USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > History of the city of Columbus, Ohio, from the founding of Franklinton in 1797, through the World War period to the year 1920 > Part 31
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The Crisis, established by Samuel Medary, January 31, 1861, to advocate the settlement of the troubles between the states without resort to arms, created a great commotion. Its unpopularity made for it a great circulation and incited citizens and soldiers to violence. But Governor Medary was a pacifist not to be denied, and he continued to publish his paper till his death, November 7, 1864. Others carried it on till 1870, when it was merged into the Statesman.
Sunday newspapers (weeklies) for a time had quite a vogue. The first was the Sunday Morning News, published continuously from 1867 to 1900. In 1875 came the Sunday Herald which was consolidated with the News in 1891. The Sunday Capital first appeared Feb- ruary 17, 1878; its last issue was in March, 1891, after its editors, Wm. J. and P. J. Elliott, had shot and killed on the street Albert C. Osborne, editor of the Sunday World, a rival paper started a short time before. Sunday newspapers as separate publications ceased to be profitable when the dailies came into the Sunday field, and the bad morals of some of them hastened the departure of all.
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Other weeklies of note were the Saturday Bohemian, designed to criticise the stage, society and polities, edited by Arnold H. Isler (1882-1885) ; The Owl (afterwards Light) edited by Opha Moore (1888) ; The Modern Argo, a high-class literary publication, by S. H. Dooley (1878) ; The Saturday Critie by Colonel W. A. Taylor in 1882.
In 1851 a number of journeyman printers began the publication of the Daily Capital City Fact. After a few months, the paper came into the control of Colonel John Geary, who continued the publication till 1863, when he sold it to W. H. Foster, who changed the name to the Evening Express. The Express was discontinued in 1864.
The Sentinel, a morning daily, backed by Allen G. Thurman, Henry Chittenden and other Liberals and Democrats, was established in 1872 to support Horace Greeley for the presidency. J. Q. Howard was editor. It lived six years.
Among the papers absorbed by the Ohio State Journal, aside from those already men- tioned, were the Western Statesman in 1828; the Ohio State Bulletin in 1835, the Columbian in 1855, and the Western Home Visitor in 1856. On each side of the political fence, when there was dissatisfaction with the chief exponent of party faith, a new paper was started, struggled awhile and was absorbed or discontinued. In these contests, the Journal fared better than the Statesman, for the latter was several times overcome and would have perished but for the splendor Governor Medary gave to the name. The Statesman and its successors were many times in financial difficulties and litigation, and on the latest of those occasions, the line expired. The Journal was in the hands of a receiver in 1854, and it was in sore distress in 1858 when Henry D. Cooke became its managing spirit. Much money has been made in the Columbus newspaper field, but much has been lost, and the losers far outnumber the gainers. It is only when the many efforts are considered in the light of service that the men who lost money can find comfort, but that may be all sufficient. Scores of Columbus daily and weekly publications lived their little day and passed, and their names are either forgotten or without present significance, but to each of them we may give the credit for some part, great or small, in the making of the public opinion controlling the progress of the city.
The Dispatch Printing Company was incorporated with a nominal capital stock of $10,000 in June. 1871, by Wm. Trevitt, jr., Samuel Bradford, Timothy McMahon, James ()'Donnell, Peter C. Johnson, L. P. Stephens, John M. Webb, J. S. B. Given, C. M. Morris and Willoughby W. Webb-all men of newspaper experience. With the exception of the last named, they paid in $100 each and agreed to work ten weeks, without drawing salary, the same to be credited to them on the books. Twenty-five per cent, was after the first ten weeks paid in cash, in the second year. 50 per cent. and in the third year, 75 per cent., the remainder in each case being eredited. In the summer of 1874 the company sold the paper to Captain John H. Putnam and Dr. G. A. Doren for $10,500. They secured the Associated Press franchise, improved the equipment and January 1, 1876, sold to Captain L. D. Myers and Wm. D. Brickell. In 1882 Captain Myers, having been appointed postmaster, sold his interest to Mr. Brickell, who, in 1903, sold the paper to J. J. Gill, of Steubenville, and others. In 1905, the majority of the stock was bought by Robert F. and Harry P. Wolfe. The history of the Dispatch, unlike that of most Columbus papers has been one of continu- ons growth and prosperity. Mr. Brickell added the Sunday issue, buying the Sunday Morn- ing News to get the Associated Press service. thus making the Dispatch a six-day evening and Sunday morning paper.
