USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I > Part 64
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Stephen B. Porter, son of James and Marguerite Porter, was born August 12, 1838, near Steubenville, Ohio, and was early left an orphan. Hle was reared by his grandmother, and obtained such an education as a country school and the academies at Richmond, Ohio, and Uniontown, Pennsylvania, could give him. Meanwhile he had worked on a farm and clerked in country stores. He married in 1859, enlisted in the Second Ohio Infantry, September 1, 1861, served with his regiment until October 8, 1862, was twice wounded at the battle of Perryville and, owing to his wounds, was assigned to clerical work with General Cox, at Cincin-
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nati, and at hospital headquarters at Camp Dennison. He served three years, was discharged, and was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the One Hundred and Ninetyfirst Ohio Infantry, with which he went to the Shenandoah Valley, where he served until the close of the war, part of the time as First Lientenant, to which rank he had been promoted. He was mustered out of the service in August, 1865, began newspaper work as a reporter on the Cleveland Herald in November of that year, and in 1869 went to the Plaindealer, with which paper he was connected as a reporter for several years. In November, 1872, he came to Columbus to become eity editor of the Dispateh, in which capacity he served until the firm of Myers & Brickell was dissolved, when he became editor of the paper, a position which he has ever since continuously held.
Lanson G. Curtis, born in Columbus in September, 1845, became a messenger boy in the office of Governor Dennison at the age of sixteen, served in varions capacities in the executive offices of Governors Tod, Brough and Anderson, was sent as bearer of tickets and ballotboxes to the army in the Southwest in 1865, was clerk in the office of General Wikoff, Secretary of State; succeeded B. J. Loomis, transferred to Washington, as correspondent of the Cincinnati Commercial, and, when Mr. Loomis returned to Columbus, became the regular Columbus correspon- dent of the Cincinnati Times, a position to which was soon added the local agency of the Associated Press. For a few months, Mr. Curtis was city editor of the Dis- patch, but soon withdrew from that service to devote all his energies to newspaper correspondence. He was also the Columbus representative of the New York Herald and Chicago Times. In addition to his newspaper duties, Mr. Curtis for several years edited the annual publications of the Conductors' Life Insurance Com- pany of the United States. He died November 18, 1881, at the age of thirtysix, in the house on State Street in which he was born. Commemorative resolutions were passed in his honor by the members of the Columbus Press, who also, as before narrated, organized a club and gave it his name. He was a man of charm- ing personal qualities and rare professional talent and accomplishments.
W. S. Furay, now leading editorial writer of the Ohio State Journal, is a native of Frankfort, Ross County, Ohio. After short attendance at Wittenberg College and a summer spent in study at Oberlin he entered Antioch College, from which he graduated in the spring of 1861, having in the meantime taught school several terms. A day or two after graduating, he left home to join the Union Army in West Virginia, where he began his newspaper work with a series of volunteer let- ters to the Cincinnati Gazette, the proprietors of which were so much pleased with his work as to engage him as a regular correspondent. As a personal observer he described eleven of the great battles and many minor conflicts, raids, sieges, and secret expeditions. The battles described were Perryville, Stone River, Chickamauga, Mission Ridge, Lookout Mountain, Resaca, Kenesaw, Peach Tree Creek, Franklin, Nashville, and Blakeley, in front of Mobile, the last taking place on the day of General Lee's surrender. Mr. Furay remained in the South five years after the close of the war, conducting a bureau of southern correspondence for the Cincinnati Gazette. He was tendered but declined the post of Private Secretary to Governor Bullock, of Georgia. The one recollection on which he
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most prides himself in connection with this period is that of the close of the Ala- bama reconstruction convention in 1866, when, at a great popular meeting held to endorse the proceedings, he spoke for an hour and a half from the very rostrum on which Jefferson Davis stood when sworn in as President of the Southern Con- federacy. Returning to Ohio in 1870 he served for ten years as general State correspondent for the Cincinnati Gazette with his headquarters at Columbus. IIe withdrew from the Gazette to become owner and editor of the Columbus Sunday Herald, which he sold in 1884. He served five years as Trustee of the Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home by appointment of Governor Hayes; held for two and a half years the position of Chief Clerk in the office of Hon. J. F. Oglevec, Anditor of State, and in 1883 was appointed United States Revenue Collector for the Columbus District, which position he soon lost by consolidation of this district with that of Chillicothe. In 1883 he was commissioned by President Arthur as United States Commissioner of the Northern Pacific Railway, and on his return from service in that position in 1884 was offered and accepted the newspaper connection which he now holds.
