USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania: From the Discovery of the Delaware to the Present Time (Volume 1 and 2) > Part 43
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fall of 1845 the subscription price was reduced to one dollar. The Paxsons sold the paper, August 31, 1847, to Henry R. Nagle, Newtown, who was suc- ceeded April 18, 1848, by Hiram Brower, of Chester county, and a graduate of the Village Record office. Brower made the Journal an open political paper and raised the Whig banner. In January, 1850, Brower assigned his book ac- counts to Samuel M. Hough, for a debt, and a month after (February 26, 1850) the office was purchased by Lafayette Brower. The material soon passed into the possession of Howard Jenks, and a job office was carried on a few years, but in 1857 it was bought by Prizer & Darlington, of the Intelligencer, and removed to that office.
Franklin P. Sellers, who had bought out the Public Advocate, in 1837, or 1838, started a temperance paper in Doylestown, 1842, called Olive Branch. He had been a great drunkard, but having reformed thought it his duty to dis- seminate the doctrine of total abstinence, and he did it with a vigorous pen. The first number appeared June 22d as a small folio. Hiram Lukens, foreman of the Intelligencer office, suggested the motto for the paper: "Touch not, taste not, handle not," which it carried at the head. It was set up in the old type of the Intelligencer, and the first few numbers were worked off on their old Ramage press. It was published several years in a frame house on East State street, between Broad and Church, then owned by Aaron Fell, cabinetmaker, and sub- sequently occupied by Gustavus Siegler. Charles C. Cox, living in Doylestown, was roller boy and ink monkey for Sellers while he published the Olive Branch. Sellers published a red hot paper and his violence brought him into trouble. On one occasion he made allusion to the wife of a member of the Bucks county bar, and the outraged husband retorted by cowhiding the editor on the street, for which he was prosecuted and fined. About 1850 the paper was removed to Norristown and its publication continued. After awhile it fell into new hands, the name was changed to The Independent, was sold out by the sheriff, 1874, but its publication was resumed under a new name and management. Frank Sellers is dead, but it can be said to his credit he was true to his temperance principles to the last.
Samuel J. Paxson, purchaser of the Democrat, did not give entire satisfac- tion to the party, and two years of grumbling eventuated in the establishment of the Independent Democrat, by Manasseh H. Snyder, 1847. It was printed on a double medium-sheet, the first number appearing February 27th. In No- vember, 1848, Snyder sold the paper to Clayton N. Bryan, Doylestown. He continued its publication to June 15, 1852, when he sold it to a number of gen- tlemen, who placed it in the hands of William P. Seymour, from Buffalo, New York. It had been published in the old office of the Democrat, in the stone house on Main street, opposite York street, but Seymour removed it to a small frame on South Main street, adjoining the Shade building,6 and the name was changed to The Watchtower. It did not prosper under the new management ; Seymour was an easy-going good-for-nothing, who liked to talk politics on the street corner better than work. The consequence was, in about fifteen months The Watchtower fell into the sheriff's hands, and was sold under the hammer to
6 This was formerly. the Mansion House and the little frame stood on the site of the brick lately occupied by the Garron restaurant. Seymour left Doylestown about 1855. We next hear of him July 20, 1861, when he and Thomas W. Sweeney received authority from the War Department to recruit the 99th Pennsylvania Volunteers, of which Sey- mour was mustered in as Lieutenant-Colonel November 9, 1861, but resigned January 30, 1862. He then went West, where he reached some prominence and died many years ago.
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John S. Bryan in October, 1853. He afterward sold it to Samuel J. Paxson, of the Democrat, who discontinued its publication. While Snyder published the Independent Democrat he brought out General Taylor as Democratic can- didate for president.
Bristol has been the birth-place of several newspapers. In June, 1849, William Bache, great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin, commenced the publica- tion of the Bristol Gasette, a small weekly. It lived through fifty-two issues, and met its death sometime in 1850, for want of support. To some extent it wakened up the old town from its Rip Van Winkle sleep and it did not live in vain.
