USA > Ohio > Jefferson County > Steubenville > Century History of Steubenville and Jefferson County, Ohio and Representative Citizens, 20th > Part 42
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The first daily newspaper published in this country was the American Advertiser, issued in Philadelphia by Benjamin Frank- lin Bache, a nephew of Benjamin Franklin, who afterwards conducted the Aurora. Al- though Washington was chosen president for two terms practically without opposi- tion, yet a new political party was fully organized during his term of office under
the lead of Thomas Jefferson. This party called itself Democratic-Republican, acting more generally, however, under the latter name. The fact that Washington ap- pointed Jefferson his first Secretary of State did not prevent him conspiring against his chief. And cabinet differences became so marked that on December 31, 1793, he resigned his position and was suc- ceeded by Edmund Randolph. The Na- tional Gazette of Philadelphia, having ex- pired in October of that year, its place as Jefferson's personal organ was taken by
the Aurora, which attacked federalism and Federalists from Washington down, with a virulence unknown at the present day, if we except certain phases of New York journalism. When Washington left Phila- delphia for his home at Mt. Vernon on March 5. 1797, the Aurora published a lengthy diatribe, rejoicing that "the man who is the source of all the misfortunes of our country is this day reduced to a level with his fellow citizens, and is no longer possessed of power to multiply evils upon the United States. If ever there was a period of rejoicing, this is the moment. Every heart in unison with the freedom and happiness of the people ought to beat high with adulation that the name of Washing- ton from this day ceased to give a currency to political iniquity and legalized corrup- tion. Nefarious projects can no longer be supported by a name. It is a sub- ject of the greatest astonishment that a single individual should have carried his designs against public liberty so far as to have put in jeopardy its very existence."
Bache died of yellow fever in 1798, and his widow placed the paper under the man- agement of William Duane, and its parti- sanship was as bitter as ever, even more so if that were possible. Duane was born in this country, but both his parents were Irish. He went to Ireland and learned the print- ing trade, and from thence went to India where he made a fortune. There he came in conflict with the East India Company, a trust that makes Standard Oil appear sickly in comparison, and was immediately
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hustled ont of the country without a dollar, mainly refrained from voting, allowing all redress denied, and he came back to
Jefferson to be chosen, regarding him as u Philadelphia as poor as when he left. He lesser evil than Burr. The second war with naturally needed no probing to make the Great Britain had come and gone; almost the only ereditable work outside of Harri- son's victory at the Thames and the battle of New Orleans had been accomplished by the little navy created by Adams and the Federalists at the very time they were charged with being British sympathizers, just as at a later period the Whigs saved the honor of the Nation in the war with Mexico forced on the country by their polit- ical opponents. So when Mr. Wilson took charge of the Herald there was peace at home and abroad, and he had been here but a short time until he was elected a member of the legislature in 1516, where he served one term. The Herald establishment was moved to upper Market street, nearly op- pasite the present site of the Imperial ho- tel. Mr. Wilson had a beautiful and spa- rions home, bounded by what is now Logan and Clinton streets and Alley C. Here he reared a large family, but previous to dis- posing of his homestead to Col. James Col- lier, after the latter's return from Cali- fornia in 1849, he built a one-story brick cottage on the east side of his lot where he lived until his death by cholera in 1852. Very little of the original home is left, and the land is occupied by numerous dwellings but the little cottage still stands intaet. paper as anti-British as possible, and as pro-English was one of the favorite charges which the Republicans were constantly bringing against their antagonists, the Fed- eralists, he had plenty of opportunity for gratifying his natural predilections. His office was mobbed, he was brutally beaten, and had it not been for the arrival of polit- ical friends there would have been an end of him if not of the Aurora, and the Her- ald might have had a different editor. On November 6, 1799, the New York Argus published a letter from Philadelphia to the effect that Alexander Hamilton was at the bottom of an effort to suppress the Aurora, and that Mrs. Bache had been offered $6,- 000 down in part payment, the remainder to be paid on delivery of the property but she declared she would never dishonor her husband's memory or her children's future fame by sneh baseness, when she parted with the paper it would be to Republicans only. This statement would not be con- sidered specially libellons in these days, but the spirit of the alien and sedition laws was still in full force, and back of the state- ments was the innuendo that the govern- ment secret service fund was to be used in this purchase. Suit was brought by Ham- ilton, and the Argus editor being convicted, he was fined $100 and sentenced to four months' imprisonment. Duane died in 1835.