Charles Q. Davis, now general manager of the Evening Post, was born Septem- ber 29, 1863, at Jackson, Ohio, removed to Columbus in 1869, attended the Ohio State University three years, began newspaper work as a reporter of the Sunday Morning News, and when he left college in 1885 became a member of the Ohio State Journal local staff. After retaining this position about a year he was offered and accepted that of State correspondent for the Cleveland Plaindealer, which relation he maintained until December, 1890. In April, 1891, he bought a con- trolling interest in the Columbus Evening Post, and became its general manager. In 1884 Mr. Davis was Secretary of the Democratic State Executive Committee, and in 1890 was Secretary of the Democratic State Central Committee.
Leo Hirsch, editor of the Sonntagsgast and the Express, is a native of Germany, in which country he was apprenticed to and learned the printer's trade. In 1866 he went to London, Enland, where he became manager of the Londoner Zeitung, then said to be the only German paper printed in that country. Emigrating to the United States in 1871, he worked six months at his trade at New York City, then became manager of the Oestliche Post, a German Republican morning paper which advocated the election of General Grant to the Presidency. In 1872 he went to St. Louis, where he first worked in the job office of the Democrat and subsequently became Superintendent of the Missouri Staatszeitung, the career of which was cut short soon after by its purchase by Messrs. Pulitzer and Hutchins and its sale the same day to the Globe-Democrat. In 1873 Mr. Hirsch, with others, began the pub- lication of the St. Louis Tribune, but the enterprise was not successful. While he was in St. Louis, Mr. Hirsch conceived the idea of German stereotype plates, and traveled extensively to introduce them, being thus the pioneer in the German stereotype plate business. In 1876 he was offered a position on the Westbote, and in July of that year came to Columbus. He served with the Westbote in various capacities for a year and a half, began in April, 1878, the publication of the Sonntagsgast, and in 1887 was appointed Supervisor of Public Printing, to which position he was reappointed in
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1889. In October, 1891, he organized a company and began the publication of the Columbus Express, a German Evening Daily.
J. H. Galbraith, editor of the Press, is a native of Perry Township, Franklin County, and graduated from the Ohio State University in 1883. Immediately on quitting the University he took an engagement as a reporter on the Columbus Times, then managed by the late John G. Thompson. When the Times passed into other hands, with S. K. Donavin in charge, Mr. Galbraith was made its city editor, from which position he passed to that of managing editor, which he still holds under the proprietorship of F. J. Wendell.
William F. Kemmler, present managing editor of the Westbote, a native of Wirtemberg, after serving for three years as clerk in the office of the mayor of Ebingen, his native town, emigrated to the United States in the autumn of 1857, and settled in Circleville, Ohio, where he apprenticed himself to the printer's trade in the office of the Watchman, which was then conducted by Niles & Case, and now flourishes as the Democrat and Watchman, under the editorial direction of Hon. A. R. Van Cleaf. After fulfilling his apprenticeship and working an addi- tional year as compositor, he accepted a position as compositor and translator in the office of the Westbote of Columbus, January 2, 1862, from which date until the pres- ent time, excepting an interval of six months, he has been connected with the Westbote either in its mechanical or its editorial department. Since the retirement of his lamented chief, Mr. Frederick Fieser, from the business in 1884, he has been managing editor as well as part proprietor of the paper, and since the organization of the Westbote Company he has been one of its directors. In 1862 he married Miss Barbara Palm, who, with her parents, came from his native town to Circleville in 1846. Mr. Kemmler's newspaper work has been characterized by sturdy honesty and the intelligence of a welltrained mind. With the project for the erection of a moment to Schiller in the City Park he was from first to last closely and actively identified.
Herman Determann, present associate editor of the Westbote, began his con- nection with that paper in 1870. He was born at Amsterdam, Holland, and com- pleted his education at the universities at Göttingen and Munich, where he pur- sued a special course in philology and jurisprudence. On his arrival in the United States in 1870, he chose the newspaper profession, in which he has been associated, at different times, with German-American papers in Cincinnati, Chicago, Mil- waukee and other cities. For eleven years he was chief editor of the Evansville Democrat, much of the success of which was due to his intelligent efforts. He has taken an active part in recent political struggles, and has acquired prominence as a campaign speaker. He has rare literary gifts, and is the author of much meri- torious poetry which has from time to time appeared in current periodicals of the United States and Germany.
