History of Columbiana County, Ohio and representative citizens, Part 32

Author: McCord, William B., b. 1844
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 912

USA > Ohio > Columbiana County > History of Columbiana County, Ohio and representative citizens > Part 32

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Early in the year 1898 F. Leslie Trump started in East Liverpool the Operative Potter, a monthly publication in the interest especially,

as its name indicated, of the operative potters. It survived about a year and a half. April 19, 1899, the Potters Herald was established as a weekly, under the direction of A. S. Hughes, president, and T. J. Duffy, secretary of the National Brotherhood of Operative Potters. In about two years the paper was taken over by members of the N. B. of O. P. and continued in 1905 to be printed as the organ of that body, asd also of the East Liverpool Trades and Labor Council. T. J. Duffy, president of the N. B. of O. P., was editor; Edward Menge, associate editor; and H. O. Allison, business manager.

PAPERS OF COLUMBIANA AND LEETONIA.

In 1857 Kurtz & Quinter established in Columbiana a monthly religious publication, printed partly in English and partly in German, devoted to the interests of the Dunkers, known as the Gospel Visitor. In 1866 the paper was removed to Dayton.

In September, 1858, C. H. M. Beecher began the publication of the Columbiana Ledger. It was continued until 1861, when it suspended. In the latter year R. L. King be- gan the publication of the Columbiana Chron- icle. It lasted less than six months, and died before the close of 1861.

In 1858 Black & Watson purchased the material upon which the Aurora had been printed at New Lisbon, and began the publica- tion of the Telegraph at Columbiana. It lived for. 24 weeks.

For almost 10 years Columbiana was with- out a local paper. Then, April 14, 1870, the Independent Register appeared. A number of Columbiana men raised the money and fitted up an office, employing J. M. Hutton as editor. He issued five numbers, when his connection with the paper ceased. In May the property passed into the hands of the Washington Print- ing Press Company, composed of Gen. E. S. Holloway, J. B. Powell, J. Esterley, A. Stur- geon and W. R. Knowles, who employed George Duncan as editor. He remained until February, 1871 ; and from that time until Sep- tember, 1871, R. G. Mosgrove was editor. The

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company then sold out to Frank M. Atterholt and Noah E. Nold, but after a few issues had been printed Atterholt sold his interest to Gen. E. S. Holloway. The latter and Mr. Nold continued the publication until May, 1872, when General Holloway became editor and · sole proprietor. In April, 1877, he associated with him his sons, John W. and Orlando T. They continued the business until September, 1879, when they sold to John Flaugher. Flaugher continued the publication of the In- dependent Register until the year of his death, 1896, when the paper passed into the hands of H. E. Garrett. He continued the publica- tion but a comparatively short time, and was succeeded by Elmer Firestone. He continued the paper until some time in 1897, when it was suspended. Meanwhile, about 1890, a stock company had started the Columbiana Ledger, with George Mclaughlin as managing editor. In 1895 the paper was sold to Newell & Shing- ler-H. O. Newell and George Shingler. Shingler died in 1904, and Mr. Newell became sole proprietor and editor of the paper.

About October 1, 1900, Wilson Edgerton began the publication of the Columbiana In- dependent. A little later C. P. Moreland be- came associated with Edgerton in the publica- tion. In 1903 Edgerton & Moreland sold out to G. E. Koch, who continued the paper only about six weeks, and then sold to Newell & Shingler, publishers of the Columbiana Ledger, by which paper the Independent was absorbed.

The Columbiana Truc Press was estab- lished July 14, 1875, by two brothers, Lee and Thomas S. Arnold. The publication was con- tinued in Columbiana until August, 1881, when the Arnolds removed to Leetonia and continued to issue the paper there. In the meantime, however, Leetonia's first newspaper, the orig- inal Reporter, was established in January, 1872, by Harry Watson and James Hamilton. There were, in the course of the next few years sev- eral changes : Watson sold his interest and John Marchand bought in ; then Hamilton sold, and Marchand continued until July, 1881, when he left the field vacant. The Reporter had been Republican in politics.

Leetonia was without a paper only for two or three weeks, however. As has been said,

the Arnold brothers, having removed their office from Columbiana, resumed the publica- tion of the Truc Press in Leetonia in August, 1881. Thomas Arnold purchased the interest of his brother in 1882, and continued the paper as the Truc Press for about six months, when, the paper having been conducted independently of political affiliation, it was made Democratic in politics and given the name of the Leetonia Democrat. About three years later the name of the paper was again changed, this time being Leetonia's first paper's name, the Reporter. In 1905 the Reporter was still Leetonia's only paper, Mr. Arnold still being the editor and publisher.

