USA > Pennsylvania > Lehigh County > History of the counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Pt. 1 > Part 43
USA > Pennsylvania > Carbon County > History of the counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Pt. 1 > Part 43
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The first English journal in the county was the Lehigh Centinel, established in June, 1817, by Charles 1 .. Hutter. It was a small five-column sheet, of Dem- ocratie proelivities, and bore the brave motto,-
"Ilore shall the press the people's rights proclaim, Unawed by influence and mubribed by gain."
On Nov. 6, 1820, it was announced that Charles L. Hutter having been elected sheriff of Lehigh County, and having relinquished the printing business in con- sequence thereof, the Centine/ would be published by the editor of the Euston Centinel, Christian J. Intter. The paper was continned ouly two or three years, as there were not a sufficient number of English readers to give it requisite support.
The Allentown Democrat began life as the Lehigh Bulletin, in 1837, and is now the oldest English news- paper in the county. John Royer, the founder of the Bulletin, issued a specimen sheet on a Wednesday in January, 1837, and circulated it gratuitously. He said, editorially. "Being sensibly aware that many who have an inclination to subscribe for an English paper to be located in Allentown would prefer seeing its number, size, quality, and probable contents. Un- der these impressions we present you with this sheet, fondly hoping that it may meet with your approba- tion and support" (sic).
Mr. Royer proposed to issue the paper "as early in the spring as it was possible for him to bring his printing-office from Philadelphia by canal." The first regular issue was made April 26, 1837. The paper was a very fair specimen of the "art preserva- tive of all arts," and was a six-column quarto. The subscription price was two dollars per annum, which, in proportion to size and quality, was dearer than twenty dollars would now be for the Democrat. In his salutatory Mr. Royer forecast the policy of the paper as follows:
" Aware of the futility of promises, it is the intention of the subscriber to make as few as the nature of this prospectus will adinit. Let it suf- fice, then, to say that the Bulletin will be conducted on him and decided Democratic principles ; and when public men and measures are noticed, it will be in a spirit of moderation and candor. We shall always give the earliest foreign and domestic intelligence. The proceedings of Con- gress and our State Legislature will receive our early attention. The approaching convention for the purpose of altering and improving our State Constitution, which has created much anxiety among the people, their proceedings, speeches, etc., we shall give at length. Education and agriculture will receive a conspicuous share of the paper. A rea- sonable portion of its columns will be devoted to joenlaity, morality, satire, sportive notes, anecdotes, physic, philosophy, history, poetry, etc., in short, everything which can interest or amuse the hearts and minds of this great, hee, and reading nation, A number of the above-men- tioned subjects will be occasionally illustrated hy splendid cuts furnished by an able artist."
The remaining history of this journal is brief, as there are bnt few changes of proprietorship to be recorded. Mr. Royer, after conducting the Bulletin a few years, changed its name to the Democrat, and in August, 1847, a little over ten years from the time he had established it, he sold the property to James Raf- ferty and Mr. Hannum. In August, 1850, Mr. Han- num purchased his partner's interest, and he then car- ried on the Democrat as sole proprietor until July 1, 1859. Upon that date C. Frank Haines and Augustus L. Ruhe bought the paper, the latter being a silent partner, though he took a prominent part in the busi- ness and editorial management. The paper had de- teriorated in quality and lost patronage, both from that reason and the additional one that the editor had not been in accord with the prevailing sentiment of the party. The new proprietors began the arduous task of building up a reputation for the Democrat, and by judieious management and industrious applica- tion succeeded not only in regaining all that had been lost but in advancing the paper to a condition of pros- perity far beyond any before attained. On July 1, 1865, Augustus L. Ruhe sold his interest to his son, Werner K. Ruhe, who has since been and is now associ- ated with Mr. Haines under the firm-name of Haines & Ruhe. Mr. Haines, upon whom the editorial work chiefly devolves, evidently is a firm believer in the iloetrine that eternal vigilance is the price of a good newspaper, and in the Democrat has set an example which is worthy the emulation of all proprietors of weekly local journals. He has made everything else secondary to the presentation, in the most readable form, of local news, and each number of the paper is the history of a week's local happenings and of all that is especially interesting to the people of Lehigh County and adjacent territory. By constaut watch- fulness and work the Democrat has been made a model local newspaper, and its circulation runs up to the remarkably high figure of three thousand copies per week.
