History of Madison County Ohio: Its People, Industries and Institutions, Part 37

Author: Chester E. Bryan
Publication date: 1915
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1207

USA > Ohio > Madison County > History of Madison County Ohio: Its People, Industries and Institutions > Part 37

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"These two printers were John A. Kissinger and M. L. Bryan and they came at once to London and found a paper which had been running as the National Democrat since November 12, 1857, with J. M. Smith as owner, D. M. Creighton, editor, and E. Douglass King, foreman. The paper had a circulation of less than three hundred. The first num- ber under the new management was issued on January 28, 1858, with Bryan & Kissinger as editors and proprietors.

"The new firm took hold with a will, determined to do the best they could under the circumstances. They worked early and late, doing all of the type-setting and press work

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(with the aid of a 'devil'), collecting news items and writing editorials at odd spells. They were assisted in the editorial work by D. Meade Creighton and, afterward, Robert Hutcheson. At that time Madison county had a Democratic sheriff, William Smith, and this fact was a financial asset to the struggling paper. The office was in the Addison Shanklin building.

"The public-spirited citizen, popular merchant and stanch Democrat, John M. Smith, did not live long to note the growing prosperity of the paper which his liberality had brought into existence. He died in May, 1858, less than four months after the paper had changed hands. During the latter part of October, 1858, Bryan bought the interest of Kissinger and became the sole owner and editor.

"The name of the paper was changed on March 20, 1862, from the National Democrat to the Madison County Democrat, a name which it still bears. During the year 1866, Mr. Shanklin desiring the rooms occupied by the paper for a residence, the office was moved to an upstairs room in a frame building on what was then the London & Spring- field railroad. On the night of September 30, 1867, the building took fire from some unknown cause and burned to the ground-the entire material of the office going up in flames or falling down in melted metal. Not a single type was spared, not even a scratch of a pen against any of the patrons nothing saved from the wreck except its despondent publisher.

"During the ten years of the existence of the Democrat it had won the favor of the people of the county to the extent that they would not consent to see it burned at the stake, as it were; so a subscription was started by some of its good friends and in less than a week a sum of money between three hundred and fifty and four hundred dollars was secured, many of its subscribers paying one year or more in advance and others donating sums ranging from five to twenty-five dollars .. With the amount collected, the editor went to Cincinnati and bought one thousand dollars worth of material and, after an interval of only one week, the Democrat was on its legs again, brighter and newsier than before.

"At this time (1867) there was such a business boom in London that every room was occupied. As a last resort, the paper was compelled to start up in an old, unoccupied, rickety frame building, then standing on the site of the present, Universalist church. The building was the property of Dot Dunkin, who offered it rent free to the struggling pub- lisher. It was a hard job to tide over the severe winter with a leaky roof, airy windows and shaky doors, with the wintry wind whistling through the editor's whiskers but it was done without any loss of life. . The next spring the paper found somewhat more comfortable quarters above a livery stable owned by Michael Millay, afterwards a marshal of London. Here the office remained one year and was then removed to Judge Clark's building in a room fitted up for the purpose. After remaining three years in this new location and finding more room necessary to accommodate the growing business, the office was moved across the street to M. Riley's new brick building, above his grocery store. The offices of the paper remained here until November, 1886, when the present quarters. at the corner of Second and Oak streets, were secured. While in the Riley building a Campbell cylinder press was installed and many other improvements made in the plant."

Thus closed the account of the Democrat as penned by the late M. L. Bryan, who was connected with the paper continuously from January 28, 1858, until he sold it to his two eldest sons. Chester E. and Ormond M., in 1898. M. L. Bryan died on May 26, 1902. There are some facts concerned with his paper which he did not mention and which should be added in order to give a full account of it. Starting in as a six-column, four- page sheet, it was enlarged in the seventies to a nine column quarto. On March 14, 1888, it was enlarged to a twelve-page paper and in 1894 it was made a sixteen-page five column weekly sheet. Soon after the Bryan brothers became the owners of the paper,

