USA > West Virginia > Monongalia County > History of Monongalia County, West Virginia, from its first settlements to the present time; with numerous biographical and family sketches > Part 32
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J. F. Corke, A. B.
John L. Johnson, B.S.
I. G. Lazzell, A.B. S. P. Wells, Jr., B.S.
John E. Musgrave, A.B. G. O. Foster, A.B.
* Deceased.
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HISTORY OF MONONGALIA COUNTY.
The following is an exhibit of the number of students enrolled annually from the beginning :
1867-8, total 124. 1872-3, total 144. 1877-8, total 118.
1868-9, total 154. 1873-4, total 138. 1878-9, total 135.
1869-70, total 161. 1874-5, total 125. 1879-80, total 132.
1870-1, total 166. 1875-6, total 96. 1880-1, total 162.
1871-2, total 159. 1876-7, total 93. 1881-2, total 177.
1882-3, total 159.
Among the Monongalians graduating from other colleges, the following have been procured : F. H. Pierpont, Alle- gany College, Penn .; Waitman T. Willey, Madison College, Penn .; E. M. and L. W. Wilson, Jefferson College, Penn .; W. A. Hanway, J. S. Reppert, Dudley Evans, O. W. Miller and William Mills, Washington College, Penn .; William P. Willey, Dickinson College.
WEST VIRGINIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
In acceptance of invitations issued by the faculty of West Virginia University, a preliminary meeting was held in the hall of the Columbian Literary Society, Thursday evening, September 30, 1869, with W. T. Willey, Chairman, and John J. Brown, Secretary. Committees were appointed on Founders, Constitution and Charter, which reported at a meeting held at Grafton, December 30, 1869, and a perma- nent organization was effected. The Regents gave the Society a room in the University, where its library and collections are to be kept. Two regular meetings are held annually-one at some designated point in the State, and the other on the third Wednesday of June at Morgantown. The first President was Dr. Thomas H. Logan; the present one is the Hon. Charles James Faulkner. The following members have been elected from Monongalia : Alexander Martin, W. T. Willey, J. J. Stevenson, George M. Hagans,
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EDUCATIONAL HISTORY.
S. G. Stevens, H. H. Pierce, F. W. Wood, F. S. Lyon, John A. Dille, H. W. Brock, R. L. Berkshire, George C. Sturgiss, Joseph A. McLane, John J. Brown (the foregoing were the Committe on Organization), William A. Hanway, A. W. Lorentz, A. L. Wade, D. H. Chadwick, William Wagner, J. M. Hagans, L. S. Hough, James Evans, E. H. Coombs, O. W. Miller, N. N. Hoffman, W. C. McGrew, J. L. Simpson, J. B. Solomon, P. H. Keck, J. M. Warden and A. G. Davis.
CHAPTER XXI. JOURNALISTIC HISTORY.
Progress in Journalism-List of the Newspapers Published in Monongalia County-The First Paper in Virginia West of the Alleghany Mountains-Particular Description of Each Paper Published in Monongalia, with Extracts-Early Presses, Etc.
" Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a Government without Newspapers, or Newspapers without a Government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter."-Thomas Jefferson.
" In this age Newspapers are ' Popular Educators'."
THE progress of journalism in the United States within the past few years has been truly wonderful. This advance- ment has not been in the discovery of new fields, but in the cultivation of those hitherto neglected. In local journalism this development is best illustrated in the increased interest taken in the collection of home news. The early journals of Monongalia, as well as other country newspapers every- where, filled their columns with news items of the Old World, clippings, and the like. The happenings of home had little or no space in them. Indeed, more history is found among the advertiseutents of these old papers than in their columns of "reading matter." Editors of country journals, however, were forced to learn that, with their limi- ted space and facilities, they could not compete with the city weeklies in the publication of the general news; but that their energies must be confined principally to the development of the field whose boundaries are commen- surate with the geographical interests of their readers. The country weekly and the city daily and weekly each has a field of it own, and neither one covers both.