Ferdinand A. Wayant, a native of Cologne, Germany, and of Swiss-French parentage, after graduating with high honors from the gymnasium of his native city, emigrated in 1871 to the United States where he at once entered upon a jour- nalistic career, and found employment on different German papers at Newark, New Jersey, Albany, Providence and Rochester. In 1882 he came to Columbus
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and accepted a position on the Westbote. Shortly afterwards he and F. Hlem- mersbach founded the Ohio Staatszeitung, a German daily of Democratic politics. The enterprise was financially unsuccessful, and Mr. Wayant again became con- nected with the Westbote, with which he was employed as reporter and assistant editor. Although physically frail and for years a sufferer with lung affection, he performed his duties with rare ability and devotion until his death, which took place June 11, 1891. Of genial and kind disposition, he had many warm friends and admirers. His sense of humor was keen, and often cropped out in his writ- ings for the press. His untimely death was widely and deeply regretted.
Charles F. Brown ( Artemus Ward) worked for a short time as a compositor in the newspaper offices of Columbus prior to his connection with the Cleveland Plaindealer, in which he became famous. He came here as a tramp printer, ragged and dirty, and set type in the office of the Reveille, a shortlived daily which began publication in 1854.
Hon. George K. Nash had a newspaper experience of about one year, having been city editor of the State Journal from March 18, 1867, to April 17, 1868. Prior to that time he had done some volunteer writing for the State Journal, and when W. H. Busbey resigned as city editor to become Private Secretary to Gover- nor Cox, the vacant position was tendered to and accepted by Mr. Nash.
Sylvanns E. Johnson, now the Washington Representative of the Cincinnati Enquirer, came to this city late in the sixties as a printer, in which capacity he was employed on the Statesman, of which he afterwards became city editor. On April 1, 1872, he became city editor of the State Journal, of which paper he was subsequently one of the editorial writers. In 1880 he went to Cincinnati to accept a position as assistant managing editor of the Enquirer, with which paper he has most of the time since been connected.
Aaron F. Perry, the wellknown Cincinnati lawyer, did much editorial work for the State Journal while practising his profession here, although this was not generally known at the time. Subsequently he was associated with Oren Follett and others in the proprietorship.
C. C. Hazewell, who was in 1845-46 editor of the Statesman, returned to Massachusetts after severing his connection with that paper, became editor of the Boston Times in 1850 and figured prominently in the politics and jonrnalism of that period in the Bay State.
John Teesdale, editor of the State Journal in 1843-6, was afterwards editor of the Akron Beacon. In 1857 he went to Des Moines, Iowa, where he bonght and edited a newspaper.
Henry Reed, who with his brother, S. R. Reed, held a prominent place in Ohio journalism, eame to Columbus May 1, 1848, from Maumee City, Indiana, and became part owner and one of the editors of the State Journal, his associate in the paper being William B. Thrall. He retired from the State Journal the following year, and in March, 1852, became editor of the Cincinnati Atlas. In 1855 he was one of the editorial writers on the Cincinnati Commercial, from which he retired in 1859. Later, he and his brother began the publication of a cheap Cincinnati
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daily which was shortlived. Both the Reed brothers are now dead, S. R. Reed having died at sea in 1889.
James Haddock Smith, a soninlaw of Samuel Medary, began his editorial work on the Statesman in 1850. He had represented Brown County in the Forty- sixth and Fortyseventh General Assemblies. When Hon. S. S. Cox became part proprietor of the Statesman in 1853, Mr. Smith was his partner. In 1854 he sold his interest to Mr. Cox and formed a law partnership with Judge Warden. From 1857 to 1859 he was again financially connected with the Statesman, but severed his connection with the paper in 1859 and was appointed County Clerk vice J. L. Bryan, resigned.
William D. Gallagher was born in Philadelphia, in 1808, and at an early age came West. He was one of the editors of the Cincinnati Gazette with Charles Hammond, who gave to that paper its first great reputation. In 1838-9 he was editor of the Hesperian in Columbus, with the literary and political press of which he was afterwards variously connected. In 1853 he removed to Louisville, Ken- tucky, where for a time, he edited the Farm Journal and subsequently retired to a farm near the city. Author of much excellent poetry and prose, he achieved an enviable reputation in the current contemporary literature of his period.
