Gambar halaman
PDF
ePub
[graphic][merged small]

CHAPTER XIV.

THE PRESS.

LONG

THE FIRST PRINTERS - HERALD OF THE TIMES - GRADUAL GROWTH OF PRINTING
LIST OF PAPERS AND MANY ABLE NEWSPAPER MEN-PAPERS NOW PUBLISHED IN THE
COUNTY-ETC.

THE

HE old style country newspaper was one of the most marked institutions-the product of America. The modern onslaught upon it by the metropolitan press, a part of that general trend to centralization or gathering in one what had been many, is, to the writer, one of the keenly regretable things of our most modern civilization. The marked evolution in the general newspaper business the past third of a century, both in city and country publications, makes, perhaps, the strongest landmarks of the past generation.

The press, in general terms, signifying the art of printing, is, after all, the supremest thing genius has given to the world. As we have it in its present nearly perfected form, it is simply the one little idea that started some centuries ago, of making a movable type, rudely carved in wood; but the immeasurable idea was in making each type by itself, and therefore movable. Simple, was it not, but sublime? The supremacy of this gift to the human race is manifest more in the fact that since the invention came it has been possible to subvert it to so much and to such hurtful evils. In the hands of ignorance-above all, of learned ignorancewhat an engine of evil it could be, and, indeed, it has been made. It is equally the pack-horse of vice as of virtue, ignorance and wisdom.

In 1795 Charles Miner, son of Seth Miner, who had been sent to the new country to look after his land claim in the Connecticut Land Company, wrote back to his brother to come on, and though himself without money, would set him up as a printer. His brother, Asher, brought to Wilkes-Barre a small printing press, a few pounds of type which they had obtained in Philadelphia. In a short time they issued the Herald of the Times, the first printing office and the first newspaper ever published in Luzerne county. A copy of this first paper would now be a rare and valuable relic. They issued the small paper, about the size of a sheet of foolscap paper, a short time, doing all the work with their curious way of inking the forms and their more curious press, and then transferred it to Thomas Wright. Asher Miner had served a seven years' apprenticeship at the trade in the office of the Gazette and Commercial Intelligencer, New London, Conn., and had worked for some time as journeyman in New York.

The Wrights changed the name of the paper to the Wilkes-Barre Gazette and Luzerne Advertiser, the first number dated November 28, 1797. In 1801 it was discontinued.

Asher Miner, who had worked in the Gazette office, started the Luzerne County Federalist, the initial number bearing date of January 5, 1801. In April, 1802, he associated as a partner his brother, Charles Miner, and in this style published the paper until May, 1804, when Asher relinquished his interest to Charles. The Federalist was printed on a press brought from Norwich on a sled.

Mr. Miner went afterward to where is now Doylestown-it was there then for that matter, but was nothing more than a cross-roads hamlet, containing a dozen dwellings, clustered at the crossing of the Easton and the road from Swede's ford

to Coryell's ferry. July 7, 1804, he issued the first of the Pennsylvania Correspondent and Farmer's Advertiser, which afterward became the Bucks County Intelligencer. It proved a success, and Mr. Miner was publisher of it twenty-one years.

September 22, 1806, the Federalist had succeeded so well that the proprietor announced the enlargement of his paper from a "medium to a royal sheet," and also issued a prospectus for "a monthly magazine-literary, moral and agricultural." There are no records showing this was ever carried out.

The Historical Record of 1888 gives a notice of two issues of the Susquehanna Democrat, published in Wilkes-Barre, March 15, 1811, and February 15, 1811. The possessor of these papers was in San Francisco, and wanted to sell them.

The late William Penn Miner, by far the best authority on the subject of newspapers in Luzerne county of the olden times, contributed a short article to the Historical Record, being impelled thereto by a paper that had appeared in another county on the subject, and that contained some errors that Mr. Miner corrected. The substance of his article is that Asher Miner established the Luzerne County Federalist on the first Monday in January, 1801. In October following the word "County was omitted, and April 26, 1802, it was announced that "this paper will hereafter be published by A. & C. Miner." May 1, 1804, the partnership was dissolved and Asher Miner removed to Doylestown and established The Correspondent for twenty years, and to this day the Bucks County Intelligencer retains at the head of its column: "Established by Asher Miner in 1804."

[ocr errors]

The Federalist succeeded the Wilkes-Barre Gazette, owned by Thomas Wright, and published by his second son, Josiah, who announced December 8, 1800, that "a false report had stated that the paper was suspended and was given up in favor of the Federalist." The Wrights and Miners were rival publishers, but evidently adjusted matters in a most satisfactory way as well as sensible, Asher Miner married Mary, the only daughter of Thomas Wright, and Charles Miner married Letitia, only daughter of Josiah Wright. Charles Miner remained sole proprietor of the Federalist until May 12, 1809, when it passed to Sidney Tracy and Steuben Butler. Mr. Miner giving the young men a good "send off" in his valedictory. Mr. Tracy retired September 2, 1810, and Mr. Butler remained a few weeks longer.

