History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I, Part 60

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1202

USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I > Part 60

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While newspaper proprietors were thus wrestling with the telegraphic news question, the field of local intelligence was very indifferently worked. Little indi- cation then appeared of the present fieree rivalry in publishing the earliest and fullest accounts of local events. The State Journal and Statesman were accus- tomed to copy city news from one another, each giving credit. Such was the case even with reference to a matter of such importance as the construction of the Columbus & Xenia Railway in 1849.

David Smith

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As it was the telegraph which opened communication between the capital and the world at large, and which made daily newspapers necessary, so it was the rail- way which brought outside competition to the local press. The State Journal, on March 18, 1850, under the heading, " The March of Improvement," stated :

On Saturday evening the boys were erying the Cincinnati papers of that morning on our streets. It made us feel that we were getting to be near neighbors.

The carly life of the Columbus dailies was one of hard work and small financial returns. There was frequent shifting of the time of publication from morning to evening and from evening to morning in the hope of stimulating patronage. In July, 1850, the State Journal changed its hour of publication from six P. M. to one P. M., and in the course of the following year assumed the character of an early morning paper to appear, as was stated, " say by six o'clock," in order " to meet the various mails from the city." The same paper, confining itself to weekday publication, again changed its issue from morning to evening in 1853. In 1855 the Statesman was issued in the morning of Sunday and in the evening of weekdays, but in 1857 it was changed to a morning paper throughout. The State Journal continued to be published in the evening until 1859, when Cooke & Miller trans- ferred it to the morning field.

From 1825 until the office of Supervisor of Public Printing was created under the Constitution of 1851, it was the custom of the tieneral Assembly to elect a State Printer. This office carried with it a good deal of patronage, and was usually bestowed upon one of the newspaper publishers of Columbus. Among the carly State Printers were George Nashee and P. H. Olmsted, of the Columbus Gazette, now State Journal; David Smith, of the Monitor, afterwards Statesman ; John Bailbache of the State Journal, and Samuel Medary of the Statesman. Upon the political complexion of the General Assembly depended the disposition of this office, the rivals for which were Columbus publishers exclusively. One notable excep- tion to this rule occurred in 1831, when all the Whig candidates before the legisla- ture were elected except John Bailhache for State Printer, in lieu of whom David Smith was chosen.

When George Nashee took charge of the State Journal in 1825, he announced his intention to print a newspaper in which the proceedings of the General Assembly would be promptly and accurately reported. "Regular notice," it was promised, " would be taken of all bills, resolutions, etc., submitted to the considera- tion of either House, and of their progress until finally disposed of. A brief sketch of the arguments used for or against any measure of general interest will be given, and when room will permit, or after the close of the session, the debates on the most interesting questions will be published at length." This is a fair outline of the course pursued by both the State Journal and the Statesman in their reports of the legislative proceedings for many years. It is noticeable, however, that the reports were purely routine. They contained none of the explanation, comment, innuendo and general exposition of the spirit of the proceedings to which the newspaper readers of today are accustomed. This was well enough as long as the General Assembly was not only the chief source of news but also a dispenser of patronage. But the telegraph, the railway and the growth of the capital opened

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other fields for news enterprise which demanded attention, and so it was that, at the opening of the session of the General Assembly in 1856 the State Journal and the Statesman presented a joint memorial, asking that the House and Senate each elect an assistant clerk to report the proceedings for publication at the rate of four dollars per column. A House Committee to which this memorial was referred reported that it would inenr an expense of not less than twenty dollars per day. After much discussion, in which the proposition was severely denounced, the House resolved, 48 to 45, to elect an assistant clerk to furnish such reports if their publication was made free. Thereupon the State Journal withdrew its memorial and subsequently both the daily papers refused to publish the legislative reports as they had done before, to the thankless and unprofitable exclusion of better news.