427
JOURNALISTIC HISTORY.
In this great journalistic advance, the newspapers of Monongalia have not been behind. To-day better home newspapers are nowhere to be found in the State than are those of this county; nor do we know of country news- papers of counties of equal population and wealth any- where which surpass them in the full and complete chroni- cling of the events of their territory.
The first paper published in Monongalia County (1803) was, also, the first published in the State west of the Alleghany Mountains.
The following are the names of the papers which have been published in Monongalia County :
Name of Paper.
Date of First Issue.
Monongalia Gazette and Morgantown Advertiser (probably) January, 1803
Monongalia Gazette
-, 1810
The Morgantown Spectator
October, 1815
The Monongalia Herald .
December 24, 1820
The Northwestern Journal
, 1822
Monongalla Chronicle
, 1825
The Monongalia Farmer
1828
The Republican
March, 1829
The Monongalian
January, 1831
Democratic Republican
February, 1835
The Democratic Watchtower
1842
The Virginia Shield
, 1843
The Northwestern Journal
, 1843
The Mountaineer
, 1845
Western Virginia Standard
February, 1846
The Monongalian
1849
The Monongalia Mirror
August, 1849
The Jeffersonian
, 1849
The Mountain Messenger
1852
The Democratic Republican
August, 1852
The Album
1854
American Union
June, 1855
The Morgantown Telegraph
1855
Virginia Weekly Star
August, 1856
West Virginia Herald
, 1862
The Morgantown Monitor
1863
The Morgantown Weekly Post
March, 1864
The Constitution
April, 1868
University Bulletin
1874
New Dominion
April, 1876
The West Virginia Journal of Education
November, 1878
The Monongalia Gazette, the first paper published in the
428
HISTORY OF MONONGALIA COUNTY.
county, was a sheet 16x20 inches; four pages, with four columns to the page. The oldest number found is of the date of Saturday, June 23, 1804, and is No. 25. It was published by Campbell & Britton, at six cents per copy or " two dols. per am." The name at this time was Monongalia Gazette and Morgantown Advertiser. No column rules were used, and it was printed on the heavy, rough, all-rag news paper of that day, which stands the touch of time so admirably. The first page of No. 25 is filled with the news (several weeks old) from France, England and Portugal. The second page contains more news from Europe and items from Asia, and an advertisement of a house of entertain- ment, kept by William Price, on Dunkard Bottom (now in Preston County). The space of the third page is wholly taken up with advertisements, mostly legal, from Harrison and Monongalia counties, with two notices warning persons not to trade for certain promissory notes ; an advertisement of John Thompson "opening the tailoring business in its various branches in Morgantown;" a notice from John Nicklin, M.D., to delinquent subscribers ; a notice to the Monongalia Troop of Cavalry; and an advertisement of blank deeds and other conveyances and forthcoming bonds "for sale at this office." The fourth page has a "Poet's Corner," in which appears a poem written "for the Gazette," by " X," entitled the "Calamities of St. Domingo." News from New Orleans, other domestic news and some foreign intelligence, together with a request to “ Gentlemen holding subscription papers for the Theological Magazine" to forward them to "this office as soon as possible," fill the rest of this page. The issue for January 17, 1806,* 'is a
+
* It is " Vol. VI .- No. 158." The number is evidently the whole number, or number of issues mide; and this would show that the paper must have been started in Jan-
429
JOURNALISTIC HISTORY.
sheet reduced in size to 12{x15} inches, containing only 12 columns. It was published by J. Campbell, and the name was The Monongalia Gazette. The first and second pages are taken up with an account of the debate in Congress on the importation of slaves into the United States after 1807. The third and fourth pages are filled with advertisements, chiefly legal; and there appears a list of letters remaining in the postoffice at Morgantown, January 1, 1807, and also a list at Clarksburg, of the same date." The Monongalia Mirror, in an obituary notice of Joseph Campbell, says that he came from Ireland, learned the printer's trade in Philadelphia, and, with Forbis Britton, published the Monongalia Gazette ; after serving as Sheriff and Coroner, he removed to Marion County, and died there in 1850, at the age of seventy.