In Bucks county was printed the first Mennonite newspaper in the world, Der Religiose Botschapter, established by Rev. J. H. Oberholtzer, 1851, at Mil- ford Square, Milford township, the first number appearing in August. He was its publisher to 1856 and its editor until 1860, when it was taken charge of by the "Mennonite Printing Union," and, 1882, merged with a German paper newly issued by the "Mennonite German Conference of North America." Since October, 1885, the Eastern Mennonite Conference has issued a monthly English church paper, The Mennonite, at Quakertown, the circulation reaching from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The conference also publishes an annual Year Book and Almanac. Since the appearance of Der Religiose Botschapter, five other Mennonite newspapers have been established, two in Europe and three in America. This paper advocates a better organization of that church in Amer- ica, a more earnest working in the missionary cause, a better education and a more special preparation for the ministry. It was mainly through its influence that a Mennonite general conference was called, 1860, which succeeded in estab- lishing a theological institute for the education of ministers and teachers, at Wadsworth, Ohio. It was edited by Rev. A. B. Shelly. On July 16, 1853, a newspaper made its appearance at the county seat called the Doylestown Spy, printed on a sheet twenty-four by nineteen. Reyner T. Donatt was the osten- sible editor, a compositor in the Intelligencer office, and his name was at its head,. but the type was set by the journeymen and apprentices of other offices. The real editor was John Harton, foreman of the Democrat, who appeared under the modest name of "director-in-chief." He was a well educated Irishman and a man of great wit. He wrote the funny articles, and not infrequently the editorials. The paper was printed at first at the Express office in the frame that stood on the site of the James building, North Main street .. It was a spicy sheet and many fell under its notice. While it was a "spy on the actions of men," it never descended to vulgarity. Its wit was keen, but left no sting behind ; it was too clean cut. The circulation ran up to 1,010. It lived about a year and gave up the ghost in a small frame alongside the Mansion House. Prior to this it had fallen into the hands of "Joe" Stuart, son of Sandham Stuart, who formerly owned the borough mill. The Spy was discontinued sometime in 1854. In 1854 two new papers came into life in the county, both in interest of the Know-Nothings, a party just entering into power-The Star- Spangled Banner, published at Quakertown, by David B. Overholt and Reyner T. Donatt, and The Bucks County American, at Bristol. The latter made its appearance the 4th of July. In its second year it was wedded to the Burlington American, making them a twenty-eight column paper. There was no union of interest between the publishers, in business or otherwise, the object being to furnish the patrons on both sides of the river with a more readable newspaper. There was a double issue. The proprietor at Burlington was Samuel C. At- kinson, the originator of the Saturday Evening'Post, while that at Bristol was.
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William Bache, a newspaper pioneer along the Delaware. Both papers were printed on the same forms, taken back and forth across the river. The Bucks County American died with the decline of the party it was started to support.
In 1857 William Bush, a printer from Trenton, came to Newtown and started a job office. In October he issued the first number of the Newtown Gasette, probably the only issue, as we have no information of a subsequent one. It was possibly the channel through which Mr. Bush announced his job office to the public. The third newspaper started at Bristol was Bache's Index, a twenty-eight column paper for a dollar a year, published by William Bache, the first number appearing on New Year's day, 1859. Its motto, which we do not remember, consisted of forty-four words. It promised to be an independent newspaper, devoted wholly to business interests, but as we have not a file before us cannot say how well this promise was kept. Nevertheless, it lived eighteen months, and then, like its predecessors, died a natural death. The same year the Rev. A. R. Horne commenced the publication of the Educator at Quaker- town, the first number making its appearance in November. It was first pub- lished semi-monthly and devoted to education, religion, literature, temperance, etc. In November. 1863, it was removed to Turbotville, Northumberland county : in 1865 to Williamsport, 1872 to Kutztown, Berks county, where it was published until its founder removed it to Allentown, 1877, where it is still issued under the name of the National Educator. It is the offspring of the Quakertown Press, which Schaupp & Wenig issued in March or April, 1858. It was printed in German and English, Mr. Horne editing the English part. Mr. Horne purchased the paper in 1859. Mr. Horne died a couple of years ago and the National Educator has gone into new hands.