In 1855-6 the editorial columns of both the Statesman and the State Journal contained comment on the hazardous character of daily newspaper publication. On resuming charge of the Statesman in 1855, Samnel Medary wrote in that paper : "The withdrawal of the State patronage from the papers of Columbus has rendered the newspaper business one of great risk and uncertainty. A vast deal is expected of a paper printed at the capital and intended as the central organ of certain senti- ments of a great party." Commenting on the exit of Samuel S. Cox and Horace Knapp from the Statesman and the return of Mr. Medary to that paper, the State Journal said : "The political newspapers of Columbus of themselves have never been profitable, and, in very few instances, paying concerns. They have always, except for short periods during exciting campaigns, been sustained by the other business of the establishment. We are free to acknowledge that, at the present time, the Journal could be dropped from our printing establishment without any serions detriment to its profits." The realization of these unpleasant truths seems to have had a beneficial effect on the publishers. Greater energy was necessary, and the results of renewed zeal are apparent in the character of the papers for the next few years. More attention was paid to local news, and a clearer perception of latent opportunities was manifest.

The Civil War period was an exciting and eventful one for the newspaper publishers of Columbus. Hurtt, Allen & Co.'s proprietorship of the State Journal began with the war and ended with it. The same was practically true of Many- penny & Miller's ownership of the Statesman. The Capital City Fact changed hands twice, and finally expired under the name of the Express. Chapman's Union League and Medary's Crisis sprang into existence. The Gazette was still in full bloom. The State Journal, the Fact and the Union League were suppor- ters of the war; the Statesman was lukewarm, and the Crisis strongly and offen- sively opposed to a resort to arms. The uniqueness of the position of the Crisis, as well as the vigor with which its editor, Samuel Medary, promulgated his views, made that paper the most conspicuous Columbus publication of the period. On the night of March 5, 1863, the office of the Crisis was mobbed by enraged citizens and soldiers. Numbering about two hundred men, and evidently well organized, the mob moved noiselessly through the heavily falling snow, late in the evening, to the corner of Gay and High streets, where the office of the offensive publication was located. Mr. Medary had gone to Cincinnati, on the

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afternoon train, and there was no one in the office to resist. Soldiers with fixed bayonets formed a circle about the door, and threatened with death any who should interfere. Then the work of sacking the office began. Doors were forced open and windows were smashed. Books, furniture and fixtures were destroyed, and copies of the Crisis were scattered by thousands in the street. Eyewitnesses reported, although no published account so states, that Mrs. Henry Wilson, daughter of Mr. Medary, forced her way through the line of guards to secure her father's private papers, in which dangerous undertaking she was successful. The composition and presswork of the Crisis were done at the office of Richard Nevins, half a square north, a fact of which the mob did not seem at first to be aware. When that became known, however, a rush was made for Mr. Nevins's office where the first side of the Statesman was then being run off. The door of the press room was assailed with heavy timbers, but before an entrance could be effected, " the police arrived and remonstrated till the crowd desisted," as a news- paper account puts it. General Cooper also appeared upon the scene, but the soldiers had then dispersed.

Whatever private feeling in regard to this resort to violence may have been, public expression took the form of disapproval. The State Journal, which repre- sented the war sentiment, while offering no apology for the course of the Crisis, deplored the invasion of personal and property rights. The next day General Cooper issued an order with reference to the "outrage" and "violence " which he said was "conduct strangely inconsistent with the soldier's duty to uphold the law." He further characterized the assault as a " cowardly attack and felonions outrage," and warned the soldiers against similar offenses, declaring that the per- petrators, if detected, would be punished with the severest penalty authorized by law. Mr. Medary was not the man to be swerved from his purpose by a mob, and the tone of the Crisis continued as before. The feeling against the paper remained intense, but there was no further violence. On February 13, 1864, word came from Camp Chase that a portion of the Second Ohio Cavalry had determined upon mobbing the Statesman and Crisis offices. General Heintzelman was informed of the scheme, and at once took steps to preserve order. Soldiers were sent to guard both offices threatened, and the assault, if any had been intended, was averted. This violence, real and threatened, accomplished the result usnal in such cases of advertising the Crisis. It was already a financial success, but the demand for it was made greater. Mr. Medary's friends, of whom there were many, declared themselves, and on his return from Cincinnati after the violence of March 5, 1863, met him at the station and. gave him quite an ovation.