The Post, of November 19, 1870, contains a letter describing a number of the Monongalia Gazette, published by John Osborn Laidley. The paper described was Vol. I., No. 21, and was of the issue of August 10, 1810. Price $2 per year, and the size was that of a sheet of brown wrapping paper.
The Monongalia Spectator was the next paper started. Its first issue was in October, 1815. It was published every Saturday, by William M'Granahan & Co., and after- wards by " William M'Granahan-Publisher of the Laws of the Union." The sheet was 18x23 inches; four pages, 16 columns. No column rules were used. The subscription price was $2 per year in advance, and "clean rags" were
uary, 1803; perhaps earlier, for it is most probable that there were interruptions of the regular weekly issues. The volume must have consisted of 26 issues, and not 52, as is now the case with all weeklies.
* The copies of this paper referred to were kindly furnished the author by E. L. Mathers, of Morgantown.
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HISTORY OF MONONGALIA COUNTY.
solicited in payment at four cents per pound. The first and second pages of the issue of Saturday, April 17, 1819, are occupied by the acts of the second session of the Fifteenth Congress, "published by authority." Each act is signed by "H. Clay, Speaker of the House of Represent- atives," and "Jas. Barbour, President of the Senate, pro tempore." Then follows the date of the passage, and the words, "Approved. James Monroe." On the fourth page is nearly a column of humorous extracts; a notice to pensioners from the Treasury Department; three proclamations by President Monroe, concerning the sale of public lands in the West; notice to "the 1st Battalion of the 76th Regiment, 10th Brigade, 3d Divis- ion of Virginia Militia," to attend a regimental muster at Morgantown on May 6th, signed by "R. Scott, Major"; two notices warning persons not to trade for certain prom- issory notes ; two notices of "Marshal's Sale," signed by " Rawley Evans, Deputy Marshal for Isaac Heiskel, Mar- shal of the 4th Chancery District, Virginia"; a long list of letters remaining uncalled for in the Morgantown postoffice, April 1, 1819, signed "A. Hawthorn, P. M."; and an offer of "$50 Reward," by Henry Smith, of near Fredericktown, Washington County, Penn., for the return of a dark bay mare stolen from his stable. On the third page are some election news; announcements of James Tibbs, Col. Dud- ley Evans and Alpheus P. Wilson, candidates for the "next general assembly of Virginia"; a letter from John Wagner, giving his reason for opposing, in the House of Delegates, the project of making a "wagon road over Laurel Hill for near thirty miles," and a savage review of tlie communica- tion by the editor; some " steamboat news," agricultural items, an article on the cruelties of slavery (from "the
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JOURNALISTIC HISTORY.
sequel of Capt. Riley's highly interesting narrative "); humorous items, a poem, and a notice from a man warning all persons from "harboring or trusting" his wife, who had left his bed and board "without any just cause or prov- ocation," followed by a notice from the same man, concern- ing those "who have forged an advertisement in regard to me and my wife, contrary to my orders." He declares, "I shall make a public example of their conduct, and in doing so I shall consider that I am doing justice to myself, in put- ting an end to such outrage."
Another copy of The Spectator contains the following communication :
" To all to whom these presents may come, Greeting:
"KNOW YE, that by virtue of an act of the General Assembly, passed at the last session of the Virginia Legislature, entitled 'an act further to prevent unlawful gaming,' they have condemned me and my associates to banishment from this commonwealth, or to the flames. Therefore, all who have any interest in the welfare of captain Jack of Diamonds and his associates, will please to attend at Morgan Town, the last week in April to amuse yourselves and bid us a final adieu, inasmuch as the first of May is the day fixed on for our departure. ACE OF SPADES."
