Jefferson County, Pennsylvania : her pioneers and people, 1800-1915, Volume I, Part 53

Author: McKnight, W. J. (William James), 1836-1918
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers
Number of Pages: 650


USA > Pennsylvania > Jefferson County > Jefferson County, Pennsylvania : her pioneers and people, 1800-1915, Volume I > Part 53


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Dr. S. R. Ruff, Hazen; Polk township, Warsaw township.


Dr. J. C. Sayers, Reynoldsville : Reynoldsville bor- ough, Winslow township.


Dr. A. J. Simpson, Summerville ; Summerville bor- ough.


Dr. Ira D. Bowser. Reynoldsville; West Reynolds- ville borough, McCalmont township.


CHAPTER XV THE PRESS


PIONEER NEWS SERVICE-PIONEER PRESS-RECORD OF NEWSPAPERS IN COUNTY TO PRESENT TIME -FIRST DAILIES


The pioneer newspaper published for Jef- ferson county was the Indiana and Jefferson Whig, in 1821. In 1826 John McCrea, the grandfather of our townsman, Charles Cor- bet. Esq., and who served an apprenticeship in the Il'hig office, bought the press and con- tinned publication. The manner in which the paper was furnished to subscribers in Jeffer- son county is best related by the late J. S. Reed :


"On New Year's day of 1827 1 commenced my apprenticeship in the Indiana and Jeffer- son W'hig. 1 served my apprenticeship with John McCrea. The terms of my apprentice- ship were that I should find my own clothing and ride two days in the week, alternately with Samuel Young, a boy near my own age (eighteen years), who had been in the office two weeks before me, and serve three years. At that time there were only three post offices in Indiana county, and our business was to carry the packages of newspapers in saddle- bags, on horseback, and leave them in their respective boxes fixed to the sides of trees, at blacksmith shops, gristmills and private houses, to suit the convenience of subscribers.


The first day's ride, measuring all the zig- zags we made, counted fifty miles. The first eighteen miles were ridden before breakfast. and in the winter time, when the days were short and the roads bad, the last eight or ten miles of that day's ride were to be ridden after night, notwithstanding that the horse was sel- dom allowed to fall short of a trot.


"Fitted out with a good horse and a tin horn in my belt. I usually started at four o'clock in the morning, meandering now upon this side, then upon that, of the Pittsburgh road, making that highway my center of opera- tion, until I reached Elder's Ridge, where I had my dinner and horse fed at Mr. Robert Wilson's, not far from where the Elder's Ridge Academy now stands. When approach- ing a box on the side of a tree in the woods. where a package was to be left, I gave the signal by blowing my horn, that the nearest subscriber might know to examine the box for the package, but never waited a moment longer than I could place the package in the box and be off again at a fast gait.


"About every third or fourth trip a fresh horse was necessary, which was obtained by


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either selling the one on hand and buying an- other, or swapping directly for another. At length the boss purchased an Indian pony. The pony performed all that was required of him, while the distribution of newspapers was necessarily performed by the printer's devil on horseback.


"In 1827 my boss dispensed with the dis- tribution of his newspapers on his own hook, and obtained two contracts for carrying the mail on horseback, one of which was from Indiana to Port Barnett, in Jefferson county, by way of Ewing's Mill and Punxsutawney, then merely having a name as a white man's town. I had the honor conferred on me of riding both routes.


"The round trip to Port Barnett, by the route directed by the post office department, to and from, was one hundred and sixteen miles. I left Indiana on Tuesday morning in winter time so early as to be at Crooked Creek by daylight, and took breakfast and dinner each week at Mr. Henry VanHorn's, sixteen miles on my route, and continued on the after part of the day, having the mail changed at Mahoning and at Punxsutawney, rode on and stayed over night at Mr. Isaac Lewis's, in Perry township, Jefferson county, at the edge of an unbroken wilderness of seventeen miles, the first house being Port Barnett, a tavern on the clay pike leading from Erie to Lewis- town, a mile and one half east of where Brookville has since come into existence. The Isaac Lewis farm is now owned by the estate of David Brown, and is in Perry township. one mile west of Frostburg, on the main road from Punxsutawney to New Maysville, west of Aaron Depp's and east of Ezra C. Gour- ley's.


"This wilderness from Mr. Lewis's was to be crossed both to and from Port Barnett in one day, with the addition of six miles to Punxsutawney, making forty miles through mud and pine roots.


