Centennial history of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, Part 21

Author: Stocker, Rhamanthus Menville, 1848-
Publication date: 1887
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : R. T. Peck
Number of Pages: 1318

USA > Pennsylvania > Susquehanna County > Centennial history of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania > Part 21

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He has now retired from active business, and resides at Macomb, McDonough County, Illi- nois.

The parents of James P. Taylor had eight children-five sons and three daughters-and the names of those now living, in the order of their birth, are James P., Charles W., Phœbc E., Bentley W. and Fred. E., all of whom, with the exception of James P. Taylor, are residents of McDonough County, State of Illinois.

The Independent Volunteer was established at Montrose by Isaac Fuller, November 4, 1831, and continued ten months, when Asa G. Dimock bought the press and started the Democratic Volunteer, issuing only one or two numbers, when it was re-purchased by George & I. Fuller and "restored to Republican principles" and to the old name. The third volume was published first by George Fuller alone, and then by E. H. Easterbrooks; the fourth and fifth volumes by G. Fuller, and the sixth and seventh volumes by Fuller & Rcad. The cighth vol- ume began November, 1838, under the name of the Montrose Volunteer, C. F. Read, sole editor. The ninth volunie was edited by Read & Tur- rell. May 21, 1840, Abel Turrell bought Read's interest and edited the paper alone until, May 27, 1841, the Montrose Volunteer and North Star appeared, with A. Turrell and J. H. Dimock as editors. September 8, 1842, Dimock sold to S. T. Scott. May 25, 1843, the thirteenth volume resumed the name of Montrose Volunteer, under !

the sole editorship of Mr. Turrell. January 25, 1844, Abel Turrell and George Fuller estab- lished the Northern Democrat in place of the Montrose Volunteer. The Democrat was of the same size and general appearance as the Volun- teer. It was a five-column folio, each page be- ing about fifteen by twenty-one inches. Jannary 2, 1845, George Fuller sold his interest to I. N. Bullard. January 1, 1846, Mr. Turrell, who had been principal editor for about seven years, finally retired from the management and sold his interest to O. G. Hempstead. The paper was enlarged January 8, 1846, by Bullard & Hempstead to a six-column folio. Mr. Hemp- stead said that he had been a clergyman, but he pledged himself to know no man's religion. January 15, 1846, I. N. Bullard published his valedictory, and George Fuller announced that he had again purchased an interest in the paper. " Reader! nothing in the annals of time has been more clearly demonstrated than the great truth that change is stamped on all things here below ; but in nothing have changes become more frequent recently than in regard to the proprietorship of this paper." He further said : "It is my design to make my present position a permanent one." But Mr. Fuller did not make the position permanent, as he had intended. He and Hempstead edited the third and fourth vol- umes, when Mr. Fuller sold to Hempstead, who conducted the paper alone for several years. In January, 1849, he changed the name to Montrose Democrat, which it still retains. About 1851 Ezra B. and Simeon B. Chase purchased the pa- per and conducted it for about five years. Janu- ary 3, 1856, Ezra B. Chase announced that he had assumed editorial control of the paper. George A. Chase was publisher at that time. July 31, 1856, E. B. Chase published his vale- dictory, and in the same issue J. B. McCollum and A. J. Gerritson announced themselves as his successors. They say that "they shall put the public in possession of facts, and inferences flow- ing from them shall be their aim." December 31, 1857, J. B. McCollum transferred his interest to A. J. Gerritson, who assumed entire control. The paper was a seven-column folio at this time, having as its motto: " We join ourselves . to no party that does not carry the flag and keep

