History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 66

Author: Mathews, Alfred, 1852-1904. 4n
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co.
Number of Pages: 1438

USA > Pennsylvania > Monroe County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 66
USA > Pennsylvania > Pike County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 66
USA > Pennsylvania > Wayne County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 66

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This quality of chieftainship that was in him was inexplicable to men of lower organi- zation than that which made him conspicuous. Despising moral elevation, particularly in poli-

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tics, they had no accurate rule by which to measure him, and hence rated him much below his actual merits. This blunder was inevitable to men who rate expediency as the wisest guide of conduct. To them his power and influence were inexplicable; but his potentiality was none the less real. In both branches of the Legislature, in competition with men possessed of more brilliant mental gifts, he readily ac- quired and steadily held the same ascendency he maintained at home.

He was almost continuously a member and frequently chairman of the Democratic County Committee, and was sent to nearly all of the conventions and conferences, State and district, in which Wayne was entitled to representation. Twice he received the county indorsement for Congress, but failing to secure the conference ratification, was never elected to that body. He received, however, many substantial proofs of the confidence of his party in his integrity and ability and its appreciation of his services. He acted as deputy for Treasurers Chase and Seaman, and was appointed postmaster at Honesdale by President Buchanan. In 1859 he was elected to the State Legislature. In 1863 he was elected to the State Senate, and in 1869 was appointed district attorney to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Hon. W. H. Dimmick.

One result of these activities was that the legal profession became distasteful to him, and he ceased to pursue it. He gave himself up to journalism as a life-work. But therein he was kept at disadvantage by the serious impairment of a physical constitution at best not robust ; but nevertheless executed a large amount of work.

In 1871 he removed to Wilkes-Barre, hav- ing purchased an interest in the Luzerne Union. In 1883 he dissolved that connection, and started the Luzerne County Herald. His health was not adequate to the burdens he carried. Domestic bereavements followed. In January, 1886, he was constrained to relinquish business. In February he came over to his old home at Indian Orchard, where he expired on March 11th. He was buried, near his parents, in the rural cemetery which is a conspicuous feature of that vicinage.

THOMAS J. HAM was the third child of Thomas and Elizabeth Bellamy Ham (of whom see sketch elsewhere), and was born in Hones- dale, February 20, 1837. His elementary ed- ucation was received in the district schools taught by the late Benjamin W. Dennis and William G. Arnold, after which he was sent to the Honesdale Academy, and subsequently to the Wyoming Seminary at Kingston, Pa. Being a pupil at the academy when the late B. B. Smith relinquished its management, he accepted a position in the new book-store of the latter, and for some time, in connection with his du- ties as clerk, pursued his studies under the di- rection of that thorough educator. When fif- teen years of age he spent one winter as teacher of a district school at Beach Pond, after which he re-entered the academy, where he remained for about one year, his hours out of school being spent as a clerk in the Honesdale post- office. In 1853 he entered Wyoming Seminary, and while in that institution defrayed a consid- erable proportion of his expenses by acting as private secretary to the principal, Rev. Dr. Reuben Nelson, and teaching the writing class- es. In June, 1855, the second commencement honor was accorded him-that of writing the colloquy for the annual exercises. In 1856 he was given charge of the mercantile business of his father and partner, in which position he re- mained for three years. During this period he spent his spare moments in writing for newspa- pers and periodicals, including the Wayne County Herald, and in 1860, on the election of Hon. H. B. Beardslee to the Legislature, he accepted an engagement as assistant editor of that journal, at the same time filling a clerkship in the Honesdale post-office under the late Hon. Isaiah Snyder. In 1861, with the change of administration on the accession of President Lincoln, he visited Prince Edward's Island with a view to locating there in the practice of jour- nalism, but returned in the fall, and in Septem- ber, in company with Charles Menner, who had been for many years foreman of the office, purchased of the late Hon. H. B. Beardslee the Herald printing establishment. In 1865 he bought Mr. Menner's interest, and since that date has been sole editor and proprietor of the

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paper. Mr. Ham is a writer of unusual talent, versatility and range of attainments, bringing to his profession a mind broadened and enriched by extensive travel both in Europe and Amer- ica. In the various fields that engage the at- tention of the journalist he has won distinction and success, and under his management the Herald has held high rank, both as a local jour- nal and political organ. His ability is widely known in the newspaper world, and he has

Mr. Ham has ever been an ardent Democrat, and for the past quarter of a century has been almost continuously a member of the Democratic Executive Committee of the county, besides be- ing frequently a delegate to the county conven- tions, district conferences and State conventions of the party. He held the office of bank as- sessor for the Senatorial district for three succes- ive terms immediately preceding the change in the law for the collection of the tax on banks.

had frequent opportunities of forming a con- nection with the editorial staff of some of the leading metropolitan publications, but has uni- formly declined them, though acting as an oc- casional contributor. He was the pioneer in the field of historical research in Wayne County, and in 1870 published an outline of local history of much interest and value, a sum- mary of which was embodied in Dr. Egle's " History of Pennsylvania," published in 1876.

