USA > Pennsylvania > Cambria County > History of Cambria County, Pennsylvania, Volume I > Part 35
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The Democratic Courier was published in Johnstown, No. 1, Vol. I, New Series, bearing date September 2, 1846. On the first page appears, "The Democratic Courier and Tariff Advo- cate-Not Bound to Swear According to the Dictates of Any Master." The paper was one of four pages, five columns to the page. In the first numbers the name of H. C. Devine ap- pears as publisher, and later on that of Thomas A. Maguire as editor. What "New Series" means, unless the Courier was a revival of the Democratic Journal which had been also a tariff advocate, is not apparent. On March 16, 1847, the arrangement between Maguire and Devine having expired by limitation, the patrons of the paper were called upon to settle up, and that was the last of the Courier.
The Cambria Transcript was the successor of the Demo- cratic Courier. H. C. Devine was the publisher and John B. Onslow, a brother of James Onslow, of Pittsburg, was its editor and proprietor, as may be seen from a card published by him in the Mountain Echo and Cambria Transcript, the successor of the Transcript in No. 3, of Vol. 1, of which paper bears date August 20, 1849, he says that, having disposed of the Transcript to Captain G. Nelson Smith, all persons indebted to him are authorized to pay the same to Captain Smith.
Under various modifications of its name, and often under adverse circumstances, the Mountain Echo had a desultory ex- istence, at different periods extending over a space of more than twenty years. Captain George Nelson Smith was for the greater part of the time its editor.
Smith had fought in the Texan War of Independence, being present at the battle of San Jacinto, where Texan in-
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dependence was won. He was an able writer, and advocated the principles in which he believed in a rational and generally decorous manner, in striking contrast with the generality of the newspaper men of his time. He had in 1844 and for some time subsequently edited the Democratic Sentinel. IIe bought the Cambria Transcript from John B. Onslow, and changed the name to the Mountain Echo and Cambria Tran- script. The third copy of this paper, bearing date August 29, 1849, noticed that Queen Victoria had at last paid her long- promised visit to Ireland.
Volume II, No. 3, of the paper, under the heading the Moun- tain Echo, bearing date Friday, February 14, 1851, is a four- page, six-column paper. Much of its space was given to ed- itorial matter, correspondence and news. The issue of May 11, 1853, under the flaming head of the Mountain Echo and Johns- town Commercial Advertiser and Intelligencer-"New Series, Vol. I, No. 2, Whole Number CVI," would seem to indicate that the Echo had been resurrected after a period of suspension. In this issue appears the name of Emanuel J. Pershing as asso- ciate editor, a position he held until May 31, 1854, when he severed his connection with the paper, and on August 21st of that year, accompanied by Messrs. A. J. Hite and Geo. T. Swank, then recently employes in the Echo office, went to Rock Island, Illinois, to establish the Rock Islander.
On August 26, 1853, in an editorial notice commenting on the salutatory of the Alleghenian, started the previous week in Ebensburg, the Echo-by that time the Allegheny Mountain Echo, etc .- says :
"FORTHCOMING-The Whig paper of this place is again to be resuscitated by James M. Swank, Esq. The first issue will appear about the first of December. It is now to be called the Cambria Tribune. Every time this paper is revived it comes out under a new name. This makes the sixth since it was first published in this place."
Mr. Swank, in the first issne of the Cambria Tribune. (now the Johnstown Tribune), December 7, 1853, retorted as follows:
"The above courteous allusion to the resuscitation of 'the Whig paper of this place' is, we presume, by the senior of 'one of the neatest weeklies extant !' We do not deny that in a period of thirteen years the name of the Whig journal 'of this place' has undergone the changes referred to, but, without addition or subtraction, we claim to have discovered a striking coincidence in the history of the Locofoco paper 'of this place.' The only
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defect in the coincidence arises from the fact that this Locofoco paper has had six names in about as many years, being in this respect a trifle more progressive than the 'Whig paper.' Let us look at the record: First, we have the Democratic Courier and Tariff Advocate; second, the Cambria Transcript; third, the Mountain Echo and Cambria Transcript; fourth, the Moun- tain Echo; fifth, the Mountain Echo and Johnstown Commercial Advertiser and Intelligencer, and sixth and last, though not least by half a dozen tri-syllables-the Allegheny Mountain Echo and Johnstown Commercial Advertiser and Intelligencer. There, now! Great snake country, this !"
