USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania: From the Discovery of the Delaware to the Present Time (Volume 1 and 2) > Part 42
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In March, 1817, there was advertised to be sold at sheriff's sale, Newtown, as the property of David A. Robinson,2% "a printing-press and types, an ex- cellent standing-press with iron screw and bar, etc., all nearly new." We have made diligent inquiry to discover whether this material was the remains of a defunct newspaper. It is just possible they were the types and presses of Coale's dead Gazette and Register. The late Isaac W. Hicks and sister, of Newtown, remember Robinson's printing-office, in the third story of the building, formerly the Odd Fellows' hall. He was sent to jail for debt, and his property sold by the sheriff. She had a recollection of being in Robinson's printing-office about the close of the war of 1812-15, and saw several persons setting type. He looked up from his work and remarked, "I hear there is a rumor of peace. I will pay one dollar to any person who will go to Trenton this evening to learn the particulars." The next morning the word "peace," printed in large letters, was hanging up outside the office.
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Down to 1816, the Democratic party had no organ in the county, and it may be said there had not been a political paper published in it. The Correspondent, which claimed to be independent, printed the political proceed- ings of both sides. But now the Democrats thought they ought to have an exponent, and consequently a newspaper was established in the fall of 1816. The first number of the Doylestown Democrat was issued by Lewis Deffebach & Co., September 18th. The original size of the paper is not known, as the earlier issues were not preserved, but at the forty-sixth number, July 29, 1817, the sheet was enlarged to nineteen by twenty-three and one-half inches. The Demo- crat has had a varied experience, and encountered many ups and downs in its early life. The proposals, published in the first number, stated it would be a Democratic paper and support the party, terms two dollars per annum, and twenty-five cents extra when delivered by private conveyance. The first num- ber contained but few advertisements : Dyott's medicines, Doctor Grigg's "In-
27/8 David A. Robinson was the publisher and editor of the Herald of Liberty prior to 1815, Vol. 2, No. 64, being dated June 20, 1815. He was a practical printer.
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teresting Discovery," cure for cancer, sheriff's proclamation for presidential election, three real estate sales, notice of United States revenue-collector, for collection of district-taxes, the "Latin School' in the academy, meeting of officers of the Thirty-third militia regiment to drill, and Cory Meeker, "from Philadel- phia," announces his extensive boot and shoe-store in Doylestown. It was issued from a building that stood on the east side of Main street, opposite the Fountain . House. How long the "company" continued we do not know, but it was taken off before the end of the first year, and Mr. Deffebach became the sole pub- lisher. In the forty-second number he announces he "will receive wheat, rye, oats, hay, and all kinds of country produce," in payment of debts.
The Democrat had a weakly existence the first years of its life. From . want of patronage, or some other cause, its founder was unsuccessful in busi- ness, and, in the fall of 1820, made an assignment for the benefit of creditors, to . William Watts and Benjamin Morris. In December the assignees sold the establishment to Benjamin Mifflin, Philadelphia, at a later day joint editor and proprietor of the Pennsylvanian. His first issue was dated January 2, 1821,. the whole number at that time being 212, which shows that the publication was suspended for a few weeks. Mr. Deffebach went from Doylestown to Phila -. delphia where he issued a prospectus for The People's Guardian, October, 1821, to be published in the Northern Liberties, the first number appearing November 8th. He was afterward appointed by the Governor "armourer and keeper of the arsenal," Philadelphia. He was Deputy United States Marshal in 1817, and 1819 sued Simeon Siegfried, editor of the Messenger, for libel, the latter charg- ing him with misconduct in his office. The suit was arbitrated, and "no cause of action" awarded.
