USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania: From the Discovery of the Delaware to the Present Time (Volume 1 and 2) > Part 41
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Centreville, Buckingham, where "damning facts" were to be exhibited against the other side. Augustin Willett, of Bensalem, was chairman of the county com- mittee. The price of subscription "to subscribers being on the public post- road and receiving their papers by the public mails" was two dollars per annum, and twenty-five cents additional to those who have their papers delivered by private post.
Soon after the Gasette appeared, Mr. Ralston issued proposals for pub- lishing, at Doylestown, The Agricultural Magazine, a monthly of fifty pages, at twenty-five cents a number. The prospectus was published a half year, but we do not know that the magazine ever made its appearance. Who Isaac Ralston was, whence he came, and whither he went, we have no means of finding out.
The same year, 1800, while the yellow fever prevailed in Philadelphia, The Aurora, edited and published by Franklin Bache, grandson of Doctor Franklin, was temporarily removed to Bristol and issued from a building of Charles Bessonett, at the foot of Mill street until the fever abated and it was safe to return to town.
The second attempt to establish a newspaper in Bucks county, was made at Newtown, the then county-seat, in 1802. Sometime in that year Charles Holt commenced the publication of the Bucks County Bee, but we know neither the date of its birth nor its death. It was still published in September, but how much longer is not known.
These attempts to establish a newspaper in the county having failed, the ground lay fallow for two years, when an enterprising Connecticut Yankee, with four years of civilizing in Pennsylvania, came to the cross-roads at Doyles- town in 1804, and drove in his journalistic stake and from this was born the Bucks County Intelligencer, in 1804.
Asher Miner, founder of this newspaper, was born at Norwich, Connecti- cut. March 3, 1778. He served an apprenticeship of seven years in the office of the Gasette and Commercial Intelligencer, at New London, and then worked as a journeyman a year in New York. In 1799 his brother Charles, who had already pitched his fortune on the semi-savage frontier of Wyoming, wrote to Asher : "Come out here and I will set you up," without a dollar to make good his promise. Nevertheless, Asher migrated to the Susquehanna, and in a short time found himself at the head of the Luzerne County Federalist, issuing the first number January 5, 1801. In April, 1802, he took his brother Charles into co-partnership, which continued until May, 1804, when Asher relinquished his interest to Charles. In severing his connection with the Federalist, an in- vitation was given to exchanges to send copies to him at "Doyles-Town," Penn- sylvania, where he had already resolved to establish a newspaper.
Meanwhile Asher Miner had taken to wife Polly Wright, May the 20th, 1800, daughter of Thomas Wright, a merchant and land-owner of Wilkesbarre, a lady of Bucks county descent. Her father, a good-looking young Irishman landing at Philadelphia about 1763, was soon in charge of a school at Dvers- town, two miles north of Doylestown. Securing a home in the family of Josiah Dyer, he taught the rudiments of English to the children of the neigh- borhood, and made love to the daughter of his host. One day they slipped off to Philadelphia and married, relieving the case of a deal of difficulty, for, at that day, Friends would not consent to the marriage of their daughters out of meeting.
Asher Miner probably came to Doylestown immediately he relinquished his interest in the Federalist in May. He found, what is now a beautiful town
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of thirty-five hundred inhabitants, a cross-roads hamlet, with less than a dozen dwellings along the Easton road, and the road from Swede's ford to Coryell's ferry, now State street. It is related that one of the first men Mr. Miner went to ask assistance of to push his newspaper enterprise, was Reverend Nathaniel Irwin, then a power in the county and a strong Democrat. The good parson de- clined, on the ground that he did not like Mr. M.s' politics. The latter said he would publish an independent newspaper, to which Mr. Irwin replied : "Yes, you say so, but then you look toward Buckingham." This settled the matter.1 The first issue of the new paper, Pennsylvania Correspondent and Farmers' Advertiser, appeared July 7, 1804. Miner said in his address to the public : "The editor is by birth an American, in principles a Federal Republican. His private sentiments, with regard to the administration of the Government of his country, he will maintain and avow as becomes a freeman. In his public character, as conductor of the only newspaper printed in the county, he will act with that impartiality which prudence and duty require." It was a small medium sheet, and the first number contained a single advertisement, that of Mahlon P. Jackson, Buckingham, who wanted "two journeymen carpen- ters." The paper was printed in a back room of Barton Stewart's log house, nearly on the site of the present Intelligencer building, and Mr. Miner lived in a stone house on Main street next door to N. C. James's dwelling.2 He built a frame next to his house, for a printing-office, which has been torn down several years. The appearance of the paper created quite a sensation, and the first issue was largely given away. It was left at a few points in the central part of the county by carriers, and subscribers were charged twenty-five cents addi- tional for delivering their papers. The Pennsylvania Correspondent proved a success, and its founder remained in charge of it twenty-one years. His young family grew in number from two to twelve and he increased in worldly goods.
