USA > Ohio > Guernsey County > History of Guernsey County, Ohio, Volume I > Part 20
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38
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GUERNSEY COUNTY, 01110.
The first volume closed with the number dated October 15, 1825, at which time the paper passed out of the hands of Aitken and became the property of Col. Cyrus P. Beatty, who successfully conducted it up to the time of his death, December 17, 1827, after which publication was continued by his widow. Colonel Beatty, upon assuming control, enlarged the paper to five columns, and greatly improved the typography and general appearance of the sheet. The published terms of the paper were as follows :
"The Guernsey Times will be published one a week, on a super-royal sheet, and good type, at one dollar and fifty cents per annum, if paid in ad- vance, or within three months after commencing, two dollars if paid before the expiration of the year, and two dollars and fifty cents if paid after the expiration of the year. One-half of the subscription will be received in prod- uce at market price, if delivered within the current year, or the whole, if paid in rags. No paper discontinued, except at the option of the editor, until all arrearages are paid. No subscription taken for less than a year, unless men- tioned at the time of subscribing, and paid for in advance, at the rate of two dollars per annum, and a failure to notify a discontinuance before the term expires shall be considered as a new engagement. Advertisements by the year, inserted at Pittsburg prices."
The plant passed successively through the hands of Nicholas Bailhache (February 1, 1828, to 1830), John Hersh, Jr. (May 1, 1830, to May 18, 1833, when it became John Hersh & Co.), John Hersh, Jr., and D. M. McPherson (as Guernsey Times and Ohio Gasette, from about April 20, 1832, to April 12, 1833). It is probable that after the dissolution of the partnership existing between Hersh and McPherson, the business was conducted by John Hersh, Jr., until the issue of March 8. 1834, when the firm became Hersh & Weirich, the new partner being C. E. Weirich. With the number for November 29, 1834, the paper again became the sole property of John Hersh, Jr., who con- tinned publication until December 13, 1834, when the name was changed from The Guernsey Times and Ohio Gasette to The Guernsey Times and. Farmers' and Mechanics' Advocate, and became the property of William W. Tracey. The paper flourished under Tracey, and when sold on December 12, 1835, to John A. Beatty, had attained to very respectable proportions and typo- graphic excellence.
Beatty was succeeded on July 2, 1836, by Lambert Thomas, who was a prominent character in early Whig days. June 17, 1837, the firm became Lambert & J. S. Thomas, but the paper retained the same caption and sub- head. June 9, 1838, Lambert Thomas again assumed entire control, and con- tinued publication until December 7. 1839. when W. R. Allison became edi-
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tor and publisher. Allison, during his brief editorship, made but few changes in the appearance of the paper, the most important being his substitution of the motto: "One Country, one Constitution, one Destiny," the famous decla- ration of Daniel Webster, in place of the former sub-head, "Farmers' and Me- chanics' Advocate." Allison was succeeded, March 21, 1840, by Charles J. Albright, who probably held his position longer than any of the editors who had preceded him, his resignation taking effect in the twenty-first year of the Times. He was succeeded by Messrs. Hatton and Green, who were editors jointly for a short time, when, with the number for March 20, 1846, the plant became the sole property of Richard Hatton, Mr. Green retiring from the newspaper field.
Richard Hatton sold the Times establishment to its former owner, C. J. Albright, in the spring of 1849, when the subhead became, "Let all the ends thou aimst at be thy country's, thy God's, and Truth's."
Albright kept it until December 28, 1854, when he sold it to Moses and C. P. B. Sarchet. In 1856 the plant passed into the hands of J. C. Douglas, who conducted it until January 1, 1862, who then enlisted in the Union army. He sold to Joseph D. Taylor and W. H. F. Lenfesty, and it remained in the Taylor family up to within a short time. David D. Taylor was at the head of the paper in the eighties and was still at his task in 1910, when he died. A sketch of this manly man will appear in the biographical section of this work.
The chain of owners of the Times, then, has been as above mentioned down to the time the Taylor family took it. From that time on, Taylor & Lenfesty controlled it until 1874, when David D. Taylor acquired an interest amounting to one-half its value, and in 1890 he purchased the balance and was sole owner up to his death. Upon his decease, the Taylor boys man- aged it until a few months had passed, when Prof. J. M. Carr and others bought the property of Mrs. Taylor, and Mr. Carr became its editor and man- ager. This only lasted for a few months as, on November 8, 1905, the Guernsey Times Company was organized by Judge W. H. Gregg and others who have the property at this date (November, 1910). This has been one of the most influential local papers in Ohio and has fought many a political con- flict, though in a manly manner. Should the present management make as good a record as have the men who have been behind the editorial desk in the more than four score years of the paper's history, they will indeed be for- tunate.