In the meantime a division in the Democratic party, as well as an opposi- tion to the men of the county who controlled it, led to the establishment of the Bucks County Messenger. It claimed to be Democratic, was edited and pub- lished by Simeon Siegfried, the first number appearing June 28, 1819. It was . about the size of the Democrat, and known as the "yellow fever" paper, on acount of the dingy color of the paper it was printed on-made at Ingham's . mill near New Hope. It promised to support the general and State govern- ments. The Democrat branded it as the "intended advocate of corruption," and on the Messenger's appearance the Democrat wanted the persons ap- pointed to distribute it "to have their velocipedes in order." In connection with the Messenger, Mr. Siegfried established a German paper at Doylestown, the first in the county, issued sometime, 1820. We have never seen a copy of this . German pioneer paper, nor do we even know its name, but it was short-lived. It probably gave up the ghost when Siegfried left the Messenger, for we find that on September 4, 1821, T. A. Meredith announces that the accounts had been assigned to him, and that he was anxious for those indebted to "walk up to the captain's office and settle." Mr. Siegfried removed to Ohio, some years later and became a Baptist minister of some note. He died at Evansville, Indiana, November 10, 1879, not long after receiving news of the death of his son, of the same name, likewise a prominent Baptist minister, who died at Norristown, Pennsylvania, in October, 1879. A grandson, son of the latter. was also a Baptist minister in Montgomery county at the time of the death of both his father and grandfather.
As two newspapers at the county-seat, both claiming to be Democratic and' warring upon each other, tended to distract the party, the politicians thought it best to unite the house of York and Lancaster. For this purpose Simon !
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Cameron,3 a young jour printer, just out of his time, was invited to come to Doylestown and take charge of one of the rival newspapers with the view of con- solidating them. The late Judge John Fox, then a prominent member of the bar, and some of his friends had secured the Messenger and in the latter part .of December young Cameron arrived to take charge of the paper. He came up in the stage, a fellow-passenger with Mifflin, proprietor of the Democrat, between whom and the other passengers the rival newspapers, Cameron's coming and the political situation generally, were freely discussed. Cameron had the prudence to keep silent, and, upon the arrival of the stage at Marple's, now the Fountain House, and he was known and announced as the "new printer," there was some dismay among the other side. Cameron issued the first num- ber of his paper January 2, 1821. In his address he states that his paper shall be "purely Democratic, and will keep aloof from all local divisions that „exist in the Republican ranks." Shortly after the Democrat and Messenger were consolidated and published by Cameron and Mifflin under the name of Bucks County Democrat. The name that should lead in the new firm was chosen by a game of chance, known among printers as "jeffing."
The Democrat was then published in the old frame building of Mrs. Shearer, on the east side of Main street, below the monument, and taken down in recent years, where the Intelligencer was printed twenty years later, and the circulation was about eight hundred." At that time Doylestown was an insignificant village. On the south side of Court street, from Main to Broad, there was but one small stone house and Barton Stewart's old log wheelwright shop. The Ross mansion was owned by William Watts, an Associate-Judge of the Courts and kept as a hotel.
The administration of Cameron and Mifflin was of short duration, but long enough to harmonize the party, for before December, 1821, the Democrat had passed into the hands of William T. Rogers who died at Doylestown, June 30, 1866. In his last illness he requested that he might be carried to the grave by four printers, and two were chosen each from the Democrat and Intelligencer offices. Rogers changed the name to Democrat and Farmers' Gazette, under which he continued the publication until the summer of 1829, when he sold out to Mannasseh H. Snyder, a German from Lehigh county. During this period the files of the paper show a gradual increase in advertis- ing and subscription. At the time of his purchase, Mr. Snyder was the proprie- tor and editor of the Bucks County Express, a German Democratic news- paper he had established in Doylestown two years before. He changed the name of the paper to the one it now bears, Doylestown Democrat, but still re- tained that of Farmers' Gazette, which had been added by General Rogers. Among the apprentices in the Democrat office while Rogers owned it was Asher Miner Wright, who founded the Jeffersonian, West Chester, and died in Philadelphia, 1875, while a proof-reader on the Sunday Mercury. Mr. Snyder's first issue of the Democrat was July 7, 1829. He published it until January or February, 1832, when he sold it to William H. Powell, Norris- town. The administration of Mr. Powell was a brief one, for in November, 1834, he sold the Democrat establishment to John S. Bryan, who was its editor and proprietor for upward of ten years.
General Bryan was a descendant of an old Springfield German family
3 Subsequently United States Senator from Pennsylvania for many years, Secre- .tary of War and American Minister to Russia.