Prominent among its editors and editorial writers have been Willoughby W. Webb, John H. Putnam, Captain L. D. Myers, Stephen B. Porter, John H. Green, Osman C. Hooper, J. Linn Rodgers, Webster P. Huntington, Charles M. Lewis. Clarence Metters, John Metters, Arthur C. Johnson, Charles J. Reiker and George F. Burba. Dispatch cartoons, which have long been made by W. A. Ireland, have gained a national fame.
The Dispatch was long published in the building at the northeast corner of High street and Lynn alley. Mr. Brickell bought the building at the northeast corner of High and Gav streets and moved the Dispatch into it. In 1907, after the paper had passed into the hands of its present owners, the building was burned. For about two years the paper was published from the rooms, 31-38 N. High street, to which the resened presses and type had been moved. The work of constructing a new building proceeded in the meantime, and the paper was again housed at the Dispatch corner in the fall of 1910.
The Columbus Citizen was established as a six-day evening paper by George W. Dun,
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the first number having been issued from the office of the Express-Westbote, German daily, 210 South High street, March 1, 1899. George Smart was editorial manager, performing the duties of both managing and city edito". June 1, 1900, E. E. Cook became city editor and later, when Mr. Smart went to Cleveland, became managing editor, and in 1904 became editor, with B. S. Stephenson as managing editor and R. H. Jones city editor. On resigna- tion of Mr. Stephenson, E. H. Hilt became managing editor and was himself succeeded in 1909 by Mr. Jones, H. F. Busey becoming city editor.
The first move of the Citizen was, with the Express-Westbote, July 31, 1899, to the building, 208 South High street. On September 24, 1900, the Citizen was issued from its own plant and its own office, 47 East State street, just east of the City Hall. On July 6, 1904, Mr. Dunn sold a controlling interest in the paper to the Scripps-McRae organization and later disposed of the remainder of his stock to persons connected with that organization, removing to Toledo where he died while publishing the Toledo Times. In 1910 the Citizen Publishing Company bought a lot at the corner of Third street and Lynn alley and erected a two-story brick building and, with a complete equipment, issued the first paper there Novem- ber 28, 1910.
The Citizen was established as an independent paper and continued as such until Sep- tember 2, 1901, when it announced its purpose to be Democratic. After its purchase by the Scripps-McRae organization, it again became independent and has so continued. Charles F. Fischer became business manager, February 8, 1904, and is still serving, with Mr. Cook as editor. Harry S. Keys, Citizen cartoonist, entertains with his humor and, like the others, helps with his more serious drawings to make public opinion.
On August 14, 1915, the Saturday Monitor, with E. Howard Gilkey as editor, made its appearance, the publication office being at 136 East Gay street. On July 10, 1916, the Daily Monitor appeared, avowedly as a Republican organ. S. B. Anson came from Cleve- land to be publisher, and J. S. Ralston was understood to be the principal financial baeker. The paper was moved to large and well appointed quarters at the southwest corner of High and Chestnut streets, where publication was suspended July 6, 1917, on the order of Mr. Ralston and the appointment by the court of Mr. Gilkey as receiver and the issuing of an injunction to prevent Mr. Anson and others from continuing the publication. About 125 persons were thrown out of employment by the suspension, which was due to accumulating losses.
The Liberal Advocate, the official organ of the retail liquor trade of the State, after a career of twenty-five years as a weekly, suspended publication immediately after the election of November, 1918. Ohio had just voted to prohibit the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors.
The Labor News, a weekly devoted to the cause of labor, was first published in 1915 under a partnership agreement by J. A. Armstrong, O. C. Gilbert and William Blinco, of Columbus, and Walter Hilton, editor of the Wheeling Majority. In February, 1919, the Columbus Labor News Company was incorporated by the three Columbus men named, H. M. Hageman and J. R. Elder, to continue the publication and "combat the Bolsheviki and I. W. W. menace in all organized or unorganized groups of wage-earners, to uphold the funda- mental principles of the American Federation of Labor and the betterment of mankind in general, with an eight-hour day for all workers."
The Columbus Democrat, weekly, seven-column folio, was established in September. 1915, by the Columbus Democrat Company. It is devoted to local news and comment and the support of the Democratic organization in county and State.
The Week, owned and edited by C. C. Philbriek, was established April 9, 1910. In its sixteen 10x15 pages there has appeared every Saturday a review of the week's politi- cal, financial and sporting news and various features. By its sub-title, is was first "a journal of fundamental Democracy," but later "a Republican paper with established principles." Prior to the establishment of the Week, Mr. Philbrick was the directing force of the Ohio Sun, a morning daily, established July 4, 1907, in an old residence on Broad street opposite the Capitol. The paper survived less than two years.