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they issued it as a semi-weekly; publishing it on Tuesdays and Fridays. As business increased it was found necessary to install better machinery and in 1908 a Hoe three- revolution press, with a speed of twenty-six hundred papers per hour and operated by a four-horse-power Otto gas engine, was added to the plant's equipment. Some time later a Dexter folder was purchased. In 1901 a Simplex typesetting machine was installed and this was replaced in April, 1908, by a Mergenthaler linotype machine at a cost of four thousand dollars. In October, 1908, Chester E. Bryan became the sole owner of the paper. In 1912 a duplex perfecting press, with a speed of six thousand five hundred eight-page papers, cut and folded, per hour, was installed. Mr. Bryan remodeled his building in 1912 and made it one of the most complete newspaper plants in the state. The plant utilizes all of the space in a two-story brick building, twenty-two by one hundred and thirty-four feet, with large basement. containing steam heating plant and storage room for a car of news-print paper. By putting in cement and tile floors and steel ceilings, the building is rendered practically fire proof. The plant is equipped with three electric motors one a ten-horse power, and a twelve horse-power gas engine; natural-gas heat- ing is used in mild weather. The electric-lighting system is so complete that work is carried on at night even better than by daylight. The job department is equipped with a Swink cylinder and two platen presses; pressed-steel type cabinets and the latest faces of type; paper cutters, staplers, stitchers and perforator's and such other material as are required in a first-class printing plant.

The Democrat office force includes nine persons in addition to the editor, namely : Martel Bryan, assistant editor; George Clark, reporter; Edward Neese, general foreman ; William S. Stearwalt, job foreman; Lester Payton, linotype operator; John O'Connell. pressman ; Kate Fleming, mailing clerk; Doris Holloway, janitor; Mary Ballenger, book- keeper. In addition, extra help is required at times to assist in getting out special editions. Correspondents are maintained in all the towns in the county as well as in territory adjacent to Madison county.

The history of the Democrat would not be complete without mentioning an unusual honor which was conferred on the paper in the fall of 1914. It is patent to anyone who examines the paper that it is one of unusual merits, but that it is recognized 'as one of the best country newspapers in the United States is not known to everyone. However. this distinction has been conferred on the Democrat by a' committee of newspaper men of the United States. On October 26, 1914, Mr. Bryan received a letter from Eric W. . Allen, head of the department of journalism in the University of Oregon, which tells of the place which the Democrat holds in the estimation of the newspaper men of the country. The following quotation from this latter is self-explanatory: "A questionaire recently sent out by the department of journalism of the University of Oregon among the newspaper men of the United States resulted in the selection by the men of fifty-two country newspapers as 'among the best.' Your newspaper is one of the fifty-two." Thus it may be seen that Madison county has a paper of which it may justly be proud and one which reflects honor on its editor.

LONDON VIGILANT.

The London Vigilant was established by A. J. Heintzelman in January, 1885, and published by him for ten years, the last issue appearing December 24, 1895. F. A. Taylor was editor of the paper until his death, on July 25, 1891, being succeeded by T. A. Cooper. who continued as editor until the paper was discontinued. This paper advocated the principles of the Prohibition party.

MADISON COUNTY REPUBLICAN.

The Madison County Republican was the immediate successor of the London Vigilant and made its first appearance on January 6, 1896. In fact, it should be considered as a

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continuation of the Vigilant, since Heintzelman still used the name Vigilant as a sub- head. He kept the paper running until July, 1905, when he sold it to Harrington & Shaw, the new proprietors of the London Times.

LONDON ENTERPRISE.

The London Enterprise was founded on January 1, 1872, by John Wallace, one of the best-known newspaper men in central Ohio. "Devoted to the Interests of the People and Its Publisher," was the motto of the newspaper. The Enterprise was four pages twenty-five by thirty-eight, seven columns. In his salutatory, Mr. Wallace had this to say : "In accordance with a time-honored custom, 'we rise to explain' the Enterprise will not be a political paper, but will make a specialty of local news-improving the bare one advantage we possess over the city press. We have no promises to make, but will let each issue of our paper speak for itself. Our terms will be two dollars per year as near in advance as we can get it. Persons who feel that they cannot pay for the paper had better not take it from the postoffice." The friends of Mr. Wallace were generous in their response for subscriptions to the new paper and the Enterprise was soon read in hundreds of homes, not only in Madison but in adjoining counties. A good advertising and job-printing business was built up and the success of the venture was assured, due largely to the hard work of the editor to make it so.