Angustus L. Ruhe, for several years one of the pro- prictors of the Democrat, and the founder of the Keyis- ter, is of an old Allentown family. John F. Ruhe, the son of John Christopher Ruhe, and the grandfather of Augustus L., was born in Nordheim, in the Elec-
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HISTORY OF LEHIGH COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
torate of Hanover, on the 25th of November, 1745, and emigrated to America in 1790. He was married in St. George's Church, London, on the 14th of Au- gust, 1777, to Catherine Maria Henrietta Mackenrode. ITis death oceurred in Allentown, July 27, 1841. Ilis children were four sons and three daughters, of whom John F. was born in London, England, on the 19th of May, 1778, and emigrated with his father to the United States. He married Catherine Keiper and had twelve children. By marriage to a second wife, Elizabeth Kramer, were born eleven children. Among the twelve survivors of this progeny is Augustus L., born Sept. 23, 1809, in Allentown, where his life has been chiefly spent. After limited advantages of edu- cation he, in 1823, entered the office of the Friedens Bote as apprentice to the printers' trade. After serv- ing an apprenticeship of seven years he removed to Philadelphia and found employment in the first stereotype foundry in that city, where he remained until 1831. On returning to his native eity he for two years performed the labors of a clerk, and then engaged in mercantile pursuits at Mauch Chunk. Returning to Allentown at the expiration of a year, he embarked in the same business. In 1840 he was appointed postmaster under the administration of President Harrison, and retained the office nearly four years. Mr. Ruhe in 1844 acquired an interest in the German Patriot, which he later sold and estab- lished the Lehigh Register. After a successful career of eight years as publisher, the latter paper was dis- posed of, and he embarked in the boot and shoe business. In 1859 he returned again to his former employment, and purchased the office and equip- ments of the Allentown Democrat, taking as a partner his son-in-law, C. Frank Haines. This business as- sociation was continued for eight years, when the in- terest was transferred to his son, Werner K. Ruhe, and Mr. Ruhe retired from the firm. He was soon after appointed clerk in the office of internal revenue, and in 1869 elected clerk of the Orphans' Court, to which position he was re-elected in 1872, after which he abandoned active business pursuits. He has been as a Democrat actively engaged in political contests of the day. He is in religion a Lutheran, and mem- ber of St. Michael's German Lutheran Church of Allentown. Mr. Ruhe was married, in 1832, to De- borah Gangewere, of Allentown, and had one child, who is deceased. He was again married, in 1835, to Adeline Knauss, of Lehigh County, whose children are Emma C. (Mrs. C. F. Haines), Werner K., Maria, (Mrs. Levi Nickum), Henry M., Josephine (Mrs. J. II. Addis), Annie (Mrs. William Dutt), Franklin A., and three who are deceased. He was a third time married, in 1865, to Harriet Kleckner, of Northamp- ton County.
C. Frank Haines, the present editor of the Demo- crat, is a great-grandson of John Wilhelm Haintz, who emigrated from Zweibrueckeu, Bavaria, in 1751, and settled in Upper Macungie, Lehigh Co., where he
followed his trade of tailor. Having acquired about five hundred acres of land, he also engaged in its cul- tivation. He married and had among his children a son, Peter, who inherited the paternal acres, and was during his active life both a merchant and a farmer. Ile married Barbara Becker, and had children, -- Jacob, Joseph, James, Charles B., William, Jona- than, Thomas, Elizabeth ( Mrs. Joseph Trexler), and one who died in infancy. Charles B. was born in Upper Macungie, and early learned the trade of a shoemaker, which he followed in various portions of Lehigh County nntil 1838, when he removed to Al- lentown. Here his services were in demand in con- nection with his trade until 1859, when he was elected sheriff of Lehigh County for one term. He married Leah, daughter of Jonathan Schwartz, of Lower Ma- cungie township, and had children,-C. Frank, Si- mon, Mary (Mrs. William S. Esser), Eliza J., and Allen W. C. Frank, the eldest of this number, was born on the 24th of January, 1832, in Macungie bor- ough, then known as Millerstown, and when a youth removed to Trexlertown, where he became a pupil of the village school. In 1888 be accompanied his pa- rents to Allentown, and there continued his studies at both public and private schools. At the age of fourteen he chose as his life-work the printers' art, and served a four-years' apprenticeship in the office of the Lehigh Register. On acquiring his trade he re- mained associated with the paper as compositor until April, 1850, when a larger field was opened in Phila- delphia, where he remained until 1854. During the summer of that year he, in connection with a partner, purchased the Register, and, returning to Allentown, continued its publication under the firm-name of Haines & Diefenderfer. This business association was continued until 1856, when, upon the retirement of Mr. Diefenderfer, the firm became Haines & Huber. Having disposed of his interest in the paper, in 1859, he, with his father-in-law, A. L. Ruhe, purchased the Allentown Democrat, and has continued its publi- cation until the present time, W. K. Ruhe having in the year 1865 purchased the interest of his father. Mr. Haines, by his ability and judgment, has sne- ceeded in making the Demoerat one of the most en- terprising journals of the Lehigh Valley. Bright, able, and apace with current events, it is justly popn- lar among the adherents of the party whose princi- ples it advocates.