The publishers seem to liave been William M'Granahan," Nicholas B. Madera and Ralph Berkshire. The paper did not continue later than 1819. Its motto was, "Willing to Praise-But not afraid to Blame."
The. Monongalia Herald " edited and printed by James M. Barbour for Wm. Barbour," came next. The first issue was on December 24, 1820. Size, 18x23; $2 per annum ;
* " Regularly, once a week, on the day the paper was struck off, M'Granahan called on 'Uncle Nick' [Nicholas B. Madera] for money to buy whiskey to thin the printing ink. For a long time it was cheerfully furnished, until one day 'Uncle Nick' concluded to visit the office, and see how things were getting on, when his righteous soul was greatly vexed within him, to find his working partner lying under the printing press dead drunk."-John J. Brown's Centennial Address.
432
HISTORY OF MONONGALIA COUNTY.
four pages, sixteen columns, and column rules used. Its motto was, "Ours are the plans of fair, delightful peace- unwarped by party rage, to live like brothers." "Wheat, rye, oats, corn, flax, linen, lindsey, wool, tow, bacon, sugar, tallow, beeswax and rags" were received on subscriptions. We have no copies later than July, 1821. The Herald con- tained very little home news, except what is in the adver- tisements, which are quaint in expression and make-up. We copy two of these from the issue of May 5, 1821 :
"50 DOLLARS REWARD .- Ran away from the subscriber, living in Morgantown, on Thursday, the 8th of February, a negro girl named Rachel, about nineteen years of age, stout and well made, tolerably black, thick lips, flat nose, a wild, roguish countenance, though not a homely girl. Had on when she went away a new blue lindsey dress, strong shoes and stockings-her other clothing not known. The above reward will be given if taken out of the State of Vir- ginia, and ten dollars if taken in the State aforesaid, and all rea- sonable charges brought home. R. BERKSHIRE.
"Morgantown, March 2, 1821."
"WEAVING .- Michael Courtney respectfully inforins his friends and the public in general, that he has commenced and intends car- rying on the double and single Cover-led and Damask weaving, in all its various branches, at Scott's Ferry, 3 miles from Morgantown. From his experience in this business, he flatters himself that he will be able to render general satisfaction to those who may favor him with their custom, in terms suited to the times. A liberal share of public patronage is respectfully solicited.
"March 31."
The Northwestern Journal .- Of this newspaper The Post, in 1881, gives a description of a copy furnished by Frank A. Shean, as follows : It was 18x23 inches in size ; price, $2; published by N. B. Madera, and edited by James Barbour ; the number was dated May 11, 1822.
The Monongalia Chronicle was started in 1825, by Henry
SHELBY PINDALL BARKER. See Page 732.
433
JOURNALISTIC HISTORY.
& Carpenter, at $2 per year, in advance; and flax, beeswax, wool, feathers, tallow and corn were taken in payment of subscriptions. It was continued by Carpenter and William Thompson, whose first issue was volume one, number twen- ty-four, and dated January 19, 1828. It was a four-page sheet, 19x24, with four columns to the page. Its motto was, "The freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty." On February 16, 1828, Carpenter went out of the firm, and the paper was issued that day enlarged to 20x26, with five columns to the page, and its motto changed to, "Internal improvements, domestic manufactures .- Open to all parties, influenced by none." The last issue found is that of September 25, 1828.
The Monongalia Farmer was started about 1828, and was run by Francis Madera and Enos D. Morgan. Morgan bought out the press in 1834, and started the Democratic Republican. The Farmer is said to have been a sheet about 20x30. No copies of it can be found.