The Enterprise was continued as an independent paper .until April 16, 1879, when Mr. Wallace, at the urgent solicitation of many prominent Republicans of the county, came out with the announcement that the Enterprise would advocate the principles of the Republican party, which policy has been continued fearlessly ever since, causing it to be recognized as the Republican organ of Madison county. Since the death of Mr. Wallace, which occurred on September 30, 1901, due to apoplexy, the Enterprise has been published under the management of his son, M. H. Wallace, who had been con- nected with the paper as local reporter since leaving the London high school. The firm name is E. F. and M. H. Wallace, the senior partner being Elizabeth F. Wallace, daughter of the deceased, who assists in the publication of the Enterprise.

During the career of the late John Wallace, not one issue of the Enterprise was missed, although for about twenty years the deceased was unfortunately deprived of his eyesight, due to overwork in his newspaper business. Mr. Wallace possessed a wide acquaintanceship throughout Madison county, and with the assistance of a guide, would cover the county several times each year, his write-ups of such trips being a feature in the columns of his paper. In later years this custom was discontinued, owing to the failing state of his health.

The Enterprise was first located in the Toland block, on South Main street, and the location was not changed until March 1, 1912, when the office was removed to the paper's own two-story brick building, No. 31 West First street, where a largely increased busi- ness is conducted both in the newspaper and job department. The Enterprise was pub- lished as a weekly journal until 1897, when its publication day was changed from Wednesday to Tuesday and Friday, thus making it the oldest semi-weekly paper in Madison county.

THE PLAIN CITY ADVOCATE. .

The Plain City Advocate was founded on November 3, 1894, by Noland R. Best and Thomas R. Coles but its ownership was vested in twenty-four business and prominent men of the town. It was first run under the firm name of Best & Coles, but only for a few months, after which, still owned by a company, it was conducted by the following men in the following order : William A. Brown, Jr., Dwight L. Matchette, W. W. Lowery, Dell Dougherty, Howe Woodruff, Mrs. Lillie Malee and C. F. Monroe. The stock com- pany controlling this paper sold it in December, 1896, to E. Beach, Howard C. Black

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and B. A. Taylor. In June, 1898, E. Beach and Olive B. Ward (now Olive B. Mackan) assumed ownership. A few years later the plant became the property of Olive B. Mackan, who has remained the sole owner to the present time ..

The present editor, Olive B. Mackan, learned the type-setting trade in the office of the Plain City Dealer in the summer of 1891, and worked there until, the Advocate was launched in November, 1894, when a position was tendered her to set straight matter in the latter office. The first type for the new paper was set by Mrs. Mackan and she has been actively associated with the paper ever since. For a number of years she was foreman of the composing and press rooms. In the spring of 1898 a half in- terest in the paper was purchased by Mrs. Mackan, and in the summer of 1902 the entire plant was leased by her. Then a short time later she became owner of the entire plant, since which time it has been edited and published by her. In October, 1912, the competing weekly paper, the Plain City Dealer, which had been published for more than thirty years by Charles W. Horn, was purchased by Mrs. Mackan and was consolidated with the Advocate, since which time the Advocate has been the only paper in Plain City.

In September, 1911, the size of the paper was enlarged to seven columns and eight pages. It is published every Thursday. The equipment of the plant consists of a Cox Duplex perfecting press, linotype, paper knife, cylinder and platen presses for job work, and an abundance of type, cases and other office equipment. The power for the presses is furnished by one seven-and-one-half and one three-and-one-half horse- power electric motors.

THE PLAIN CITY DEALER.

The Plain City Dealer was founded in September, 1880, by Charles W. Horn. This paper continued for thirty-two years under the ownership and editorship of Mr. Horn and was purchased by the Plain City Advocate in October, 1912. at which time the plant was consolidated with that of the Advocate.

WEST JEFFERSON NEWS.

