USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > The history of Bucks County, Pennsylvania : from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time > Part 77
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Of the proprietors of the Express we can say but little. The founder, Mr. Snyder, is still living, and works as a compositor. He served through the war in the signal corps, and received an honor- able discharge. Bryan and Paxson have both been noticed in con- nection with the Democrat ; Zink was from Reading, where he learned his trade in the Adler office, but was born in Germany. He is now setting type in Allentown; Fretz, who was foreman in the Democrat office for several years, served as a lieutenant in the One hundred and fourth regiment; Price died about the close of 1867, and Dau- bert is the managing-editor of the Express and Reform. The paper is still in a tolerably prosperous condition and wields an influence.
In November, 1827, when politics began to warm up to fever heat for the coming presidential election, an anti-Jackson newspaper
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was started at Doylestown by Francis B. Shaw, a member of the bar, and J. W. Bartleson. It was called Bucks County Political Examiner, with the motto: "Our country, right or wrong," at its head, and was noted for its bitterness and sprightliness. The Examiner survived the bitter contest of Jackson and Adams in 1828, and in the summer of 1829 it was purchased by parties, and started as a Democratic newspaper in opposition to the Demo- crat. The name was now changed to that of Bucks County Re- publican, the first number appearing July 28th, 1829, and was edite 1 and printed by Alexander W. Campbell at two dollars a year. The Republican supported Wolf's election. The paper was a super- royal sheet, twenty-one by twenty-seven inches. In November, 1829, the paper changed hands, John Heart, subsequently the editor and proprietor of the Charleston Mercury, and William A. Seely, jr., becoming the proprietors. The 22d of December the words, "And Anti-Masonic Register" were added to the name of the paper, when it ceased to be Democratic, and became the organ of the Anti- Masons of the county. Mr. Seely severed his connection with it April 6th, 1830. The Republican supported William Wirt for president in 1832 and Joseph Ritner for governor. It lived longer than its ancestor, the Examiner, but dicd with the excitement that gave it birth, and went to that "undiscovered country" prepared for defunct newspapers. It was announced in the thirty-fifth number, of volume fourth, that the paper would be "suspended for a few weeks" to enable the editor "to make some necessary arrangements for the future," but its publication was probably never resumed. The late Thomas Ross, then a young and active politician, and full of ardor, was instrumental in starting the Republican. During the political contest of 1832 a tall hickory pole was erected about where the monument stands, which some anti-Jackson men attempted to cut down one night. A lady and gentleman, who lived neighbors, both ardent admirers of the old hero, hearing the enemy at work, sallied out and saved the pole.
The Jackson Courier and Democratic Advertiser was the next newspaper to see the light of day in Doylestown. In 1835 the Democratic party split in its choice for governor, between George Wolf and Henry A. Muhlenberg. The Courier was established to advocate the claims of Muhlenberg by the late Thomas Ross, and placed in charge of Franklin S. Mills. The first number was issued Wednesday, April 8th, 1835, printed on a sheet twenty-one by
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twenty-eight inches, at two dollars a year. It professed to be Demo- cratic, and supported the nomination of Martin VanBuren, for President. Its opposition to Wolf was on the ground that his nomi- nation was made contrary to the usages of the party, and a second convention, held at Lewistown the 6th of May, nominated Mr. Muhlenberg in opposition to him. There was considerable bitter- ness between the Courier and the Democrat. The defeat of Muhlen- berg for governor, in October, 1835, and the subsequent union of the party at a convention held the 8th of January, 1836, destroyed the occupation of the Courier, and the editor announced its discon- tinuance the 3d of February, following, at the forty-fourth number. Mr. Mills went to Trenton, New Jersey, where he was connected with newspapers many years, and was several times elected mayor of the city.
Joseph Young, a native of Lehigh county, established Der Mor- genstern, a German paper, in Doylestown, in 1835, the first number being issued the 11th of August. The proprietor was not yet twenty- one years old. At first the paper was called Der Bauer, and the object was to establish a German Anti-Masonic and anti-Democratic newspaper. At its front swung the motto: "Our country and our country's friends," and it was printed on a super-royal sheet. In 1841, Mr. Young leased the paper to his brother John, an ap- prentice in the office, for four years, but he gave up his lease at the end of eighteen months. He changed the name of the Bauer to Der Morgenstern, which it now bears. Moritz Loeb, the present pro- prietor and editor, came to learn the trade in the office about 1836, and in 1848 he purchased one-half interest in the paper, and the remaining half in 1851, and he has owned it from that time. The Morning Star has a good circulation, and Mr. Loeb is the oldest, and probably the most scholarly, editor in the county. In politics the paper is Republican, while the Express and Reform is Democratic.