The first German language newspaper printed in Columbus was the Emigrant, Henry Rocdter editor, begun in 1833 and discontinued the following year. The Ohio Staatszeitung was the next-a Whig campaign paper in 1810. Beginning in 1841 and continuing for about 18 months, the Ohio Eagle ( Adler) was published by V. Kastner. The failure of the Eagle
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suggested to Jacob Reinhard that he try his hand at the business and he went to Cincinnati to talk over the project with F. Fieser, then editor of the Volksblatt there. The two united their forces and the result was the establishment in October, 1843, of Der Westbote, so named when the daughter of Stephen Molitor, Mr. Fieser's assistant, drew out of a hat a slip bearing that name. The paper was printed with new equipment in a building on East Main street. Reinhard & Fieser, as the firm name was, continued to publish the Westbote till May, 1881, when Mr. Fieser sold his interest to William F. Kemmler, George J. Brand and Peter Ilinterschitt, all of whom had for many years been in the service of the company and had helped to make it a journalistic success in a none too favorable location. In 1885, a joint stock company was formed with a capital of $100,000, the principal stock holders being Jacob Reinhard, Henry A. Reinhard and the other three men named. The Westbote was first a weekly, then a semi-weekly and later a tri-weekly.
In 1876, Leo Hirsch, a fugitive from Prussian militarism which in his paper in Frank- fort he had antagonized when it was preparing for the war against France, came to Columbus and became a member of the Westbote staff. Two years later, in the era of exclusive Sunday papers, he established the Sontagsgast and built it up till in 1890 he was able to launch the Columbus Daily Express, a Republican paper in the German language. Success erowned this effort also, and in 1903 he was able to buy the Westbote which he consolidated with the Express as the Express-Westbote, daily. The Westbote was continued as a semi- weekly and the Sontagsgast as a Sunday paper. Mr. Hirsch died in August, 1908, and the papers were continued by his sons, Gustav, Ralph and Max Hirsch, the chief figures in the German-American Publishing Company. The company was doing a thriving business at the outbreak of the war with Germany, but it never faltered in its Americanism. "We have from this time but one duty to perform, and that an unswerving, unfaltering loyalty to the country and the flag of our adoption," read an Express-Westbote editorial. On August 17, 1918, the company because it believed that no more German language newspapers should be published in this country, announced the discontinuance of its three papers. Gustav Hirsch was then a major in the Tenth Field Battalion of the United States Signal Corps, and his brothers were prominent in the war work at home. The company then employed at its publication office, 274 South Third street, forty-two persons, to each of whom a month's pay was given.
The Hunter-Trader-Trapper is a monthly of regular magazine proportions and a nation- wide circulation of about 90,000. It was established in October, 1900, by A. R. Harding and conducted by him till June, 1914, when it was bought by F. J. and W. F. Heer, and has since been condueted with increasing success, with Otto Kuechler as editor. Camp and Trail, a weekly established by Mr. Harding in June, 1910, was merged into the Hunter- Trader-Trapper in August, 1913.
The Kit-Kat, a literary monthly, established in January, 1912, was published by the Kit-Kat Club for a year and then was turned over to the editors, Osman C. Hooper, Charles C. Pavey, Herbert Brooks and A. W. Mackenzie, who with the aid of a foundation of a score or more men, mostly members of the Club, have since continued it as monthly or quarterly. It is not a commercial project.
The first religious paper to be published in Columbus was the Cross and Journal, a Baptist weekly, which was later the Journal and Messenger, of Cincinnati. Its Colum- hus career covered the period from 1838 to 1849, George Cole, Rev. D. A. Randall and Rev. J. L .. Batchelder being connected with it as editors and owners. Mr. Batchelder, to whom the paper passed in 1819, moved the publication office to Cincinnati.
The Ohio Waisenfreund is a religious weekly for Catholies, founded in 1872 at Pomeroy, Ohio, by Rev. J. Jessing, and five years later brought to Columbus, where it has since been published with marked success, the proceeds being used in the maintenance of the Josephinum, an orphans' home and school. This is a German language paper. Another paper, the Josephinum Weekly in English, also emanates from the institution.