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step to the music of the whole Union." January 6, 1863, the first number of the twentieth volumc was reduced in size to a six-column folio. The editor explained that the price of paper had ad- vanced to twenty-five cents per pound, and that he had determined to reduce the size of the paper rather than increase the price. The paper con- tinned in its reduced form until July 14, 1868, when it was again enlarged to a seven-colunmn folio. July 28, 1869, Mr. Gerritson, after hav- ing been connected with the paper thirteen years, sold to Eugene B. Hawley. April 1, 1873, William C. Cruser bought one-half interest of Mr. Hawley. This partnership continued until May 1, 1879, when Cruser sold to Hawley. March 1, 1881, W. C. Cruser and Daniel Brew- ster bought the office of Hawley. In July, 1883, M. A. Lyons bought Brewster's interest, and the following November Hon. George A. Post purchased Lyons' interest, and the paper has been published since then under the firm-name of Cruser & Post. The paper has been changed in form and size a number of times during the last fifteen or twenty years. It is now a nine- column folio, twenty-nine by forty-three inches, with a circulation of two thousand five hun- dred and sixteen copies weekly. Of the writers who conducted the Volunteer and Democrat, George Fuller is now a resident of Scranton. George Fuller's father, Edward Fuller, came to Bridgewater township in 1806, and lived there until he died, aged eighty-five years. George left his father's house when he was only twelve years old, and clerked in a store for a while; then he went into the first printing-office at Montrose, where he learned his trade under Justin Clark. He says the first newspaper was a four-column folio, printed mostly with pica type, on the first printing-press that was used in Albany, N. Y. Mr. Fuller afterwards started a Democratic paper in the interest of General Jackson. The first paper had a circulation of three or four hundred copies. His paper had a circulation of five or six hundred copies. The connty was Democratic then, and Mr. Fuller was leader of the party for a number of years. He was prothonotary in 1839 and . Congressman in 1844 to fill the vacancy caused by the death of A. H. Read. He never wrote

an editorial that he could not face afterwards, and when he left the editorial chair he had many friends in the opposition party. Being candid, his paper wielded a great influence. The sharpest fights were usually on the office of sheriff. The Wolf and Muhlenberg contest for the Governorship was also a severe one. Mr. Fuller is past four-score years, and still hale and hearty. He was successful as a merchant, and his sons are all active men. William H. is the well-known expert ticket agent at Scranton, Isaac F. and George A. are engaged in business, and Frederick is an alderman in Scranton. Davis Dimock, Jr., who was associated with Fuller at one time, was elected to Congress in 1842, bnt died before his term expired, and A. H. Read served for the remainder of the term. Charles F. Read, I. N. Bullard and Abel Tur- rell all became merchants at Montrose after they left the editorial chair. Mr. Turrell was a very conservative and judicious writer. O. G. Hempstead was a Universalist preacher and a writer of considerable ability. SIMEON B. CHASE is still living. He was a member of the State Legislature in 1856-57-58. He read law with F. B. Streeter, and was admitted to the bar January 22, 1851. His great work, how- ever, has been in connection with the temper- ance movement. His digest of the decisions of the G. W. C. T. of the Order of Good Templars became the standard work of that order in Pennsylvania ; and his connection with the R. W. G. L. made him a man of influence through- out the Union. EZRA B. CHASE was one of the strongest writers that ever occupied an editorial chair at Montrose. His articles were repub- lished in other papers and exerted a great influ- ence. He was a member of the Legislature in 1852-53. He read law with F. B. Streeter, and was admitted to the bar in 1850.

ANDREW JACKSON GERRITSON, for thirteen years the editor and proprietor of the Montrose Democrat, was a native of Dimock township, where his parents-Richard and Lydia (Hoar) Gerritson-were farmers, and had settled from Chester, Delaware County. They were mem- bers of the Society of Friends, and reared their family of three sons and four daughters in that faith. In early boyhood Andrew resolved to

A.M. Gerritsom nilson

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obtain an education, and to accomplish this, he had to depend largely upon his own self-re- liance, which throughout his entire life was one of his leading characteristics. After attending the home district school in boyhood, he entered Harford University, from which he was grad- uated about the time of reaching his majority, and before and after that time was for several terms a teacher. At the age of twenty-two he came to Montrose, and began reading law with Ralph B. Little, which, however, he continued only one year, when, in 1856, with J. B. Mc- Collum, he purchased the Montrose Democrat, and conducted the paper with that gentleman for two years, and subsequently alone, until his retirement from the paper in 1869, and from active business life on account of failing health. The dismemberment of the old Whig party after the Presidential election of 1852, and the birth of the Republican party the same year of his taking the editorial chair, left him, with other Democratic journalists, the alternative of holding up the principles of their party, which he did, with a ready pen and a strong arm. To this work Mr. Gerritson bent all his ener- gies, formulated opinion through his paper by his own independent thought and action, in the interest of principle and party, and so wielded the influence and tone of the press here, that upon the breaking out of the Rebellion, in 1861, the readers of the Democrat were in full sym- pathy with the Union cause from the outstart, and gave their money, their influence and their sons to put down the war, punish treason and restore the Union. When the State called for emergency men upon the invasion of its borders by the Confederate army, he volunteered in the service, and although unused to such hard- ships, did his duty from a conscientious regard for principle, and served with his regiment for some two months, when his services in the field were no longer required. Upon his return he resumed his place at the head of his paper, and so promulgated his own idea in the support of the Union cause through its columns as to cause many who differed with him politically to become his warm friends.