In 1855 Mr. Smith, the Union candidate for the legislature in Cambria county, was elected. The Union ticket was nomi- nated by Democrats and Old Line Whigs who would not join the Know-Nothing party.
On January 1, 1856, Cyrus L. Pershing, Esq., became ed- itor of the Echo, during the absence of Mr. Smith at Harrisburg as a member of the legislature that winter. On May 1st follow- ing, Mr. Pershing, who throughout the winter had acceptably filled the editorial chair, published a graceful valedictory, and Mr. Smith once more assumed control as editor and proprietor.
In the issue of October 22, 1856, the result of the election was announced under flaming heads and large spread-eagle cut, underneath which was the legend: "Cambria County, the Banner County of the Keystone State."
On January 1, 1857, Editor Smith, having been a second time chosen Representative from this county, had consequently to temporarily relinquish the quill in the Echo sanctum, during which time Cyrus L. Pershing, Esq., for a second time became editor, but withdrew on the 28th of the same month "for many reasons not necessary to be stated," without however impair- ing any of the friendly relations existing between himself and Captain Smith. For a considerable time Smith's name appears as publisher and proprietor, where it once more appears as editor and proprietor. In 1858 the editor returned to the legislature a third time, and H. A. Boggs took his place.
On May 5, 1858, Henry A. McPike, who had formerly pub- lished the Crusader at Summit, and had for several years previous been foreman in the Echo office, became associate editor and partner with Mr. Smith. On November 7, 1860, the partner- ship between Messrs. Smith and McPike was dissolved, the for- mer retaining control of the paper and the latter retiring.
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The War of the Rebellion coming on shortly after this time, and the determination of the men of Johnstown, without regard to party lines, to save the Union at all hazards, and Captain Smith's determination to be at the seat of war in behalf of the Union, caused the Echo to be abandoned, to be replaced shortly afterward by the Johnstown Democrat as the organ of the Democratic party in the south of the county.
In the issue of the Tribune of April 26, 1861, appeared an item stating that the Echo had suspended publication that week for the reason that owing to the unsettled state of the country, Captain Smith had been publishing the paper at a heavy loss for some time, with no bright prospects for the future.
Colonel A. K. MeClure, in his entertaining volumes of "Old Time Notes of Pennsylvania," relates an incident occurring in the legislature in the session of 1858, when George Nelson Smith saved the bill authorizing the construction of what is now the Philadelphia & Erie Railroad.
Governor Packer was intensely interested in the measure. The bill did not reach him until within a few days of the final adjournment, and upon careful examination of it the governor discovered a single sentence in it which would possibly nullify the project. He could not return it and have it passed over his veto; there was no time for the passage of a new bill; and it could not then be amended without a joint resolution. A joint resolution was required to lay over a day, and to suspend this rule would have required a two-thirds vote, which delay would be fatal.
Speaker Longenecker ruled, when interrogated, that a joint resolution could not be read and passed finally on the same day. The friends of the bill were in distress. George Nelson Smith, well versed in parliamentary law, was not inclined to be defeated where the merits overbalanced the objection. He was one of the most popular of all the members; he told a good story, sang a good song, and had been with Sam Houston at the battle of San Jacinto. Under these circumstances it was sug- gested to Speaker Longenecker that if he would permit Smith to preside the difficulty could be evaded and the amendment passed in time. He consented. Smith took the chair and the resolution was changed from the usual form of a joint resolu- tion by stating: "Resolved, If the senate concurs," giving it the appearance of a house resolution requiring simply the con- currence of the senate. As soon as it was read the point was
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raised that it was a join resolution and must lie over for a day, but Smith faced the emergency with magnificent boldness, de- ciding that it was not a joint resolution, and directed a final vote to be called, which was duly taken, and the bill passed. The senate concurred and the bill was saved.
From one of a series of articles entitled "The Press in Ebensburg," published in the Alleghenian of that place in 1866, the following facts relating to the founding of that paper are gathered :
"August 23, 1853, the first number of a new paper called the Alleghenian made its appearance. It was Whig in politics and edited by Messrs. A. C. Mullin and Charles Albright. Its motto was, 'The free communication of thoughts and opinions is one of the invaluable rights of man.' The Alleghenian was edited with much talent and more vigor, yet all its days were numbered by the brief space of two years. During these two years it had for its editors, besides Messrs. Mullin and Al- bright, Joseph R. Durborrow, R. L. Johnston, and John M. Bow- man. Upon the suspension of the paper in 1855, the establish- ment was bought by Dr. A. Rodrigue, who took the press, type and fixtures to Kansas. Arriving in that then turbulent Terri- tory, the office was seized by a body of border ruffians, and thrown into the Missouri River. The stock was subsequently fished out, however, and was afterward used, first, to spread abroad the pestilential heresy of pro-Slaveryism, and next, as a countervailing good, to preach the doctrines of Abolitionism."