In 1874 he was nominated for the Legisla- ture in the Wayne and Pike District. Local dissensions between the Democracy of the two counties, however, originating in 1871, and fol- lowed in 1873 by an almost fatal difference, broke out in open rupture soon after his nomi- nation. A portion of the Democracy of Pike placed E. B. Eldred, of that county, in nomi- nation as an opposing candidate, and this di- vision of the party vote proved fatal to Demo-

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cratic success, Thomas Y. Boyd, of Wayne, the Republican candidate, being elected by a small plurality. With these exceptions, and occasional local preferment, he has never held nor sought political office.

For twenty-two consecutive years, Mr. Ham has been secretary of the Wayne County Agri- cultural Society, and for nine years has also been its treasurer. In these positions he has shown an efficiency that has contributed much to its success.

March 5, 1863, Mr. Ham was married to Laura E., daugliter of the late Zachariah Pad- dock, D.D. Eugene P., aged twenty-one, and William W., aged fourteen, are thie surviving children of this union. A daughter, Lizzie, died in 1871, in the fourth year of her age.

Appended are two specimens of Mr. Ham's verse,-

THE FAITHFUL HEART.

An eagle, soaring to the sky, Feels in his breast the archer's dart ; He flutters, wounded, down to die : So sinks my heart !

The thrush, forsaken by his mate, Shrinks from the gleesome flock apart, And silently bewails his fate : So pines my heart!

The timid deer stops in the chase : He bleeds from ev'ry cruel smart ; No more for him the wild-wood race: So bleeds my heart !

The famished camel sees, at last, Oases green or Arab mart ; Yet sinks he 'neath the Simoon's blast : So longs my heart !

The faithful hound falls on the sands ; His blow defies the healer's art : He crawls and licks the smiter's hands : Thus true my heart !

Let eagles die, and throstles mourn ; The deer no more from hunters start :

Oh ! perish all ; but do not scorn My faithful heart !

NOTHING IN VAIN.

I stood amid a throng. There came A wrinkled crone adown the street ;

Unknown to me the poor thing's name, Or whither bent her ill-shod feet.

I only saw her weary form,

Her down-cast eyes, her furrowed cheek ; Her shoulders, bent by many a storm, Her trembling footsteps, slow and weak :

I noted how the well-dressed crowd Withdrew their skirts to pass her by ; I caught the insults of the proud ; I heard the poor old mother's sigh.

Then hot within my heart I felt The fires of scorn and anger glow : Why thus, thought I, has Fortune dealt ? Why should the saints be martyred so ?

I had no gift of gold to dole ---- A hard and pinching life I live -- And so I gave the poor old soul A smile-the best I had to give.

'Twas little, and it cost me naught : Think you the smallest gifts are vain ?

I know that simple impulse brought The richest blessings in its train.

For, though the gray-haired mother took No seeming notice of my eye, A low " God bless you for the look !" She whispered, as she passed me by.

And since that day 'tis mine to know- Through something sacred in me stirred- That the Eternal Book will show The martyr's grateful prayer was heard.

Reverting from the present, whither we have followed the Herald, to the cotemporaries of its youth, we find them upon the Whig side of politics. An abortive attempt was made to start a Whig journal in May, 1836, when a prospectus was issued by E. C. McCray, of Doylestown, to publish the Wayne Telegraph, in Bethany. It was to advocate the election of Harrison and Granger for President and Vice- President. A sufficient number of subscribers was not secured to encourage him to commence its publication.

In the summer or autumn of 1837, as the Herald, which was conducted wholly in the in- terest of the Democratic party, was the only paper published in the county, Paul S. Preston decided to have a paper published in Bethany which should sustain the policy of the Whig party. He either had previously procured, or then procured, a supply of suitable type, and arranged with Richard Nugent, an experienced

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WAYNE, PIKE AND MONROE COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA.

printer, who, with Richard Mogridge,1 (a nephew of Mrs. Preston), were to publish a paper en- titled The Wayne County Free Press and Beth- any and Honesdale Advertiser. The first number was issued on the 2d of January, 1838.