Such was the preceptor of James Wil- son, who had emigrated from Londonderry, Ireland, for Philadelphia, and when Judge Wright wrote for him to come and take charge of the Herald he probably had lit- tle, if any, doubt as to the future political course of the paper. But times and men both changed. John Adams was the last Federal president, and the election of 1800 resulting in a tie in the Electoral College between Jefferson and Burr, the choice fell to the house of Representatives, where, by the advice of Hamilton, the Federals
James Monroe was elected President in 1816, receiving 183 electoral votes to 34 for King. the Federal candidate, and in 1820 he was re-elected withont opposition, the period being characterized as the "era of good feeling."
It was not a time for savage partisan editorials, as there seemed to be but one political party in the country, and a copy of the paper before us whose full name at this time was Western Herald and Steu- benrille Gazette, seems to partake of the general eahn, as there is not a single edi- torial utterance in it. if we except a mild dissent at the head of a long communica- tion from Cincinnati to the effect that they
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were getting along fairly well with wildcat money, and arguing that if they could buy foreign goods to better advantage than the home product there was no reason why they should not do so. The paper before us is a little five-column folio, with an absolute dearth of local news, unless a lengthy poem on the Wells mansion, quoted below, can be considered such. There are over two col- umuns of sheriff's sales which would be equivalent to more than a page of the pres- ent day, which does not argne strongly in favor of good times. The list of local ad- vertisers is interesting, including B. Wells & Co., Robert Thompson, Dike & Raguet, M. Johnson, Steubenville Brewery, by William Shiras, Jr., James Turnbull, Adams & Hutchinson, David Larimore, James Means, John M. Goodenow, Hum- phrey Leavitt, Samuel Stokely, Wright & Collier. P. Wilson, Robert Hales, Steam Paper Mill, by J. C. Bayless, Jacob Nessley, Sr., J. G. Hening, John Clark and Daniel Thomas. Thomas Orr is sheriff, Jolin Mil- ligan anditor and John Patterson clerk. David Larimore is postmaster at Steuben- ville, and Henry Crew at Richmond. Magistrates' blanks were then as now "for sale at this office." Advertising rates were for the first three insertions $1 per square (little under an inch), and each subsequent insertion 25e; by the year $10, not differ- ing widely from present rates. A para- graph about that time indicates that search for silver and lead ore in Jefferson Com- ty is not a modern freak exclusively.
The political calm existing from 1816 to 1820 could not last. The growth of the country and the advent of a new generation could not but make new issues. There was a little cloud, no larger than a man's hand, but it existed. Five states came into the Union during the first four years of Mon- roe's administration, but it was not the number alone which was significant. When the Union was first organized the existence of slavery in the southern section was ac- cepted as a necessary evil. Nobody thought of its extension, and many of those inter- ested in the matter believed that it would
gradually become extinct. When Missouri, on March 6, 1818, asked admission to the Union as a slave state, it startled even Mr. Jefferson "like a fire bell in the night." The ordinance of 1787 forbade slavery for- ever in all that part of the United States north and west of the Ohio River, but Mis- sonri came in with the Lonisiana purchase, and was not covered by this act. After two years' discussion the matter was settled by the famous Missouri compromise by which the territory was admitted with its slaves, but providing that all the rest of the Louisiana purchase north of latitude 36:30, or north of the month of the Ohio River, should be free. The repeal of this com- promise led to the Kansas-Nebraska troubles. Then there was the tariff, the North favoring and the South opposing. The latter section was still agricultural and stationary, while other parts of the coun- try were manufacturing and progressive. A report of the Fourth of July celebration in 1822 at Jenkinson's Arbor contains some significant intimations that the people were sitting up and doing some thinking. Outside the usual patriotic toasts there were advocates of home industry, internal improvements, the sovereign people (not states), "Our next President, no slave- holder, no donghface, a friend of domestic manufacturers, an enemy to aristocratie monied institutions," ete. One toast was for state rights but that was evidently un- derstood very differently from the southern idea of state sovereignty.