Mr. Haines, having from the first devoted his atten- tion to the interests of his paper, has found little time for participation in affairs of a public nature. In re- ligion he is a member of St. John's Reformed Church. He was married, Dec. 31, 1861, to Emma C., eldest daughter of A. L. Ruhe, of Allentown. Their chil- dren are two daughters,-Ida R. and Sallie A.
The Lecha Patriot, a German paper, originally an Anti-Masonic and then successively a Whig and Re- publican journal, was started in 1827 or 1828 by John D. Roney, an English lawyer, who came to Allentown
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THE CITY OF ALLENTOWN.
from Bucks County. After he had conducted it about two years the Patriot passed into the possession of Alexander Miller. Subsequently it, was owned and managed by G. A. Sage, Reuben Guth, and Edwin Keiper. Then followed a long series of changes which it is not necessary to dwell upon in detail. John II. Helfrich and Judge Charles Keek were asso- ciated in the ownership and management of the paper, and William S. Young, Benjamin J. Hagenbuch, Tilghman Rhoads, Joseph Young, and Ephraim Moss were all identified with it. The last persons who were proprietors of the Patriot as a separate and dis- tinet property were William H. Ainey, John L. Hofhinan, and Edward Ruhe, who sold it in June, 1872, to Robert Iredell, Jr. Ile soon merged it with the Register, of which we shall now give the history.
The Lehigh Register was established by Augustus L. Ruhe in October, 1846, and was carried on by him very successfully as a neutral newspaper until 185-4. In that year he sold it to C. Frank Haines and David K. Diefenderfer. It was by them made a Whig paper, and subsequently (in 1856) became a supporter of the Republican party. Mr. Diefenderfer soon sold his interest to Peter Huber. The paper was then published by Haines & Huber until 1859, when Mr. Haines sold his share to Jolin H. Oliver, Esq., an able and popular lawyer, who became a candidate for Con- gress in 1870, and almost succeeded in overcoming the large Democratic majority of the district. Huber & Oliver continued in partnership until 1861, after which date the latter conducted the paper alone for a short period. Subsequently it passed successively into the possession of William H. Aincy, Ephraim Moss, and Elisha Forest; from the last named being purchased in December, 1868, by Morgan R. Wills and Robert Iredell, Jr., proprietors of the Norris- town Herald and Free Press. In the following May Mr. Iredell sold his interest in his Norristown news- paper property, and assumed the sole proprietorship of the Register. As has been before stated, Mr. Ire- dell purchased the Patriot in June, 1872. It was conducted by him through the campaign, and in December united with the Register, which, thus rein- forced, has been prosperously carried on during the succeeding years. Mr. Iredell became connected with the Norristown Free Press in 1864, and has been a newspaper proprietor since the age of twenty years. The Register, which is the older of his two Allentown newspapers, is a well-edited weekly devoted princi- pally to city and country news, and is a typographi- cally neat sheet twenty-eight by forty-two inches in dimensions, divided into four pages of eight columns each.
The Chronicle and News is the outcome of three dis- tinet journalistic enterprises. Of these the first, chrono- logically, was the Daily News, established as a neutral journal in 1866, by Peter Correll. It was soon after- wards bought by Harlacher & Weiser, who continued the publication for a number of years, with Mr. Cor-
rell as editor, and subsequently with T. B. Leisenring, E. J. Young, and T. F. Emmens in the same capacity. After a short interval of suspension the paper was sold, in 1874, to the Daily News Association, composed of Adam Woolever, Eli G. Schwartz, and Werner K. Ruhe. The paper remained under this proprietorship and the editorship of Daniel B. Wood, now of the Easton Free Press, until March 19, 1875, when it was sold to Robert Iredell, Jr., proprietor of the Daily Chronicle, with which it was merged.