The Catholic Columbian, weekly, dates back to 1871, when Bishop S. H. Rosecrans, Rev. D. A. Clarke, Rev. M. M. Meara, Luke Byrne and Major O. T. Turney organized the Columbian Printing Co. The first number was published January 6, 1875, Bishop Roscerans, the editor, being assisted by Father Clarke who also served as business manager. At the death of Bishop Rosecrans in 1878, the whole editorial work devolved on Father Clarke, who also continued as business manager. In 1881, John A. Kuster, of Newark,
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bought an interest and assumed the business management, and three years later became sole proprietor, Father Clarke retiring, happy in the nine years to have established on a sound basis a Catholic family journal for central Ohio. Under Mr. Kuster's management the Colum- bian continued a useful and growing serviee for twenty-five years. In 1906 he sold the paper to James T. Carroll and associates. Since then Mr. Carroll has been editor and publisher.
The Lutheran Book Coneern was established in Columbus in 1881, making the city the eenter of the denomination's publications, just as the Capital University had made it an educational center. John L. Tranger was the first manager and at his death was succeeded by F. J. Heer. In 1907, A. H. Dornbirer assumed that function and is now serving. The Coneern publishes religious books on the society and on individual account and issues a number of church publications. The oldest of these is the Lutheran Standard, established here in 1842 as a weekly. Rev. J. Sheatsley is the present editor. The German language counterpart of the Standard is the Lutherische Kirehenzeitung, which was established in 1859. Rev. R. C. H. Lenski has been the editor-in-chief for fifteen years. The Lutheran Youth is an English language weekly, established in 1912. Professor C. B. Gohdes is the editor. The Theological Magazine is a periodical of 96 pages printed in both German and English. Dr. F. W. Stellhorn is the editor. A half dozen periodieals for the Sunday school, some monthly and others quarterly, with a eirculation covering the United States and Canada, are also published.
The Jewish Chronicle, a monthly magazine of twenty-four large pages, devoted to the interests of the Jewish people in America, was begun in April, 1918-E. L. Parker publisher, Louis Rich editor, and Sampson H. Rosenfield business manager.
The Ohio Teacher, a monthly, was founded by Dr. John M. MeBurney, at Cambridge, Ohio, in August, 1880. Dr. MeBurney at that time was a professor in Muskingum College, at New Coneord, with which institution he was long connected. In 1889 he sold the maga- zine to Prof. Martin R. Andrews, of Marietta College, and Superintendent Henry G. Williams, of the Marietta publie schools, who published it in Marietta until 1902, when Professor An- drews sold his interest and Dr. Williams became sole owner. The office of publication was moved to Athens, where Dr. Williams became dean of the State Normal College organized in the spring of that year. The circulation of the Ohio Teacher grew rapidly and by 1906 it had outgrown the facilities for publishing it in Athens. The publication offiee was then removed to Columbus and has remained here continuously ever sinee, the editorial rooms now being at 104 North Third street, while the mechanical work is done by the Stoneman Press Co., on South High street. The magazine is vigorous in its editorial policy and is a stauneh ad- voeate of better sehools, better trained teachers, better citizenship and better government and an equal educational opportunity for all. Dr. Williams, the owner and editor, has given thirty-seven years to the eause of education in Ohio.
The Ohio Educational Monthly, now owned and edited by Mr. J. L. Clifton, had origin in 1851, when the Ohio Teachers' Association, in session at Cleveland, decided to establish an educational journal as the organ of the Association. A committee, appointed at that meet- ing, made a favorable report at the meeting in Columbus the following year. The report was adopted, and the management of the project was put into the hands of the executive committee. A. D. Lord was made managing editor, and the first number appeared in January, 1852, under the name of the Ohio Journal of Education. In 1858 it was transferred to private parties, owing to financial difficulties, and Anson Smyth, State Commissioner of Com- mon Schools, became the editor. In 1861 Dr. E. E. White beeame associated with Mr. Smyth in the publication, and in 1863 beeame sole owner and editor. In 1875 he sold the pub- lication which had been renamed by Mr. Smyth the Ohio Educational Monthly, to Dr. W. D. Henkle, who published it at Salem until his death in 1881. The following year it beeame the property of Dr. Samuel Findley, who published it at Akron until 1895 when it was sold to Prof. O. T. Corson, who published it at Columbus until August, 1918, when he in turn sold to Professor Clifton, who for two years had been its managing editor. Professor Clifton has for years been connected with the public schools and is a member of the faculty of the Col- lege of Education, Ohio State University. The Ohio Educational Monthly is the oldest publi- eation of its kind in the United States. Its offiees are at 55 East Main street.