As a specimen advertisement of the period (1805) we insert the follow- ing of Toseph Greir, who had a house and lot for sale or rent in Dublin :
"For Rent or Sale in Dublir Village, A handsome lot, and good for tillage, Forty acres thereabouts, In Hilltown Township, County of Bucks. The Buildings good, and well prepared For any one in public trade, Who 'tis presum'd would find it good To try to please the neighborhood. And now, for further information, Apply according to direction : To the Subscriber living near, Whose name you'll find is Joseph Greir."
The second advertisement that appeared was that of Mahlon Carver. of Milton, now Carversville, who had for sale a quantity of "Roram hats." if any of the present generation can tell what they were. Prosperity authorized the enlargement of the paper. in July, 1806, from a medium to a royal sheet. September 22, 1806, Asher Miner announced his intention of issuing a pros-
I Buckingham, then as now, was a political Gibraltar opposed to the Democratic party.
Torn down several years ago and a new stone erected on its site.
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pectus for a monthly magazine, "literary, moral and agricultural," which prob- ably was never published. For several years the advertising was light, but there was a notable increase between 1815 and 1820. In 1816, when prepara- tions were making to bring out another paper, Mr. Miner protested against it, in an address to the public, which he thought "may not be ill-timed," on the ground that the two parties were nearly equally divided and a party paper was not needed.
In the spring of 1816 Mr. Miner contemplated publishing a "monthly literary and agricultural register," to be called the Olive Branch, and sent out his subscription papers, but as they were not returned with enough names to warrant it, the project was given up. In April, 1817, he opened a branch office at Newtown, in charge of Simeon Siegfried, proposing to issue therefrom a weekly paper to be called The Star of Freedom, to be devoted, principally, to "agricultural, biographical, literary and moral matters." The first number appeared May 21, 1817. This was a movement to keep com- petition out of the county. A printer at Newtown had a pamphlet in press for the Friends, but, being intemperate, he failed to meet his contract, and gave up business. Miner sent Siegfried, an apprentice in his office, down to finish the work. This led to his purchase of the materials and the estab- lishment of a paper there. The size was eighteen by eleven and a half inches, of eight pages, and published weekly "at $2 per annum, if taken from the office, or $2.25 if delivered by post." It contained little news, and few advertisements. Then, Edward Hicks and Thomas Goslin followed "coach, sign and ornamental painting" at Newtown, and John Parker "manufactured ladies,' gentlemen's and children's shoes, and made boots in the neatest man- ner." Asher Miner kept a "new book store" at the office of The Star of Freedom. The first number announced that a post-route "is now estab- lished from the office of The Star of Freedom by the Buck tavern, Smithfield, and Byberry meeting-house, to Bustleton, returning via Spread Eagle, Lady. Washington, Sorrel Horse and Bear tavern." During the session of Con- gress and the Legislature the paper was converted into a congressional and legislative journal. The publication suspended April 7, 1818.
Simeon Siegfried, Asher Miner's lieutenant at Newtown, was born in New Britain township, September 23, 1797, and received his early education from his father, George Siegfried, who taught English and German for many years in Bucks county. In 1811 he was apprenticed to Asher Miner, with whom he served six years. He was a diligent reader, and this laid the groundwork for future literary labor. Before he was out of his time he married Miss Mary Johnson, Newtown, October 12, 1817, whose acquaint- ance he made while conducting The Star of Freedom. He spent the winter of 1818-19 in eastern Ohio, prospecting, but, finding that country too new to sustain a new paper, returned to Pennsylvania. Soon after his return he was solicited to start a democratic newspaper at Doylestown, which resulted in the issue of the Bucks County Messenger, which he continued to publish three or four years, and, until harmony in the party united their two papers into one. From Doylestown Mr. Siegfried went to Bridgeton, New Jersey, where he established the Bridgeton Observer and Cumberland and Cape May Advertiser. He was living in Ohio, 1876, having been a minister of the gospel for many years. He issued the first number of The Ohio Luminary at Cadiz, Harrison county, November 27, 1818, but it did not long survive its birth. His only child, an infant daughter, was burned to death by her clothes catch- ing fire, at Doylestown, November 8, 1820.