The Daily Chronicle had been started by Mr. Ire- dell, March 3, 1870, in response to requests from many local leaders of the Republican party, who saw the necessity of having a journalistic champion of the principles of Republicanismo. It was at first a five- column sheet, and was sold for ten cents per week, but this price was subsequently reduced to six cents per week, for the purpose of extending the circulation of the paper. This measure proved a wise one, and con- siderably enhanced the value of the property. The effect of merging the News with the Chronich, 1875, was to increase the circulation to eighteen hun- dred copies. The paper was enlarged and the price was then raised to ten cents per week.
In November, 1877, the Daily Herald was purchased and merged with the Chronicle and News. This was a paper which had been started upon an independent platform, in 1873, by a company composed of T. F. Emmens, A. C. Brooks, and D. D. Hohbr. a . Mr. Emmens. as editor. The Herald soon becy. Democratic in its politics, and Robert E. Wright, Jr., Edward Harvey, Esq., J. H. Holmes, and Tinsley Jeter became interested in its ownership. Consider- able money was sunk in the effort to sustain the Her- uld, but it gradually failed, and would probably have soon expired, in spite of frequent financial stimula- tion, bad it not been absorbed by the Chronicle and News.
The last-named journal is now the only Republican daily in the valley, and thus has quite a wide field to fill. The paper is, and has been, edited with ability, and is a strong exponent of Republican politics as well as a valuable medium for the dissemination of local and general news. There have been connected with the paper several locally well known editors, among them Thomas T. Emmens, now of the Easton Express; Joseph L. Shipley, now of the Springfield Union; and D. B. Wood, of the Easton Free Press. The present local editor is Frank J. Sherer.
The first number of the Daily City Hem was issued on Jan. 1, 1878, the paper succeeding the Morning Herald. The enterprise was projected by five young men, three of whom were practical printers. It met with indifferent success in the beginning, and was kept alive with difficulty, as the young men who had launched the enterprise were without capital, and were compelled to rely upon their business taet and energies to make it a success. The paper, being Democratic in politics, took a leading part in the
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HISTORY OF LEHIGH COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
eampaigns that followed, and the importance of having an outspoken and fearless party daily was at once recognized by the prominent Democrats of the eity and county. On the 10th of May, 1880, the in- terest of Robert W. Vogt and Charles M. Kramer in the paper was purchased by Cyrus Kuntz and C. J. A. Hartman, who, together with Oscar Swartz, are now the proprietors of it. Since then the paper has steadily gained in circulation and advertising patron- age. The City Item was published as a morning paper until after Nov. 24, 1883, when, having ab- sorbed the Daily Telegram, it was made an evening publication. It is the only Democratie daily in the connty, and gives a large amount of local and general news.
The Telegram above alluded to was started in June, 1882, by two sons of the late Edward D. Leisenring, the popular German editor. The paper failed to get such support as was necessary to put it upon a paying basis, and after it had passed under the management of three different parties was purchased by the Item Printing Association as above recorded.
The junior journal of Allentown is the Daily Critic. It was started by Samuel Woolever, its present pro- prietor, as a weekly, on May 26, 1883. The venture was so successful that the paper was soon enlarged from three to four columns, and on Dec. 7, 1883, it was issued as a five-column daily. The Critic is neutral in politics, and devoted principally to local news, and comment upon the same.
Besides the publications already mentioned, which include all of a news and secular character now ex- isting, there have been a number of journals of ephrem- eral life, concerning which we can make only general mention. Among them, and probably the earliest, was a small German-English paper, printed at the Republikaner office, by Charles L. Hutter. The Lehigh Democrat led a ten weeks' existence in 1843. About the same time, or a little later, Elias Keiper published for a short period, from the Patriot office, a small Eng- lish journal. In later years there was the Evening Disputeb, which had a brief career during the later part of the decade preceding 1870. This venture in daily journalism was made by William J. Grim, William J. Weiss, and A. J. Helfrich, but the paper had as its final owner Elisha Forest. The Bulletin, an afternoon paper, neutral in politics, was published by Daniel B. Wood for a few months during 1875. Mr. Wood was also, in company with William P. Snyder and A. S. Orr, engaged in the publication of the Bugle, a Republican campaign paper, in 1877.