In 1837 or 1838, Franklin P. Sellers, an off and on jour in the Democrat office, a man of considerable ability, and a writer of dog- gerel verse, commenced the publication of a little sheet in Doyles- town, devoted to wit and humor, called Public Advocate, with a sub-head that read, "Literary and Humorous Journal." It was less than medium in size, with five short columns to a page, sub- scription one dollar a year. It was set up by Sellers in the Demo- crat office, in spare type, and was worked off on an old Ramage press, which might have been seen in the back yard ten years ago, where
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it was thrown for kindling. It had several young men for corres- pondents, among whom was William Godshalk, now associate-judge of the county, and E. Mitchell Cornell, treasurer of the Second and Third streets passenger railway, was the carrier. It had been published nearly a year when Frank got on a spree, and the paper gave up the ghost. One of the poetical contributors was Eleazar F. Church now the proprietor of the Newtown Enterprise, but then an apprentice in the Democrat office.
After an interval of a quarter of a century a newspaper again made its appearance at Newtown, under the name of Newtown Journal and Workingman's Advocate. It was the child of its parent. In Au- gust, 1840, Oliver G. Search and Samuel Fretz, who was afterward the proprietor of the Intelligencer, commenced the publication of the Literary Chronicle at Hatborough, in Montgomery county. Fretz left the Chronicle in March, 1841, and soon afterward Search removed the establishment to Newtown, where he resumed its pub- lication. It was edited at this time by Lemuel Parsons, a native of Massachusetts, and principal of the Academy for about eight years. In August, 1842, the Chronicle was purchased by Samuel J. and Edward M. Paxson, the first issue of the new firm appearing Au- gust 16th, and the name was changed to Newtown Journal in the course of a few weeks. Both these new papers were handsome- looking sheets, and were the equals of the average newspaper of the period. Edward M. Paxson assumed editorial control, and in his salutatory he took strong Native-American ground. In the fall of 1845 the subscription price was reduced to one dollar. The Paxsons sold the paper, Angust 31st, 1847, to Henry R. Nagle, of Newtown, who was succeeded April 18th, 1848, by Hiram Brower, of Chester county, and a graduate of the Village Record office. Brower made the Journal an open political paper, and raised the Whig banner. In January, 1850, Brower assigned his book accounts to Samnel M. Hough, for a debt, and a month afterward (February 26th, 1850,) the office was purchased by Lafayette Brower. The material soon passed into the possession of Howard Jenks, and a job office was carried on a few years, but in 1857 it was bought by Prizer & Darlington, of the Intelligencer, and removed to that, office.
Franklin P. Sellers, who had brought out the Public Advocate in 1837 or 1838, started a temperance paper in Doylestown in 1842, called the Olive Branch. He had been a great drunkard, but hav- ing reformed, he thought it his duty to disseminate the doctrine of
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total abstinence. The first number appeared June 22d, and was a small folio. Hiram Lukens, foreman of the Intelligencer office, sug- gested the motto for the paper : "Touch not, taste not, handle not," which it carried at the head. It was set up in old type of the Intelligencer, and the first few numbers were worked off on their old Ramage press. It was published several years in the frame house on State street now occupied by Gustavns Siegler, then owned by Aaron Fell, cabinet-maker. Sellers published a red hot paper, and his violence brought him into trouble. On one occasion he made allusion to the wife of a member of the Bucks county bar, and the outraged husband retorted by cowhiding the editor on the street, for which he was prosecuted and fined. About 1850 the paper was removed to Norristown, and its publication continued. After awhile it fell into new hands, and the name was changed to The Independent, which was sold out by the sheriff in 1874, but its publication has been resumed under a new name and manage- ment. Frank Sellers is dead, but it can be said to his credit that he was true to his temperance principles to the last.