Ezra Griswold had the distinction of being connected at the outset with both the Western Intelligencer and the Monitor. Besides setting the first type for the former paper, he was a partner of David Smith in the establishment of the Moni- tor. Mr. Griswold sold his interest in the Monitor in 1820 and began the publica- tion of a paper at Worthington, called the Columbian Advocate and Franklin Chronicle. This paper he removed, in the fall of 1821, to Delaware, Ohio, where he continued its publication until 1834, when it passed into the ownership of Abram Thomson, and became the Olentangy Gazette. It is still published by Mr. Thomson as the Delaware Gazette.
John M. Gallagher, after leaving Columbus, published the Springfield Repub- lic, and represented Clarke County for three terms in the General Assembly, one term as Speaker of the House.
Charles Scott, who was sole or part proprietor of the State Journal for twenty years ending in 1854, was a man of much energy although his business ended dis- astrously. From Columbus he went to Chicago where he was connected with several business enterprises including a large printing establishment, and died in 1888.
Henry D. Cooke, brother of Jay Cooke, the famous banker, was for about three years, beginning in 1858, one of the proprietors of the State Journal. He had previously had editorial charge of the Sandusky Commercial Register. During his connection with the State Journal that paper was greatly improved editorially, typographically and in its local news service. After his retirement in 1861 Mr. Cooke was associated in business with his brother, Jay Cooke. He died in Wash- ington City February 24, 1881.
James Allen, who was editor of the State Journal carly in the fifties, sub- sequently went to California, where he was elected State Printer by the legislature in 1855.
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Walter C. Hood, onee an employe of the State Journal, and later editor of a Democratic paper called the Spirit of the Times, at Ironton, was State Librarian in 1874-5, having been appointed by Governor William Allen. He died while in office.
William T. Bascom's connection with the State Journal began in 1849 and ended in 1855. He was at first part owner, afterwards editorial writer. In 1856-8 he was elerk of the Ohio Senate, was at a later date Bank Register in the office of the Treasurer of State, was Private Secretary to Governor Dennison, beginning in 1860, and in 1865 resumed newspaper work as editor of the Mount Vernon Repub- liean until 1867.
Colonel William Schouler, who had been connected with the press of Boston, Massachusetts, beeame editor and joint proprietor of the State Journal in 1856, and retired from the paper in April, 1858. Prior to his departure he was honored with a complimentary dinner given by Governor Chase, ex-Governor Samuel Medary and other prominent citizens. He was appointed Adjutant-General of Massachu- setts in 1861 and lied in October, 1872.
William T. Coggeshall was a proprietor and editor of the State Journal about ten months in 1865. He had previously been State Librarian, to which position he was appointed by Governor Chase in June, 1856. From that position he went to Springfield in 1862 and took charge of the Republic. His connection with the State Journal began January 21, 1865, and terminated November 8 of the same year. In December, 1865, Mr. Coggeshall was appointed Private Secretary to Governor J. D. Cox. In 1866 he went to South America as United States Minister to Ecuador, and on August 2, 1867, died at Guapolo, near Quito.
James B. Marshall, who was one of the editorial writers on the Statesman in 1856-7, came from the Cincinnati Enquirer. He was chosen Reporter for the Ohio Senate in January, 1858, and in May of that year became editorially connected with the Capital City Fact. In 1859 he began the publication of a Columbus weekly called the People's Press, which was not successful. Mr. Marshall was a brother of Humphrey Marshall, the eloquent Kentucky Congressman and Con- federate General. Some years ago he fell from the window of a Memphis hotel and was killed.
John Bailhache, connected with the State Journal at different times between 1825 and 1835, was editor of the Scioto Gazette in its early career and came to Columbus from Chillicothe. In 1837 he went to Alton, Illinois, where he edited the Telegraph until 1855. He died there in September, 1857.
A. M. Gangewer was connected with the Columbian until its consolidation in 1856 with the State Journal, with which he was also connected from that time until 1858. He was appointed Private Secretary to Governor Chase in 1859, and in 1861 became connected with the duties of an office in the Treasury Department of the United States, which position he retained for many years.