The issne of the Herald of November 16, 1522, contains the announcement that Mr. Wilson had proposed to purchase the Phil- adelphia Jurore, but being unable to dis- pose of his Steubenville property, the ar- rangement fell through. This issue con- tains quite a long editorial on the Presi- dency, as it was apparent that 1824 would witness an animated contest. The as- pirants discussed were Clinton, John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, Jackson, Cal- houn and William H. Crawford, of Geor- gia, then secretary of the treasury. It will be remembered that there was still but one
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ST. PAUL'S CHURCH. STEUBENVILLE
SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. STEUBENVILLE
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, STEUBENVILLE
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, STEUBENVILLE
HAMLINE CHURCH. STEUBENVILLE
FIRST M. E. CHURCH, STEUBENVILLE
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dominating political party, the Federalists having ceased to be a power, and no other organization having sufficient crystaliza- tion to take their place. The paper takes decided ground against the nomination of any southerner, or any man who has aided in the extension of slavery, or who is an enemy to domestic industries and internal improvements. Clinton and Adams are considered the only available candidates so far as this section is concerned. In an- other issue the editor urges that New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio act together, where- by they can oppose united influence to southern combinations. The Missouri case is still fresh, and it rankles. It is seen that the line of cleavage between the two sec- tions of the party is already pretty clearly marked. There was no doubt of the posi- tion of the Herald, and those "Democratic- Republicans" who supported it. The meet- ing in 1822 reported above was along pre- cisely the same lines, and that is all there was in the reported "flop" from "Democ- racy" to "Whigism." There was never any flop in the ordinary sense of that term, there was simply a parting of the ways. The election of 1824 resulted in Jackson receiving 90 electoral votes, Adams 84, Crawford 41 and Clay 37. None having a majority, the election was thrown into the House of Representatives, which not being inclined to choose the man whom Jefferson had declared "one of the most unfit men I know of for the place," refused to select Jackson and chose Adams. In 1828 the new tariff bill passed which brought out South Carolina's nullification protests. The campaign of that year was exception- ally bitter, the newly crystalizing Whig party supporting Adams while the "Demo- crats," who took that name alone for the first time, supported Jackson, who was elected. It is not necessary to, nor have we space, to enter into a history of the stirring political turmoil which followed. .Jackson was re-elected in 1832, defeating Henry Clay, the Whig candidate, and fol- lowed in 1836 by Martin Van Buren, whom
Woodrow Wilson, in his history, seems to consider Jackson's "wicked partner."
During this period the position of the Herald was not in doubt. It opposed Jack- son and his new Democracy, which, by its usurpations, violations of the Constitution and had management, had brought the country to the very verge of financial ruin.
William Henry Harrison, the hero of the Thames, who was defeated by Van Buren in 1836, was renominated by the Whigs in 1840, and the reaction swept him into of- fice as in a whirlwind.
Shortly before this Mr. Wilson had as- sociated his son, Robert C. Wilson, with him in the condnet of the paper. In addi- tion to the regular issnes of the Herald they published a campaign paper from April to November, 1840, called the Log Cabin. A typical log cabin view ornamented the front page, and the little sheet bears every ap- pearance of having been an important fac- tor in that lively campaign. The looseness with which the party names continued to be used as late as that date is found in a paper dated July 29, 1840. The Van Buren followers were not allowed the name of Democrats by their opponents, but were designated as Federalists and Loco-Focos, the first not so much a perversion of the original term as might be imagined, when Jackson's centralizing acts are considered. The latter name originated from a meeting in Tammany Hall, New York, when, dur- ing a quarrel between contending factions. the lights were turned out and relighted with matches, then called loco-focos. Tam many is not a young kitten. In the same edition the senior editor expresses him- self as "under many, many obligations to the mud machine for proving him a sterling and sound Democrat at all times." The "inud machine" was doubtless the Amer- ican Union, then published by J. G. Morris and A. T .. Frazier. Impersonal journalism was yet in the future. In this issue also is a correspondence between Edwin M. Stanton and John A. Bingham, in refer. ence to a joint debate, and the matter was
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referred to a committee consisting of of Seminary Hill in Allegheny, Dr. Mc- James Means, A. J. Leslie and W. B. Ker- lin on behalf of the Democrats, and Roswell Marsh, James Turnbull and John B. Doyle for the "Democratic Whigs." The parties were unable to come to an agreement con- cerning details and the debates never came off.
