CHAPTER XXXVII.

JOURNALISM IN ORANGE COUNTY

By W. T. Doty.

FIRST APPEARANCE.

From the accessible records it seems that the "art preservative" entered Orange County by way of Goshen in 1788. It appeared next in Newburgh in 1895, {_sic_} at New Windsor in 1799, at Montgomery in 1806, New Vernon in 1833, Slate Hill in 1834, Middletown, in 1840, Port Jervis in 1850, Warwick in 1845, Pine Bush in 1868, Walden in 1869, Cornwall 1871, Monroe 1882, Cornwall-on-Hudson in 1888, Chester 1888, Highland Falls 1891, Washingtonville 1899.

At first thought it appears more probable that Newburgh was the first port of entry, from the fact that the latter early felt the contact of the civilization advancing up the Hudson--practically the only highway into the great unknown interior prior to, during and immediately following the American Revolution; and also as, during the Revolution, Samuel Louden followed the retreating footsteps of the American forces from New York City to Fishkill, printing or issuing, at convenient times, the _New York Packet._ This was issued, it appears, at Fishkill. Why not in Newburgh, where so many great events in connection with the Revolutionary period occurred?

However, Goshen seems to have been a hamlet or village as early as 1714, while Newburgh's first settlement was about 1719, and the records accord to the old county seat the honor of housing the first printing office in Orange County.

In 1788 David Mandeville and David M. Wescott issued the _Goshen Repository._ That they were men of some literary ability is surmised from the fact that they were connected with the Goshen Academy--that ancient and honorable seat of learning--an institution of which, also, Goshen should feel a thrill of pride.

The office of the _Repository_ was, in 1793, near the court house. The _Repository_ was sold to John G. and William Heurtin, in 1800, at which time its name was changed to the _Orange County Patriot._ In 1801 Gabriel Denton secured the interest of William Heurtin, and in 1803 Denton sold his interest to William A. Carpenter, and the name of the paper was changed to that of _The Friend of Truth._ The year following it again changed owners and names, when Ward M. Gazlay became its publisher and it became the _Orange Eagle._ The next year (1805) the office was burned and Mr. Gazlay removed the remains to Newburgh, where the paper, in union with _The Recorder of the Times,_ which Mr. Gazlay purchased, became the _Political Index,_ and this lived until 1829.

According to the record the second journalistic venture in the county was in 1795, when the _Newburgh Packet_ appeared, printed at Newburgh by Lucius Carey, and in 1797 it became _The Mirror_ under David Denniston. Denniston had purchased the paper of Carey (1797), in which year it was announced that the paper was printed by Philip Van Home. In 1798 Joseph W. Barber was the printer, and he advertised, "also, Printing and Book Binding carried on by David Denniston." _The Mirror_ was absorbed (1804) by the _Rights of Man,_ and the latter by _The Recorder of the Times_ in 1805.

In 1799 we hear of the _New Windsor Gazette,_ through the removal of a paper of that name from New Windsor to Newburgh, by Jacob Schultz. How long it had existed at New Windsor is now purely conjectural, but as most of the newspapers of that early period were sort of birds of passage, it is assumed that the year 1799 witnessed the _Gazette's_ hatching at New Windsor and its fledgling flight to Newburgh, where it became the _Orange County Gazette._ It became _The Citizen_ when later purchased by David Denniston.

The year 1799 also brought forth at Newburgh another publication, _The Rights of Man,_ with Dr. Elias Winfield as its sponsor, for whom it was "printed by Benoni H. Howell." David Denniston purchased this paper and merged in it the _Orange County Gazette._ We learn that the _Mirror_ of 1797 was absorbed by _The Rights of Man_ in 1804, and then the _Packet,_ the _Mirror,_ and the _Gazette_ disappear. The _Mirror_ and the _Citizen_ espoused the patriotic political works and probably the religious doctrines of Thomas Paine, who wrote "The Crisis," "Common Sense," and "The Rights of Man," while the _Gazette_ advocated opposite theories. The paper, _The Rights of Man,_ which absorbed the _Mirror_ and the _Citizen,_ represented the Jeffersonian branch of the Republican party, while the _Recorder of the Times,_ claiming to be Republican in politics, represented the Federalists and Burr, then a Federalist.