But within 25 years there had been sundry attempts at opposition to the Reporter. Where- fore one might naturally reach the conclusion that Leetonia had been a fruiful newspaper field. Just when the Arnolds were trying to establish. themselves there, in the summer of 1881, D. D. Kirby, afterward the Salem pub- lisher, and, G. W. Cowgill, who also had a brief experience in Salem, contested the ground with the brothers. They actually did seem to be gaining a foothold, for they started the Com- mercial and continued it for several months, when they gave up the fight. Mr. Kirby, how- ever, had sold his interest before the paper sus- pended. Then W. T. Cutchall, before he estab- lished himself in New Waterford, rented a place and printed two or three issues of a paper in Leetonia. Then about 1890 Frank Shoe- maker made an attempt which died in its incip- iency. He was followed by Wade Dickinson and Harry Watson, Jr., who issued a Republi- can weekly during the fall campaign of 1892. Near the same time a Youngstown man vainly attempted to get a foothold in the popular favor with a paper which he called the Gasette. But "Tommy" Arnold has unbounded faith in the "survival of the fittest," and for several years up to 1905 he was rewarded by the knowledge that he still held undisputed possession of the field.

NOT MANY VENTURES IN SALINEVILLE.

Salineville's first newspaper appears to have been the Era, which was printed in Wellsville in 1870 by J. E. Porter, being dated Salineville.

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It lasted less than a year. The following year James M. Reese, of Wellsville, had a similar experience with the Salineville Miner. It lived but a few months. May 2, 1872, J. W. and J. F. Lacock issued the first number of the Salineville Index, which gave greater promise of permanency of existence than either of its predecessors. It was independent in politics, and the Lacocks continued its publication until the fall of 1878, when, passing into the hands of William Jackson, its name was changed to the Salineville Herald. It passed in its checks about a year later. . About 1881 J. K. Smith started the Ohio Advance in Salineville, which about two years later passed into the hands of the publisher of the East Liverpool and Wells- ville Saturday Review, and was finally ab- sorbed by that paper. About 1880 local parties published the Screenbar, which lived about a year. Salineville was for some time without a paper of its own. About January, 1888, John Crowl, coming from East Liverpool, started the Salineville Record, and continued it for about four years. In 1894 W. R. Dutton es- tablished the Salineville Banner, which within the next 10 or II years was to prove the one financial newspaper success of Salineville up to its time. In 1900 Dutton sold the Banner to J. H. Dodds, who was still publisher and proprietor in 1905. The Banner had always been Republican in politics, as had all of Salineville's newspaper ventures, where any political complexion at all had been given to them.

UNITY TOWNSHIP NEWSPAPERS.

The first newspaper to gain a foothold in East Palestine was the Valley Echo, estab- lished April 12. 1878. by Ellis J. Roberts and continued by him until 1885. Rev. T. W. Winters then bought the paper and conducted it until 1889, when R. F. Chamberlin and S. K. Todd bought and continued the publication for a year and a half and sold to Robert M. Winters. Meanwhile S. H. Maneral had started the East Palestine Reveille-November 15. 1886. He in 1892 sold to C. B. Galbreath -- afterwards for many years State librarian-

who conducted the paper until March 1, 1894, the name of the paper having been changed to the Republican Reveille, to make more conspic- uous its political complexion. At this date (March 1, 1894) the Valley Echo and Repub- lican Reveille were consolidated as the Rc- veille-Echo, and came under the management of S. K. Todd. Hon. J. J. Brittain was editor of the paper from June 14, 1894, until Novem- ber II, 1897, when he resigned to accept an ap- pointment from President Mckinley as consul to Nantes, France-later being transferred to Kiehl, Germany. (Mr. Brittain had served two terms in the Lower House of the Ohio Legisla- ture-1892 to 1894.) W. J. Foley was editor of the Reveille-Echo for one year and he was succeeded by S. L. Cutting, who held the chair until March 21, 1901, when S. K. Todd suc- ceeded as editor and manager. July 1, 1905, E. L. Merwin, who came from Newton Falls, Ohio, purchased an interest and became editor of the paper. Early in 1905 the American Poultryman, monthly, was established by S. K. Todd, publication office being at East Pales- tine, with a branch office in Pittsburg, Pennsyl- vania.