A notice from a paper called the Union, published at Junc- tion City, Kan., in speaking of the old type of this paper, which the editor thereof was then about to throw into the "hell box," says that Dr. Rodrigue was the founder of the town of Lecomp- ton. Messrs. Mullin and Albright. it appears, were in 1853 prose- cuted for libel by Colonel John Piper, and mulcted in a small sum in the Blair County court.
On August 25, 1859, a paper called the Alleghenian and bearing at its head Bolsinger & Hutchinson, was started in Ebensburg to fill the long-felt want of a Republican paper at the county seat. About three months later Bolsinger dropped out. and the name of J. Todd Hutchinson alone appeared. After two years A. A. Barker appeared as editor and J. Todd Hutchin- son as publisher.
The Alleghenian was a four-page, six-column paper, the columns twenty inches in length. The editorials were vigorous and uncompromising, the literary and historical selections, many of which bear unmistakable evidences of being the work
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of Mr. Hutchinson, are as near perfection as it is possible for such things to be in a country printing office.
A few weeks before the close of the seventh volume, Mr. Barker announced that he would vacate the editorial chair at the end of that volume, and offered the paper for sale. On Octo- ber 18, 1866, he published his valedictory, giving as the reason for retiring that his private business demanded his entire attention. No arrangement for the continuation of the paper having been entered into at that time, it suspended until January 24, 1867, when publication was resumed, with J. Todd Hutchinson as editor and William E. Hutchison as publisher.
William E. Hutchinson having died on December 19, 1867, from the effects of an illness occasioned, it is said, by over- exertion in a game of baseball three months previously, the name of his brother appeared as editor and publisher until the end of the eighth volume, on February 20, 1868, from which time until August 13, 1868, the commencement of the ninth vol- ume, in the first number of which appear the names of J. Todd Hutchinson and E. James as editors, the paper was suspended. This new arrangement continued for a year, when Mr. James dropped out and Hutchinson was once more editor and pub- lisher.
The Crusader was a Catholic paper published by Henry A. McPike at Summit, then the seat of the diocesan seminary, the first number appearing about the first of January, 1852. Revs. John Walsh, of Hollidaysburg; Joseph Gallagher, of Loretto; Thomas McCulloch, of Summit, and T. Mullen, of Johnstown, afterward Bishop of Erie, were its editors. Whether the paper had, like many secular papers of the county, its period of sus- pension, or whether the publisher forgot to change the Roman numeral at the head of the paper- a mistake he sometimes made-cannot positively be told, while inclining something to the former opinion, but Vol. I, No. 6, of a Crusader in the Tribune office bears date March 10, 1853. Some time in that year, however, it was merged with the Alleghenian and the seminary was about the same time moved to Pittsburg.
In September, 1871, Edmund James changed the name of Alleghenian to the Cambria Herald, which continued until 1881, when Festus Lloyd purchased it, and his name appeared as editor at the head of its columns until his appointment to the postmastership of Ebensburg in the early part of 1898, when he sold out to a syndicate of politicians. It was soon merged
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with Walter R. Thompson's Mountaineer, the result of which amalgamation is the present Mountaineer-Herald.
During the agitation caused by the opposition of Stephen A. Douglas to the admission of Kansas as a state under the Lecompton constitution, which the administration of Buchanan espoused, the Democrat and Sentinel being an administration paper, the friends of Douglas in Ebensburg formed an associa- tion to start a Douglas paper. The result was the resurrection on February 4, 1858, of the Mountaineer (No. 2), with Philip S. Noon, Esq., editor and proprietor, and D. C. Zahm, publisher; but the new editor retired on the 22d of September of the same year, giving as his reason therefor that he preferred to give undivided attention to the legal profession. He was succeeded in the next issue of September 29th by his brother-James Chrysostom Noon-the name of Robert Litzinger appearing at the same time as publisher.