The Times has long since been a weekly and daily combined, and has visted the homes of many thousands of the people of Guernsey and adjoining counties. Long live the Times!
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The only surviving son of Lambert Thomas, who was for many years prominent in Cambridge affairs, and formerly editor of the Guernsey Times, Joseph Sterling Thomas, who died December 1, 1910, at Cambridge, was a well known resident of this city. Mr. Thomas was educated as an art and literary student, having studied in the greatest cities of the world. He was born at Zanesville, Ohio, but in very early childhood was taken to Philadel- phia, where his natural fancy and affinity for the arts led to rapid advance- ment. So marvelous was his skill, and so great his aptitude, that it was de- cided to give him the advantage of foreign study. After graduating from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, he went abroad to continue his studies. His private preceptors were Thomas P. Otter, George L. Bensell, Stephen Ferris and Joseph Bailly, the eminent French sculptor. He remained in Europe during the years 1878-79. In London he studied diligently along both art and literary lines, and produced many pictures which were highly commended by noted artists and critics. He also contributed widely to news- papers and magazines, being an able writer as well as an artist. Upon his re- turn to Philadelphia, he was robbed of a choice and interesting collection of pictures, models, vases, bas-reliefs, and bric-a-brac, by disreputable persons who visited his studio.
Mr. Thomas was a direct descendant of Judge Gomber, one of the founders of Cambridge, and of John Afordby Beatty, father of Col. Cyrus Parkinson Beatty, Gomber's brother-in-law and business partner. The Afordby-Beattys are old Virginia and Maryland stock of great antiquity and distinction.
Mr. Thomas regarded as his most unique experience the occasion upon which, at an early age, he penetrated through the Black Hills to the base of the Rocky mountains, after roaming through the wilds of Nebraska, Colo- rado, Montana, Dakota, etc., walking a distance of one thousand miles in six weeks.
Mr. Thomas died of heart failure in his bed at the American House where he was taken the night of his death.
PEOPLE'S PRESS.
The People's Press was established by Wes. Dunifer and later it was con- ducted by J. F. Solmon and he changed it to the Cambridge Democrat. Still later it was bought by a stock company of which J. R. Barr was manager and editor, and conducted as the Republican-Press, the same style as it is now known and run at present by the Times company, as a weekly family paper of
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much merit. It is newsy, up-to-date and clean. It dates from 1885 and con- sequently is now in its twenty-fifth year.
A CURIOUS EDITORIAL.
Shortly after J. C. Douglas had assumed the editorship of the Guernsey Times, the following amusing editorial appeared, in the issue for July 24, 1856:
"Bring Back My Boots! ! !
"Yes, you thieving buccaneer, bring back my boots. Verily, editors are a persecuted race. Scarcely have I gotten seated upon the tripod, when some thieving rascal, without the fear of God, man, devil or printer before his eyes, steals my boots. May they corn his toes, pinch his feet, palsy his hands, and when he goes to draw them on, may the straps break, and let him fall over backwards and break his 'cussed' neck, and thus escape the hangman, if he don't bring them back."
In the issue of the Guernsey Times for March 8, 1834, when Hersh and Weirich were proprietors, appears the following :
"ACKNOWLEDGMENT .- We are indebted to the Hon. Daniel Webster for a copy of his speech in Senate of U. States, on the Deposit Question- also a copy of his Report, as Chairman of the Finance Committee, on the same subject-both in pamphlet form-for which he will please accept our thanks."
THE CAMBRIDGE HERALD.
The Cambridge Herald was established as a weekly Republican news- paper about 1868, by Mr. Farrar, who a few years later sold to W. B. Hutchin- son and finally, after several changes, in 1882 became the property of Messrs. Mahaffey and Ogier, when it became an independent paper and was thus con- ducted for a period of twenty-eight years, or until sold in August, 1910, to W. O. Moore, who is the present editor and proprietor, with the veteran news- paper man, C. L. Blackburn, as associate editor. It has been a clean, spicy, home paper, published each week, giving the most important news of city, county, state and nation. In connection with this paper there is a first-class job department. Its weekly visits are highly appreciated by a large and in- creasing patronage.
