with the Poughkeepsie Eagle. He left that paper in 1872 to take charge of the Government printing office at West Point, where he remained for twelve years, resigning in 1884 to become city editor of the Newburgh Register. With that paper he remained connected as city editor, part proprietor and sole editor, until its suspension in February, 1908. Mr. Tucker has been one of the hardest workers among newspaper men, and ever noted for the conscientious manner in which he discharged the various duties al- lotted to him. For many years he has been the secretary of the Newburgh Board of Trade, and to his efficiency in office, and active interest in every movement likely to benefit his city, is due a great part of the success attained by the Board of Trade.
THIRD GENERATION JOURNALISTS.
The most recent of the old school of second generation journalists to pass away was the Hon. Isaac V. Montanye, of the Orange County Record, at Washingtonville, who died December 6, 1906, and in December, 1907, Edward Ruttenber of Newburgh.
There now remains on the stage of life only Mrs. Hasbrouck of the second generation ; and of the third generation, Gilbert Van Sciver, Mid- dletown; Isaac F. Guiwits, Kansas City; Samuel Ritchie, Newburgh ; William H. Nearpass, Port Jervis : William T. Doty, Port Jervis ; Evan- der B. Willis, California. These are named in the order of their appear- ance in the journalistic field of Orange County, rather than with reference to their ages.
VAN SCIVER, GILBERT .- Probably the oldest male printer in the county to- day is Gilbert Van Sciver, of Middletown. He has been almost continuously "in
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JOURNALISM IN ORANGE COUNTY.
the harness" since 1852 until two years ago ( 1906), when the Press and Times of that city united. He became an apprentice in the office of John W. Hasbrouck's Il'hig Press in 1852, when the office was located in the building on North and Depot streets, opposite the carpet-bag factory. In 1857 he went to New York and was there employed as a journeyman for eight years. In 1865 he returned to Middle- town, and was re-employed in the Press office, and there remained until the paper lost its identity and merged with the Times.
NORTON, JAMES H .- August 10, 1854, the name of James H. Norton first appeared in Orange County journalism. On that date Mr. Norton purchased the Tri-States Union, of Port Jervis, of Lucius F. Barnes, and there then entered Orange County a journalistic genius-a talent that was destined to cut a most important figure in the newspaper life of the county and far beyond its boundaries. James Henry Norton was born at Goshen, Connecticut, in May, 1823, and after a common school education in his native town, he was admitted to the bar before he was twenty-one years old, and was appointed District Attorney of Wayne County, Pa. He finally decided to abandon the law for journalism, and purchased and edited the Wayne County Herald at Honesdale, and some years later sold the plant and went to Boonville, Oneida County, N. Y., where he started the Boonville Ledger in partnership with II. B. Beardsley. From Boonville he came to Port Jervis in 1854 and purchased the Tri-States Union, which he edited until 1861. In 1862 he removed to Middletown and purchased G. J. Beebe's Middletown Mercury, which he and Isaac F. Guiwits made the brightest country newspaper in the United States. In 1867 he disposed of his interest in the Mercury to Isaac V. Montanye, and April 22, 1869, he and William Il. Nearpass started the Evening Gazette, tri- weekly, at Port Jervis. A few years later, in company with W. Il. Nearpass and I. F. Guiwits, he organized a concern known as the Franklin Printing Company, for printing "patent insides" for country newspapers, and in 1882-3 started The News at Middletown, which he sold to Charles Conkling. His later work was as correspondent for the Sun, Herald and Times. In 1847 he married Miss Eliza- beth Monson at Bethany, Pa. Ile died January 20, 1894, at his home in Middle- town, and his remains rest in Hillside Cemetery.
GUIWITS, ISAAC F .- Shortly after Mr. Norton came to Orange County, he induced a bright young printer from "up State" to join him in Port Jervis as a journeyman, and Isaac F. Guiwits came, then a mere boy. But he had talents, and Mr. Norton knew it. Young Guiwits accompanied Mr. Norton to Middletown. and the two made the Middletown Mercury the great country newspaper that it became in the '60's. In 1869 Mr. Guiwits started the first daily newspaper in Mid- dletown, the Daily Mail. Later he was connected with the Franklin Printing Com- pany, and when that merged with the New York Newspaper Union, and became the Union Printing Company, Mr. Guiwits still retained an interest and a position, and he was sent to St. Louis and later to Kansas City to manage a branch of the concern. Ilis wife, who was a Miss Mackey, of Middletown, died four years ago,
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THE COUNTY OF ORANGE.
since which time Mr. Guiwits's health has steadily declined. Three years ago he went to Los Angeles, California, where he died at the age of sixty-nine, March 25, 1908. Mr. Guiwits was one of the most graceful writers that ever adorned the Orange County press.
FRIEND, DR. JOSEPH D .- One of the able editorial writers on the Demo- cratic papers in Middletown from about 1860 to his death in the '80's, was Dr. Joseph D. Friend. He was a regular medical practitioner, but preferred newspaper work, and many of the stirring editorials in the Mercury, the Mail and the Argus were from his trenchant pen. For a time he owned the Mail, and when it was merged with the Mercury, he became a partner with George H. Thompson, from which he retired in 1874. Dr. Friend was a genial, whole-souled man, and the writer remembers him as one who gave him encouragement, kind words, and good advice at a time when such were needed and did the most good.