New Waterford's first local newspaper was the New Waterford Times, a small 3-column sheet, issued monthly, from 1882 to 1884, by W. Grant Scott. The Monthly Gleaner, pub- lished also by Mr. Scott-being issued monthly from December, 1885, to December, 1888 -- was more pretentious, being composed of four pages with four columns to the page. The last issue was dated December 15, 1888. A. C. Smith started the New Waterford Magnet. December 6, 1894. Smith continued as pub- lisher about two years when Sam C. Scott, who had extended Smith financial aid, reluctantly took over the concern, keeping it alive until April 1. 1897, when he sold the paper to W. T. Cutchall and J. T. Mercer. A little later Cut- chall bought out his partner, and continued the Magnet, which in 1905 had become apparently a prosperous newspaper enterprise. During the later years the paper had became Demo- cratic in politics.

The Rogers Noon-Tide, a weekly local pa- per, was established in 1888 by J. Harry Reed,

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and published by him at Rogers until early in 1903, when it was removed to East Palestine, and soon after suspended.

In the course of the century of progress in newspaper publication, the business had under- gone a wonderful evolution. The old "Ram- age" and the "Washington" hand-presses had gone, with the inking of the forms by balls and hand-rollers. In their places came the "Camp- bell" and the "Hoe Country Cylinders," print- ing 1,000 to 1,200 sheets an hour, where a "token" of 240 sheets had been considered rap- id work; then came faster cylinders, making 2,000 impressions to the hour, with machines, which folded the papers as fast as they were printed, and finally the "Cox Duplex" with its 4,000 or 5,000 an hour and the perfecting press making 10,000 to 15,000 papers complete, printed and folded, to the hour. But even that is not great speed as goes the speed of the big perfecting presses of the large city dailies. Yet it is pretty good for the beginning of the 20th century in Columbiana County, where there were so many papers that the larg- est circulation in 1905 did not run beyond 5,000 copies.

But the speed and improvement in the press

do not show greater advancement than the ad- vances made in speed by the type-setting ma- chines over hand composition; the improved facilities for newsgathering and in the better- ment in methods for serving subscribers. The linotype, one of which does the work of four or five typesetters of the old regime, had in 1905 been installed in almost every daily news- paper office. Even the country weekly had its "plate" service, a device of the last quarter of the 19th century, and the rural free delivery was taking the daily papers to the doors of the farmers over the county almost as promptly. as the carriers in the cities and towns. The telephone, too, had become a great factor in newsgathering, and every daily had its court correspondent at the county seat, with a syndi- cate leased line for the rapid and prompt con- veyance of county-seat news. Few papers had yet availed themselves of the daily telegraph service, but the innovation had been made, and . the indications were that soon the daily news,- hot from the wires, would be the rule rather than the exception, and that the "plate" service- would be relegated to the place occupied by the "patent outsides" in the later decades of the 19th century.

CHAPTER XVI.

GALAXY OF STATESMEN.

Men Who Have' Represented Columbiana County in Congress, in the Legislature and in State Offices-Famous Campaigns and Campaigners-Rise of Mckinley, Hanna and Others-Epoch-Making County Politics.

While Columbiana County has not had the honor of seeing one of her natives in the White House or in the chair of the chief executive of the State, yet there have been from among her citizenship those who have acquired deserved fame and high honor in other scarcely less responsible if less exalted positions. A re- nowned president was a few months too young to claim nativity in Columbiana County, while one of the greatest statesmen and Senators the country has ever produced was born within its confines; and his ancestors for three genera- tions made the county their home. Of intel- lectual lights of lesser magnitude, among legis- lators, national, State and judiciary-states- men of high and low degree-there have been many whom Columbiana County people have delighted to honor, and who have brought honor upon their constituency and themselves. Only examples from these classes of patriots and statesmen-all of them held in grateful remembrance-can be referred to in this chan- ter, while nò slight is intended to any.

Some of Columbiana County's early legis- lators and statesmen who achieved more or less distinction were: William Russell, who was a member of the Lower House of the Gen- eral Assembly of Ohio from 1824 to 1826, in- clusive; John Laird, a bitter partisan of the Democratic faith, who served in the State Sen- "ate in 1823 and 1824; DeLorma Brooks, who was a member of the convention of Federalists

which met in Columbus in 1827, and favored the nomination of John Quincy Adams to the presidency, and who was a member of the Lower House of the General Assembly in 1826-27; Andrew W. Loomis, who represented the Columbiana district in Congress in 1836- 37, and who was chosen to deliver the oration on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Braddock's defeat, November 25, 1858; Charles D. Coffin, who was elected by the Whigs to Congress to fill the unexpired term caused by the resignation of Loomis; and J. Twing Brooks, who was the youngest member of the State Senate in 1866-68.