During the more than a quarter of a century that Mr. Mahaffey was con- ducting the paper, he was four times a candidate for public office, but in all that time he never had his name flaunted in his paper and was independent in
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all things. And for this, he was popular and held office in his state, showing that the masses believe in a citizen who "blows not his own horn."
OTHER CAMBRIDGE NEWSPAPERS.
The Sun was another newspaper that in its day cut considerable figure in this county. It was established by S. M. Johnson, now of Fairview, and was once the property of Lykes, Ferbache & Hyatt; then Lykes run it alone for about eight years, when it went down. It was independent in politics, and was under its various managements edited usually by Mr. Blackburn, now as- sociate editor of the Cambridge Herald. It was published up to within a few years and was a home paper of decided opinions as to the propriety of local matters, and the temperance cause especially.
Other journals of more or less importance were the News and Republican, that merged with the Times, and an educational publication edited by Prof. McBurney for many years and finally removed to another part of Ohio and still a standard educational publication.
NEWSPAPERS AT PLEASANT CITY.
The first attempt at sustaining a newspaper in Pleasant City was in the establishment of the Record, by S. O. Riggs, and following him came the News, by A. T. Secrest, neither one of which had a long or very eventful career.
The third newspaper in the place was founded by H. W. Kackley and this was styled the Citizen, which was rather short-lived, as had been its two predecessors.
The fourth paper founded was the Leader, by H. D. Flanagan, who started his paper on October 31, 1905, and continued only nine weeks. It was launched under the name of the "Pleasant City Printing Company," non- political. Not having been entered as second class matter, a cent a paper had to be attached as postage on same and still the circulation had reached five hundred and fifty and every inch of advertising space was taken. Failing to secure second class rates in time to justify its further publication, the paper was discontinued.
A church publication, styled the Parishinure, or some similar title, was established at Pleasant City in 1904, by W. F. Birely and Rev. C. F. Floto, but this did not continue very long.
The next publication was the present newspaper founded by the present
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proprietor, C. L. Stranathan. This is the Recorder founded in February, 1907, It is the best paper ever published in the village. It is now an eight-page. seven-column paper, filled with spicy local news and general political and world-wide news. Its advertising patronage is excellent and the mechanical appearance is seldom surpassed in so small a place as Pleasant City. The latest machinery is employed in printing this paper, together with an excellent grade of job work.
BYESVILLE NEWSPAPERS.
The first newspaper here, as is usually the case, was not of long duration. About ninety per cent fail as did this paper. Two papers were launched onto the sea of local journalism here before the founding of the present excellent paper, the Enterprise. It was November 1, 1899, when L. W. Smith, backed by D. S. Burt and aided by E. E. Green, established the Enterprise. From that date until 1900 it was published at home, but printed at Cambridge on the Republican presses. Then it was purchased by its present owner, who moved his own plant from Marietta and permanently located at Byesville. July 20, 1905, it was sold to Ella M. Beer, who died soon after, and in order to protect the interests he still held in the business, the present owner was compelled to take it back in October, 1906. It is now conducted under the head of the Enterprise Printing Company, with J. A. Skinner as manager and proprietor. It is Republican in politics, a lively local chronicler of all that is fit to be pub- lished, but never sensational. It is a six-column, eight-page paper, well edited and finely printed on a power press. It enjoys a large circulation and its job department is always full of paying jobs, which formerly went abroad. It has performed its part in the upbuilding of Byesville.
CUMBERLAND NEWSPAPERS.
The enterprising town of Cumberland is now supplied with one thorough- ly up-to-date newspaper, the Echo, established in September, 1885, by W. A. Reedle. The present proprietor is W. G. Nichols, who has been at the helm since 1898. Others who have owned and operated the enterprise of paper publishing here have been, Johnson & Frisby, Albert Johnson, Miss May Stranathan and H. A. Goodrich. It was originally called the Cumberland News. It is independent in politics. The mechanical department is modern. Job printing is executed in excellent style on a Cincinnati jobber, while the Echo is printed on a Fairhaven cylinder press. This local journal chronicles all the news of this section of the "Kingdom of Guernsey" that is fit to be put
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in type. His patronage is good, but should be materially increased, when one considers the amount of work put upon the publication.
QUAKER CITY PAPERS.
The Quaker City Independent was established in 1875 by J. D. Olmstead & Son. In 1882 it was bought by J. W. & A. B. Hill, then the youngest news- paper firm in Ohio. The paper is well received by a large patronage. as a clean, bright, newsy journal of local and editorial writings of all the current events.