In the contest over the organization of a State government for Kansas under Mr. Buchanan's administration, the Democratic party became divided. The sections waged a bitter warfare upon each other, the quarrel culminating on the acceptance or rejection by Congress of the State Constitution made at Lecompton. As the Democrat opposed the administration, and advocated the rejection of the Lecompton constitution, it was thought necessary to have a Democratic opposition paper in Doylestown. In the spring of 1859 the Demo- cratic Standard was started under the management of J. Mathias Beans, a native of Buckingham, and Julius Kuster, a young German, both graduates of the Democrat office. The first number made its appearance the 19th of April on a double-medium sheet. It was edited with ability, but, like all attempts to estab- lish a newspaper on a single idea, when the question which brought it into exist- ence was settled, by the election of Mr. Lincoln, its occupation was gone. It survived the inauguration of the new administration but a few weeks, and was purchased by Mr. Davis, of the Democrat, the last of April, 1861. Mr. Kuster, junior partner, joined the Doylestown Guards, then ready to march to the seat of war, and was appointed a corporal, and Mr. Beans was subsequently com- missioned a lieutenant in the One-hundred-and-fourth regiment. The Standard reached a respectable circulation and enjoyed a fair advertising patronage. As the party was only divided on a national issue, it again became united when Mr. Lincoln came into power.
In March, 1868, E. F. Church commenced the publication of the Newtown Enterprise at Newtown. Mr. Church was a native of Buckingham township and graduating from the Democrat office, 1839. For the next ten years he followed other pursuits, but in March, 1850, started in Baltimore, Maryland, a small newspaper called the Baltimore County Advocate in the interest of a separation of the county from city municipal affairs. It was intended for country circula-
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tion. He removed to Cockeyville, August, 1850, and to Towsontown, the new county scat, 1853, where he continued the publication of the Advocate until 1865, when he sold out. He was now one year inspector of internal revenue. In 1866 he bought a half-interest in the Herald and Torchlight, Hagerstown, Maryland, but, in a few months, returned to Towsontown and started the Balti- more County Free Press. This he sold out at the end of six months, came to Newtown and established the Enterprise, of which his son, Watson Church, is the proprietor and publisher. Mr. Church put in a Campbell press, April 1883. Upon his death, June 15, 1893, his son Watson bought the paper and continues to publish it. The Enterprise is one of the best papers in the county and wields considerable influence. It is non-partisan in politics.
In 1869 a man named Pryor commenced the publication of The Independent at Quakertown. In 1870 it was purchased by Robert L. Cope, a member of the bar, and his brother, making the paper Democratic. In a few months Stephen T. Kirk, county superintendent, bought E. L. Cope's interest, but soon resold it to Robert L. Cope, who now owned the whole of it. He changed the name to Bucks County Mirror and continued its publication until the spring of 1872, when it was sold to Dr. F. Morwitz, proprietor of the German Democrat, Phila- delphia. It was now removed to Doylestown, and issued from the office of the Express and Reform, where it is still published by Frederick Constantine, who purchased of Morwitz in 1899.
In September, 1871, William Tilton issued the first number of The Squib at Hulmeville, a sheet six by nine inches. It was printed at intervals until April, 1872, when it was enlarged to nine by twelve inches, published semi- monthly and the name changed to The Beacon. In August of the same year it was doubled in size, and, in January, 1873, was changed to a weekly, the present name, Hulmeville Beacon, adopted, and again enlarged. In July it was made a five-column paper, and on May 7, 1874, a cylinder press was intro- duced, and the paper increased to seven columns and to nine columns the 5th of November, 1874. Mr. Tilton, the founder of the Beacon, and a native of Crosswicks, New Jersey, where he was born, 1846, was a first cousin of Theo- dore Tilton. He served a regular apprenticeship at the iron business with the late firm of Abbott & Noble, Philadelphia, which he was compelled to relin- quish on account of ill health, and commenced printing for pastime and with- out a thought of ever following it for a business. In January, 1871, Mr. Tilton and Hannah E. Holcomb began the publication of an eight-page temperance paper at Hulmeville, called The Good Templars' Journal, which appeared, quarterly, at ten cents a year, but had a brief existence.
In the summer of 1872 William H. Shively began the publication of the Luminary, an eight-page paper of forty columns, at Yardleyville, Lower Make- field. He had settled there several years before and started an amateur print- ing-office, from which the Luminary was afterward developed. It was princi- pally devoted to literature, was a handsome, well-printed.newspaper, and ex- erted an influence for good in that community. Mr. Shively died of consumption in the winter of 1876, when the publication of the paper was discontinued. He was a man of good abilities and an excellent character, and served in the cavalry in the Civil war. During a brief suspension of the publication of the Luminary, summer of 1874, Charles N. Drake started the Bucks County Record at Yardley, a paper twenty-one by twenty-eight inches in size, and twenty columns. The subscription was one dollar, in advance. The first issue appeared Tuesday, July 21, but only lived a few weeks. May 13, 1876, William H. Quick began the publication of a twenty-column paper at Yardley, on a sheet eighteen by twenty-
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three and a half inches, called the Yardleyville Times, and was shortly dis- continued.