The size of the printed page of the Free Press when its publication was commenced was only twelve and one-half by eighteen inches, being as large as could be printed on the old Ramage press. In July, 1838, Mr. Preston procured a new press, and the size of the page was then increased to fifteen by nineteen and one-half inches.

Mr. Nugent continued in charge of the paper to the end of the second volume, January, 1840, when he went to Stroudsburg. The Free Press was then published by William F. Rogers, with P. G. Goodrich to assist in the editorial depart- ment.

In April, 1840, the publication office of this paper was removed to Honesdale, and located in the old hotel building where Liberty Hall now stands.

During the Presidential campaign of 1840 it was active and efficient in the support of Gen- eral Harrison, who was elected.

In the formation of President Harrison's Cabinet, Francis Granger was made Postmaster- General ; and in June, 1841, he appointed Mr. Rogers postmaster of Honesdale, and the emoluments of that office together with those of the newspaper enabled him to continue the publication of the Free Press.

President Harrison died a few weeks after his inauguration, and Vice-President Tyler succeeded him as President. Mr. Tyler soon thereafter affiliated with the Democrats, and changed his entire Cabinet, giving the office of Postmaster-General to Charles A. Wickliffe, who, in October, 1842, removed Mr. Rogers from his office of postmaster, and appointed a Democrat in his stead. The publication of the Free Press thereafter ceased.

The Beechwoodsman was the successor of the Free Press. In November, 1842, Edward L. Wolf, of Easton, a son of ex-Governor

Wolf, arranged to join Mr. Rogers, and they issued a prospectus for publishing, in Hones- dale, a paper to be called The Beechwoodsman, to be independent in politics. Under the name of Rogers & Wolf they commenced its publi- cation on January 1, 1843, and so continued it until the spring of 1844, when Mr. Rogers withdrew, and Mr. Wolf alone continued its publication a few months longer, and it was then suspended. At the outbreak of the late war Mr. Rogers raised the Twenty-fifth Regi- ment of New York Volunteers, marched to the front from Buffalo, and afterward became brigadier-general of volunteers. He still re- sides in Buffalo.

This paper was published from the same office that had been occupied by the Free Press.

Mr. Preston furnished the press and types for both the Free Press and Beechwoodsman as long as they were published ; and without doubt he made greater effort and expended more of capital to sustain a Whig paper in this county than any other citizen of Wayne County.

The Honesdale Democrat, which by process of evolution became the Citizen of the present, was issued first in 1844 as a Democrat-Whig journal. After the nomination of Clay and Frelinghuysen by the Whig Convention, in 1844, as their candidates for President and Vice- President, it was deemed advisable by some of the active Whigs of Wayne County to have an arrangement made by which articles in the in- terest of their candidate could be placed before the people, and a committee was appointed to make arrangements for that purpose.

The Herald was then published by John I. Allen as the Democratic paper. The committee entered into negotiation with Mr. Allen for the use, each week, for six months, of not exceeding two columns of his paper, in which he should print such articles as the Whig Committee should furnish, but none of these articles to be abusive in style. The sum to be paid to Mr. Allen was. agreed upon, and the committee supposed the contract satisfactory on both sides. But when the terms of the contract were written out to be signed by the parties, Mr. Allen insisted on being allowed to use his discretion as to the printing, in his paper, of the articles thus

1 Mogridge died in Philadelphia, March 21, 1858.

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furnished to him. This resulted in the entire failure of the proposed arrangement, and the committee recommended that an effort be made immediately to have a Whig paper started.

Mr. Francis B. Penniman, then of Bingham- ton, N. Y., was recommended to them as a suit- able person to conduct such a paper, and a messenger was at once sent to Binghamton to lay the matter before him and request him to come to Honesdale and see what could be done. His visit to Honesdale resulted in his conclud- ing to issue a prospectus immediately, for the publication, in Honesdale, of the Honesdale Democrat, to commence in September.

To indemnify him against loss for the first year, conditional subscriptions were made by sundry of the patrons, amounting, in the aggre- gate, to several hundred dollars, and Mr. Pres- ton agreed that for that year his press and type might be used for the printing without charge.

The room used for the printing was the lower floor of R. H. Dunning's building, on Main Street, third door above the Honesdale National Bank, and second door below what is now C. A. Cortright's store.