"] endured hardships and risks of life throughout the winter of 1828 sufficient to make the hair turn gray upon a nervous man's head. There was not a bridge across a stream on the whole route. There are five streams on the route which were afterwards navigated for many miles above where they were then to be forded. Old men will remember that it rained almost incessantly during the winter of 1828, and consequently the streams were often over their banks and rushing through the laurels and hemlock timber the whole breadth of the bottom land along them. In approach- ing the bed of the stream the horse would


blunder over pine stumps hidden under water, and next plunge into a mudhole so deep as to bring the water upon his sides. The main current of the stream was extremely swift, and the banks so entangled with laurel and drift that there was great danger of being beaten down below the crossing, which would have been certain death to both horse and rider.


"The regulation was to ride through the wilderness on Wednesday before breakfast, take breakfast at Port Barnett, which stood on the north bank of Sandy Lick (or Red Bank, as it is now called ). On three occa- sions that winter to cross Sandy Lick was im- possible. The first one I started as usual be- fore daylight without breakfast; got to the bank of the creek about ten o'clock, blew my horn, was answered by Andrew Barnett (post- master) that it was impossible to cross the stream through the drift that was passing. So 1 had to tack about with the mail, as it were, and ride to the settlement (Lewis's farm) without breakfast or feed for my horse. The road was bad, and my horse, weak with hunger and fatigue, was unable to make time. Night came on me before I reached the settle- ment. I had fed my horse before starting in the morning, but had not eaten anything from supper the night before until late at night after arriving at the Lewis farm.


"On one occasion I left Mr. Lewis's in great haste, supposing 1 had overslept myself, be- lieving it to be daybreak before I awoke. There was a little snow on the ground, hazy clouds hiding the moon and snow together making it almost light as day. I jumped up, dressed, fed my horse, and, hardly waiting until he was done eating, started. ] rode on and on, deeper and deeper into the dreary wilderness, the light only changing the darkness as I got into the dense pine timber, or becoming lighter as 1 emerged from it into open wood. . \t length the moon went down, then came on a torrent of rain. The little snow in a few minutes was gone, and such darkness was never surpassed, even in Egypt. My horse stopped and I could hear the water rushing against his legs. I was afraid to move him, lest he might have left the road and was in the bed of some stream where he could go no further. So I sat upon his back, not knowing how soon he and I might be washed away by the rising flood. There I sat for hours, the rain pouring down, and. as I imagined, the waters rising to floods ( as indeed they were) in the streams both before and behind me. While sitting there I could hardly know which


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1 feared most, being drowned or caten by wild beasts, as wolves and panthers were numerous in those woods. A Mr. llenry Brewer had shot an old she panther and captured five young ones in this wilderness but a short time previously. Daybreak at last appeared, when 1 found myself sitting upon the horse's back, the horse in the middle of the road ascending the hill north of Little Sandy ( Cool Spring), and the water rushing down the road sufficient to run a mill. 1 put spurs to my horse and by sunup had plunged through Sandy Lick at Port Barnett, which was considerably swollen. had my horse fed, mail changed and break- fasted in a hurry that I might get back through Sandy Lick and Little Sandy before they should get too high to be forded. This 1 effected.


"The regulation was to leave Indiana on Tuesday mornings, make the trip and arrive again on Thursday at three p. m."


PIONEER PRESS


RECORD OF NEWSPAPERS IN COUNTY TO PRESENT TIME


In the winter of 1832 John J. Thompson established in Brookville, Jefferson Co., Pa., and issued the first number of the Brookville Gasette, in a house on the lot at the corner of Pickering and Jefferson streets, lately owned by A. Wayne Cook and where F. C. Deemer now' ( 1914) resides. This was the pioneer paper in the county.


The terms of the Gazette were as follows:


"To be published every Monday, at two dollars per annum, exclusive of postage ; and two dollars and fifty cents, including postage. payable half yearly in advance.


"No subscription taken for a shorter period than six months, and no withdrawal whilst in arrears.


"A failure to notify an intention to discon- tinue at the end of six months is considered a new engagement.


"Advertisements will be inserted at the rate of one dollar per square for the three first insertions, and twenty-five cents for every continuance: those of greater length in pro- portion.


".All orders directed to the editor must be postpaid or they cannot receive attention.


"Girain, rags, beeswax, tallow, furs or pelts will be taken in payment of subscription, if paid within the current year."


The Gazette was printed on coarse paper. thirteen inches wide and twenty inches long.