CHAPTER XVI.
BANKS AND BANKING.
In all commercial countries, the banking business is established about as soon as there is a demand for it. Especially of later years in the history of this country, where the monetary system has been on such an excellent standard as in the United States for the last half century. Private banks, state banks and United States banks, and the various laws controlling them, have all been subjects of much legislation, and while with the latest innovation of the postal savings bank system, just established in this country, there are many things yet to be corrected and improved, it is the pride of our nation that one kind of our money is worth as much now as another. It matters not whether one have in his possession a private bank bill, a state bank bill, a greenback issue, a gold or silver certificate, or any kind of metal money, silver, gold or alloyed coins,-one is as good as another, "for all debts, public and private, except for customs or interest on the public debt," and are taken at par the world over in the exchange banks and great money centers. The small per cent asked for exchanging one kind of money for another, on going abroad, is a mere trifle.
But these things were not always so. In the first half of the last century, and until the resumption of specie payment, after the Civil war had ended, gold was held at a high premium over silver and paper notes. In war times gold reached almost three dollars on the Wall street markets, and was quoted, from day to day, as regularly as wheat, corn, cotton and iron are today. That is to say, the five-dollar gold piece was worth fifteen dollars, or nearly so, in paper.
Many of our older citizens well recall the days of "wild cat" and state bank money, when no one could tell what the actual purchasing power of the bills he might have one day would be the next day. "Red dog" bills-Mich- igan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa bank bills-fluctuated from a shilling up to near, but seldom, par value. It was difficult to transact business on such flimsy money and many a man went down on account of the poor system of banking that then obtained from one end of this country to another. Other reference to these things will be found elsewhere in this chapter.
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The following is taken from the Guernsey Times, dated March 5, 1842, and will illustrate this point quite well. J. W. Potwin was a general dealer in Cambridge, at the time, and inserted this notice in the home paper for the purpose of drawing more trade :
"NOTICE-The following Bank Bills will be taken for goods at a dis- count, viz: German Bank of Wooster, Farmers Bank of Canton, Bank of Granville, Bank of Urbana, both Cleveland banks, State Bank and Bank of Illinois, Miami Exporting Company, Bank of Hamilton."
The Times of February 3, 1844-three or four years before this county had a bank-contained the following notice :
BANK NOTES.
"The notes of the non-specie paying banks sell in Cincinnati at the follow- ing rates :
"Com. bk., Scioto Io dís. Cleveland 25 dis.
"Lancaster IO dis. Miami Ex. Co. · 35 dis.
"Hamilton Io dis. Urbana 45 dis.
"Lake Erie 121/2 Granville 70 dis.
ILLINOIS.
"State Bank 40 dis. Shawneetown 45 dis.
INDIANA.
"State Bank and Branches. . . . par. Scrip .20 dis.
MICHIGAN.
"St. Clair, payable at Newark, passes at par-but not taken for taxes.
"The notes of all solvent banks in other states generally pass at par."
AN OLD BANK DETECTOR.
"Capt. A. A. Taylor has received from his cousin, Mr. Bruce Taylor, of Wooster, a copy of Kennedy's (late Sibert's) Bank Note Record and Fac- simile Counterfeit Detector, bearing the date of 1853, and published monthly beginning in 1837. It contains a list of all the banks then existing in the (15)
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United States. The Guernsey branch of the Ohio State Bank was then the only state bank in Guernsey county, and was located at Washington. John McCurdy was president and William Skinner, cashier, with capital of one hundred thousand dollars. There was never any change of president, but later cashiers were Fracken and Endley. There is a special notice of ones and tens on the Guernsey branch, dated in June, 1849, which were readily denounced as counterfeit, because the Guernsey branch had not issued any bills in June, 1849.
"The old detector used to be a necessity in every busy establishment down to the smallest. They went out of use more than forty years ago, and copies of them are now very rare. Captain Taylor prizes it because he finds in it accounts of many of the curious old bills he has collected for many years and has in his cabinet. Mr. Bruce Taylor made a contribution to this collec- tion of a Toronto two-dollar bill on the International Bank of Canada, dated September 15, 1858. It is now pronounced worthless by the United States Treasury Detector, which is the standard in this country."-From the Cam- bridge Times, in 1904.
OLD-TIME VALUES.