Robert C. Wilson succeeded his father as editor of the Herald, and was asso- ciated with John Worstell, but this ar- rangement existed but a short time, when the paper was purchased by Amos T. Pur- viance, in connection with his cousin, who was an attorney, in 1845. Robert Wilson went to New Lisbon, where he died.
There were seven children in the Wilson family, two of the boys-Henry and Ed- ward-and a daughter-Margaret-being triplets. The story of their birth is some- what amusing, and is given for what it is worth. The pater-familias was sitting in his parlor awaiting the expected event, and when the advent of a son and heir was an- nounced his countenance wore a satisfied smile. Shortly after a second birth was announced, when his face became more serious. Almost immediately came the third, and the muchly supplied father be- gan pulling his hair and wondering where this thing was going to stop. The other children were Joseph Princeton, Elizabeth, James and Robert. James became an M. P. preacher and went to Cincinnati, where he joined the M. E. body and went to New York, where he died. Joseph became a Presbyterian minister, and went to Sonth Carolina, where he became the father of Woodrow Wilson, the historian, now presi- dent of Princeton University. He visited his mother's grave in Union Cemetery about thirty years ago. Henry married a daughter of General Medary, of Cohun- bus, and moved to New York. Mrs. Wi !- son moved to New Lisbon, after her hus. band's death, where she died shortly after the Civil War.
In 1844 Polk was the Democratic candi- date for President and Clay the Whig. It is related that at a big meeting at the foot
Cook, of Steubenville, was making an ad- dress in which he charged Mr. Wilson, of the Herald, with having published un- truthful charges against the Democrats. knowing that they were lies, when a young man on the stand struck him and got away on a horse that was conveniently near. He was supposed to have been Wilson's son. The doctor was not seriously injured and the instance was only an illustration of the strenuous politics of those days.
Mr. Purviance was a native of this coun- ty, having been born near Smithfield, on March 6, 1823. At the age of sixteen he en- tered the Herald office as an apprentice, receiving his board and clothes for salary during the first three years. During the brief period that it was under his control Mr. Parviance condneted the Herald along very similar lines to those of his predeces- sors. Its title had been shortened to the central name, and it was once more, with the exception of the prefix, the same as that with which it originally started, Steuben- ville no longer being western in the old sense. On August 7, 1845, Mr. Purviance married Miss Mary Ong, of Smithfield Township, and after selling the Herald he went West and located in Purviance, in Putnam County, Illinois, removing to Hen- nepin, the county-seat. in 1854. He served a term as sheriff and in 1857 he was elected connty clerk, and filled that office for forty- one consecutive years. He died at his home near Hennepin on January 14, 1904. Two children-Margaretta and Frank-sur- vived him.
William R. Allison, of Cadiz, purchased the Herald in 1846, and seenred property on Market Street, now the east half of the Mansfield block, to which the Herald plant was removed from South Fourth Street. llere, with its job printing establishnent and book bindery, it remained until 1876. Here, on March 16. 1847, was issued the first mmher of the Daily Herald. The paper continued to be Whig in politics until the organization of the Republican party, since which it has been the Repub-
.
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lican organ of the county. R. B. Allison and W. T. Campbell were city editors.
On September 4, 1871, John Palmer, with the assistance of a number of citizens, in- augurated a daily paper called the News, which was located in the Scott block on South Fourth Street. There was asso- ciated with him as editor A. W. Cook, for- merly of the Erie Dispatch. Edward C. Slack was local editor and reporter, but after a week's service accepted the fore- manship of the composing room, and was succeeded by Joseph B. Doyle. The News imparted new life to local journalism, and was the first to receive the President's message by telegraph and publish it the day on which it was read. Its extra Sun- day editions during the great Boston fire and Pittsburgh riots of 1879 were also spe- cial features. Shortly after the paper started, Mr. Cook became part owner, but left the paper in the fall of 1872 and was succeeded by Mr. Doyle. During this period Gen. Anson G. MeCook, now of New York, was a frequent contributor. Early in 1873 P. B. Conn purchased the interest of Mr. Doyle, who remained with the paper in his editorial capacity. Mr. Com forned a partnership with Mr. Palmer and Joseph Carnahan, and the paper was consolidated with his job office and bindery in the Sal- mon, now Sinclair block, at 317 Market Street. In the fall of 1873 Mr. Com ar- ranged with Mr. Allison for the purchase of the Herald, which was consummated on October 1 of that year. It was at once con- solidated with the News under the name of Herald and News, and the other interests having been extinguished, Mr. Con became sole proprietor. Mr. Campbell, of the Her- ald local force, was retained in the same position, and in 1876 the paper was re- moved back to the old quarters in the Sal- mon block, a commodious addition in the rear fronting on Court Street having been erected for the accommodation of the me- chanical department.