The underlying principles of his life were based upon honor and justice, while luis charac-

ter and abilities commanded respect. A man of eminent virtues in private life, great executive and business capacity, with firm and positive opinions, and while respecting the views of others, he gave his own clearly, and never sought security from censure by silence or time-serving notoriety. Mr. Gerritson was chosen postmaster of the House at Harrisburg during the winter session of 1863, and at the close he was honored with a vote of thanks by the members of that body for his courtesy and competent discharge of the duties of that office. In 1868 he was appointed and served as revenne assessor of the district here. He was identified with the First National Bank, at Montrose, from its organization, and was from the first a member of its finance committee. In early life the gentle influences of a Christian mother of the Society of Friends so impressed his mind, and moulded his character, that he was quiet, un- demonstrative and unassuming, and withal, genial, social and affable in his intercourse with the world.

Although the facilities for gaining an educa- tion in his early life were meagre, he neverthe- less made such proficiency as to be well quali- ficd for the discharge of all the duties pertaining to an active business life, and while frail in body and ofttimes feeble in health, none sur- passed him in quickness and clearness of per- ception or in strength and vigor of mind. The last years of his life, after disposing of his paper, were mostly spent in the office of his preceptor in the law, where he engaged in con- veyancing, settling estates and in conducting his own private business. Twenty-five years of his life were passed at Montrose, where, for kindness as a neighbor, uprightness and integ- rity as a citizen, and faithfulness as a friend, he stood pre-cminent. He died at his home at Montrose December 25, 1881, aged forty-eight years.

His wife, with whom he became acquainted while both were students at Harford Univer- sity, and whom he married December 31, 1856, was Mary E., a danghter of Captain David Morgan (1785-1866) and Esther (Brink) Mor- gan (1794-1872), the former a native of Litch- field County, Conn., who settled in Brooklyn

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township in 1810, and the latter a native of Bradford County, Pa.

Mrs. Gerritson survives in 1887, and resides at Montrose.

HON. EUGENE B. HAWLEY was a brilliant writer on topics with which he was familiar. He was of a sensitive organization and attacked what he believed to be wrong, fearlessly. Some- times his zeal in advocating what he thought to be right may have led him beyond what the facts warranted. He attacked the manner in which the county offices were conducted with such vigor that it brought the Republican ma- jority down, resulting finally in the election of several Democrats to county offices. His efforts were not without beneficial results. In 1876 he was elected to represent Susquehanna and Wayne in the State Senate for two years. He did not revolutionize things there as he liad ex- pected to, and his highly-wrought organization gave out under the strain he put upon it. He fell into a state of hopeless melancholia and con- tinued thus for a number of years in the asylum. Finally his reason came to him again, and he returned home and died shortly after, in March, 1886. His wife was Frances M. Hayden, who now lives at New Milford.

WILLIAM C. CRUSER, son of Henry Cruser and grandson of Bela Jones, an old settler in Bridgewater, was born in Bridgewater township January 9, 1855. He obtained his education at Montrose Academy and learned the printing business at Montrose. In 1873 E. B. Hawley, editor of the Montrose Democrat, employed him as foreman, and April 1st of that year he purchased a one-half interest in the paper. This partnership continued until May 1, 1879, when Mr. Cruser sold his interest to Mr. Haw- ley and made a trip West, and purchased a tract of land near Fort Kearney, Neb. He re- turned and, about the 1st of February, 1881, in connection with Daniel Brewster, purchased the Democrat of Hawley, and has owned a one- half interest in the paper since that time. When Mr. Cruser first connected himself with the Democrat it had only one thousand one hundred circulation. He canvassed the county for subscribers and improved the paper, until it now has over two thousand five hundred sub-

scribers. He usually acts as the managing and business editor, and has built up the local de- partment and made up the paper in better form than when it was under the former management. Mr. Cruser has been West a number of times since he took his first trip, and made additional purchases of land in Nebraska and Dakota. In October, 1876, he married Angusta Pettis, of Montrose.