Here is some history connected with the Times from away back. We give a copy of the note covering the value of the Times, on the 3rd day of March, 1840. The note is in the handwriting of W. W. Tracey, Esq., who was a former owner of the paper:
"On or before the first day of July next we or either of us promise to pay to William R. Allison, or order, the sum of three hundred and ninety dol- lars, for value received this third day of March, A. D. 1840. Signed, Chas. J. Albright, B. A. Albright, M. Sarchet. Attest: Lambert Thomas."
It appears that the note was not given for some time after C. J. Albright had possession. There are credits on the note showing the following pay- ments : January 1, 1840, eighteen dollars; November 20, 1840, two hundred and eight dollars paid to W. W. Tracey, attorney for J. S. Thomas; December 3, 1840, ten dollars to R. T. Allison, and thirty-three dollars and twelve cents to W. W. Tracey, attorney. There is this endorsement on the note: "Two hundred and sixty-two dollars and twenty-two cents to be paid to J. S. Thomas. Signed : W. R. Allison." The note is left in the hands of W. W. Tracey, Esq .. for collection. There is an endorsement by Tracey on the back of the note: "C. J. Albright, note two hundred and sixty-two dollars due July 3, 1840," also the following: "Received January 1, 1841, twenty- seven dollars and thirty cents in full of judgment of the within note due J. S.
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Thomas." The history of this transaction is, that Lambert Thomas sold to J. S. Thomas, his brother, and he to Allison, and Allison to Albright. The total credit is two hundred and ninety-six dollars and fifty cents, leaving a balance of ninety-three dollars and fifty cents unaccounted for, which was in all probability taken up by another note.
We give another transaction which shows that the early publishers of the Times were hard up, and had to do a good deal of business on tick. The following due bill will explain :
"Due John Carman, thirty dollars for printing paper, furnished by him for the Guernsey Times, to be paid to him as the paper is used. Signed : Nicholas Bailhache, Cambridge, Ohio, November 25, 1828."
On the back of this due bill is the endorsement, in the handwriting of J. M. Bell, Esq .: "Carman vs. Bailhache, note, judgment $35.90." John Car- man was at that day a paper peddler and rag buyer. He lived at St. Clairs- ville, Ohio. At a later date there was a Philip Carman, perhaps his son, who traveled back and forth from Wheeling. West Virginia, to Columbus, Ohio, engaged in the same business, traveling in a two-horse covered wagon, carry- ing foolscap, letter paper, wrapping paper, blank books, printing paper, inks and quill pens. He continued in this trade up to the opening of the Central Ohio railroad in April, 1854. Old residents on the National road will re- member Carman, the paper peddler and rag buyer.
There is a certificate given to John Huff for lot 115, Cadiz, Ohio, for thirty-two dollars and fifty cents. On the back is this assignment : "Janu- ary 31, 1814, for value received, I do assign unto Eleazer Huff all my right. title and interest in and to the within certificate, and all the benefits that may be had by reason or means thereof. Signed, John Huff." The witness. J. Wilson, was one of the first common pleas judges in Ohio, and held the first session of common pleas court in Guernsey county at Cambridge in 1810.
We give this to show the value of town lots at the time of laying out the towns of Cadiz and Cambridge. The price of the first lots sold in Cambridge, Ohio. in 1806, on Wheeling avenue, to Thomas Sarchet, lots 58 and 59, thirty- seven dollars and fifty cents each ; lots 13 and 14 to John Sarchet, thirty-six dollars and fifty cents each ; lot 21 to William Ogier, thirty-five dollars: lots 22 and 23 to Catharine Marquand, thirty-two dollars each ; lot 24 to Thomas Lenfesty, thirty-two dollars ; lot 49 to Thomas Naftal, thirty dollars ; lot 51 to James Bichard, thirty-five dollars: lot 54 to Peter Sarchet, fifty dollars ; lot 15 to Lloyd Talbott, thirty-five dollars. These lots were located on each side of Wheeling avenue, all within one square of the court house square. It will be seen that the lots in Cambridge were of the greatest value, situated as the
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city is on the waters of Big Wills creek and at the junction of the two great roads of that day, leading from Wheeling and Steubenville to the great west. Cadiz was located at the junction of the Pittsburg and Wellsburg roads, but had not the water advantages that Cambridge had. There is not one of the lots named in Cambridge that is not worth, per front foot, more than double the original first value. In the march of improvement the lots on the corner of Eighth street and Wheeling avenue have continued to keep up first value as leading lots. Cambridge is on the grow. Seated in a barber's chair the other day, we said to the barber, "How many barber shops are there in Cam- bridge today." He replied, "Fifteen."
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