The rush and excitement of war times had a stimulating effect on newspaper energies. The war developed newsgatherers just as it developed generals, and Columbus papers, as well as those elsewhere, showed improvement, particularly in their local columns. The city editor was becoming an important personage, although he still continued to do all the local work himself, the use of reporters, as they are now called, in newsgathering not having yet been introduced. Among the city editors of 1867-8 were W. 11. Busbey of the State Journal, now of the Chicago Inter-Ocean ; George K. Nash, also of the Journal, and J. St. J. Clarkson, of

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the Statesman. In the spring of 1872 the city editors of the dailies were S. E. Johnson of the Journal, W. G. Thoman of the Statesman, and L. G. Curtis of the Dispatch. Five years had passed, but the development of the reporter was not yet complete. Aside from the matter which friends and interested parties con- tributed, the city editor wrote all the local news, besides occasionally doing work for outside papers, of which those at Cincinnati and Cleveland had correspondents in Columbus during the legislative sittings, but at other times relied upon their Columbus exchanges for news from the capital. But a change was at hand. The rapid growth of the city and the rivalry of the Columbus press with that of Cin- einnati made the reporter a necessity. It was about 1875 that the city editor was given his first regularly employed assistant. One by one reporters were added to the several local staffs, and the work was apportioned among them by the city editor who became, as he now is, a director rather than a newsgatherer - an office man who plans the work of each day, makes assignments, reads and revises copy and adjusts the several parts to one another, so as to make a harmonious whole.

All the early Columbus newspapers were printed on hand presses, and it was not until 1834 that the steam power press was introduced in Ohio. Such a press was a part of the equipment of the Cincinnati Gazette, introduced by Stephen S. L'Hommedieu, one of the owners of the Gazette at that time. It was not until some years later that steam presses began to be used in Columbus, and even then only the machines employed in newspaper and book work were propelled by steam- power, the smaller presses for job work being driven by crank or treadle. Single- cylinder, doublecylinder and even sixeylinder presses have been successively used in the Columbus newspaper offices, and it was not until 1887 that these began to be supplanted by the perfecting presses now in use by all the leading newspapers of the city.

The Statesman and State Journal, during the long period in which they were competitors and chief newspapers of the capital, were printed on many different sites. In 1820, the Gazette, now State Journal, was located on State Street, east of the Statehouse; in 1825, near the Markethouse, which was then on West State Street; in 1832, in a large frame building on Iligh Street south of State; in 1836, on West State Street, south side; in 1843, at the southwest corner of Iligh and Town streets; in 1845, at the corner of High Street and Chapel Alley ; in 1861, in the Platt building on East State Street ; 1870, in a building at the corner of Chapel and Pearl alleys, which had been erected by Charles Scott in 1851; in 1881, ou State Street, just east of the City Hall, where it is now located.

One of the early locations of the Statesman office was on Broad Street, just east of High, but in 1839 the paper was published on Broad Street between High and Front; in 1844, in a frame building on State Street, just west of the present site of the City Hall; in 1847, on East State Street, in a brick building erected by Samuel Medary; in 1853, corner of High and Broad streets; in 1858, in Neil's Building on High Street, near Gay ; in 1870, in the building at the corner of High Street and Elm Alley, which was at that time bought by Richard Nevins from Lafayette Lazelle, by whom it was erected; and in 1876 the office was removed back to the corner of High and Broad streets, where it continued to be published

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as the Times until Mr. Wendell bought the paper and established its place of pub- lication on Wall Street in rear of the Neil House.

The occasion of resort to violence by editors, or by others against editors, have not been very numerous, and may be briefly mentioned. Mr. Clarkson, writing in the Ohio Statesman of July 30, 1867, says : " My memory goes back to 1840, when Colonel James Allen (of the Journal) received a trouncing from T. J. Buchanan, then Speaker of the House of Representatives, for bringing a lady into a political contest. Soon after this incident, M. H. Medary, then one of the proprietors of the Statesman, flogged a Journal editor, believed to be Mr. Oren Follett, for a similar offenee. Subsequently Doctor Miller, editor of the Old School Republican, gave a sound flogging, in front of the American House, to V. W. Smith, known in current newspaper slang as 'Bot ' Smith, then editing the Ohio State Journal, for a gross slander. On another occasion Colonel Medary gave a sound caning to John Tees- dale, Smith's successor on the State Journal."