4 The site is now occupied by the three-story brick of Mr. Ziegler.
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which settled in that township at an early day. He was a prominent citizen of the county, in and out of politics, for several years and, to the day of his death, and held several places of public trust. He was Brigadier-General of militia, the first Prothonotary of the Court of Common Pleas under the Con- stitution of 1838, Associate-Judge of the county, and clerk to the United States Senate Committee on printing. He was Democratic candidate for the State Senate, 1846, but defeated. While he published the Democrat, in 1835, the ·office, then in a frame building on Main street opposite the Fountain House, was burned down and the contents entirely destroyed. During the terms of Snyder, Powell, and Bryan there were no marked changes in the manage- ment of the paper, but its respectable standing among the best class of country newspapers was fully maintained. The loss of the files of the paper by fire prevents us comparing period with period. It was issued several years dur- ing Bryan's time, from the stone dwelling on the west side of Main street, corner of Centre. General Bryan died June, 1863, much regretted.
In May, 1845, General Bryan sold the Democrat to Samuel Johnson Pax- son, of Buckingham, son of Thomas Paxson, of an old Quaker family of the ·county. The first issue of the new proprietor was May 14. Mr. Paxson threw new energy and enterprise into the management of the Democrat, and not only enlarged it, but improved its appearance and added interest to its columns. He was an innovator on old customs, and introduced some practices new to country journalism. The most material of these was setting apart a space for local news, and he is justly the father of this feature now common to all well-conducted country newspapers. He was aggressive in his conduct of the paper and often made things lively. He now and then said things both pungent and full of humor, and he often had the community in a broad grin. No one could excel him in getting up a funny handbill or a head-line announcement. The extra, which he issued after Mr. Buchanan's election, wherein he put "An old bachelor in the White House, and all the old maids tickled to death," was copied into the London Times. Under his management advertising was stimulated and the cir- culation increased. He never held political office, but devoted all his time and energy to his paper, even at the sacrifice of his health. Mr. Paxson introduced the first Hoe power press into the county and printed the first paper by steam. This was the last week in June, 1848, over half a century ago. In the issue of the previous week, June 21, he announced to his readers what they might look for the following week, saying, among other things: "In a week or two we shall enlarge the Democrat, after which it will not only be the largest, but the best paper in the State. In order to do this we have purchased a splendid new steam press and other new material from New York at an expense of more than $2,000. All small craft had better clear the track and look out for the locomotive when the bell rings." This press was in use in Cincinnati before Mr. Paxson bought it, and did forty-four years of continuous work in the Democrat office. This was a good record. Mr. Paxson died at his home, Buckingham, 1864.5
5 While Mr. Paxson was proprietor of the Democrat, a boy from Nockamixon, named George B. White, came to learn the trade. This was about 1850. At that day tricks were played on new apprentices, a sort of hazing, and young White was sent to the Independent Democrat office to borrow "General Taylor's platform," and was shown the marble slab under the water spout. The lad shouldered it and started up the street. On his way he was met by a Whig politician who enquired what he was carrying, and the 'boy innocently replied "General Taylor's platform," whereupon his inquisitor, thinking White was poking a little fun at him, swore until things were quite blue thereabouts. This
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In May, 1858, Mr. Paxson sold the Democrat to W. W. H. Davis512 on his return from New Mexico, where he spent four years in the civil service of the government. The paper was then printed in the same building it now occupies on Monument Place, built by Mr. Paxson about 1850. The paper was enlarged in 1866. The Democrat and Intelligencer were then of the same size, 47x30 inches, with columns of equal width. John Harton was foreman, but subse- quently book-keeper and remained to his death, 1879. He entered the office as compositor, 1843, and was in its employ thirty-six consecutive years, longer in the same office than any other printer in the county except Hiram Lukens, foreman of the Intelligencer, who entered that office, 1832, as an apprentice, and only left it at his death, 1897, a period of sixty-five years. While Mr. Davis was in the Civil war Mr. Harton had charge of the Democrat for three months, and Dr. John D. Mendenhall for a subsequent three years. The Democrat and Intelligencer are issued from buildings separated by a dwelling, where they have been printed more than half a century. They are among the oldest and leading weeklies in the State. In the spring of 1890 the Democrat was sold to a syndicate, and subsequently incorporated under the name of "The Doyles- town Publishing Company," and a daily was issued the following August. Mr. Davis was retained as editor ; George McReynolds, local editor ; John G. Randall business manager, and Charles S. Vandegrift was elected president of the com- pany. In 1896 the weekly was changed to an eight page paper, the page the same width as the daily.