The Republican was started by Enos D. Morgan on Saturday, March 28, 1829, at $1.75 per annum. It was a four-page sheet, 19x24, sixteen columns. August 1, it was enlarged to 19x26, twenty columns. On the 10th of October its name was The Republican and Preston and Monongalia Advertiser, and was issued by Enos D. Morgan and one Dunnington. The last number to be found is July 10, 1830. Enos D. Morgan was the son of Capt. Zackwell Morgan. He was born in 1807, and died in 1857.
The Monongalian was published by Elisha Moss, at $2 per annum. Its first issue was January 22, 1831. Its size was 19x26; four pages, twenty columns. The last number found is dated June 9, 1832.
The Democratic Republican was started about February,
28
-
434
HISTORY OF MONONGALIA COUNTY.
1835, by Enos D. Morgan, and published at $2 per annum. It was 20x30, four pages, 24 columns. Its motto was, “Our Country and our Country's Friends." The issue of June 3, 1837, was volume three, number ten; whole number 114. The last number found was published in the year 1839. In 1840, it is said, Morgan changed politics and became a Whig, and that the paper was Whig until it ended in 1842.
The Northwestern Journal was started in the fall of 1843, by Enos D. Morgan, who had bought the press of the Silk Culturist at Brandonville (Preston County). The paper was a four-page sheet, about 22x32, twenty-four columns. It continued till 1845.
The Democratic Watchtower was the name of a paper projected about 1842, by Joseph H. Powell and a man by the name of Treadwell. Treadwell got on a drunken spree about the time the first number was ready to go to press, and it was never issued.
The Virginia Shield was issued about 1843, and was about 20x30 in size. It was edited by Joseph H. Powell, and was Democratic.
The Mountaineer was published in 1845, by Andrew Mc- Donald and Boaz B. Tibbs. It was Democratic in politics, and was a four-page sheet, about half the size of The Post. It is said to have continued about a year, but no copy of the paper can be found. The publishers rented the press of the Northwestern Journal.
The Western Virginia Standard was a Whig paper, pub- lished by George S. Ray, at $1.50 per annum. Its first issue was on Saturday, February 14, 1846. It was a four-page paper, 22x32 inches, twenty-four columns. Its motto was, "A people to be truly free must first be wise and good." The last number found was published in March, 1847. It
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JOURNALISTIC HISTORY.
was printed on the press of the Northwestern Journal and ran till about 1849. The Standard was a modern looking sheet, and some attention was paid to local news, but not to the extent, by any means, that it receives now.
The Monongalian .- It seems this paper had been run in 1849, by George S. Ray, as The Mirror offered to fill out its unexpired subscriptions.
The Jeffersonian was started in 1849, and but one issue was made, it is said. John Beck was the proprietor.
The Monongalia Mirror was published and edited by the Rev. Simeon Siegfried at $1.50 per annum. The first num- ber was issued Saturday, August 11, 1849, and the last one June 23, 1855. It claimed to be independent in politics. At first it was a folio, 20x32, with twenty-four columns; but enlarged afterward to 22x36, four pages, and twenty-eight columns. The price was "$1.50 in advance, $2.00 after six months, and $2.50 if never paid-without coercion." It was printed on the press of the Northwestern Journal. Mr. Siegfried was a minister in the Baptist Church, and had followed printing thirty-three years before he came to Mor- gantown. He was a great advocate of temperance. He went back to Pennsylvania, where, it is said, he died but a few years ago.
The Mountain Messenger, or Baptist Recorder, (probably it bore both names,) a religious paper, was published by Mr. Siegfried in the interest of the Baptist denomination. No number of it can be found. It is said to have been started in 1852, and to have continued for a year or two. It was about the size of the Mirror.
The Democratic Republican was published and edited by George M. Howard and B. F. Beall, at $1.50 per annum. Its first issue was in August, 1852. It was a four-page
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HISTORY OF MONONGALIA COUNTY.
sheet, 24x37, with twenty-eight columns. Its motto was, "States' Rights-National Union." It was a Democratic paper, and is said to have continued till 1855. It was printed on the first iron press ever used in the county.