Bristol is the home of two newspapers of long standing, the elder, the Bristol Observer, of twenty-three columns, was established by James Drury, a graduate of the Democrat office, April, 1871 ; the younger, the Bucks County Gazette, of thirty-two columns, which appeared August 14, 1873, its publisher and proprie- tor, Jesse O. Thomas. It was subsequently enlarged and improved, and Mr. Thomas took his two sons into co-partnership with him. Both papers profess to be non-partisan.
In November, 1873, Wilmer H. Johnson, a young man of Hulmeville, brought out a paper there called The Echo, a small twelve-column folio. In March, 1874, it was enlarged to sixteen columns and much improved in appear- ance; in July it was enlarged to twenty columns, and a handsomely engraved head substituted for the former plain one. In 1875, in conjunction with A. Vanhorne, a contributor to The Echo, the paper was changed to a magazine and the name altered to The Keystone Amateur. The subscription of The Echo was at first twenty-five cents, but raised to one dollar, when it became a magazine, but was obliged to suspend, in October, 1875, for want of support. The publishers and editors were little more than lads, Mr. Vanhorne not yet twenty, when it came to an untimely end. It was nine and a half inches by six, with sixty-three pages of reading matter, three of advertisements and two more on the cover. The original and selected matter would have done credit to older heads. Johnson afterward purchased the North Wales Record, and is still in charge of it. What became of Vanhorne we do not know. The Amateur was followed by the Langhorne Beacon, probably by J. Paul Rue, and the num- ber of the new issue was continued in the same order for the Beacon's success- or, Oct. 19, 1893, was Vol. 27, No. 49. When it was discontinued is not so clear, one account saying March 30, 1881, another March 28, 1883. In the sum- mer of 1884 the plant was purchased by Fetterholl Brothers, and the name was changed to Langhorne Standard, the first issue appearing Sept. 3, 1884, by the same firm.
On April 2, 1875, the journalism of Doylestown was increased by Allen H. Heist and Bernard McGinty, who began the publication of a weekly German paper, called Die Demokratische Wacht. Mr. Heist was a native of Milford township, this county, and Mr. McGinty, of Franklin county. It was short lived. The size was twenty-two by thirty inches; and in politics Democratic, as the name implies.
The youngest newspaper in the county of that period, is Our Home Friend, a monthly folio, 24x34 inches, whose publication was commenced in July, 1875, at Milford Square by Peter High Stauffer. It was designed for the Sunday, day-school and home-circle, contained matter suitable to these spheres with amusements, etc. The subscription price was 50 cents. In September, F. M. Augspuyer, of Hamilton, Ohio, was associated in its publication, and the Little Wanderer, published by George R. Long, at Wadsworth, Ohio, consolidated with Our Home Friend. It was published in the office of the Reformer and Agriculturist, a German weekly of which we have no reliable information. In February, 1897, Our Home Friend was removed to Quakertown, where the proprietor had previously bought out Berliner's job office. Of its ultimate fate we are not informed. In addition to the newspapers mentioned, there were issued from the offices of the Intelligencer, Democrat and Wacht, respectively, the Journal of the Fair, while the Doylestown fair was open, in October of each year, The Institute, while the teachers' institute was in session each fall, and the
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Court Gasette, during court. The Institute had but a single issue, but the Journal of the Fair had more age on its head when it gave up the ghost. The Journal of the Fair was the oldest and largest of these papers, and that and the Institute were distributed gratuitously. A monthly quarto, in German, entitled Himmel s Manna, and published in the interest of the Sunday school, was issued at Milford Square, the first number appearing in January, 1876.
In December, 1876, H. J. M. Mattis and brother started the Independent News, at Sellersville, a small sheet published weekly. In July of the following year a branch office was opened at Quakertown, and, later the paper was pub- fished there. It was suspended at the end of two years, and an effort made in February, 1879, to bring out a daily on its ashes, but only one number was issued, a small sheet thirteen by nineteen, called The Daily News. On May 3, 1879, the Bristol Daily News, an advertising, double medium sheet, with patent outside, made its appearance. J. Wesley Cook being the editor and Dr. C. P. Rose, publisher. The subscription price was one dollar a year, but it shortly collapsed.