Samuel J. Paxson, purchaser of the Democrat, did not give entire satisfaction to the party, and two years of grumbling eventu- ated in the establishment of the Independent Democrat, by Manas- seh H. Snyder, in 1847. It was printed on a double medium-sheet, and the first number appeared February 27th. In November, 1848, Snyder sold the paper to Clayton N. Bryan, of Doylestown. He continued its publication to June 15th, 1852, when he sold it to a number of gentlemen, who placed it in the hands of Williamn P. Seymour, from Buffalo, New York. It had been published in the old office of the Democrat, in the stone house on Main street, oppo- site York street, but Seymour removed it to a frame on Main street, adjoining Shade's building, and the name was changed to The Watch- tower. It did not prosper under the new management. Seymour was an easy-going, good-for-nothing, who liked to talk politics on the corner of a street, better than to work. The consequence was, that in about fifteen months The Watchtower fell into the sheriff's hands, and was sold under the hammer to John S. Bryan, in Octo- ber, 1853. He afterward sold it to Samuel J. Paxson, of the Demo- crat, who discontinued its publication. While Snyder published the Independent Democrat he brought out General Taylor as Demo- cratic candidate for President, who, it will be remembered, had said that he had no platform. About this time there came a new
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apprentice into the Democrat office, George. White, now a com- mander in the United States navy. One day Paxson sent White down to Snyder to borrow General Taylor's platform, and Snyder, alive to the joke, gave him a large piece of marble from under a water-spout, about as much as the boy could carry. As he was carrying it up the street a Whig politician, whose party meanwhile had nominated Taylor, asked him what he had, and the lad innocently replied, "General Taylor's platform." The inquisitor, thinking White was quizzing him, gave a cross retort and told him to go about his business.
Bristol has been the birth-place of several newspapers. In June, 1849, William Bache, great-grandson of Franklin, commenced the publication of the Bristol Gazette, a small weekly. It lived through fifty-two issues, and met its death sometime in 1850, for want of adequate support. To some extent it wakened up the old town from its Rip Van Winkle sleep, and did not live in vain.
In Bucks county was printed the first Mennonite newspaper in the world, Der Religiose Botschapter, established by Reverend J. H. Oberholtzer, in 1850, at Milford Square, in Milford township. He continued its publisher to 1856, and its editor until 1860, when it was taken charge of by the "Mennonite printing union," and in 1872 by the "Eastern Mennonite conference." The printing union changed its name to Das Christtuche Volksblatt, and the conference to Der Mennonitische Friendensbote, the name it now bears. Since its appearance five other Mennonite newspapers have been estab- lished, two in Europe and three in America. This paper ad- vocates a better organization of that church in America, a more earnest working in the missionary cause, a better education, and a more special preparation for the ministry. It was mainly through its influence that a Mennonite general conference was called in 1860, which has succeeded in establishing a theological institute for the education of ministers and teachers, at Wadsworth, Ohio. It is at present edited by Reverend A. B. Shelly. In midsummer, 1853, a spicy little paper called The Spy,1 was started in Doylestown, the editor and proprietor being Rynear T. Donatt. It was at first printed in the Express office, on cast-off type from the Democrat, A number of persons contributed to its columns, which abounded in witty sayings, and it received a good deal of aid from the hands in
1 The Spy was owned by Joseph Stewart, and was published at several places around town, being rather migratory,
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the latter office. Its circulation ran up to a thousand, and it lived until the following spring. In 1854 two new papers came into life in the county, both in the interest of the Know-nothings, a party just entering into power-The Star-Spangled Banner, published at Quakertown, by David B. Overholt and Rynear T. Donatt, and The Bucks County American, at Bristol. The latter made its appearance the 4th of July. In its second year it was wedded to the Burlington American, making them a twenty-eight column paper. There was no union of interest between the publishers, in business or other- - wise, the object being to furnish the patrons on both sides of the river with a more readable newspaper. There was a double issue. The proprietor at Burlington was Samuel C. Atkinson, the originator of the Saturday Evening Post, while that at Bristol was William Bache, a newspaper pioneer along the Delaware. Both papers were printed on the same forms, taken back and forth across the river. The Bucks County American died with the decline of the party it was started to support.