Fisher A. Blocksom, of New Lisbon, who was in public life perhaps longer than any other resident of the county, served as prose- cuting attorney several terms early in the first half of the 19th century. In 1806 he served on the staff of Brig-Gen. Robert Simison, who commanded the Second Brigade of the Fourth Division, Ohio State Militia. He was a mem- ber of the Lower House of the General As- sembly from 1826 to 1828, inclusive, and was re-elected in. 1831 and served until 1833. He was the presidential elector of the Democratic party from this district in 1832, and cast the vote of his party in the district for Andrew Jackson. He was prosecuting attorney for the county from 1838 to 1843, and a member of the State Board of Equalization in 1841. Mr. Blocksom died in New Lisbon, December 14,

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1876, at the ripe old age of 95 years and three months.

Gen. James W. Reilly, the old military, leg- islative and judicial "war-horse," was still liv- ing at his old home in Wellsville in 1905, at the age of 77. In 1861 he was elected on the Union ticket to represent Columbiana County in the Lower House of the Ohio Legislature, and while in that body served on the judiciary "committee and as chairman of the committee on military affairs. In July, 1862, he was tendered the colonelcy of the 104th Regiment, Ohio Vol. Inf., and served in the war with great distinction, being promoted to the rank of brigadier general, commanding for a time the Third Division of the 23rd Army Corps. In 1873 'he was a member of the State consti- tutional convention. In 1866 his name was brought forward by the Republican party of the county in the nominating convention of the 17th District for congressional honors, and again in 1878, when, after a three days session, and more than 100 ballots, Jonathan T. Upde- graff, of Jefferson County, succeeded in break- ing the deadlock between himself and General Reilly and secured the nomination, Jefferson County at that time being a part of the 18th Congressional District. It has always been conceded that General Reilly could easily have secured the nomination of his party and gone to Congress had he consented to do a little campaigning over the district in his own be- half; but so ,independent was he that not a speech would he make in a campaign where he himself was interested, even in his own county.

Hon. Jacob A. Ambler, who was cotem- poraneous with General Reilly, in years and in public life, still lived at his old home in Salem in 1905, at the age of 76. In October, 1857, he was elected to the Lower House of the Ohio General Assembly, on the Republican ticket. resigning this office in 1859 to accept an ap- pointment by Governor Chase on the common pleas bench of the First Sub-Division of the Ninth Judicial District of the State, to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of Judge Lyman W. Potter. In 1860 he was elected to the bench for the remainder of the unexpired term. and re-elected the following year for a

full term of five years. Judge Ambler was elected to represent the 17th Ohio District in the 4Ist Congress, and was re-elected to the 42nd Congress. He served on the United States Tariff Commission, by appointment of President Arthur, the report of which com- mission was the basis of the tariff law of 1883. Judge Ambler was a Democrat until the or- ganization of the Republican party, but ever after that period was a stanch advocate of its policy. His last active service in political cam- paigns, however, was in 1871, when he accom- panied Governor Noyes on his canvassing tour through Southern Ohio. He was also a mem- ber of the Cincinnati convention which nomi- nated Rutherford B. Hayes for the presidency in 1876.

Hon. Jonathan H. Wallace was a notable personage of the old school who figured judi- cially and to some extent politically in the latter half of the 19th century, in Columbiana County. He was prominent at the Columbiana County bar, and, being elected prosecuting at- torney in 1851, served two terms in that office. He was appointed judge in the Ninth Judicial District by Governor Hoadley, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Judge Peter A. Laubie, and served until the next reg- ular election. In 1880 he was the candidate of the Democracy of the 17th District for a seat in the 47th Congress ; and after a contest with William McKinley he was seated during the second session of that Congress. He was al- ways a Democrat, but somewhat conservative in his political ideas. He died October 29, 1892.

COLUMBIANA COUNTY ADOPTED M'KINLEY.

William McKinley, having been so near an actual product of Columbiana County that her people have long accounted him as one of her greatest men, and having, especially during his congressional career, been very closely allied with the county's politics as well as her indus- trial interests, to say nothing of his national fame as President of the whole country, a his- tory of Columbiana County would not be com- plete without somewhat extended reference to

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the great statesman. Indeed Mckinley said himself in one of his famous speeches: "I can- not forget that, when I was first a candidate for Congress, it was the splendid majority of rock- ribbed Columbiana County which assured my election.'