HON. GEORGE A. POST was born at Cuba, Allegany County, N. Y. His parents moved to Dunkirk when he was six months old, and thence to Owego in 1861, where young Post received his education at the Owego Academy, together with about one year's attendance at the Owego Normal School. He was then fifteen, and began to read law with Charles E. Parker, the present judge of Tioga County, N. Y. After remaining there something over two years he was put under a private tutor to pre- pare for college. In April, 1873, his father was appointed station agent at Susquehanna Depot, and George accepted what was intended to be a temporary position ; but the employment proving congenial, and being anxious to be- come self-supporting, he continued in the ser- vice of the Erie Company until he was made secretary of the motive power department, a po- sition which he held until November 15, 1883, when he resigned to take his seat in Congress. In April, 1875, he was chosen Grand Vice- Dictator of the Grand Lodge of the Knights of Honor of Pennsylvania, and in April, 1876, he was chosen Grand Dictator of the same order, a position to which he was twice re-elected. For five years he represented the Grand Lodge in the Supreme Lodge of the United States. In early life Mr. Post took an active interest in politics, and commenced making political speeches before he reached his majority. In 1877 he was elected chief burgess of Susque- hanna, and in 1880 he was Presidential elector on the Hancock ticket. In 1881 he resumed his law studies, evenings, with Hon. M. J. Larrabee, of Susquehanna Depot, and was ad- mitted to the bar at August term, 1882. In the fall of 1882 he was nominated for Congress by the Democratic conference, and, through divi- sions in the Republican ranks, he was elected to

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represent the Fifteenth District, composed of Wayne, Susquehanna, Bradford and Wyoming Counties, in the Forty-eighth Congress. He was only twenty-eight years old, and was the youngest member of that body. He served on the committees on "Pacific Railroads" and " Improvements of the Levees of the Mississippi River." He was often called upon by Speaker Carlisle to preside temporarily. He was a del- egate to the Democratic National Convention which nominated Cleveland, and also secretary of the Democratic Congressional Caucus and of the Democratic Congressional Committee, which, in conjunction with the Democratic National Committee, conducted the Presidential cam- paign. Some of his productions while in the latter position were used as campaign docu- ments. In 1884 he was unanimously renomi- nated for Congress, but the Republicans were united, and, as the district is largely Republi- can, he was defeated. In recognition of his services during the campaign, he was impor- tuned to become a candidate for clerk of the House. Meanwhile, in 1883, he had purchased a one-half interest in the Montrose Democrat, and, upon his return from Washington, he re- moved to Montrose and has since been active in the management of that paper. He does most of the editorial writing, besides practicing his profession. Mr. Post is a fluent speaker and a ready writer, and his overflowing humor crops out constantly. June 22, 1881, he married Miss Minnie C., daughter of Thomas T. Mun- son. He has one son-George Post.

The following is a good specimen of Mr. Post's style as a writer. It also gives a fair ex- position of his views as to the manner of con- ducting a public journal :

"The good-natured reply of the Sentinel to the Democrat regarding our suggestion that we would fol- low our own inclinations as to the subjects we would discuss and when we should treat of them, was neat, pleasant and well written. We are glad we have caused Brother Northrop to laugh, for it will do him a power of good.

" We believe in looking upon the bright side of life. It does no good to mope and be gloomy. We are not of those who think that everything is going awry. This is a very pleasant world to live in, and we are glad we are alive. We would rather make a sober-sided man like Northrop laugh than to harrow

the souls of our readers by indulging in gloomy, heart-rending disquisitions upon the sinfulness of mankind.

" When the Democrat makes its weekly visits to its many hundreds of readers, we want it to be a welcome visitor. A newspaper is like any other visitor in the household. If it is cold, sad in tone, ever huirping upon one idea, it is unwelcome and remains unread ; but if it is lively and gossiping, stored with the treas- ures of the tattling world, and with a spice of mirth too, it will always be received with pleasure.

" We do not consider the readers of the Democrat as our pupils, whom we are to instruct, but as our neighbors and friends, to whom we weekly give as fat a budget of local and general news and miscellaneous reading matter as by industry we can gather and which we think will interest them. We do not flatter ourselves that our readers are groping in ignorance until we can enlighten them. If we did, we should feel badly about it, for we do not assume to ourselves superior knowledge above our fellows. It is evident that our neighbor of the Sentinel takes another view of his position, and considers himself as a teacher of the public, who must be wise and deep, 'a man severe and stern to view.' We don't propose to get round- shouldered carrying the whole weight of this earth's sorrows on our back. We shall try and do our duty and shirk no responsibility which rests upon us, aud we shall be perfectly willing to compare results with our sedate neighbor."