Henry T. Darlington, of the Intelligencer, spoke of that newspaper and the Democrat a quarter of a century ago, as follows :
"Twenty-five years ago, and probably long before that, the Intelligencer and Democrat were well known among the country journals of the State. At that time the country press was of much less importance, relatively, than it is now, yet I remember well that the two weekly papers from Doylestown were not excelled in general merit and interest by any of the great number on the exchange list of the old Village Record. Each had its distinctive flavor, illus- trating to a great degree the characters of the men who published them-John S. Brown and Samuel J. Paxson. Both were men of industrious and careful habits. They were liberal in providing the needs of their business, and they . made that business pay. In those days the custom of reporting local events was in its infancy, but they were both quick to perceive the importance and variety of the field just opened. The facilities for collecting news of a local character were few and many people had objection to being mentioned in the papers, a weakness the present generation is not troubled with, neither man nor woman. Brown was methodical and persevering, his account book of neat exactness and not a line was allowed in his paper that had not passed under close super- vision. Paxson was more dashing and sanguine. When he made up his inind to do a thing he was not particular about consequences ; if an item was inter- esting or spicy it had to go in. Personally, they were friends, but in political campaigns, as was the habit of the times, they made things pretty lively. Both papers have a good circulation. After 1849 they were printed on cylinder presses, driven by steam, and since that time, in their present location. Hiram Lukens, of the Intelligencer, and John Harton, of the Democrat, were connected with the respective papers until their death, the former sixty-five years, the latter near half a century."
Since the publication of the first edition of the History of Bucks County there has been considerable increase in the number of our newspapers, the Central News, published at Perkasie, leading off. This paper was established by M. S. Sellers, the first issue appearing June 9, 1881. It was a weekly, size twenty-four by thirty-six. In 1882 Henry G. Moyer became equal partner and the paper was printed by hand. Three months after this partnership was formed Mr. Sellers died and was succeeded by Samuel R. Kramer. In 1883 a new brick office was erected, the size of the paper increased to eight columns, and steam power introduced. In 1891 the building was enlarged. The paper is printed
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on a three revolution Hoe press, Sidney feeder, automatic mailer, and the office is equipped with a full complement of necessary machinery in all departments. As the proprietors are on opposite sides of the political fence, the paper is non- partisan in politics.' In 1880 A. S. Stauffer established the Quakertown Free Press, a weekly paper printed on a sheet twenty-two by twenty-six inches, and is still in active life. The issue of February 2, 1900, was the 26th number of its nineteenth year.
In the spring of 1881 the New Hope Monitor was brought out by Cham- panore & Son, the father, at the time publishing the Bound Brook Chronicle, New Jersey. It lasted until the opening of the new year, the last number bear- ing date, January 23, 1882. The father was born in the mountainous parts of Warren county, New Jersey, about 1825, leaving home at the age of seventeen to learn the printing trade in the office of the Warren Journal. A second and more successful effort was made to establish a newspaper at New Hope in 1891, by Dr. R. B. Glasgow, with T. S. Kitchen as business manager. It was christened the New Hope News, and still survives the ups and downs of news- paper life.
Several years of effort were expended in establishing a newspaper at Rie- gelsville, the first being the Standard, 1884, issued by D. L. Shrope, from Eas- ton, but it came to an untimely end before the year was out. This was fol- lowed by the Enterprise, by J. D. Curtis, equally short lived, and, the Riegels- ville Advertiser, 1889, brought out by L. J. Anders, of Quakertown, which hardly survived the year. These efforts ended the trial newspapers. In the meantime, 1887, J. P. Cyphers, Riegelsville, and W. E. Scafer, started the Riegelsville News, the partnership continuing three years. In June, 1890, Scafer bought out Cypher's interest, and continued its publication alone until the following November, when he was succeeded by William P. Miller : Miller was followed by A. H. Jordan, Riegelsville, March 25, 1891; Otto Rapp & Brother, June 3, 1891, who restored the name-"Riegelsville News," and on January 25, 1893, Byron G. Rapp became the sole proprietor and continues its publication.
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