The American Union was published and edited by Sim- eon Siegfried, Jr., at $1.50 per annum. The first number was issued Saturday, June 30, 1855. It was 24x36 inches in size, four pages and twenty-eight columns. In politics it was American (Know Nothing). Its motto was, "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable."
The Album (probable Odd Fellows' Album) was issued about 1854, by Simeon Siegfried, Jr., and, it is said, was a sixteen-page monthly ; was published for a short time, and devoted to the interests of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
The Morgantown Telegraph was published in 1855, by John W. Woody and John M. Coil, and was a Democratic paper. It continued but a few months, and was about 24x37 inches in size, four pages and twenty-eight columns.
The Virginia Weekly Star was started under the name of the Virginia Campaign Star. Its first issue was Sat- urday, August 9, 1856; Marshall M. Dent, editor and pro- prietor. A committee appointed by the Democratic party solicited subscriptions for it. The sheet was 24x33 inches, four pages, twenty-four columns. Its motto was, "Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Liberty." On November 15th, 1856, it dropped the word "Campaign" from its title, and was issued at $1.50 per annum, as a Democratic paper. In 1860, it supported the Douglass wing of the Democratic party. Its motto after December, 1860, was, "The Federal Union-it must and shall be preserved." The last issue was January 4, 1862.
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JOURNALISTIC HISTORY.
The West Virginia Herald was projected in 1862, by Joseph H. Powell and W. T. Mathers. Only a few issues were made.
The Morgantown Monitor was started in 1863 by George C. Sturgiss and William P. Willey, as a conservative paper. It was about the size of the New Dominion. It was under- taken by Messrs. Sturgiss and Willey, who were both young men, at the request of prominent citizens of the county, who gave such assurances of financial aid as to induce the pro- prietors to promise its continuance for one year, at the end of which its publication ceased.
. The Morgantown Weekly Post, the first Republican and the oldest existing paper in the county, was established Saturday, March 12, 1864, by Henry M. Morgan. It then was a four-page sheet, 26x32 inches in size, with six columns to the page. The subscription price then, as now, was $2 per year. Its motto was, "The Union right or wrong ;- right we'll defend it, and wrong we'll right it." It completed its first volume March 25, 1865, and then suspended until May 20th, when it started again, Mr. Morgan having associated with him Nelson N. Hoffman. To the title of the paper was added Monongalia and Preston County Gazette, which was dropped June 2, 1866. The sheet was enlarged June 5, 1869, to its present size, 26x39, with twenty-four broad columns. On June 8, 1867, the motto was changed to "Firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right."
Henry M. Morgan, the senior editor (though junior in years), is the son of Enos D. Morgan, and is a native of Morgantown, and has for over twenty years been connected with the press of the county. Nelson N. Hoffman is the son of Philip Hoffman, who married Alethe, daughter of the Rev. Alexander Summers. Philip Hoffman's parents,
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HISTORY OF MONONGALIA. COUNTY.
John and Sarah Hoffman, came from Berks County, Penn., in 1796, to the vicinty of Smithtown. Nelson N. learned the "art preservative of all arts" with Enos D. Morgan. He was a soldier in the Mexican War, and a Captain in the late civil war; was a member of the House of Delegates in 1866. Mr. Morgan has been employed on thirteen different newspapers in Morgantown.
The Constitution .- The first number was issued Saturday, April 4, 1868. It was a folio, 25x32, having twenty-four columns; price, $2; motto, "Eternal Vigilance is the price of Liberty." It was published by the Democratic and Conservative County Club, and was edited by Joseph H. Powell. September 12th, E. Shisler became editor and proprietor, and, after passing out of his hands, soon went down.
The University Bulletin was a monthly, sixteen pages, each 6x9, printed on brevier type, at 50 cents per year, by William L. Jacobs and Julian E. Fleming. It ran from 1874 to 1876.
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