On March 27, 1855, John Geary, editor of the Fact, was assaulted on High Street, in front of Savage's jewelry store, by George M. Swan, editor of the Eleva- tor. Geary was struck but not seriously injured, and the intervention of bystanders prevented further hostilities. Swan was arrested and admitted to $1,000 bail. The Grand Jury failed to indict him. In 1864, one of the editors of the Express, the successor of the Fact, was assaulted by O. B. Chapman, editor of the Union League. In the same year a local editor of the State Journal was cowhided on the street by a woman whom he had denounced as "a long, lean, lank, sallow- complexioned she-rebel." The same night the wife of the local writer met on the street the woman who had wielded the cowhide on her husband, and returned the compliment with a buggywhiff. The accounts of the affair indicate that the indigant wife secured full revenge. Chauncey Newton, the legislative correspon- dent of the Cincinnati Enquirer, was twice assaulted while stationed in Columbus. Senator Peres B. Buell, of the Fourteenth District, took offense at the publication of his speech by Newton and assaulted him in the Senate Chamber April 19, 1874. Newton was thrown to the floor, but not much hurt. On March 12, 1875, he was attacked on the street by Edward C. Lewis, Representative from Tuscarawas County, because of criticisms in the Enquirer correspondence. Nothing serions camo of this affair. Mr. Newton died in Cincinnati, April 6, 1880. The next day the newspaper men met, with Senator Lecky Harper as chairman, and Miss Lillie Darst as secretary, and adopted appropriate resolutions. On the night of Feb- ruary 5, 1875, Captain John A. Arthur was assaulted at the door of his residence on Front Street, near Spring, by some person or persons whose identity was never discovered. He was struck between the eyes with some blunt instrument and his skull was crushed. The assault occurred shortly after midnight on Friday, and Mr. Arthur died on the following Tuesday. At the time of the assault he was a local writer for the Sunday News and was legislative correspondent for Toledo papers.

On June 12, 1882, Edward Eberly assaulted W. J. Elliott, of the Sunday Capital, for an offensive article which had appeared in that paper. On November 8, 1885, Hon. Emil Kiesewetter fired two shots at Elliott in the lobby of the Neil

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House. Mr. Kiesewetter was impelled to this act by animadversions upon him in the Capital which he deemed intolerable. Neither of his shots took effect. He was arrested, admitted to bail in $1,000, and after a hearing before Mayor Walcutt on November 16, was discharged on the ground of provocation. This affray led Rev. Francis E. Marsten, of the First Presbyterian Church, and Rev. Washington Gladden, of the First Congregational Church, to preach sermons on immoral jour- nalism. On July 27, 1886, Mr. F. A. Brodbeck, business manager of the Sunday News, was assaulted by Robert B. Montgomery in the office of the paper. The case against Montgomery was taken to the courts, but was not pressed, as no bodily injury had been inflicted. On February 23, 1891, W. J. Elliott and P. J. Elliott, of the Sunday Capital, met A. C. Osborn, of the Sunday World, on High Street, opposite the Statehouse Square, and opened fire upon him with revolvers. Osborn was killed and Washington L. Hughes, an innocent bystander, was also shot dead. Osborn tried to return the fire, and in the fusillade a number of per- sons were injured. The shooting was the result of an interchange of newspaper attacks of a personal nature. W. J. Elliott is now serving a life sentence in the Penitentiary for the crime.

Efforts to form associations of editors and publishers have been numerous although intermittent. Some have been partisan, some nonpartisan ; some local and some State. In June, 1833, a call for the first editorial convention of which there is any record was issued. The date set for the convention was July 9, but so few were the responses that no organization was effected. The Democratic Editorial Association held meetings in Columbus in 1845-6-7-8. The principal business transacted was the adoption of partisan resolutions and plans of organi- zation to assist the party in its campaigns. The convention of 1845 adopted a resolution which condemned personal bickerings among editors. One resolution of the convention of 1846 declared " uncompromising hostility to a currency of paper money, which we believe to be one of the most powerful and wicked engines ever invented to corrupt the morals of the people, to tax their labor and subvert their liberties." Among the men prominent in these deliberations were D. A. Robertson, of the Lancaster Eagle; John Brand, of the Steubenville Union ; Daniel Gotshall, William S. Morgan, Chauncey Bassett, Samuel Medary, Thomas Sparrow and Matthias Martin.