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Among those who served as fellow-apprentices with Simeon Siegfried in the Correspondent office, between 1811 and 1818, were the late General William T. Rogers, John H. Hall, West H. Anderson, and Volney B. Pal- mer. When Hall was free he went to Newton. Sussex county, New Jersey, where he established the Sussex Register, which proved a success, and he became associate-judge of the county.212 Anderson, although a young man of good education and talents, became a strolling "jour," fond of whiskey and never got beyond it. Palmer established the first advertising agency in Phila- delphia, where he died many years ago. Miner was postmaster several years, 'keeping the office at the printing-office, and also a small book-store where 'he had various articles for sale besides, and, among them physic in the shape of "antiseptic pills," which he retailed. He gave up the post-office, in March, 1821, and was succeeded by Charles E. DuBois. In 1818 the name of the paper was changed to Pennsylvania Correspondent, making one line reaching entirely across the head. The first "extra" issued in the county was by the Correspondent, December 18, 1821, containing the President's message.
September 24, 1824, after an active editorial life of twenty years, Mr. Miner sold the Correspondent to Edmund Morris and Samuel R. Kramer, of 'Philadelphia. The sale was hardly concluded before he repented and begged to have it annulled, but did not succeed. Edmund Morris was born at Bur- `lington, New Jersey, 1804, and learned the printing trade in the office of the Freeman's Journal. He had great fondness for literary pursuits and com- menced writing while young. He was connected with the newspaper press of Philadelphia for several years after he left Doylestown, and introduced some new features. His Saturday Bulletin was the pioneer that broke down the credit system in the city, and he was the first to offer premiums. He re- "tired to Burlington forty odd years ago, and lived there to his death, dividing his time between rural pursuits and the pen. He was the author of "Ten Acres Enough," and other popular books. Mr. Kramer, a man of cultivation and reading, fond of intellectual society and of genial manners, was a native of Philadelphia and learned his trade in the book-office of the late Mr. Fry. He was a close observer of men and things, but seldom wrote for his own paper, work being his forte. He returned to Philadelphia and died at Harris- burg, 1854. The new proprietors changed the name of the paper to Bucks County Patriot and Farmers' Advertiser, and the first number was issued October 4th.
The establishment is thus spoken of by one who knew it at the time of the sale. He says: "The office was in a small two-story frame building, the second story large enough to contain a very old Ramage press with a stone bed, on which the paper was worked by using the old-fashioned balls, and all the stands and cases containing job and newspaper type. The type was old and worn. The outside form of the newspaper consumed so nearly all the type, the inside could not be set up without first distributing the former. The lower story of the office was supplied with huge bins, into which the sub- scribers would empty their subscriptions in the shape of corn, flour, oats, or whatever articles were most convenient for them to bring. It was the same as cash in the family of the printer." Mr. Miner removed from Doylestown
21/2 Hall conducted the Sussex Register for fifty-six years. His grandson, Charles K. Westbrook, a member of the Philadelphia bar, has the certificate Asher Miner gave him, on his graduation, bearing the date of 1813. He was a son of Jesse and Elizabeth IJall, and was born in Hunterdon county, N. J., April 25, 1791.
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to West Chester and formed a partnership with his brother Charles in the publication of the Village Record. In 1834 they sold out to the late Henry S. Evans, when the brothers returned to Wilkesbarre, where Mr. Miner died March 13, 1841.
