History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 77

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co.
Number of Pages: 666

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In the summer of 1796 Mr. Edmund Freeman bought the Centinel from Mr. Maxwell, and continued the publi- cation of the paper under the happy title of Freeman's Journal-a designation which served in a single word to set forth the name of the proprietor, and also to furnish a fit and significant title for an organ of public opinion

in the young republic. Mr. Freeman published this pa- per until the beginning of 1800, when, probably moved thereto by the transfer of the Territorial capital from Cincinnati to Chillicothe, he removed himself and office to the latter place, and established the old Chillicothe Gazette, which is still published. Mr. Freeman died the same year, October 25, at his father's residence on Bea- ver creek, in the Mad river settlement.

The first regularly printed journal in Cincinnati, says Mr. Cist, was the Western Spy and Hamilton Gazette, the first number of which was issued May 28, 1799, by Joseph Carpenter. Mr. Carpenter came early to the place from Massachusetts, and by the favor of his fellow- citizens was much in public office, both by election and appointment. As Captain Carpenter, he led out a com- pany in the war of 1812, and served faithfully for six months in 1813 and '14, under the immediate command of General Harrison, dying in service from exposure en- dured during a forced march from Fort St. Mary's in midwinter. He was buried in Cincinnati with military honor and a great concourse of his fellow-citizens at- tending his funeral. General Gano, in a certificate of his service made some years afterwards, said : "Captain Carpenter commanded his company with high reputation as an officer, and rendered essential service to his coun- try ; and the officer who inspected his company at Fort Winchester reported to me that they were as well dis- ciplined as any militia he ever saw in service." His was the most famous of the old newspapers of Cincinnati. With improvement in mail facilities, news began to arrive more promptly. The Spy for July 31, 1802, contains in- telligence from France to May 17, from London to May 10, New York July 9, and Washington July 25-which was doing pretty well.' The message of President Jeffer- son to Congress December 15, 1802, appeared in the Spy January 5, 1803. In the number for April 26, 1802, one Andrew Jackson, who was afterwards con- siderably heard from, advertises fifty dollars' reward for the recovery of his negro slave George, who had eloped from his plantation on the Cumberland River. It changed hands several times during the first ten years, but kept its name until Messrs. Carney & Morgan took charge of it, during whose control its title was changed to The Whig. Fifty-eight numbers of this were published, when, the paper passing to other hands, it became The Advertiser. This expired November 11 following, and in September, 1810, Mr. Carpenter appeared in journalism again as editor of a new Western Spy. This was regu- larly published for some years-at least to theyear 1815, when it was of super-royal size, was conducted by Messrs. Morgan & Williams, and had about twelve hun- dred subscribers. In 1823 it seems to have been again in existence, and its name was then changed to The Na- tional Republican and Ohio Political Register.

At the beginning of 1804 the Spy was the only paper in Cincinnati. December 9 of that year, was started another weekly newspaper, bearing the sounding title of Liberty Hall and Cincinnati Mercury, the latter half of which was presently dropped. The Rev. John W. Browne, enterprising editor, publisher of almanacs, etc.,

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preacher, town recorder, bookseller, and occasionally ven- der of patent medicine, was proprietor of the new ven- ture, and had rather a troublous time of it, being once or twice personally attacked by citizens aggrieved by his sheet. The first number was published "in the cock- loft " of the log cabin at the southeast corner of Syca- more and Third. It was of royal size, and manifested otherwise some improvement upon its predecessors. It contained, however, no tales or sketches, gems of wit or sentiment, and but little poetry or editorial matter. Apart from "leaders" and marriage notices, editor Browne plied the pen but little. The few advertisements were much displayed-perhaps to fill space and save composition. The conductors of Liberty Hall in 1815 were Messrs. J. H. Looker and A. Wallace, who were also book publishers. The paper was now of super- royal size, and had more than fourteen hundred sub- scribers.

The issue of the Cincinnati Gazette, ancestor of the Gazette of to-day, was begun this year, on Saturday, July 13, by Thomas Palmer & Company; and on the eleventh of December following Liberty Hall was con- solidated with the new paper, which carried both names for a time, as the Liberty Hall and Cincinnati Gazette. It was the first paper in the town with column rules and other marks of modern typography. The subsequent history of this journal is detailed hereafter.

In July, 1814, an ephemeral paper called The Spirit of the West had been started, which survived through forty- four numbers.