The first number of the paper was issued on the 17th of September, 1844, the printed sur- face of each page being fifteen by twenty and a half inches. It contained a brief but character- istic declaration of the editor's views in the fol- lowing

" SALUTATORY.

" Custom has made it necessary for an editor, at the commencement of his labors, to state what prin- ciples he will advocate, and what measures uphold. I shall do so briefly.

" I am a Democratic Whig in thought, feeling and purpose. The distinctive measures of the Whig party are, in my opinion, essential not only to the pros- perity of the country but the perpetuity, of its institu- tions. So believing, I shall use all fair and honorable means to commend them to the acceptance of my readers.

" I shall aim to make the Democrat a useful family paper-a welcome visitor to all circles.

" A stranger to all but a few of the inhabitants of this county, it does not become me to say more of myself. The public will make its own judgment of my course as an editor, as time shall afford oppor- tunity.

" F. B. PENNIMAN.

After the close of the first year Mr. F. B. Penniman continued to edit and publish the Democrat on' his own responsibility until the close of the thirteenth volume, and he had the credit, among his Whig'contemporaries, of mak- ing it as respectable and efficient as any coun- try paper in the State, and, in fact, in giving it a prominence and weight in moulding public opinion and affairs such as is seldom equaled by a journal outside of a State metropolis or political centre. The editor exercised the same ready, wide knowledge, the same devotion to principle and the same clear, incisive quality in writing which years afterwards became better known when he was the editor of the Pittsburgh Gazette, and a man of marked force in State and national politics.

In 1856 Mr. Penniman purchased the build- ing in which his paper was printed, and it re- mained the publishing office of the paper until the removal into the office now occupied as the Citizen office.

At the commencement of the fourteenth vol- ume, on the 2d of September, 1857, his son, Ed- ward A. Penniman, who had, in his father's office, been obtaining a thorough knowledge of the art of printing, was admitted as a partner in the business, and the fourteenth volume was published by F. B. Penniman & Son.

At the close of the fourteenth volume, on 25th August, 1858, E. A. Penniman purchased his father's interest in the concern and became sole proprietor, editor and publisher, and so continued, with no change in the name or size of the paper, until Jannary, 1864. On the 18th of January, 1864, he changed the name of the paper to The Republic, and enlarged it by in- creasing the length of each column one inch, making the printed surface of each page fifteen by eleven and one-half inches, and it so con- tinued to June, 1868.

To this date all the printing had been done on the press purchased by Panl S. Prestou, thirty years previously, for use in Bethany.

In June, 1868, a large addition was made to the capital invested, in office material for print- ing, and a new, larger and greatly-improved power-press was procured, and a larger assort- ment and greatly-increased stock of type and

"Sept. 17, 1844."

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WAYNE, PIKE AND MONROE COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA

other material purchased. On the 18th of that month the name of the paper was again changed to the Wayne Citizen, and the size of the sheet increased to twenty-eight by forty-two inches, and the printed page to nineteen and one- quarter by twenty-five and three-quarters inches, which are its present dimensions.

When C. C. Jadwin and S. A. Terrel erected their brick stores on the corner of Main and Eighth Streets, in 1868, an arrangement was

While undergoing several changes of name the paper has remained entirely unchanged in political tone, espousing Republicanism as a natural progression from Whig principles.

FRANCIS BLAIR PENNIMAN, the founder, and for many years the editor, of the Democrat (now the Citizen), is a representative of the seventh generation of a family which settled in New England over two hundred and fifty years ago. His paternal ancestor, James Penniman, born

Fat benniman.

made with them to furnish large and convenient ( in England in the year 1600, arrived, with his rooms on their second floor for the publication of the Citizen, and on the 1st of May, 1869, the publishers removed into the rooms thus pro- vided.

On the 12th of June, 1873, the name of the paper was once more changed to the Honesdale Citizen, and it has since been edited and pub- lished under that title by Henry Wilson and E. A. Penniman.

wife, Lydia, in Boston, in 1628. He was one of the first men of the colony, not merely in the chronological sense, but in steady independence of thought and principle, in power of action and in worth and prominence of character, for he was one of the fifty men proscribed by the Gen- eral Court, May 17, 1637, in what is known his- torically as the Antinomian controversy,-one of the fifty men whom Bancroft characterizes as

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WAYNE COUNTY.