Washington, Pa., there to learn the trade of tinsmith. His inclinations led another way, and after some in- terruptions he began preparation for the ministry. After completion of studies he was ordained in 1847, and received into the Lutheran Synod of Pennsyl- vania. Delicate health prevented him from accepting a charge, and he assisted other clergymen as supply, taking much interest in the establishment of Sunday- schools, then a new thing in this section of country. This led to the publishing of one or two small Ger- man question books or catechisms. In June, 1847, he published the first number of a German monthly (Der Jugendfreund ) intended for young people par- ticularly, then the only paper in German of this char- aeter in the land. This periodical then intended particularly to meet local wants has become the main German Lutheran Sunday-school paper of the land, and circulates wherever there are German schools. In 1853 he issued the first Lutheran Almanac pub- lished in America, in German, which still maintain> its superiority over its many competitors which have arisen in later years. Finding that the Jugendfreund. did not reach some classes of people, Mr. Brobst, in 1858, began publishing the Lutherische Zeitschrift, a semi-monthly Lutheran Church paper, which became a weekly in 1866. In 1865 he established an English Lutheran Almanac, which was transferred after four years to another party in Philadelphia. For nine years he published a German missionary paper, and during the war for two years a paper for the soldiers in the army, which was distributed by the Christian Commission by thousands of copies. In 1868 he com- meneed to publish a more pretentious periodical, the Theological Monthly, in German, which he con- tinned for six years, but owing to increasing infirmi- ties he discontinued it at the end of 1874, as he had the missionary paper several years before, confining him- self afterwards to his monthly Jugendfreund and weekly Zeitschrift with the annual Almanac. During these years he published a number of smaller books with several of larger compass, intended principally for church and school use. As the year 1876 drew to a close Rev. Brobst sueenmbed to his old enemy, con- sumption, and died on the 24th of December.
The business, after the death of Rev. Brobst, was taken in hand by Tilghman H. Diehl, who, in 1861, entered Mr. Brobst's employ as apprentice to learn the printing trade. After serving him as such for three years, Diehl took charge of subscription ac- eounts, etc., and to the limited number of publica- tions added some stock from other publishing houses in the line of Sunday-school requisites. He thus grew up in the business and with it, soon having entire control of the business part of the concern. In 1872 he was admitted by Mr. Brobst as partner, when a new building for the purpose had been com- pleted by him, and under his superintendence the business was branched out into a local retail book-
The religious publications of Messrs. Brobst, Diehl & Co., both in periodical and book form, deserve more than passing mention in a sketch of the Allen- town press. The firm was founded by Rev. Samuel K. Brobst, who was born in Lynn, Lehigh Co., in 1822, and descended from forefathers who came from Germany carly in the eighteenth century. When fourteen years old he made the journey by stage to | and stationery-store, later extended to jobbing and
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THE CITY OF ALLENTOWN.
wholesale trading. The business has continued to grow, and three years after Mr. Brobst's death, Mr. Diehl removed to the present more central location at 732 Hamilton Street ( formerly 814), where the entire building is now occupied in the business.
In 1882, Mr. Diehl associated with him Mr. Samuel J. Brobst, son of the founder, who had been in . its circulation into other States, until it has become a the business since he left school. All the period- ieal publications have been continued by the present owners as they came into their hands after Mr. Brobst's death. In 1879 the Lutherische Herald, owned and published by the New York Lutheran Ministerium, was merged with the Lutherische Zeit- schrift, the paper receiving the joint title of Herald und Zeitschrift, giving it a strong impetus and causing it rapidly to gain in subscribers ever since. This house has also much inereased the list of its publications, more than doubling the number of books on its lists. Several large works have been completed lately. The most pretentious publication yet undertaken by it is the republishing of the so-called " Halle Reports," in German, the original appearing more than a century ago and containing the reports of Rev. M. H. Muh- lenberg, the founder of the Lutheran Church in Amer- CHAPTER XIX. Educational and Religious-The Public Schools and Higher Institu- THE CITY OF ALLENTOWN-(Continued). tions-Ilistory of the Individual Churches. iea, which he sent to his superiors in Halle, Germany. They are rich in historical matter, civil as well as religious. The new edition is in contents more than double of the original, much historical matter ex- plaining circumstances and localities mentioned being added by the editors, -Revs. W. J. Mann, D.D., and B. M. Schmucker, D.D. Five numbers, of one lmn- dred pages each, have thus far appeared, and the cont- plete work will make at least four times as much more. Others of the larger works published are a " Commen- tary of St. Mark" in English, an illustrated " Bible His- tory" in German, a "Sunday-School Tune-Book" in German, etc. By virtue of its connections through its papers the house has become one of the main job- bing-houses for the Lutheran Church, and has always enjoyed a sort of semi-ofheial recognition as such. Extensive importations of church literature are made from Germany.
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