In 1857 William Bush, a printer from Trenton, came to New- town and started a job office. In October he issued the first num- ber of the Newtown Gazette, which was probably the only one printed, as we have no information of a subsequent issue. It was possibly the channel through which Mr. Bush announced his job office to the public. The third newspaper started in Bristol was Bache's Index, a twenty-eight column paper, for a dollar a year, published by Wil- liam Bache, the first number appearing on New Year's day, 1859. Its motto, which we do not remember, consisted of forty-four words. It promised to be an independent newspaper, devoted wholly to busi- ness interests, but, as we have not a file before us, we cannot say how well this promise was kept. Nevertheless, it lived eighteen months, and then, like its predecessors, died a natural death. The same year the Reverend A. R. Horne commenced the publication of the Edu- cator at Quakertown, the first number making its appearance in November. It was first published semi-monthly, but was afterward changed to a quarto and issued monthly, and was devoted to educa- tion, religion, literature, temperance, etc. In November, 1863, it was removed to Turbotville, Northumberland county, in 1865 to Williamsport, and in 1872 to Kutztown, Berks county, where it is still published by its founder, under the name of the National Edu- cator. The Educator was the offspring of the Quakertown Press, which Schaupp and Wenig commenced to publish in March or April,
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1858. It was printed in German and English, Mr. Horne editing the English part. Mr. H. purchased the paper in 1859.
In the contest over the organization of a state government for Kansas under Mr. Buchanan's administration, the Democratic party became divided. The sections waged a bitter warfare upon each other, the quarrel culminating on the acceptance or rejection by Congress of the state constitution made at Lecompton. As the Democrat opposed the administration, and advocated the rejection of the Lecompton constitution, it was thought necessary to have a Democratic opposition paper in Doylestown. In the spring of . 1859, the Democratic Standard was started under the management of J. Mathias Beans, a native of Buckingham, and Julius Kuster, a young German, both graduates of the Democrat office. The first number made its appearance the 19th of April, on a double-medium sheet. It was edited with ability, bat like all attempts to establish a newspaper on a single idea, when the question which brought it into existence was settled, by the election of Mr. Lincoln, its occupa- tion was gone. It survived the inauguration of the new adminis- tration but a few weeks, and was purchased by Mr. Davis, of the Democrat, the last of April, 1861. Mr. Kuster, the junior partner, joined the Doylestown Guards, then ready to march to the seat of war, and was appointed a corporal, and Mr. Beans was subsequently commissioned a lieutenant in the One hundred and fourth regiment. The Standard reached a respectable circulation and enjoyed a fair advertising patronage. As the party was only divided on a national issue, it again became united when Mr. Lincoln came into power.
In March, 1868, E. F. Church commenced the publication of the Newtown Enterprise at Newtown. Mr. Church is a native of Buck- ingham township, and graduated at the Democrat office, in 1839. For the next ten years he followed other pursuits, but in March, 1850, he started in Baltimore, Maryland, a small newspaper called the Baltimore County Advocate, in the interest of a separation of the county from the city municipal affairs. It was intended for country circulation. He removed to Cockeyville in August, 1850, and to Towsontown, the new county-seat, in 1853, where he con- tinued the publication of the Advocate until 1865, when he sold out. He was now one year inspector of internal revenue. In 1866 he bought a half-interest in the Herald and Torchlight, at Hagers- town, Maryland, but in a few months he returned to Towsontown and started the Baltimore County Free Press. This he sold out at
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the end of six months, and came to Newtown and established the Enterprise, of which he is still proprietor and publisher.
In 1869 a man named Pryor commenced the publication of The Independent at Quakertown. In 1870 it was purchased by Robert L. Cope, a member of the bar, and his brother, who made it Demo- cratic. In a few months Stephen T. Kirk, county-superintendent, bought E. L. Cope's interest, but before long re-sold it to Robert L. Cope, who now owned the whole establishment. He changed the name to Bucks County Mirror, and continued its publication until ยท the spring of 1872, when it was sold to Doctor F. Morwitz, propric- tor of the German Democrat, Philadelphia. It was now removed to Doylestown, and issued from the office of the Express and Re- form.
In September, 1871, William Tilton issued the first number of The Squib at Hulmeville, a sheet six by nine inches. It was printed at intervals until April, 1872, when it was enlarged to nine by twelve inches, published semi-monthly, and the name changed to The Beacon. In August of the same year it was doubled in size, and in January, 1873, it was changed to a weekly, the present name, Hulmeville Beacon, adopted, and again doubled in size. In July it was made a five-column paper, and on the 7th of May, 1874, a cylinder press was introduced, and the paper increased to seven col- umns, and to nine columns the 5th of November, 1874. Mr. Tilton, the founder of the Beacon, a native of Crosswicks, New Jersey, where he was born in 1846, is a first cousin of Theodore Tilton. He served a regular apprenticeship at the iron business with the late firm of Abbott & Noble, Philadelphia, which he was compelled to relinquish on account of ill health, and commenced printing for pas- time, and without a thought of ever following it for a business. In January, 1871, Mr. Tilton and Hannah E. Holcomb began the publication of an eight-page temperance paper at Hulmeville, called The Good Templars' Journal, which appeared quarterly, at ten cents a year, but had a short existence.