In November, 1819, Mr. Joseph Buchanan started a new weekly paper of a somewhat distinctive character, called The Literary Cadet. After only twenty-three num- bers it was merged in another paper, which added the name to its own in the compound title of The Western Spy and Literary Cadet, with Mr. Buchanan as editor, and became a favorite medium through which the bud- ding literati of Cincinnati could give their prose and poetry to the world.

In the spring of this ycar there were thirty-four news- papers in the State. Four years previously, in 1815, there were in Southern Ohio, outside of Cincinnati, only the Western American and Political Censor at Williams- burg, the Western Star at Lebanon, the Miami Intelli- gencer at Hamilton, the Ohio Reporter at Dayton, the Spirit of Liberty at Urbana, and the Ohio Vehicle at Greenfield. The city papers of 1819 were the Liberty Hall and Cincinnati Gazette, semi-weekly and weekly, published by Morgan, Dodge & Company; the Western Spy and Cincinnati General Advertiser, weekly, issucd by Mason & Palmer; and the Inquisitor, also weekly, by Powers & Hopkins. All were imperial sheets, with six columns to a page-larger and fuller in their contents than any others in the State. Each had a good book and job office attached.

The newspapers of the early day contained very little editorial matter-often not more than ten lines. Their pages were, indeed, principally filled with ponderous pub- lic documents.

The paper for newspaper and book publication here

was at first obtained from Pennsylvania, partly from the mills at the Redstone Old Fort, which were started in 1800; later supplies were also obtained from Georgetown, Kentucky. In 1803 the Spy got out of paper, and sev- eral numbers appeared upon an amusing variety of sizes and tints of paper. An old German paper-maker named Waldsmith, who had settled on the Little Miami, near the present Camp Dennison, was prevailed upon about this time to start a paper mill on that stream, which he did with entire success, and thereafter the Cincinnati offices were well supplied.

JOURNALISM GREW

rapidly after 1820, and periodicals, weekly and monthly, even daily, rose and fell with astonishing frequency. We shall attempt to give but some scattered notices of the more interesting matters in local journalism thence- forth.

From 1815 to 1820 there had been, at various times, but one semi-weekly paper and five weekly papers in the place; but the number increased greatly in the next de- cade.

In the decade 1821-30 the long and honorable list of Cincinnati magazines had their beginning. In the early part of 1821 a semi-monthly, in quarto, called The Olio, was started by John H. Wood and S. S. Brooks, editors and publishers, and lasted about a year. It gave the young writers of the place a good chance ; and among its contributors were Robert T. Lytle, Sol Smith, Dennis McHenry, John H. James, Lewis Noble, and other well known local lights.

In 1822 medical journalism had a beginning here in The Western Quarterly Reporter, which was edited by Dr. John B. Godman, and published by John P. Foote. Six numbers were issued, when it was discontinued, upon the removal of Dr. Godman to Philadelphia. Other professional journals of this kind will receive notice in the next chapter.

Lexington had the honor of issuing the first monthly periodical in the west-The Western Review and Miscel- laneous Magazine-the first number of which appeared in August, 1819, a medium octavo of sixty-four pages, with William Gibbes Hunt as editor. It was maintained but two years. In the latter part of 1823 Mr. John P. Foote projected a journal of literary character, which appeared on the first of January following, under the cognomen of the Cincinnati Literary Gazette. It was a weekly, me- dium quarto, at three dollars a year, and the first journal of its kind started west of the mountains. A. N. Dem- ing was its printer, Mr. Foote editor. It was published on Saturdays at the latter's book-store, No. 14 Lower Market. The two volumes of it that were issued con- tain much matter of local historic intercst-among other things discussions of the Symmes theory of concentric spheres, which was then a fresh topic. The first pub- lished writings of Benjamin Drake that attracted atten- tion were in this-notably his Sketches from the Port- folio of a Young Backwoodsman.

In July, 1827, appeared the first number of The West- ern Monthly Review, publisher W. M. Farnsworth, editor

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Rev. Timothy Flint, author of Ten Years' Recollections in the Mississippi Valley, and several other reputable works. It was a medium octavo of fifty-six pages, sub- scription three dollars per annum. The first issue was a disappointment to the expectant readers, and subse- quent numbers for a time did not redeem the failure. At the beginning of 1833, however, the Western Monthly Mag- azine, which had been published at Vandalia, Illinois, until the removal of its editor, the distinguished writer, Judge Hall, to Cincinnati, was revived here by the judge under the same name, with Messrs. Corey & Fairbank as publish- ers. Two years later Messrs. Flash, Ryder & Company took the financial management of the magazine, and Judge Hall turned over the editorship to Joseph B. Fry, and became himself president and cashier of the Commercial bank. It was already in its decadence, however; and at the close of this year (1835) the remains of the subscrip- tion list were sold to James B. Marshall, of Louisville, who removed it to that city, where we shall presently hear of it again.