The first German newspaper printed in Bucks county was established by Manasseh H. Snyder, in 1827, and called the Doylestown Express. In May he brought his outfit of material in a four-horse wagon, and began business with about one hundred subscribers. The first issue, one thousand copies for circula- tion in the German end of Bucks and Montgomery counties, appeared the 4th of July. In a few weeks he had eight hundred subscribers and the prospect was encouraging. Snyder continued the publication with little change, except the alteration of the name to Bucks County Express, until 1835-36, when it was sold out by the sheriff and bought by John S. Bryan, of the Democrat. When Bryan sold the Democrat to Paxson, 1845, the Express went with it. In 1850 Paxson sold it to Oliver P. Zink, who published it until 1856, when it fell into the sheriff's hands a second time and was bought by Edwin Fretz, a graduate of the Democrat. Following this change the Express next fell into the hands
got out and was the talk of the town. Young White was subsequently sent to Annap- olis Naval Academy, where he roomed with the Vermont lad who developed into Ad- miral Dewey, graduated and died in the service, February 27. 1890. The following is his record : Acting midshipman, Sept. 28, 1854, Midshipman, June 11, 1858, passed Midship- man, January 28, 1861, Master February 28, 1861, Lieutenant April 19, 1861, Lieutenant- Commander, March 3. 1865, Commander August 13, 1872, and Captain November 3, 1884, in which rank he served until his death. When Captain White died he was chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks under Secretary Tracy, with the nominal rank of Commo- dore. Captain White was the only representative the Democrat had in the United States Navy.
512 Mr. Davis never learned to set type, but had a taste for journalism, and. while reading law at Doylestown, '44-'46, did some scribbling for the newspapers. While teach- ing school, at Portsmouth, Va., '42-'44 he occasionally wrote an editorial for the Old Dominion, a leading Democratic newspaper of that state, and when he went to Santa Fe. New Mexico. 1853, he took charge of the Santa Fe Gasette and was proprietor and editor nearly three years. It was published in English and Spanish.
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of J. Adam Daubert, 1866. Dr. Morwitz, proprietor and editor of the German Democrat, Philadelphia, now started an opposition German Democratic paper at Doylestown, with the name of The Reform; but shortly coming into posses- sion of The Express, he consolidated them, with name of Express and Reform. Of the proprietors of these papers there is but little to be said. Snyder mar- ried a daughter of Elnathan Pettitt, of Doylestown ; Zink was born in Germany and learned his trade in the Adler office, Reading. Of Bryan and Paxson we have already spoken; Snyder, Fretz. and Zink served in the Civil war, and all of them are dead, Morwitz, the son, being the proprietor of the German Demo- crat. Fretz, who was several years foreman in the Democrat office, was a lieu- tenant in the One-hundred-and-fourth regiment, and Zink in Rush's Lancers.
In November, 1827, when politics began to warm up to fever heat for the coming presidential election, an anti-Jackson newspaper was started at Doyles- town by Francis B. Shaw, a member of the bar. and J. W. Bartleson. It was called the Bucks County Political Examiner, with the motto: "Our country, right or wrong," at its head, and was noted for its bitterness and sprightliness. The Eraminer survived the bitter contest of Jackson and Adams, 1828, and in the summer of 1829 was purchased by parties, and started as a Democratic news- paper in oposition to the Democrat. The name was now changed to that of Bucks County Republican, the first number appearing July 28, 1829, and was edited and printed by Alexander W. Campbell at two dollars a year. The Republican supported Wolf's election. The paper was a superroyal sheet twenty-one by twenty-seven inches. In November, 1829, the paper changed hands, John Heart, subsequently the editor and proprietor of the Charleston Mercury, and William A. Seely, Jr., becoming the proprietors. The 22d of De- cember the words, "And Anti-Masonic Register" were added to the name of the paper, when it ceased to be Democratic and became the organ of the Anti- Masons of the county. Mr. Seely severed his connection with it April 6, 1830. The Republican supported William Wirt for president, 1832, and Joseph Rit- ner for Governor. It lived longer than its ancestor, the Examiner, but died with the excitement that gave it birth, and went to that "undiscovered coun- try" prepared for defunct newspapers. It was announced in the thirty-fifth number, of volume four, that the paper would be "suspended for a few weeks" to enable the editor "to make some necessary arrangements for the future." but its publication was probably never resumed. The late Thomas Ross, then a young and active politician. and full of ardor, was instru- mental in starting the Republican. During the political contest, 1832, a tall hickory pole was erected about where the monument stands, which some anti- Jackson men attempted to cut down one night. A lady and gentleman, who lived neighbors, both ardent admirers of the old hero, hearing the enemy at work, sallied out and saved the pole.