The West Jefferson News is the outgrowth of the West Jefferson Clipper and subse- quent publications of different names. The Clipper was established by Ezekiel Metals. Just how long Metals issued. the paper is not known, neither is it known when the Observer, owned and edited by J. O. Lee, came into existence. The first definite date of a paper in the town is 1889. in which year the Jeffersonian appeared on the newspaper horizon. Wright & Heintzleman were the proprietors of this paper from 1889 to 1894. In the latter year a man by the name of F. C. Fullmer bought the paper and changed its name to the Home News. Fullmer owned the paper a short time and then disposed of it to a man by the name of McCracken, who, in turn, sold it to Wilson & Cartwright. J. R. Cartwright became the sole owner and proprietor in 1911 and has since managed the paper alone. Upon taking over the paper in 1911, Mr. Cartwright changed its name to the News. The paper is a seven-column, eight-page sheet and appears on Thursday of each week. The plant has two presses, three jobbers and a complete equipment of material for doing all kinds of printing on short notice.

MT. STERLING TRIBUNE.

The Mt. Sterling Tribune was founded in January, 1887, by J. W. Hanawalt. The following is a list of editors from the beginning, with their period of service: J. W. Hanawalt, 1887-89; J. M. Williams, 1889-91; W. A. Bownocker, 1891-08, seventeen years; J. M. Williams, 1908 to the present.

J. W. Hanawalt, the founder of the paper, was editor and proprietor for two and one-half years. The paper was then purchased by J. M. Williams, in August, 1889.

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in 1891. W. A. Bownocker purchased a half interest and the firm of Williams & Bow- nocker continued until 1908. At the latter date W. E. Carlisle purchased Bownocker's interest, selling his interest one year later to R. E. Embry. In 1910 Mr. Williams pur- chased Embry's interest and became sole owner.

The paper is published on Friday of each week. It is a four-page, eight-column paper and has a good circulation. The equipment of the plant consists of a four-horse- power gas engine, a cylinder press, two jobbers and a fully equipped job plant.

THE MT. STERLING REVIEW AND HUSBANDMAN.

In April, 1871, M. W. Schryver commenced the publication of a newspaper in Mt. Sterling, known as the Mt. Sterling Review. This paper he continued for eighteen months, at the end of which time he changed the name to the Husbandman. He con- tinued the publication of the latter paper until May 1, 1874, when it ceased for want of sufficient support to justify the publisher to continue it. Both of these papers were purely local weeklies, but failed to receive the support of the community.

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CHAPTER XXIV.

EDUCATION.

Those venerable men of today who are familiar with the olden time in Madison county, of which they were a part, and who grew up with the ever enlarging civiliza- tion, of this region, are living in a changed atmosphere. So suddenly and so strangely has the genius of change and alteration waved his charmed wand over the land, that the early settler has changed and kept pace with the changing years, and the unwritten history of the early days is recalled, as one remembers a fading dream. The sharp and hard conflicts of life make heroes, and the flerce struggles of war and bloodshed develop them into self-reliant, stubborn and aggressive men, as fierce and sanguinary as their bitter foes. We are living in the age of invention and machinery. These 'factors have destroyed the romance of frontier life, and much of the strange, eventful realities of the past are rapidly becoming traditional; the narratives of the generation that settled the Scioto valley, abounding in rich treasures of incident and character, are being swallowed up and forgotten in the surging, eventful present.

The most casual observer cannot but have noticed that notwithstanding the priva- Lions and discomforts attending the lives of the early settlers, they manifested a most carnest seal in education, and that, as soon as a sufficient number of pupils could be collected and a teacher secured, a house was created for the purposes of a school. The period just preceding the Revolution was characterized by its number of literary men and the interest they gave to polite learning; and the patriots who were conspic- nous in that struggle for human liberty were men, not only of ability, 'but of no ordi- nary culture. We can readily understand that the influence of their 'example had its weight in molding public sentiment in other respects besides that of seal for the patriot cause. To this may be added that, for the most part, the early pioneers were men of character, who endured the dangers and trials of a new country, not solely for their own sakes, but for the sake of their children, and, with a faith in what the future would bring forth, clearly saw the power and value of education. From the beginning they kept their object steadily in view, and made provision for its successful prosecu- tion. The express declaration of the fundamental law of the state enjoins that. "The principal of all funds arising from the sale or other distribution of lands or other property, granted or entrusted to the state for educational purposes, shall forever be preserved inviolate and undiminished, and the income arising therefrom shall be faith- fully applied to the specific object of the original grants or appropriations and the General Assembly shall make such provisions by taxation or otherwise, as, from the Income arising from the school trust fund, shall secure a thorough and efficient system of common schools throughout the state."