In politics it was Democratic. The late Wil- liam B. Kennedy, of Union township, was the printer's devil. George R. Barrett was editor and compositor. Barrett came from Clearfield. and after finishing his editorial career in Brookville in 1835 became a citizen of Clear- field. After becoming fully developed in body and mind. he was regarded as one of the ablest lawyers in that part of the State. He was appointed president judge of the Mauch Chunk district by Governor Bigler, and so popular was he that, although a citizen of an- other county and district, he was elected and served another term.


In 1833 Thomas Reid purchased a half in- terest in the establishment. The paper then was published as neutral or independent and was still called The Gaseite. Thompson and Reid not agreeing, Reid retired, and Thomp- son and James P. Blair continued the publi- cation. . In 1833 Thompson disposed of his in- terest to Dr. R. K. Scott, and the firm became Blair & Scott.


In 1834 Blair & Scott changed the name to Jeffersonian and made the paper .Democratic. In February of 1834 Blair & Scott sold out to George R. Barrett, who for one year published the paper as the Jeffersonian. It was pub- lished weekly. on Thursday, on the same terms as the Gasette, and printed in a one and a half story frame building that stood on the corner of Main and Pickering streets, opposite the courthouse, on the lot now occupied by the Matson block. During most of this time the building in which the paper was printed was surrounded by a dense pine forest, and within hearing distance of the howls of hungry wolves.


Next Jesse G. Clark (grandfather of "Ben." M. ) and Blair purchased the paper, and ran it for six months, when James H. Laverty and James MeCracken bought it, and continued its publication until 1836. Then Mr. Laverty retired, and MeCracken changed the name to the Brookville Republican, continuing its pub- lication until April 1, 1839.


James McCracken came from Clearfield county to the town of Brookville after having graduated as a printer from the office of the Democratic Banner, a paper published in Clearfield by William 1. Moore.


In 1837 Thomas Ilastings, one of the first settlers in Brookville, and a very intelligent man, was chosen as a member of the conven- tion to amend the constitution of the State. Going to Harrisburg he took his son John with him, the latter working during the ses- sion in the office of the Harrisburg Keystone.


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At the close of the session of the convention the father and son bought the Keystone office, or a part of it, and removed to Brookville, where they at once commenced the publication of a paper entitled the Backwoodsman, the father acting as editor and the son as printer. Brookville then had two papers, which seemed at the time to be one too many for the town and county, and McCracken began to look for a new field in which to locate and operate.


THOMAS HASTINGS was born in Center county on October 24, 1797. He was elected sheriff of Center county in 1824, and was a member of the State Assembly in 1827-28. He removed to Jefferson county in 1831, and was appointed prothonotary of the county in 1832. In 1837 he was elected a member of the State Constitutional convention. In June, 1839, he and his son John Hastings established the newspaper in Brookville called the Back- woodsman. Two years later he retired from the paper, leaving it entirely in his son's hands.


Joux HASTINGS was born in Bellefonte, Center county, on the 4th of October, 1821. He came with his father to Brookville in 1831, and from that time onward his life was closely interwoven with the history of Jefferson county. He learned the printer's trade in the office of John J. Y. Thompson, and at the age of eighteen years was the publisher of the Backwoodsman. He was afterwards con- nected with the Jeffersonian. During the ad- ministration of President Polk he was post- master at Brookville. In 1848 he was elected to the Legislature from Clarion. Venango and Jefferson counties, and served through the sessions of 1848 and 1849. In 1851 and 1852 he was collector of the canal revennes at Pitts- burgh. In 1853 he was one of the editors and proprietors of the Pittsburgh Daily and Weekly Union. President Pierce appointed him collector of customs at Pittsburgh, and he served in that office during Pierce's admin- istration and part of Buchanan's, when he resigned the position and moved to Punxsu- tawney. There he read law with P. W. Jenks, and was admitted to the Jefferson county bar in 1859. When the war broke out in 186t he went into the three months' service as a first lieutenant. He assisted to form the One Hun- dred and Fifth regiment. going out with it as captain of Company A. He was wounded at the Second Bull Run fight, and soon thereafter was discharged from the service on account of disability.