The new firm existed until February, 1827, when it was dissolved by mutual consent and Mr. Morris carried on the office alone to October Ist, same year, when the establishment was sold to Elisha B. Jackson, a native of Columbia county, Pennsylvania, and James Kelley, an Englishman, grad- uates of the Village Record office. They changed the name of the paper to that of Bucks County Intelligencer and General Advertiser, and it was issued in a new suit of type. It was now made more of a political newspaper than it had yet been, and, about this time were started the stirring appeals to voters just before election, now so common with newspapers. Mr. Jackson died May 23, 1828, of consumption, when Mr. Kelley assumed entire control of the paper. He was a pushing man, and the paper prospered under his management. He was a bitter partisan, and at no time in the last sixty years were harder blows given and taken. The fact of his having been born in Great Britain was used against him, and his paper was called the "British organ" by his opponents. The Intelligencer, while he conducted it, was in advance of what it had been under previous management. In March, 1835, Mr. Kelley took William M. Large, a graduate of the office, into co-partnership, and the following Octo- ber the paper was enlarged to a double-medium sheet. The co-partnership was dissolved January 3, 1837, by its own limitation, when Mr. Kelley again assumed control. He continued to conduct it until March 14, 1838, when he sold out to William M. Large, his late partner2% in business. Mr. Large owned the paper for three years, having Hugh H. Henry, Esquire, a young member of the bar, for its editor, to the 17th of March, 1841, when he sold out to Samuel Fretz, of Bedminster, who also learned his trade in the office, Mr. Henry being retained as editor. At this time the paper was printed in a brick building on Main street, nearly opposite the Doylestown Trust Com- pany. March 3, 1843, the office again changed hands, being purchased by John S. Brown, a native of Plumstead township, who had learned his trade in it, but after his time was out had purchased and published the Hunterdon Gazette meanwhile. While Mr. Brown owned the paper it was much im- proved, and there was an active rivalry between it and the Democrat. It was about this time that "locals" began to make their appearance in country newspapers, and the Intelligencer was one of the first to take this new de- parture. Mr. Brown did much for the permanent prosperity of the paper and he left it much better than he found it.
In the spring of 1855 Mr. Brown sold his newspaper to Enos Prizer and Henry T. Darlington, of Chester county, both graduates of the Village Record
234 Among the graduates from the Intelligencer, during the incumbency of William Kelley, was Silas L. Atkinson, who entered it about 1834. He was the son of parents belonging to the Society of Friends, and was born September 15, 1819. He worked in the office after his time was out, and was otherwise connected with it for several years. He and Hiram Lukens were apprentices at the same time. He was subsequently con- nected with the Democrat. At the time of his death, November 5, 1900, he was the oldest printer in the county, and one of the oldest in the State. He had many excellent qualities, among them a sunny disposition, and the respect of all who knew him. Silas L. Atkinson was a descendant of John Atkinson, who settled in Makefield township in 1720.
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office. Their first issue was March 6th. Mr. Prizer was the son of Frederick Prizer, a farmer living near the Schuylkill in the northern part of Chester county, where he was born, 1825. Both his parents were of German descent. He entered the Village Record office at the age of fifteen, having among his office-mates Bayard Taylor, Judge William Butler, Judge Edward M. Pax- son, late of the State supreme court, and others who have since become prominent. At the expiration of his apprenticeship he remained in the office for a time, and in turn was editor, reporter, clerk and collector. He was of a restless and nervous temperament, possessing activity, energy and industry. These qualities, with more than ordinary abilities, made him a successful journalist. He was an active and earnest politician, and at times severe on his adversaries. Personally he was social and genial and had many warm friends. Mr. Darlington belonged to an old Chester county family, and was a nephew of the late Doctor William Darlington. The firm continued nearly ten years, and was dissolved by the death of Mr. Prizer, November 26, 1864. The establishment then passed wholly into the possession of Mr. Darlington. He entered upon his apprenticeship, in 1849, and graduated a few months before joining in the purchase of the Intelligencer. Under his management the paper was enlarged and improved, and ranked among the best country news- papers in the State. In January, 1876, it was changed to a semi-weekly, the size reduced to double-medium, and Alfred Paschall taken into the business as junior partner. The following summer a handsome new office was erected on the site of the old building.