William Mckinley was born in Niles, Trumbull County, Ohio, February 26, 1843. In common with so many of our great states- men and leaders, he traced his ancestry to the sturdy Scotch settlers of the North of Ireland. From his father he had the energy and intel- lectual brilliancy of the Scotch-Irish, to which was added the German perseverance of his mother. He began his public career as a school teacher, but when the Civil War broke out he "dropped the ferule and took up the sword," enlisting as a private in the 23rd Regiment, Ohio Vol. Inf. The same qualities, which eventually placed him foremost in the ranks of his country's leaders, soon elevated him in the ranks of her defenders. After repeated pro- motions, he attained the rank of captain in 1864, and was breveted major at the close of the war. Returning to his native State when his country no longer needed his services in the field, he began the study of the law, estab- lishing himself at Canton, Ohio, in 1871. So rapid was his rise in the legal profession that, five years after locating at Canton, he was elected to Congress; and by three successive re-elections he remained there four terms. In Congress his opinions soon began to have great weight ; and, having made a close and thor- ough study of the tariff problem, he brought forward a measure providing for a higher tar- iff on products of American industry than had ever before been enacted. This law, popularly known as the "Mckinley Bill," was destined to become a great factor in subsequent national elections, and finally to place its author in the White House. In 1891 Major Mckinley was elected Governor of Ohio: in 1893 he was re- elected by a plurality of over 80,000 votes, a result largely due to his sturdy advocacy of the principle of protection. His remarkable record easily won him the nomination for the presi- dency at the St. Louis convention in June, 1896. His successful conduct of the war

against Spain, his great personal popularity and the wonderful prosperity of the country resulted in his renomination and re-election to. the presidency in 1900. Six months after his second inauguration, he was shot down by an anarchist assassin while attending the Pan- American Exposition at Buffalo, on September 6th, and died September 14, 1901. He was. buried at his old home city, Canton.

COLUMBIANA COUNTY'S GREATEST MAN.

The native of Columbiana County who achieved the greatest fame of any of her famed citizens was the late Senator Marcus A. Hanna. His ancestors came from Scotland. Thomas Hanna, the great-great-grandfather of Marcus A. Hanna, is said to have come to this country in 1764. He settled first in South- ern Pennsylvania, where he found among the Scotch and Scotch-Irish pioneers of that sec- tion a number of his countrymen. Soon after arriving in this country he died, leaving two sons, Robert and Thomas. Robert was bound out to a family of the Society of Friends, with whom he learned the tailor's trade. Having married, he removed to Virginia, where he and John Lynch laid out the town of Lynchburg. In 1801 he, with his wife and nine children, the second of whom was Benjamin, the grand father of Senator Hanna, came in one of the old "Conestoga" wagons from Lynchburg to the Ohio River, which they crossed at Smith's Ferry near the Columbiana County line. Mak- ing their way through the then unbroken wil- derness, they located on section 10. Fairfield township, Columbiana County. Robert Hanna was chairman at the first election for township. officers, held in Fairfield township, April. 1805. He was at that time elected township trustee, and his son, Benjamin, was chosen township clerk and treasurer. The Hannas continued to hold office almost continuously in the township up until about 1812. Meanwhile Robert Hanna had become interested in land in Middleton township, upon which he erected a tavern at the cross-roads where the village of Clarkson was afterwards located, which village was laid" out by him in 1816. Robert Hanna's son Ben --

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jamin and Rachel Dixson were married De- cember 16, 1803, by the use of the Friends' cer- emony. This is said to have been the first cere- mony of the kind in Fairfield township. Ben- jamin had located on what was afterward known as the Poulton farm, south of what was later the village of Columbiana. In 1810 he purchased a quarter-section of land east of the village where the Columbiana Cemetery was afterward located. Selling this land he moved to Salem in 1812, where he kept a store estab- lished by a number of Friends. About two years later he purchased a farm near New Lis- bon, and opened a store in the village, which he conducted until the canal excitement seized the town, when he was made president of the Sandy and Beaver Canal Company, which posi- tion he filled for 25 years. Leonard Hanna, son of Benjamin, and father of the Senator, was born at Columbiana March 4, 1806. He attended the common schools in New Lisbon, went to college, studied medicine and became a practicing physician. He was a fine, orator, and was an active advocate of anti-slavery and temperance. He removed with his family to Cleveland in 1852, and became a' member of the wholesale grocery and forwarding house of Hanna, Garretson & Company. He died in 1862. Dr. Hanna's wife was a. daughter of Porter and Rhoda Converse, of Ashtabula County, Ohio.

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History of Columbiana County, Ohio and representative citizens, Part 32

Author: McCord, William B., b. 1844 Publication date: 1905 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Biographical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 912

Author: McCord, William B., b. 1844
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 912