NEARPASS, WILLIAM H .- William Henry Nearpass was born in Montague township, Sussex County, N. J., May 9, 1840, being the son of Michael Nearpass and Charlotte E. Stewart. He removed with his parents to Port Jervis in 1856, and attended the schools there until he was nineteen, when he embarked in mer- cantile pursuits which he successfully pursued until he retired from business to devote himself to journalism. With Evi Shimer he became the proprietor of the Gazette, and has retained his interest in that successful publication ever since.
Mr. Nearpass has always been an active Democrat and very influential in his party's counsels, having held various village offices, and elected supervisor of the county nineteen times.
Mr. Nearpass has always enjoyed the highest esteem of his fellow citizens, for his character has ever been above reproach, while every public duty has been faithfully and ably discharged. During the many years he has been the editor of the Gazette, he has never used its columns for the gratification of private spite or the further- ance of selfish interests, but has always hewed close to the Golden Rule in all his walks of life; and now the afternoon of his career finds him with a blameless life, a clear conscience, a love for his fellow mortals that no faults of others, injuries, assaults or misconceptions have ever chilled.
Mr. Nearpass was twice married, his first wife being Miss Anna W. Newman, of Brooklyn, L. I., who died in 1879. On September 8, 1881, he married Miss Joseph- ine Westfall near Port Jervis.
DOTY, WILLIAM T .- Mr. Doty was born at Crabtree's Corner, Sussex County, N. J., March II, 1847. His parents were Jonathan Fisk Doty and Phœbe Jane Van Wert Doty. Mr. Doty is a descendant of Edward Doten or Doty, who came over in the Mayflower and settled at Plymouth, Mass., in 1620. His mother was one of the Van Wert or Van Wart family, one of whom assisted in the cap- ture of Major Andre. Mr. Doty received a good education in the public and best private schools of that day.
Mr. Doty's first connection with Orange County journalism was at the early age
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of sixteen, when he became attached to the Tri-States Union at Port Jervis, in which latter city he is yet. He afterwards became connected with the Middletown Mercury, the Banner of Liberty, the Whig Press, the Signs of the Times, and in Col. Finch's job printing office on Franklin Square when in 1866 S. H. Sayer's Ris- ing Sun flickered above the horizon a few times and disappeared. The Mercury and the Banner of Liberty each had offices in the frame building (now a brick block) next to the Holding House, on East Main street. When Isaac F. Guiwits started his Daily Mail in 1869, Mr. Doty set type on it. He was employed on the Il'hig Press in 1866, when John W. and Mrs. Lydia Hasbrouck changed its name to the Orange County Press. He was also on the Press, though not continuously, when, in 1868, it was purchased by Moses D. and Jesse Lewis Stivers. In the mean- time he was employed for several months on the Warwick Advertiser while it was yet conducted by Elder Leonard Cox. It was not until April, 1869, that he returned to Port Jervis, this time to become foreman of the Evening Gasette, at the time James H. Norton and William H. Nearpass started that paper. Except for short intervals in Port Jervis and a few months in Warwick, he was continuously em- ployed in the various Middletown offices from 1865 to 1869. His personal recollec- tions of the older inhabitants of that place, and particularly of the newspaper men and women-John W. and Dr. Lydia Sayer Hasbrouck, Elder Gilbert Beebe and his sons, G. J. and Benton Beebe, James II. Norton, Isaac F. Guiwits, Hon. Moses D. Stivers, Dr. Joseph D. Friend, Hon. Isaac V. Montanye, Evander B. Willis, Gil- bert Van Sciver, Elder Cox of Warwick, Coe Finch, E. Malcolm Norton, "Doxy," Charles Coleman and others, is pleasant to recall after half a century's flight of changing years. Leaving the Gazette, Mr. Doty was a compositor on the New York Tribune soon after the present structure replaced the squatty old home of the office on Printing House Square, and when the composing-room was in the wonderful "Tall Tower" overlooking City Hall Park-which structure used to amuse the Sun so much that it never tired of being facetious over the Tribune's "Tall Tower." He was also a compositor on the Times and the World in those days. In 1871 he, in company with Charles St. John, Jr., and Alfred E. Spooner, bought the Tri- States Union, of Port Jervis, of Foster & Mitchell. They made many changes in the Union, and in politics they heartily supported Horace Greeley in his candidacy for the Presidency. They also issued as a campaign paper The Woodchopper. In 1873 he associated with William H. Waller, of Monticello, in leasing the Gazette of George A. Clement. Some years later he again went to New York City, this time as printer in charge of the issuing of a little Liberal or Free Thought paper called Man, published at 744 Broadway by Thaddeus B. Wakeman and Theron C. Leland. Later he became reporter on the New York Star, then the Tammany organ, and printed at North William street just off of Chatham street (now Park Row). In the latter part of the 'So's he was employed as editor of the Port Jervis Daily Union until 1888, when in obedience to a telegraphic offer from Morris Koch, manager of William A. Clark's Daily Miner, he was called to Butte City, Mon- tana, to become editor of that paper in the interests of the Montana Democrats. He went there in June of that year, and in the fall moved his family there. In the
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