James Q. Howard, author of a campaign biography of Abraham Lincoln, was a young lawyer in Columbus when named in 1861 as United States Consul at St. John's, New Brunswick, in which position he was succeeded by Colonel Darius B. Warner in 1866. Returning to Columbus he became one of the editors and a
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joint proprietor of the State Journal, from which he retired in 1871. In 1872 he edited a Greeley campaign paper called the Sentinel, an ante-election editorial in which entitled " Victory Foreknown," acquired some celebrity as a mistaken prophecy. In 1876 Mr. Howard wrote a campaign biography of General Ruther- ford B. Hayes. During the term of Mr. Hayes as President he was appointed Appraiser of the Port of New York.
Willoughby W. Webb, a native of Canton, Ohio, was for several years city editor of the Statesman, from which he retired in July, 1860. During the Civil War he was for some time a Second-Lieutenant in the Fortythird Ohio Infantry. He was one of the editorial writers of the Crisis under the management of Doctor William Trevitt, and was the first editor of the Evening Dispatch. He died June 7, 1872. His brother, John M. Webb, was financially identified at different times with the Sunday Morning News, the Crisis, and the Dispatch, of which latter paper he was one of the original proprietors and at one time editor.
Asa L. Harris, who was a local writer on the State Journal prior to the Civil War, bought the Coshocton Age in 1860, and for some time published that paper. He is now editor of the Southern Railroad Record, of Atlanta, Georgia.
Frank Higgins, who learned the printer's trade in the office of the State Journal, published in 1861 a Secessionist paper called the Times, at Messilla, Ari- zona. He is now dead.
Salmon P. Chase, in 1861, and before, furnished considerable editorial matter to the Ohio State Journal and the Cincinnati Commercial.
G. W. Roby, one of General Comly's first partners in the State Journal, came to Columbus from Ross County, where he had at different times practised medicine and been Provost Marshal of the Twelfth Congressional District. In October, 1866, he sold his interest in the Journal to A. P. Miller, of the Scioto Gazette, and purchased the interest of George C. Benham in the drugstore of Thrall & Benham, the firm becoming Thrall & Roby.
W. W. Beach, city editor and agent of the State Journal and author of numer- ous popular and humorous sketches, changed his occupation from journalism to the insurance business in 1867, and in 1869 went to Springfield, Ohio, where he became connected with the Advertiser.
B. J. Loomis, who had for several years been Columbus correspondent of the Cincinnati Commercial, accepted in February, 1868, a position on the editorial staff of the Cincinnati Chronicle. Subsequently he resumed charge of the Colum- bns bureau of the Commercial, a relation which he maintained until late in the seventies. He was Clerk of the Ohio House of Representatives in 1866-8, and again in 1872-4.
W. B. Thrall, a native of Rutland, Vermont, who came to Ohio in 1817, and did his first newspaper work on the Circleville Herald, of which he was editor and proprietor for about twentyfive years, became in 1846 one of the editors and pro- prietors of the State Journal, after his retirement from which in 1849 he did much editorial work for various papers with which he was never publicly identified. He was a man of marked ability, and, while a resident of Pickaway County, served on the Common Pleas bench and in the legislature. He was chosen Comptroller
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of the Treasury in 1859, and was appointed by President Fillmore to an office in Washington. He died in this city during the seventies.
Lucian G. Thrall, born at Circleville, Ohio, in 1825, learned the printer's trade in the office of the State Journal under the proprictorship of Charles Scott, and in 1852 undertook the publication of the Ohio State Times at Mount Vernon. Ile returned to Columbus in 1853 and served in the composing room of the State Journal, chiefly as foreman, until 1859, when he bought an interest in the Gazette, which he sold in 1864. In 1865 he purchased a half interest in the Jeffersonian at Findlay. Subsequently he was connected with newspapers at Pomeroy, Ohio, and Afton, Iowa. Ile now holds a responsible position in the office of the Westbote.
E. G. De Wolf, once connected with the State Journal, became the editor of the Hancock Jeffersonian in September, 1868.
F. W. Hurtt, senior proprietor of the State Journal in 1861, was appointed Brigade Quartermaster and ordered to report to General Rosecrans, by whom he was assigned to duty at Clarksburgh, Virginia. In March, 1862, the employés of the State Journal presented to him a handsome military saddle and other horse equipments. Some months later he was tried by court martial on charges of mis- appropriation of publie funds, and was found guilty.
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