The Jackson Courier and Democratic Advertiser was the next newspaper to see the light of day at Doylestown. In 1835 the Democratic party split in its choice for governor, between George Wolf and Henry A. Muhlenberg. The Courier was establihed, to advocate the claims of Muhlenberg, by the late Thomas Ross, and placed in charge of Franklin S. Mills. The first number was isued Wednesday, April 8. 1835, printed on a sheet twenty-one by twenty- eight inches, at two dollars a year. It professed to be Democratic and supported the nomination of Martin VanBuren for president. Its opposition to Wolf was .on the ground that his nomination was made contrary to the usages of the ·party and a second convention. held at Lewistown, the 6th of May, nominated Mr. Muhlenberg in opposition to him. There was considerable bitterness between
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the Courier and Democrat. The defeat of Muhlenberg for governor and the subsequent union of the party at a convention held the 8th of January, 1836, destroyed the occupation of the Courier, and the editor announced its discontinu- ance the 3d of February following, at the forty-fourth number. Mr. Mills went to Trenton, New Jersey, where he was connected with newspapers many years, and was several times elected mayor of the city.
Joseph Young, a native of Lehigh county, established Der Morgenstern, a German paper, in Doylestown, 1835, the first number appearing August 11th. The proprietor was not yet twenty-one years old. At first the paper was called Der Bauer, the object being to establish a German Anti-Masonic and anti-Dem- ocratic newspaper. At its front swung the motto: "Our country and our coun- try's friends," and was printed on a super-royal sheet. In 1841 Mr. Young leased the paper to his brother John, an apprentice in the office, for four years, but gave up his lease at the end of eighteen months. He changed the name of the Bauer to Der Morgenstern, the name it subsequently bore. Moritz Loeb, the new proprietor and editor, came to learn the trade in the office about 1836, and, in 1848, purchased one-half interest in the paper, the remaining half, in 1851, and owned it from that time. Mr. Loeb was the oldest, and probably the most scholarly editor in the county. In politics the paper was Republican. The Morgenstern was discontinued a number of years ago. Mr. Loeb was born at Urselestein, Germany, August 12, 1812, and died at Doylestown, December 20, 1887. The family have left Doylestown, the eldest son, Herman, residing in Philadelphia, is a member of the city council. A brother of Moritz Loeb was a Jewish Rabbi at Brussells, Holland.
In 1837, or 1838, Franklin P. Sellers, an off and on jour in the Democrat office, a man of considerable ability and a writer of doggerel verse, commenced the publication of a little sheet in Doylestown devoted to wit and humor, called The Public Advocate, with a sub-head that read, "Literary and Humorous Journal." It was less than medium in size, with five short columns to a page, subscription one dollar a year. It was set up by Sellers in the Democrat office, in spare type, and worked off on an old Ramage press, which might have been seen in the back yard some years ago, where it was thrown for kindling. It had several young men for correspondents, among them William Godshalk, subsequently associate judge and member of Congress, and E. Mitchell Cornell, the carrier. It had been published nearly a year when Frank got on a spree and the paper gave up the ghost. One of the poetical contributors was Eleazar F. Church, later proprietor of the Newtown Enterprise, but at that time an apprentice in the Democrat office.
After an interval of a quarter of a century a newspaper again made its ap- pearance at Newtown, under the name of Newtown Journal and Workingman's Advocate. It was the child of its parent. In August, 1840, Oliver G. Search and Samuel Fretz, afterward proprietor of the Intelligencer, commenced the publication of the Literary Chronicle at Hatboro, Montgomery county. Fretz left the Chronicle, March, 1841, and soon after Search removed the establish- ment to Newtown where he resumed its publication. It was edited, at this time, by Lemuel Parsons, a native of Massachusetts, and principal of the acad- emy, for about eight years. In August, 1842, the Chronicle was purchased by Samuel J. and Edward M. Paxson, the first issue of the new firm appearing August 16th, and the name changed to Newtown Journal in the course of a few weeks. Both these new papers were handsome-looking sheets, and the equals of the average newspaper of the period. Edward M. Paxson assumed editorial control, and, in his salutatory, took strong Native-American ground. In the
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