Soon after the discontinuance of the Literary Gazette, Messrs. Hatch, Nichols & Buxton started the Saturday Evening Chronicle, a journal of news and literature, ed- ited by Benjamin Drake. It also became a financial failure, and was merged in the Cincinnati Mirror, an- other literary enterprise of the time.

Mr. Richard C. Langdon, some time before 1830, started a small quarto periodical called The Shield; and soon afterwards Joel T. Case began the publication of The Ladies' Museum. Both were short-lived, the latter surviving but a year or two.

The Cincinnati Times was founded in this decade, in 1821, as a weekly, by C. W. Starbuck. An historical no- tice will be given to it below.

In 1826, the first daily paper in the entire country west of Philadelphia was started in Cincinnati by Mr. S. S. Brooks, but survived only six months. It was called the Commercial Register, and was edited by Morgan Neville. It was printed on a half-sheet royal every day but Sun- day, at six dollars a year. It was revived again in 1828, after the apparent success of the daily Gazette, and then lasted but three months.

A few weeks after the first suspension of the Register, a party of prominent merchants waited upon the propriet- ors of the Gazette, and asked the establishment of a daily issue from their office. The effort was successful; and the second Cincinnati daily, which still survives in power and prosperity, made its appearance June 25, 1827, with the aggregate of one hundred and twenty-five subscrib- ers. For nearly ten years it was printed upon the old- fashioned hand-presses, about two hundred and fifty sheets per hour, until, in 1836, an Adams press, the first "power press" brought west of the Alleghanies, was pur- chased for it in Boston. It was run by simple hand- power, employed in turning a crank and fly-wheel, and turned out seven hundred and fifty sheets an hour. In 1843 the same journal first enjoyed the facilities of steam-power, which was applied to a new Hoe press. Morgan, Lodge & Fisher were the first publishers of the daily, and Charles Hammond editor. It was of super-

royal sheet, nineteen by twenty-seven inches, published at eight dollars per year. Its advertising was originally as limited as its subscription list.

Mr. E. D. Mansfield, in his Memoirs of Dr. Drake, pays a very warm tribute to the character and services of Mr. Hammond. His opening remarks refer to the era of the excited agitation here against the anti-slavery move- ment, in 1836. He says:

That the public opinion of Cincinnati was corrected, and the press maintained its independent position, was chiefly due to the intrepid character and great ability of Charles Hammond, then editor of the Gazette. He had a detestation of slavery in all its forms, and especially in that meanest of all oppressions, the reckless violence of a mob or its counterpart, the overawing of a selfish and unenlightened public opinion. He had a sturdy independence which nothing could conquer. He was a very able lawyer, and he wielded the pen with a vigor which, in its terseness and raciness, was unequalled in this country. In the whole United States I know of but two editors who personally, through the press, exercised as much positive influence over the most intelligent minds; and they were altogether different men-Mr. Walsh, of the National Gazette, and Mr. Gales, of the National Intelligencer. Neither Duane nor Ritchie, so long and so influentially connected with the newspaper press, were to be compared to Mr. Hammond, as politi- cal writers for educated men. Their influence was great; but it was on a lower level. Mr. Hammond was the ardent friend of liberty, and, being thoroughly acquainted with the laws of the country, fought its battle, where only it can be successfully fought, with liberty by the side of law, and rights protected by the constitution.

Another able editor of this period, but less noted, was Benjamin Drake, brother of Dr. Daniel Drake. He was a native Kentuckian, and came here to join his brother in 1814, in the drug and general merchandise business. He was already studying law, and was admitted to the bar ten or twelve years after; but drifted much into jour- nalism and other literature. He was one of the joint au- thors of Drake & Mansfield's book on Cincinnati in 1826, and the same year, in connection with others, established the Cincinnati Chronicle, of which he was editor until 1834, and again in 1836, as an assistant to E. D. Mans- field, after the new Chronicle (upon the basis of the sub- scription list of the Cincinnati Mirror, into which the old Chronicle had been merged) had passed from the hands of the medical department of the Cincinnati College. He re- mained with it until March, 1840, when his other engage- ments compelled him to retire; and he died thirteen months afterwards, at the age of forty-six. He was a man of limited education in the schools, but was of some natural parts, and by dint of industry became an accept- able and forcible writer. He was author of the Tales of the Queen City, Lives of Black Hawk and Tecumseh, and other writings which are still read with attention and interest.