In the summer of 1872 William H. Shively commenced the pub- lication of the Luminary, an eight-page paper of forty columns, at Yardleyville, in Lower Makefield. He had settled there several years before and started an amateur printing-office, from which the Luminary was afterward developed. It was principally devoted to literature, was a handsome and well-printed newspaper, and exerted an in- fluence for good in that community. Mr. Shively died of consump-
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tion in the winter of 1875, when the publication of the paper was discontinued. He was a man of good abilities and excellent character, and served in a cavalry regiment in the war of the rebellion. Dur- ing a short suspension of the publication of the Luminary, in the summer of 1874, Charles N. Drake started the Bucks County Re- cord at Yardleyville, a paper twenty-one by twenty-eight inches, of twenty columns. The first number was issued Tuesday, July 21st, at one dollar in advance, but it lived only a few weeks. The 13th of May, 1876, William H. Quick commenced the publication of a twenty-column paper in Yardleyville, on a sheet eighteen by twenty- three and a half inches, called the Yardleyville Times, which was continued but a short time.
At the time of this writing, Bristol is the home of two newspapers. The elder of these is the Bristol Observer, a twenty-eight column paper, established by James Drury, a graduate of the Democrat, in April, 1871; and the younger, the Bucks County Gazette, of thirty- two columns, whose first issue was August 14th, 1873, and its pub- lisher and proprietor Jesse O. Thomas, of Ohio. Both papers profess to be non-partisan, and are conducted in a creditable manner.
In November, 1873, Wilmer H. Johnson, a young man of Hulme- ville, commenced the publication of a small twelve-column folio at that place, called The Echo. In March, 1874, it was enlarged to sixteen columns, and much improved in appearance, and in July it was again enlarged to twenty columns, and a handsomely engraved head substituted for the former plain but neat one. In February, 1875, in conjunction with A. Vanhorne, a contributor to The Echo, it was changed into a magazine, the only one ever published in the county, and the name altered to that of The Keystone Amateur. The subscription price of The Echo was twenty-five cents at first, but was raised to one dollar when it grew to the stature of a magazine. In October, 1875, it was obliged to suspend for want of support. The publishers and editors were but lads, Mr. Vanhorne not yet twenty when their enterprise came to an untimely end. The size was nine and one-half by six inches, with sixty-three pages of reading matter, three of advertisements, and two pages of adver- tisements on the cover. The original and selected matter would do credit to older heads.
. On the 2d of April, 1875, Allen H. Heist and Bernard McGinty commenced the publication of a weekly German newspaper at Doylestown. The size is twenty-two by thirty inches, and in
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politics it is Democratic, as the name implies-Die Demokratische Wacht. Mr. Heist is a native of Milford township, in this county, and Mr. McGinty of Franklin county.
The youngest newspaper in the county is Our Home Friend, a monthly folio, twenty-four by thirty-four inches, whose publication was commenced in July, 1875, at Milford Square, by Peter High Stauffer. It is designed for the Sunday and day-school, and the home-circle, and contains matter suitable to this sphere, with amusements, etc. The subscription price is fifty cents. In Sep- tember, F. M. Augspuyer, of Hamilton, Ohio, was associated in its publication, and the Little Wunderer, published by George R. Long, at Wadsworth, Ohio, was consolidated with Our Home Friend. It is published in the office of the Reformer and Agriculturist, a German weekly of which we have no reliable information. In ad- dition to the newspapers mentioned, there are issued from the offices of the Intelligencer, Democrat and Wacht, respectively, the Journal of the Fair, while the Doylestown fair is open in October of each year, The Institute, while the teachers' institute is in session each fall, and the Court Gazette, during court. The Journal of the Fair is the oldest and largest of these papers, and that and the Institute are distributed gratuitously. Since the above was written a monthly quarto, in German, entitled Himmel's Manna, and published in the interest of Sunday school, was issued at Milford Square, the first number appearing in January, 1876.
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