" The Spectator and Freeman's Journal was established by Albert L. Post June, 1836. It was a Whig paper devoted to free speech, but became the organ of anti-slavery men. At that time there was but one other paper in the State distinctively anti-slavery. After eighteen months O. N. Worden was associated with Mr. Post until the enterprise was given up, June, 1840. The press was purchased by Messrs. Ariel Carr and Amos N. Mcylert, who pub- lished for six months the North Star, which was continued a few months longer by Ariel Carr and S. T. Scott, when it was merged with the Montrose Volunteer. The North Star had been the outgrowth of divisions among the Democrats. This may be said also of the People's Advocate, established by Franklin Lusk in 1847, which passed away with the temporary disquiet then existing among politi- cians.

" Paul Pry, in 1835, and The Moon, a few years later, were papers issued anonymously in Montrose, to 'touch up' the characters and, particularly, the foibles of its citizens.

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" The Candid Examiner, an organ of the Universalist denomination, edited by Messrs. Peck and Marsh, was issued at Montrose in 1827; followed, in 1832, by the Herald of Gospel Truth and Watchman of Liberty, Messrs. Alfred Peck and George Rogers, editors. This was published but a year or two.

" The Gospel Missionary, a weekly religious journal of the Universalists, was edited, in 1847, by Rev. J. S. Palmer."

The People's Advocate, a weekly paper, was established at Montrose, by Dow & Boyd, about June, 1846, as a Democratic journal. It continued under the control of this firm until early the following year, when Mr. Dow withdrew, and Josephus Boyd continued the publication of the paper for some three years thereafter, when it was discontinued. It was a four-page, six-column folio.

1 OLIVER N. WORDEN was born in Cazenovia, Madison County, N. Y., in 1817, the second of two sons of Eld. Jesse B. Worden, second pas- tor of the Baptist Church at Montrose. Much, at least, of his early life was passed in a rural district in Onondaga County, N. Y., and he knew something of plain, health-giving farm life. At a suitable age he was indentured to the printing business in the Baptist Register office, in Utica, N. Y. Having had such ad- vantages for education only as a district school of the day gave, he was not merely " bound " by a written instrument to serve a given period to acquire a trade, but was bound by a laudable ambition, not merely to become a good printer, but to make up by diligence, industry and ap- plication what scholastic advantages had denied him.

"June 14, 1838, when twenty years of age, he made his début as co-editor and publisher, with A. L. Post, of the Spectator, in Montrose, with the following avowal :

" TO MY READERS, ETC.

" Believing in the binding nature and beneficial effects of the golden and divine command to do to others as I should be done unto, I shall necessarily favor the cause of Republican government of anti- slavery effort ; of temperance in the use of good things and entire abstinence from all that is evil ; of

giving the means of practical education to all ; of po- litical and religious toleration, and of that morality without which other blessings change to curses."

Though decidedly anti-slavery and uncom- promisingly opposed to slavery domination, yet he was rather conservative and still had faith in what he regarded as "Old-time Republican- ism." In 1840 the Spectator was discontinued. It, however, as an adjunct of anti-slavery effort, the end of which was neither foreseen nor com- prehended, " cast bread upon the waters that re- turned after many days."

Mr. Worden had the satisfaction of seeing his avowal and advocacy in 1838 vindicated in 1857, and essentially embodied in the few words, " Freedom and right against slavery and wrong," the motto of The Independent Republi- can, which became, and continues to be, its un- wavering exponent ; of seeing the immortal declaration : " All men have the inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happi- ness" become, at least, something more than a " Rhetorical Flourish ;" of seeing the stone, " Anti-Slavery effort," which a Susquehanna County grand jury presented as a nuisance, be- come the head of the corner.

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Centennial history of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, Part 21

Author: Stocker, Rhamanthus Menville, 1848- Publication date: 1887 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : R. T. Peck Number of Pages: 1318

Author: Stocker, Rhamanthus Menville, 1848-
Publication date: 1887
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : R. T. Peck
Number of Pages: 1318