In 1877 S. Edward Paschall, a younger brother of Alfred, entered the firm of H. T. Darlington & Co., and as such, the office was conducted until the sudden death of Mr. Darlington, November 24, 1878. Alfred T. Paschall was now taken into the firm and the name changed to Alfred Paschall & Company. It was carried on as such until 1898, when the plant was in- corporated under the firm name of "The Intelligencer Company." Other changes have been made since that period. In - - Arthur K. Thomas, a graduate of the Democrat office, became a member of the firm and was shortly made business manager. The office issues both a daily and weekly, the former under the name of The Doylestown Intelligencer, the first daily issued in the county. After graduating from the Democrat, Mr. Thomas was, for a time, on the Macon. Telegraph, Georgia.
Following closely upon the heels of Miner's Correspondent, came the Farmers' Gazette and Bucks County Register, which William B. Coale brought out at Newtown in the fall of 1805, the first number bearing date October Ioth. Its publication was continued about ten years. We have seen the fourth number, a well-printed sheet, eighteen by twenty-two inches. The first page was well-filled with advertisements, among which was an offer of two hundred dollars reward "for the apprehension of the villain who shot Henry Weaver to death on the night of the 8th of March, between Montgomery meeting-house and North Wales." Richard Mitchel advertises his "old brown cow," which "strayed from the subscriber living near Attleborough ;" Enos Smith was "blue-dyeing ;" Francis Flanagan bottled "Hare's best porter" and Andrew McKee was saddler," all in Newtown. The paper was printed in the house occupied by the late Doctor Elias E. Smith, opposite the Brick hotel. While publishing the Gasette, Coale issued a prospectus for printing, by subscription, The American Farmer's Guide, a treatise on agriculture but whether it was ever issued we do not know.
William B. Coale, who was one of the newspaper pioneers of the county,
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was born in Harford county, Maryland, in 1782, and learned the printing trade with Benjamin Johnson, an extensive publisher of Philadelphia. It is not known at what time he came to Newtown, but he probably assisted Charles Holt, to print the Bucks County Bee, in 1802, and 1803, married Sarah, the daughter of Asa Carey, of that place. He was a Friend and brought a cer- tificate of membership from the "Northern District monthly meeting of Friends" to Wrightstown, eleventh-month 2d, 1802. In 1810, or 1811, he published a newspaper at Frankford, Pennsylvania, and, in 1817, he established a paper at Havre-de-Grace, Maryland, which was discontinued in 1822. Soon after he established the Bard of Union at Belair, in the same state, which he relinquished in a few years. He died at Washington city in 1856, his wife having previously died in 1831, in her forty seventh year. One who knew Mr. Coale well describes him as "a man of wonderful energy, which never amounted to much, as he was erratic and fond of adventure. He was a superior workman and, as a journey- man printer, commanded the highest wages. He was a wit, was full of humor, could tell a story admirably well and was above mediocrity as a poet." His son was publishing The Virginian at Abingdon, Virginia, some years ago.
A few months before his marriage, which took place June 25, 1803, Mr. Coale indulged his romantic penchance for poetry by addressing the following lines to the object of his affection, headed "Verses addressed to Sarah Carey." They were printed on pink satin and bore date January 23, 1803:
"Thou can'st not steal the rose's bloom To decorate thy face, But the sweet blush of modesty Will lend an equal grace.
The violet scents the distant gales, (It grows in lowly bed;) So real worth new merit gains By diffidence o'er spread.
Would'st thou, sweet maid, the lily's white In thy complexion find- Sweet innocence may shine as fair Within thy spotless mind.
When in th' op'ning spring of life, And every flower in bloom, The budding virtues in thy breast Shall yield the best perfume,
A nosegay in thy bosom plas'd A moral may convey- For soon its brightest tints shall fade And all its sweets decay.
So short-liv'd are the lovely tribes Of Flora's transient reign. They bud, blow, wither, fall and die, Then turn to earth again.
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And, thus, sweet girl, must ev'ry charm Which youth is proud to share, Alike their quick succession prove And the same truths declare.
Sickness will change the roseate hue Which glowing health bespeaks, And age will wrinkle with its cares The smile on beauty's cheeks.
But, as that fragrant myrtle wreath Will all the rest survive, So shall the mutual graces still Through endless ages live."
It is said the Gazette and Register was established to give one of the parties in the controversy about the new Alms-House a chance to be heard. The size of the sheet was eighteen by eleven inches. The first number was styled, upon its face, "a weakly paper," and its appearance did not belie its name.
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