In 1841 Col. William Jack and Levi G. Clover bought the Backwoodsman, and had it published by George F. Humes. This venture


was not a success. for Humes in a valedictory to his patrons told them to go to h-1, and he would go to Texas. He was a poet, orator and Mexican war soldier. In 1843 the paper was owned and published by David Barclay and B. T. Hastings. In a short time Barclay retired and Hastings continued the publication until 1846, when E. R. Brady and Clark Wil- son became the proprietors. In January, 1847, these gentlemen changed the name of the paper to the Jeffersonian Democrat and Elk County Advertiser. On September 26, 1849, Brady bought Wilson's interest in the paper, and continued to publish the Elk county offi- cial advertisements until 1850. On June 8. 1849, W. W. Wise became part owner of the paper. but sold back to Brady in 1851. This paper was then published on Main street in the second story of a frame building where the McKnight block now is. In the meantime Elk county established a newspaper, The Ad- vocate. Brady now changed the name to the Brookville Jeffersonian, and continued its publication until 1861. when he went into the army as a captain in the Eleventh Reserves.


These papers were all printed on an old Ramage or Franklin press, and every printer made his own "roller" out of glue and mno- lasses, in the proportion of a pound of glue to a pint of molasses. I have made these roll- ers myself. In Brookville the "devil" in the office carried to the home of each subscriber his or her paper. He was called the "carrier." Each New Year's day this carrier would have an address in poetry, written by some local bard, recounting the events of the year just closed. This address he offered for sale to his patrons, for an eleven-penny bit.


On the enlistment of Captain Brady in the army the Jeffersonian passed into the hands of B. T. Hastings until 1865, when the estab- lishment was purchased by Capt. J. P. George.


These publications had all been Democratic in politics, the Whig party having no organ in the county until October 16, 1849. when the Jefferson Star was started by Samuel Mc- Elhose and J. A. Duck, published in what was the "Arcade building." On December 7, 1850, James C. Brown purchased the interest of Mr. Duck, and on May 24, 1853. Mr. Brown re- tired. On April 12, 1856, John Scott became a partner, until May, 1859, when the firm of McElhose & Scott was dissolved. McElhose continued the publication of the paper until his death in the army, August 16, 1863. The Star was the organ of the Whig and also of the American party during the existence of


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the latter, and the first organ of the Republi- can party.


William Lofflin purchased the press of the Star office and in 1864 commenced the publi- cation of the New Era, an independent paper. which he continued until January, 1865, when the Jeffersonian and the New Era were pur- chased by Capt. J. P. George, who consolidated them under the name of the Brookville Herald. In May, 1869. Captain George disposed of the Herald to G. Nelson Smith, who changed the name back to the Jeffersonian. Ile published it a little over six months, when he resold the establishment to Captain George, who con- tinued the publication of the same until No- vember, 1874, when he sold a half interest in it to Samuel G. W. Brown, of Kittanning, and the paper was published by George & Brown, with [. P. George as editor, until February, 1876. Mr. Brown then took charge of the office, with A. A. Carlisle and William Horn as the editors and publishers of the Jeffer- sonian, and continued until January. 1878. when Mr. Carlisle retired and was succeeded by J. B. Oswald, who formed a partnership with Mr. Horn under the name of J. B. Oswald & Co. In January, 1880, the paper suspended. In April, 1880, Captain George took charge of the establishment for Mr. Brown, and pub- lished the Jeffersonian until June, 1884, when it was sold to McMurray & Sansom, and merged with the Democrat. In July, 1890, Sansom sold out to McMurray & Sons, who still ( 1915) conduct it under the name of Jef- fersonian Democrat.


The Brookville Republican was established in the Evans block August 10, 1859, by John Scott, who continued the publication of the Republican for nine years. The size was en- larged to eight columns to the page, and the first cylinder power press was introduced, making an era of great change in the pub- lishing business of the county. He also intro- duced the first first-class job press, compelling his competitors to follow his example, and by this means greatly benefited the craft. In the disastrous fire of November 20, 1874, the Republican office was entirely destroyed, in- volving a loss of three thousand dollars. In 1875 Col. J. Riley Weaver became the owner of the Republican, Mr. Scott retiring, and the office was managed by the Weavers until De- cember 1, 1885, when the establishment was purchased from Colonel Weaver by W. S. and 11. J. Weaver, both of whom are now de- ceased. The Republican is now incorporated, Gil. C. Reitz being president of the company and J. C. Dight editor and manager.


From the time of the merging of the New Era and the Jeffersonian in 1865 until the fall of 1876, the only two papers published in Brookville were the Republican and Jeffer- sonian, the organs of their respective parties.