SCHOOL LANDS.

The act of Congress providing for the admission of Ohio into the Union offered certain educational propositions to the people. These were, first, that section 16 in euch township, or, in lieu thereof, other contiguous or equivalent lands, should be granted for the use of schools; second, that thirty-eight sections of land, where salt springs had been found, should be granted to the state, never, however, to be sold or leased for a longer period than ten years; and third, that one-twentieth of the proceeds from the sale of public lands in the state should be applied toward the construction

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of roads from the Atlantic to and through Ohio. These propositions were offered on the condition that the public lands sold by the United States after the 30th of June, 1802, should be exempt from state taxation for five years after sale. The ordinance of 1787 had already provided for the appropriation of section 16 to the support of schools in every township sold by the United States; this, therefore, could not in 1802 be properly made the subject of a new bargain between the United States and Ohio, and, by many, it was thought the salt reservations and one twentieth of the proceeds of the sale of public lands were inadequate equivalent for the proposed surrender of a right to tax for five years. The convention, however, accepted the propositions of Congress, on their being modified and enlarged as to vest in the state, for the use of schools, section 16 in each township sold by the United States, and three other tracts of land, equal in quantity respectively to one-thirty-sixth of the Virginia military reservation, of the United States military tract and of the Connecticut west reserve; and to give three per cent. of the proceeds of the public landa sold within the state to the construction of roads in Ohio, under the direction of the Legislature. Congress agreed to the proposed modifications, and, in March, 1807, offered to the state, in lieu of the one-thirty-sixth part of the Virginia military reservation, eighteen quarter townships and three sections of land lying between the United States military tract and the Connecticut reserve. On the 14th of January, 1808, the state accepted these lands and released all right and title to the school lands in the Virginia military dis- trict, thus providing the bases of the common-school fund of Ohio, never probably conjectured or intended to be sufficient for the purposes of education, but adequate to encourage broader and more liberal views.

In the foregoing it is disclosed how Congress, by a compact with the people, gave them one-thirty-sixth of all of the lands northwest of the Ohio river for school pur- poses. The lands for this purpose set apart, however, were often appropriated by squatters, and through unwise, careless and sometimes corrupt legislation, these squat- ters were vested with proprietorship. Caleb Atwater, in his "History of Ohio," in speaking on this subject, says: "Members of the Legislature not infrequently got acts passed and leases granted, either to themselves, their relatives or to their partisans. One senator contrived to get, by such acts, seven entire sections of land into either his own or his children's possession." From 1808 to 1820 the General Assembly spent a considerable portion of every session in passing acts relating to these lands, without ever advancing the cause of education to any degree.

THE SALE OF SCHOOL LANDS.

In 1821 the House of Representatives appointed five of its members, Caleb Atwater, Lloyd Talbot, James Shields, Roswell Mills and Josiah Barber, a committee on schools and school lands. This committee subsequently made a report, rehearsing the wrong management of the school-land trust on behalf of the state, warmly advocated the establishment of a system of education and the adoption of measures which would secure for the people the rights which Congress intended they should possess. In com- pliance with the recommendation of the committee, the governor of the state, in May, 1822, having been authorized by the Legislature, appointed seven commissioners of schools and school lands, viz., Caleb Atwater, Rev. John Collins, Rev. James Hoge, N. Guilford, Ephraim Cutler, Josiah Barber and James M. Bell. The reason why seven persons were appointed was because there were seven different sorts of school lands in the state, namely : Section 16 in every township of the Congress lands, the Virginia military lands, Symmes' purchase, the Ohio Company's purchase, the refugee lands, the French grant, and the Connecticut western reserve. This commission of seven persons was reduced by various causes to one of three, Messrs. Atwater, Collins

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History of Madison County Ohio: Its People, Industries and Institutions, Part 37

Author: Chester E. Bryan Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1207

Author: Chester E. Bryan
Publication date: 1915
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1207