The inference is that the Federalist then ceased to be, as December 28, 1810, appeared a prospectus by Miner & Butler of a new paper, The Gleaner and Luzerne Advertiser. The office now consisted of Charles Miner, editor, and Sidney and Steuben Butler, printers; the boys had been apprentices in the Federalist office, where they had learned their trades. January 29, 1813, Butler retired and Mr. Miner continued the publication until June 14, 1816, when Isaac A. Chapman, uncle of Charles Miner, became proprietor. Charles Miner in his last issue stated that he was going to Philadelphia to aid in the publication of the True American, etc. June 6, 1817, Patrick Hepburn joined Mr. Chapman in the publication and in September following became sole proprietor. Charles Miner, after a successful newspaper career elsewhere, returned to his old home in 1832, and two years later came Asher Miner.

Charles Miner was born in Connecticut February 1, 1780, and came to WilkesBarre in 1795, where his brother Asher (great-grandfather of the present Asher Miner) established the Luzerne County Federalist. In 1807 Charles Miner was elected to the Pennsylvania legislature, and was re-elected the following year. Charles returned to Wyoming valley in 1832, Asher following in 1834, and they ended their lives on adjoining farms near Wilkes-Barre, now Plains township. His History of Wyoming was published in 1845, and is the standard work on that subject. His death occurred October 26, 1865, at the ripe age of eighty-five. Asher, who was the grandfather of Hon. Charles A. Miner, died March 13, 1841. No stronger or more virile race of men came in the early day to the Wyoming than the Miners. Their descendants are here-worthy sons and daughters of worthy ancestors.

There is the evidence of the strong family pride and faith in themselves in the history and present existence of Miner's Mills borough. Here is where Archer and Charles retired and settled down on adjoining farms after their long active political and newspaporial careers. They were identified with the place through their kinsman by marriage. Thomas Wright, the first prominent settler in the place, and who, in 1795, built the gristmill that is to-day "Miner's mill," and is one of the largest in the county.

Wilkes-Barre Gazette and Luzerne Advertiser was started by Josiah Wright, November 28, 1797. A long three-column folio. The second issue of the paper is extant, and but three of the pages are printed; the fourth was a blank. It had but three ads. "Lost," by Nathan Beach; "Take notice," by Philip Jackson, of the firm of Nelson & Jackson, blacksmiths; the last one is by Clark Beebe, notifying that he will" during the winter keep sleighs and horses and carry passengers to and from Easton; leaving Wilkes-Barre every Wednesday."

The Gazette had some encouragement it seems, for December 18, 1798, it had twelve ads. James Morgan advertises John Rodrock as a runaway “an indentured curse, in shape something like a man," etc., and offers one cent reward for the "curse." Amos Fell gives "notice to those indebted;" Jacob Hart is also after "debtors;" William Miller "has spring wheels;" Archibald White, "Ashes wanted;" Thomas Wright, "Saw-mill saws;" Elisha Harding to "debtors;" Thomas Wright, Lumber business;" "Bridge lottery," by Jacob Early, John Barnett, Edward Mott, John Mulholland, Valentine Beidleman and James Hyndshaw.

November 10, 1800, the name of the paper was changed to Wilkes-Barre Gazette and Republican Centinel, by Joseph Wright. May 20, 1800, Thomas Wright retired and Joseph Wright succeeded him.

The Wikes-Barre Leader.-In what is generally referred to as the "Leader Office," a handsome three-story building, are published the Daily Evening Leader, the Sunday Morning Leader and the Weekly Union Leader, founded by Joseph K. Bogert and now under the proprietorship and editorship of E. G. Bogert. The Leader is the oldest and one of the best local papers published in the county and the leading and official democratic journal of Luzerne; it is, in fact, one of the leading newspapers of the State. It traces an ancestry directly back to 1828, and indirectly to 1810, in which latter year the first democratic newspaper in Luzerne county was established under the title of the Susquehanna Democrat, by Samuel Maffet, one of the leading citizens of that day, an excellent writer and an energetic man. It was but 11x17 inches in size, but its earnestness in advocacy of the political principles espoused by its editor was not in the least abated by this diminutiveness of proportions. For fourteen years Mr. Maffet continued the publication but in 1824 he sold to Sharp D. Lewis and Chester A. Colt. In 1831 Mr. Lewis transferred his interest to Mr Luther Kidder. The next year Mr. Colt sold to Mr. Robert A. Conrad, afterward mayor of Philadelphia, playwright and distinguished Mason. Changes were frequent now, for within a year Conrad had sold to Kidder, which made the latter sole proprietor, Kidder had sold to James Rafferty and C. Edwards and the latter had sold to Dr. Christel & Co., in whose hands it shortly expired, the material etc. passing to the other then existing democratic organ.

In the meantime (1818) the Wyoming Herald had been established by Steuben Butler; the Republican Farmer (1828), by Mr. Henry Pettebone and Henry Hold, and the Wyoming Republican in Kingston, in 1832. In 1835 the Herald, having meanwhile been owned and edited respectively by Butler and Worthington, Butler and Asher Miner and Eleazer Carey and Robert Turner, was merged with the Wyoming Republican. The Republican in turn, after having been owned by its founder, Mr. Lewis, until 1837, and from then on by Dr. Thomas W. Miner and Miner S. Blackman, was consolidated in 1839 with the Farmer under the proprietorship of Mr. S. P. Collings. Mr. Collings had purchased the Farmer from Messrs.

« SebelumnyaLanjutkan »