On the 8th of September, 1876, William G. Clark and William F. Brady started an inde- pendent paper called the Jefferson County Graphic. This venture was quite a hazardous one, and the new paper commenced with very little encouragement, but the peculiar style of the editorials, which possessed a quaint style of drollery, and the attention paid to the local columns-no event occurring being counted too trivial for mention, caused the Graphic to receive large accessions to its subscription list, and its prospects brightened to such an extent that in the second year of its existence the young editors felt justified in enlarging their paper from a twenty-four to a twenty- eight-column sheet. They also changed the name to the Brookville Graphic.


In December, 1878, the death of Editor Wil- liam F. Brady was fatal to the Graphic, and March 19, 1879, the paper was consolidated with the Democrat, under the name of the Graphic-Democrat, with McMurray & Clark as editors and publishers.


The Brookville Democrat was founded in 1878 by A. A. Carlisle, the first number of the paper being issued January 16, 1878. On December 25, 1878, Mr. Carlisle sold the estab- lishment to John McMurray, who conducted the paper until March 19, 1879, when the Democrat and the Graphic were consolidated under the name of the Graphic-Democrat, and WV. G. Clark was associated with Mr. McMur- ray in its publication, the firm being styled Mc- Murray & Clark. Mr. Clark sold his interest to William Horn, the change going into effect January 1, 1880, and Mr. Horn in turn sold his interest to William L. Sansom, the first issue under the firm name of McMurray & Sansom appearing on July 21, 1880, after which the name was changed to the Brook- ville Democrat again.


The firm continued thus up to June 18, 1884, when the Brookville Jeffersonian was merged with the Democrat, McMurray & San- som buying that establishment, since which time the paper has been issued under the title of the Jeffersonian Democrat.


PUNXSUTAWNEY


The pioneer newspaper published in Punx- sutawney was the Mahoning Register. It was a neutral paper, started in October, 1848, by


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. B. T. Hastings and Clark Wilson, and ceased to be published in the spring of 1850.


The next venture was by J. A. Scott and W. A. Barr, of Brookville, who, on the 13th of July, 1868, issued the first number of the Punxsutawney Plaindealer. In 1870 W. P. Ilastings and G. M. Keck leased the Plain- dealer from Scott & Barr and continued its publication until the spring of 1871, when Scott & Barr sold the material to G. M. Keck and John K. Coxson, who changed the name to the Mahoning Argus. Keck then sold his interest to Coxson, who continued its publica- tion until 1877. John K. Coxson was a man of varied talents. He was a Methodist preacher, portrait painter, lawyer, editor, poet and political orator, and in his latter years he was a distiller. He died July 16, 1879.


The Mahoning Valley Spirit began its ex- istence in June, 1873. Frank M. Smith, of Indiana, published it for six months and then sold the plant to W. P. Hastings and G. M. Keck. In 1876 Hastings purchased the inter- est of Keck and changed the name to the Punxsutawney Spirit.


In May. 1884. W. O. Smith and W. A. Flem- ing established the Punxsutawney Tribune, which lived one year and four months. In the spring of 1885 Fleming sold his interest to W. H. Tyson, and three months later Davis W. Goheen purchased both establishments and consolidated them ( Punxsutawney Spirit and Tribune ), employing W. O. Smith as editor. In January, 1892, the paper was purchased by T. M. Kurtz and W. O. Smith, and was published under the firm name of Kurtz & Smith until June, 1896, when Mr. Kurtz dis- posed of his interest to John P. Wilson.


On September 17. 1906, Messrs. Smith and Wilson began the publication of an evening edition of the Spirit, which was a success from the start, and is now recognized as one of the ablest and most prosperous inland daily news- papers in the State. The institution, which includes a job and bookbinding plant, is in- corporated under the name of the Spirit Pub- lishing Company.


WILLIAM ORLANDO SMITH, editor of the Punxsutawney Spirit, is a son of John S. and Susan Smith, and is a Jefferson county prod- uct, having been born in Reynoldsville, Jeffer- son county, Pennsylvania, June 13, 1859. He attended the public schools until about four- teen years of age, when he entered the office of the Reynoldsville Herald as an apprentice. afterwards working in the government print- ing office at Washington for six years, during which time he devoted practically all of his


leisure to study in an effort to compensate for his previous lack of educational facilities. He returned to his native county in 1884, and has successfully edited the Punxsutawney Tribune and Punxsutawney Spirit. He was elected to the Legislature in 1889 to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Francis A. Weaver, and was reelected in 1890, 1892, 1894 and 1896. He was elected to the Fifty-eighth and Fifty-ninth Congresses, serving his con- stituents with zeal and fidelity. (See biog- raphy in this work.)




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