" the first apostles on this continent of the right of private judgment in matters of religion,"- and he was one of the founders of Braintree and the town of Mendon.1

1 Of the first generation of Mr. Penniman's ancestors in America was James Penniman, who was born in England in 1600, and settled, with his wife, Lydia, in Boston, in 1628. Admitted a freeman March 6, 1631. He was one of the fifty men proscribed by the General Court, May 17, 1637, in the Antino- mian controversy, led by Anne Hutchinson, of which Ban- croft gives a full account in the first volume of his his- tory. (He says those fifty men were the first apostles on this continent of the right of private judgment in mat- ters of religion.) Soon after that proscription he, William Cheesebrooke, Alexander Winchester and Richard Wright made a bargain with the General Court, whereby they sur- rendered their lands in Boston for the right to lay out a new plantation, ten miles square, between Dorchester and Plymouth, to be known as Braintree. From this town were afterwards set off the towns of Quincy, Holbrook and Randolph, James settled in the part now known as Quincy, and at his death left three tracts of land, one of which passed to John Adams, the year of his marriage, and in the old house, still standing, was born his son, John Q. Adams. May 10, 1643, he was appointed justice of the peace for Braintree. "Colonial Records," vol. iv., Part I., p. 455, states that he, with Gregory Belcher, Theo- dore Mekins, Robert Twelves and Peter Brackett were the men to whom permission was given to lay out the town of Mendon. He died December 26, 1664. Will dated De- cember 18, 1664, and probated January 1, 1665.

Second Generation .- Deacon Joseph Penniman, fourth child of James and Lydia, born in Braintree August 1, 1639. Married, in 1664, Waiting Robinson, daughter of William Robinson, of Dorchester. She died August 20, 1690, and, May 10, 1693, he married Widow Sarah Stone, daughter of Deacon Samuel Bass, of Braintree. He died November 5, 1705, while his wife, Sarah, survived to be one hundred years old.

Third Generation .- Moses Penniman, fourth child of Joseph and Waiting, born in Braintree February 14, 1677. Married Mary -. His will dated July 19, 1718, proved August 28, 1718, and provides for son Moses to be brought up at college.

Fourth Generation .- Moses Penniman, sixth child of Moses and Mary, born in Braintree June 1, 1715. He was married, April 17, 1737, by Rev. Dr. Cutler, of Christ's Church, Boston, to Rebecca Edmunds.

Fifth Generation .- William Penniman, fifth child of Moses and Rebecca, born in Braintree July 10, 1743. He was married, June 12, 1769, by Rev. William Walter, of Christ's Church, Boston, to Catharine Hivell. He died in North Adams, Mass., 1809.

Sixth Generation. - William Penniman, third child of William and Catharine, born in Braintree April 12, 1771. Married, December 6, 1801, Arethusa Parmenter, daugh- ter of John Newton Parmenter, of Chester, Mass. She died August 17, 1837. He died January 10, 1856.

Seventh Generation .- Francis B. Penniman.

On his mother's side, Mr. Penniman is de- scended from Robert Parmenter who was born in England in 1626, and immigrating to Amer- ica, settled in Braintree in 1648, and was ad- mitted a freeman May 2, 1650.2

His parents were William Penniman (of the sixth generation from James) and Arethusa Parmenter, his wife (of the sixth generation from Robert Parmenter). They were married December 6, 1801, and resided at Utica, N. Y., where our subject, their fourth son, was born November 13, 1812.

The boyhood and youth of Francis B. Pen- niman were spent in his native town, and in 1826, when he was fourteen years of age, he en- tered a printing-office (Hastings & Tracy's) and began in the humblest way the career he was to follow, actively and long and effectively. In 1834 he removed to Cleveland, Ohio, and was

2 On his mother's side Francis B. Penniman is descended as follows :

First Generation. - Robert Parmenter, born in England in 1626. Admitted a freeman May 2, 1650, after settle- ment in Braintree, which was in 1648. He married Leah Sanders, daughter of Martin Sanders, of Braintree. He died June 27, 1695, aged seventy-four years, and she March 24, 1706, aged eighty-six years.

Second Generation .- Deacon Joseph Parmenter, first child of Robert and Leah, born in Braintree, October 22, 1658. Married Mary Marsh, November 17, 1675. He fell dead in the pulpit, during Sunday service, February 20, 1737, aged eighty-two years.

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History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 66

Author: Mathews, Alfred, 1852-1904. 4n Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co. Number of Pages: 1438

Author: Mathews, Alfred, 1852-1904. 4n
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co.
Number of Pages: 1438