During the political campaign of 1860, on Angust 20th, Mr. Noon retired from the editorial chair, and the adherents of Douglas, anxious to continue the publication of the paper, in- duced John Lloyd to become its editor for one year, guarantee- ing that he should not lose pecuniarily by his association with the paper. The defeat of Douglas at the general election in that year removed the motive for the continuation of the paper, and at the expiration of Mr. Lloyd's contract with the proprie- tors the paper ceased to exist.
On April 11, 1856, the Beobachter, the first German news- paper of Johnstown, was printed on a press and types that had previously belonged to the Allegheny Republikaner, a Whig paper that had been published in Somerset. Germanus Voegtly and William Hermann were the publishers and the latter was the editor. It was a four-page, five-column paper, sixteen ems wide to the column. On November 28, 1856, the name of the paper was changed. Der Johnstown Demokrat was the new name given, which, it was stated, was more sig- nificant than Beobachter (Observer), the politics of the paper being Democratic. The firm name was then changed to G. Voegtly & Co., and on April 24, 1857, to Voegtly & Young, Jo- seph Young then becoming the editor. On August 19, 1857, Richard White, of No. 4, bought out the interest of Voegtly, who it appears was sole owner, for the reason, the Tribune then asserted, that Young, while a good editor, had a leaning toward the Republican party, and was opposed to G. Nelson
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Smith's legislative aspirations. White, who was quite a lin- guist, occupied the editorial chair until April 5, 1858, when he made Hermann associate editor, which arrangement lasted for some time. White and Hermann both joined the army, the latter in a New York regiment.
About the beginning of the civil war, Victor Voegtly bought Der Demokrat and conducted it for several years. A man named Lechner afterward became owner.
In 1871 the name of the paper was changed to the Freie Presse by Mr. Lechner, from whom C. T. Schubert bought the paper about the year 1877. He continued to conduct it until the great flood of 1889, in which he lost his life. His office be- ing on the third story of the building now occupied by the Dol- lar Deposit bank, on the corner of Main and Franklin streets, escaped uninjured, and a couple of weeks later the paper was started anew by Mrs. Schubert, as publisher, and George A. Bauer, as editor. In 1900 William F. and F. J. Schubert be- came the proprietors, with the former as editor. The office is in the Fend building on Main street. It is an eight page paper, 17x24, and the only German paper in the county. It is Democratic. and has a weekly circulation of 1.700.
The Johnstown Demoerat, the second paper of the name to be' edited and published in the place, made its first appearance on March 5, 1863, with James F. Campbell, Sr., as editor, and James F. Campbell, Jr., as associate editor. The elder Camp- bell had previously edited a paper in Blairsville. He was a violent anti-war Democrat, as was apparent from the first issue of the paper, in its editorial notice of which the Tribune made this prediction, which was soon fulfilled :
"Altogether, if the initial number is to be taken as an in- dex of the future, the Johnstown Democrat will soon earn for itself a precious load of odinm in the estimation of Union men who are less loyal to 'the party' than to the government."
The journalistic career of the Messrs. Campbell in Johns- town was a most stormy one. So bitter was the feeling en- gendered, it was alleged that at the time of the return of the nine-month men, the editors, expecting violence at the hands of the exasperated volunteers, had an armed body of friends in the office of the paper ready to repel any attack. The friends of the defenders of the Union averred that such had never been contemplated. Once afterward there was a disturbance on one
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of the streets, the responsibility for which the Tribune charged to the editors of the Democrat.
A vile caricature of the president, entitled "The Ebony King" was published in the paper, and the Hon. Cyrus L. Pershing, then member of the legislature, was charged with being an accessory, as he was reputed to be the owner of the paper at the time; but he disclaimed all responsibility there- for. In the fall of 1864 the paper was suspended for a short time, but was revived, as appears from the Tribune of December 2d of that year, and the terms of the paper raised to $3 a year in advance, or $3.50 if not so paid.
On December 23, 1864, the Tribune in an editorial notice said :
"The Johnstown Democrat has at last changed hands, Mr. James F. Campbell being succeeded as editor and publisher by H. D. and L. D. Woodruff-the father and son-late of New Bloomfield, Perry county. Personally we welcome these gen- tlemen to Johnstown; pecuniarily we hope they may meet with the most gratifying success; politically, we tell them frankly we do not like their first editorial about 'the reserved rights of the states,' nor do we admire the tone of the following sen- tences :
"'We have just closed a presidential contest, and com- mitted the destinies of this nation for years to the Abolitionists of the north and the Secessionists of the south, and we must await the development of the future. The election has been carried against ns, with a less majority than there are officials whose tenure of office is dependent on the will of the presi- dent.' "'
In 1870 the elder Woodruff was the Removal candidate for the legislature, for which position he was supported by the Tribune as well as the Democrat, and opposed by the Cambria Freeman and Alleghenian of Ebensburg. During this cam- paign the anti-Removalites started a paper in Johnstown in opposition to the Democrat, called the Mountain Echo with G. Nelson Smith as editor. He was succeeded in turn by Thomas E. Myers, Casper W. Easly, and D. W. Hite. W. Horace Rose, Esq., who was the candidate on the regular Democratic ticket that year, was elected by a majority of 222 votes.