In 1849 Samuel Medary, William B. Thrall and Henry Reed united in issuing a call for an Ohio Editorial Convention, irrespective of party affiliations. The convention met in the Senate Chamber, November 29, of that year, there being present a large number of editors of various partisan complexion, from all parts of the State. Edwin R. Campbell, of the Cincinnati Dispatch, was chairman, and J. R. Knapp, of the Marion Democratic Mirror, secretary. A committee on plan of organization, consisting of Charles B. Flood, L. L. Rice and George M. Swan, was appointed at this or a subsequent meeting, and recommended that the association meet annually on January 17, the birthday of Benjamin Franklin. Accordingly, the convention assembled on that date in 1851, in the room of the State Library, E. R. Campbell presiding, and J. Medill and T. Brown acting as secretaries. Thirty delegates were present. Permanent officers were chosen as follows :

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President, A. G. Dimmock ; Vice President, E. Bratton; Second Vice President, A. T. Walling ; Secretaries, James Mackenzie and D. H. Lyman. Resolutions were adopted favoring the publication of the new Constitution by one paper of each party in each county ; compulsory advertisement of all sales of property ; discon- tinuance of gratuitous advertising of magazines; the revision and equalization of postage rates, and the election of the State Printer by the people. The organiza- tion thus effected survived for a number of years, although its meetings do not seem to have been regular. In 1854, the convention was held at the Spencer House, in Cincinnati, on January 10, a week earlier than the date recommended by the com- mittee of 1851. The next convention was held January 17, 1856, at Deshler's Hall, Columbus. J. R. S. Bond was temporary and Samuel Medary permanent chairman. Resolutions were adopted declaring that, in the dignity and imper- sonality with which the late exciting politieal campaign was conducted by the journals of Ohio, the question, " What good can an editorial convention do ?" is answered. It was also resolved that, in the growing brotherhood apparent among the editors of the State, is indicated the good work which the interchange of per- sonal courtesies will effeet. Personalities and bitter controversies were deprecated, local newsgathering commended, and annual meetings advised. About thirty delegates attended this meeting. Officers for the ensuing year were chosen as follows: President, Samuel Medary ; Vice Presidents, W. Schouler, A. B. Lum ; Secretaries, J. H. Baker and H. D. Cooke ; Treasurer, S. D. Harris. It was decided to hold the next meeting at Mansfield, January 17, 1857, and Miss Metta Victoria Fuller, of Lancaster, was chosen poet for the occasion. At the Mansfield meeting there was a large attendance, and William Schouler, of the State Journal, was chosen president. The next annual meeting, held in Cleveland, January 19, 1858, appears to have been the last one held by that association, the excitement and antagonisms of the war probably interfering.

On January 4, 1865, a convention of Ohio editors and publishers was held in Columbus. William T. Bascom, of the Mount Vernon Republican, was chairman, and L. L. Rice, of the Lorain News, secretary. A scale of prices for advertising and job work was adopted, and the committee was appointed to memorialize Con- gress for the repeal of the duty on paper, so as to give relief from the monopoly which that duty protects. A State organization was effected as follows: President, W. H. P. Denny ; Secretary, Amos Layman ; Treasurer, W. D. Bickham. Nothing more seems to have been done by this particular organization.

A number of Ohio publishers met in convention at the Secretary of State's office, April 18, 1867, with Doetor William Trevitt as chairman, and J. L. Board - man, of Hillsboro, sceretary. The principal topies discussed were: The best means of obtaining a reduction of prices of printing paper ; repeal of the tax on paper ; advance payment of subscriptions ; rights of the press to county printing ; prices of advertising and job work, and the establishment of an Ohio publishers' agency in New York. An adjourned meeting was called for June 20, that year, to further discuss these matters.

On May 22, 1873, the day after the Republican State Convention, the Ohio Editorial Association held a meeting in Columbus. Joshua Saxton, of Urbana, was

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History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I, Part 60

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co Publication date: 1892 Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co. Number of Pages: 1202

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1202