The Independent Press, edited by Sol. Smith, the actor, was started in 1823. The satirical sketches in rhyme by Thomas Pierce, entitled "Horace in Cincinnati," were first published in this paper.

In 1826 there were nine newspapers in the city: The Commercial Register, daily; Liberty Hall and Cincinnati Gazette, the National Reporter and Ohio Political Regis- ter, the Cincinnati Advertiser, the National Crisis, and the Cincinnati Emporium, semi-weekly and weekly; the Saturday Evening Chronicle, the Western Tiller, the Parthenon, and the Ohio Chronicle (the first German pa- per in the west), weekly; the Ohio Medical Reporter,

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semi-monthly; and the Rev. Mr. Flint's monthly West- ern Magazine and Review was about to be started.

The Western Tiller, mentioned for the first time in the last paragraph, was first issued by James WV. Gazlay, af- terwards congressman, in four-page form, as an agricult- ural and family paper, on Friday, August 25, 1826, from the southeast corner of Main and Second streets. It was published during the rest of this year and in 1827.

The Daily Commercial Advertiser was established in 1829, by E. S. Thomas, whose son, Frederick W., as- sisted in its management. The elder Thomas also, in 1834, in association with John B. Dillon (afterwards the distinguished historian of Indiana), and L. S. Sharp, be- gan the publication of the Democratic Intelligencer, a daily, tri-weekly and weekly, supporting Justice John Mc- Lean as a candidate for the Presidency. It had, like the Advertiser, a brief career-but briefer than that; and in 1835 the Thomases are found conducting the Daily Evening Post, a paper which became quite famous for its notes upon art and artists. It also was discontinued in 1839.

The Hon. E. D. Mansfield, in his Personal Memories, notes that, between 1825 and 1828, Cincinnati had two remarkable journalists. One was Moses Dawson, editor and publisher of the Commercial Advertiser, a Jackson organ. He was an Irishman by birth, and a very suc- cessful leader of the rough and uncultured classes in the city. Opposed to him was Charles Hammond, a Feder- alist of the old school and an able lawyer, with opinions of the most prominent and uncompromising character. Mr. Mansfield says:

Such a man on one side and an Irish Democrat on the other would, of course, and actually did make a literary and political pugilism worthy of Donnybrook. Newspaper conflicts have never been confined to polite usages or tender language. So Dawson and Hammond kept up a running fight which was more worthy of Ireland than of America. There was, however, no equality in the contestants. Hammond was not only an able lawyer and familiar with the political literature of the day, but was one of the strongest and most vigorous of writers. While Hammond was firing rifles whose balls invariably hit the mark, Daw- son would reply with a blunderbuss, hcavily charged, but making more noise than execution.

In 1828, while occupied in editing the Gazette, Mr. Hammond also conducted a monthly publication called Truth's Advocate, published almost a year by the parti- sans of Clay and Adams to oppose the aspirations of Jackson to the Presidency. Some valuable historical and many able editorial and contributed articles appeared in the Advocate. Hammond was the personal and polit- ical friend of Mr. Clay, with whom he often practiced in the courts. He always refused offers of public office- in one case that of judge of the supreme court, and re- mained a private citizen. In this capacity, however, he was a power among many other influences upon his day and generation doing much to form the anti-slavery sen- timent.

Mr. Hammond was immediately preceded in the edit- orial chair of the Gazette by another notable man-the Hon. Isaac Burnet, brother of Judge Burnet and first mayor of the city of Cincinnati.

'The periodical publications of 1829 were the Gazette and the Advertiser, daily; Liberty Hall and the National

Reporter, semi-weekly; the Western Tiller, the Cincinnati Pandect, the Sentinel, the Chronicle and Literary Gazette, weekly; the Ladies' Museum, semi-monthly; the Western Review, and the Western Journal of Medical and Phys- ical Science, monthly.

HALF A CENTURY AGONE.