Women have been a working factor in Columbus journalism since 1890. Women proof- readers appeared even before that, but gradually disappeared as the Typographieal Union took over that task. Then they appeared in the newspaper offices as society editors, literary,
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art and dramatic critics, reporters of philanthropic activities, telephone-desk and rewrite re- porters and the editors of special columns of advice to the love-lorn and others. In their employment of women Columbus newspapers have been conservative, never having assigned them to purely sensational and degrading tasks. Notable among the women who have done newspaper work, some of them only occasionally for some special public purpose are: Rachel Frances Harrison, Elise Fitch Hinman, Mrs. Earl Clark Derby, Rowena Hewitt Landon, Georgia Hopley, Nellie Elizabeth Slaughter, Clara Markeson, Penelope Smythe Perrill, Helen Converse, Ella May Smith, Nan Cannon, Millicent Easter, Dolly Patterson, Helen Moriarty, Ellen J. Connor, Alice Coon Brown. Sadie B. Connor, Maud Murray Miller, Charme Seeds, Alice Peter, Sara C. Swaney, Mary Toole, Daisy Krier, Dorothy Knott, Anna Quinby, Ruth Young, Ruth Parrett, Olga Jones and Mary Lewis. Mrs. Maybel Monypeny Huntington, Mrs. Dickson L. Moore, Dr. Alice Johnston and others have been prominent in publicity work for special causes.
Journalism in Columbus, as in most places, has been marked by newspaper quarrels, mostly with ink, occasionally with fists and canes. The record of fisticuffs and ink, however, was broken in 1891, when the quarrel between two Sunday newspapers, the Capital and the World, resulted in murder. In the Sunday World of February 22, which was owned and edited by Albert C. Osborn and F. W. Levering, there appeared an article which William J. Elliott, editor of the Capital, interpreted as a reflection on his wife and mother. It was the culmination of a long controversy over the respective merits of the papers and their editors. On Monday morning William J. Elliott and his brother, P. J. Elliott, were together on High street, when they met Osborn opposite the Capitol. The street was thronged with people, for there was a delayed observance of Washington's birthday, with a parade by patriotie societies. As the hostile editor approached the shooting began and was continned till Osborn had been killed. W. L. Hughes a by-stander, was also killed, and half a dozen others in the crowd were more or less injured. It was the greatest and most sensational of all Columbus tragedies. The local daily papers were full of the details, and probably no important paper in the country failed to comment on it. The Elliotts were immediately arrested, in due time were indicted for first degree murder, and the trial of William J. Eliott began May 1 following, before Judge D. F. Pugh, of the Common Pleas Court. For the State there appeared Cyrus Huling, Prosecuting Attorney; Ira Crm, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney; Henry J. Booth and Colonel J. T. Holmes. The attorneys for the defense were George L. Converse, Thomas E. Powell, E. L. Taylor, Gilbert H. Bargar and M. B. Earnhart. The taking of testimony continued till July 16; there was a week of argu- ment by the attorneys and, after five days of deliberation. the jury returned a compromise verdict, finding the prisoner guilty of second degree murder. Elliott was sentenced to the Penitentiary for life, but was released after a few years, with the understanding that he would leave the State. P. J. Elliott was subsequently tried and convicted of manslaughter. He was sentenced to imprisonment for twenty years, only a part of which he served.
CHAPTER XXIV. RELIGIOUS LIFE-PROTESTANT
Early Religious Leaders-Rev. James Hoge, Rev. Samuel West, Bishop Philander Chase- Presbyterians, Methodists, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Baptists, Congregationalists, Church of Christ, Universalists, United Brethren.
To put into a few pages of a general history an adequate account of the religious life of the community with its hundreds of church organizations is a difficult task. In the 122 years since the founding of Franklinton, the workers have been innumerable and a list even of those who have preached the Gospel from the various pulpits cannot here be given. It is only left to the historian to sketch the beginnings and some portions of the development to the present great network of religious instruction and inspiration and to name some of the men who have served notably as churchmen and citizens in the building of the city.
There was no recognized religious leader in the Franklinton community till Rev. James Hoge came in 1805 and established worship, according to the Presbyterian faith, in the house of John Overdier, a two-story frame building north of Broad and Sandusky streets. Later, he preached in the Court House, which was crected in 1807, and in September of that year was called to be the pastor of the First Presbyterian church, a relationship which he main- tained for 50 years, his farewell sermon having been preached Inne 25. 1837. It was a great service, of which more will be said later.
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