After selling the Herald Mr. Allison re- moved to St. Louis, where he purchased the Post-Dispatch, and with his son, conducted
it for several years. As a financial venture it was not successful, and after the death of his son he returned to Steubenville and started a new weekly paper called the Ohio Press, which, with the assistance of his daughter, Mrs. Ida Allison Means, he car- ried on until his death January 2, 1898. After her father's death Mrs. Means con- ducted the publication of the paper, mak- ing it a special authority on social and so- ciety news. In 1901, a corporation was formed by C. J. Davis and others called the Ohio Press Company, which purchased Mrs. Means' paper, and started a new daily of that name in the MeConville block on North Fourth Street. The new production was a live newspaper and had branch pub- lications in Irondale, Toronto and Mingo, but suspended operations after a few months.
Among the editorial contributors to the Herald from 1876 to 1896 were Richard Ralph, of the Pittsburgh Commercial staff, a gentleman of exceptional literary ability and a poet of more than average character, and William J. Lampton, the well known magazine writer, who came here from Ash- land, Ky., in 1879. Of the local writers there were W. A. Urquhart, William McD. Miller, W. R. Johnson, Robert Love, George B. Huff, John H. Andrews, Chal- mers C. White, Herbert W. Wells and per- haps one or two others whose names may have escaped the writer. During a portion of this period the paper enjoyed the dis- tinction of publishing the largest four-page weekly in the United States. It was a mon- ster, but had finally to give way to the more manageable quarto.
In the spring of 1896 J. J. Gill purchased the Erening Star, which had been started by W. W. Mackay in 1889, and shortly after negotiations were opened with Mr. Conn for the purchase of the Herald. These were successful, and on April 20 of that year he became proprietor of this paper. Mr. Doyle remained as editor and manager, and J. H. Andrews was appoint- ed city editor. The daily was almost im- mediately enlarged and improved, and did
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not keep merely abreast of the times but kept ahead of them. In February, 1897, it was decided to make a consolidation of the Herald and Star forces, and for greater convenience a corporation was formed under the name of The Herald Publishing Company, with William McD. Miller, pres- ident ; J. W. Gill, vice president, and Jo- seph B. Doyle, secretary and treasurer, carrying also the position of manager. This corporation took over the Star and its effects, and the office was moved to its pres- ent location in Odd Fellows' block, North Fourth Street. The experiment was tried for ten months of publishing the Star as a morning paper, Mr. Huff remaining as city editor of that paper. At the end of ten months the Star was discontinued as a morning paper and merged into its evening associate, under the title of Herald-Star, which name it still retains. A perfecting press, linotype machines and other modern improvements were installed, making an up-to-date printing and book manufactur- ing establishment, and the staff was in- creased by the addition of C. C. White. and afterwards by T. M. Lewis and Charles D. Simeral.
In the latter part of January, 1905, Charles D. Simeral, who had been Mr. Gill's private secretary while he (Mr. Gill) was in Congress, organized a new company and purchased the entire plant of the Her- ald-Star for $62.000. Simeral was made president of the company and editor and manager of the paper, Carl H. Smith was selected as vice president and Herbert W. Nichols, who had been connected with the Herald-Star for several years, was made secretary and treasurer. The property was taken over on February 1, 1905, and the intervening years have been marked by an unusual development along all lines, the paper having a large cirenla- tion in the city and surrounding country. Mrs. Ida A. Means and Edward Worstall have since been added to the reportorial force. Mr. Conn on disposing of the Her- ald retired from active business and died October 8, 1908.
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