The periodical literature of 1831, just fifty years ago, included the Daily Gazette, Advertiser, and National Republican; Liberty Hall, the Cincinnati Journal, Amer- ican, Advertiser, Chronicle, and Sentinel and Star, all weekly; the Western Tiller, the Ladies' Museum, the Western journal of Medicine, and the Farmers' Reporter. A baker's dozen of journals, daily, weekly, and monthly, comprised the list of half a century since.

The Cincinnati Mirror was started this year by John H. Wood, publisher, who brought for the first time to Cincinnati, from Xenia, the well-known literary character, Mr. W. D. Gallagher, as editor. The Mirror was a very neat little quarto of eight pages, published semi-monthly. It obtained a high reputation, and circulated far and wide in the Mississippi Valley. Mr. Thomas H. Shreve became joint owner and assistant editor at the beginning of its third year. In November, 1833, the publication was enlarged and changed to a weekly. It obtained large subscription lists; but, although a literary success, it was a financial failure. In April, 1835, the Chronicle, then under the management of James H. Perkins, was consolidated with the Mirror, which was now edited by Gallagher, Shreve and Perkins, and published by T. H. Shreve & Co. The paper was kept up to the end of this year, when it was sold to James B. Marshall, who changed its name to the Buckeye, maintained it three months, and sold it to Flash, Ryder & Company, then booksellers on Third street. They restored the old name and retained the editors. Gallagher and Shreve soon drew out, however; and Mr. J. Reese Fry took the editorship for a few months, when he in turn abandoned the sinking craft. Its subscription was presently trans- ferred to the Weekly Chronicle.

In the same year was also started the Baptist Weekly Journal of the Mississippi Valley. A letter to its sur- viving descendant, the Journal and Messenger, of date July 22, 1880, the forty-ninth anniversary of the first issue, by the Rev. John Stevens, D. D., its first editor, contains the following :

The date of the first number issued was July 22, 1831, at Cincinnati, John Stevens, editor. It continued to be published at Cincinnati seven years under the same editorship, and was then moved to Columbus. The responsible publishers for the first of the seven years were six breth- ren of Cincinnati, viz: Ephraim Robins, Noble S. Johnson, Henry Miller, William White, Adam McCormick, and Ambrose Dudley. For the six years following N. S. Johnson was publisher. It was at first a folio sheet of four pages, the size of each form or page being about twenty by thirteen inches. Price two dollars a year in advance, two dollars and fifty cents after three months, and three dollars after the close of the year. Number of subscribers at the end of the first six months, five hundred and sixty; at the end of ten months, seven hun- dred; at the end of the second year, one thousand two hundred; toward the end of the third year, one thousand three hundred. On the pur- chase and addition of the Cross (the Baptist paper of Kentucky, less than a year and a half old), March, 1834. the list arose to two thou- sand three hundred. By the immediate establishment of a new paper in Kentucky, and other new competitors, the list was soon reduced, and the loss thus occasioned was less than made up by gain otherwise.

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In July, 1838, at the end of the first seven years, the list was between one thousand six hundred and one thousand seven hundred.

The early help of contributors was small. The entire amount of contributed matter, good, bad, and indifferent, inserted in the columns of the paper the first six months, twenty-six numbers, was only equal to some sixteen columns of a single issue, considerably less than a sin- gle column a week. During the last of the seven years it was nearly ten imes as much.

The cost of publication the first year exceeded the inconie from sub- scribers by one thousand nine hundred dollars, which, with the excep- tion of some three or four hundred dollars subscribed by others, came out of the pockets of the six responsible publishers before named. During the following six years the excess of cost borne by the publisher, N. S. Johnson, was nearly a thousand dollars a year.

In July, 1838, the paper was moved to Columbus and published there some ten years, and then moved back to Cincinnati. In May, 1842, the number of subscribers was said to be one thousand three hundred.

The name of the paper, after the Cross was added, became the Cross and Baptist Journal of the Mississippi Valley. On its removal to Co- lumbus it was abridged to Cross and Journal, and afterwards changed to Western Christian Journal. In 1850, or earlier, it was moved back to Cincinnati, and the Christian Messenger, the Baptist paper of Indi- ana, which had for some time been published at Madison and Indian- apolis, Rev. E. D. Owen, editor, was united with it; hence the present name, Journal and Messenger.

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History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 77

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co. Number of Pages: 666

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co.
Number of Pages: 666