In 1876 the senior editor retired, leaving his son, L. D. Woodruff, editor. For two terms. 1876-80, Mr. Woodruff was one of the representatives of this county in the legislature. He was also postmaster for Johnstown in Cleveland's second term and mayor of Johnstown from 1899 to 1902.
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On Wednesday, August 22, 1888, began the publication of the Daily Democrat. The plant was damaged but little in the great flood of May 31, 1889, and publication was resumed in July of the same year. Mr. Woodruff edited and published the paper until February 1, 1893, since which time it has been conducted by Mr. Warren Worth Bailey, assisted by his brother -Edward Homer Bailey. On the night of March 4, 1896, the Hannan block on Franklin street, in which the office of the paper is located, was badly damaged by fire and the Democrat suffered severely, without, however, any serious interruption in its business or delay in its publication.
Warren Worth Bailey entered the office of the Kansas (Illinois) Citizen in 1868, when thirteen years of age, and held the position of "devil" for three years. He then became a telegraph operator on the Big Four Railroad, and was made station agent when he was eighteen. Two years thereafter he returned home to attend school, and again went into the office of the Kansas News, the successor of the Citizen, where he worked before and after school hours and on Saturdays. His brother, Edward Homer, was also employed on the News from '73 to '77, and was an apt apprentice in the art. Homer Bailey accepted a position on the Carlisle (Indiana) Register in the latter year, when he was nineteen. After working there a short time he was offered the plant in partial payment for wages due, which he accepted. He invited Warren to join him in its man- agement, under the name of the Democrat. They found it a heart-breaking proposition for some time. The public never knew how close they were to "Starvation Hollow," but the pro- prietors were doing good work and kept up appearances in a businesslike manner. When returns suddenly began to come in, the paper leaped into prosperity. In 1879 the brothers bought the Vincennes (Indiana) Reporter, and consolidating it with the Carlisle Democrat, changed the name to the Vincennes News. This venture also was successful, and in 1887 they sold out, and both entered journalism in Chicago.
Warren Worth Bailey became attached to the reportorial and later to the editorial staff of the Evening Mail, and with a brief interruption was on the editorial staff of the Chicago Daily News until he came to Johnstown. In the meanwhile he did incidental work for the Times, the Tribune, the Herald, the Globe and the Evening Post. While on the News he exploited his radical views along economical, social and reform lines, con-
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sisting of single tax, free trade and control of public utilities, or payment for the same, which he has continued as the policy of the Democrat.
Edward Homer Bailey engaged with the Blakeley Printing Company, a large job office in Chicago. He then became editor of the Lake View Record, in a suburban town. and later ac- cepted a position on the editorial staff of the News in the city, In 1889 he was news editor on the Railroad Age. The next two years he was editor of the Bloomington ( Illinois) Daily Leader, a Republican journal, relinquishing that to become a part owner of the Normal (Illinois) Advocate, where he remained until he came to Johnstown.
On February 1, 1893, the brothers purchased the Daily and Weekly Democrat; the former had a circulation of about 300, and the latter 900. The Daily was a seven-column folio, with twenty-inch columns. It was a morning two-cent paper, or $5 a year subscription. In April, 1907, this daily edition has from twelve to sixteen pages, printed on a Webb perfecting press. The price was reduced to one cent on January 1. 1894, be- coming the first penny paper in the county. In 1895 they intro- duced the Merganthaler type-setting machines, and now have four. Its circulation on April 6 was 8,900, and on the opening of the baseball season it rose 700. The Weekly has about 1,100. A Sunday edition was published from October 4, 1903, to Feb- ruary 28, 1904, when it was discontinued. Warren Worth Bailey is the editor and publisher, and owns two-thirds of the plant, while Edward Homer Bailey. the associate editor, owns one- third. A cash offer of $100,000 was made for it recently.
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