In 1803 appeared at Newburgh the _Recorder of the Times,_ by Dennis Coles. Then at Goshen the same year, _The Friend of Truth,_ under the management of Ward M. Gazlay, and in 1804 at Goshen the _Orange County Gazette,_ conducted by Gabriel Denton. It will be seen there were, within five years, two _Orange County Gazettes_ in the county--one at Newburgh, one at Goshen. As the former metamorphosed itself into the _Public Index,_ the _Orange Telegraph,_ the _Newhurgh Telegraph_ and the _Newburgh Register,_ with short pauses between, it may be that it had thrown off the first epidermis and was emerging in new form when its Goshen namesake burst into the sunlight.

Montgomery was looming up from its settlement in 1721, or soon thereafter, and in 1810 it was large enough, or felt important enough, to become incorporated as a village. But as early as 1806 the printer or publisher saw an "aching void" in the growing hamlet, to pervade which the _Orange County Republican_ was called into existence that year. It was "published for the Proprietors by Cyrus Beach and Luther Pratt." Who the "Proprietors" were is not in evidence.

It is worthy of record right here that this Montgomery journalistic venture is the only one, up to that date, that lives to-day. Through migration and other changes this _Orange County Republican_ ultimately became the _Independent Republican,_ with a permanent abiding place in Goshen.

That venerable editor and historian, Edward M. Ruttenber, says the _Orange County Republican_ was first published "at Ward's Bridge," the title of the first post-office in Montgomery, so called from the fact that it was located and kept at James Ward's gristmill, where he had thrown a bridge across the Wallkill, constituting it one of the most convenient locations for the delivery of mail matter.

The money to start the paper was advanced in equal shares by twenty-four "Patriotic citizens of this county, consisting chiefly of respectable farmers and mostly inhabitants of the town of Montgomery." This excerpt is from a statement in the paper itself of the issue of June 9, 1806. The paper "admitted there was some honesty among Federalists," but was bitterly opposed to Dewitt Clinton. January 18, 1812, Luther Pratt, the publisher then, changed its name to the _Independent Republican_ as more clearly indicating its political policy and views. It was not until 1822 that it was removed to Goshen, four years after James A. Cheevey became its proprietor. He was a Frenchman and a practical printer.

In 1806 appeared another publication, the _Political Index,_ at Newburgh, by Ward M. Gazlay. The latter's _Orange Eagle_ plant at Goshen was burned in 1805, and he had removed the remnants to Newburgh, the Phoenix emerging from these ashes being the _Political Index._ The _Index_ is credited with having, some years later, "apparently consolidated the interests of the Republican party." It gave a "hearty support to the administration of Jefferson and Madison, and to the war of 1812." It is further stated that "its political articles were mainly from the pen of Jonathan Fisk, one of the most able men of the period."

In 1829 the _Index_ passed into the ownership of Charles M. Cushman, who changed its name to the _Orange Telegraph,_ and later to the _Newburgh Telegraph._ In 1839 Mr. Cushman sold it to Henry H. Van Dyck, who, in 1840, sold it to Elias Pitts, who, in 1850, disposed of it to Edward M. Ruttenber. The latter sold it in 1857 to Joseph Lawson, repurchased it in 1859, resold it in 1861 to E. W. Gray, who sold it, in 1864, to George M. Warren, he to Isaac V. Montanye in the same year; he to E. M. Ruttenber in 1865; he to A. A. Bensel in 1867; he to J. J. McNally in 1869, who, in 1874, sold it to Dr. Cooper, of Warwick. In 1876 E. M. Ruttenber again became its owner, and changed its name to the _Newburgh Register._ February 24, 1908, the publication of the _Register_ was suspended.

Here, then, appears the second paper to come down to us from that early period, though only after many ups and down and with kaleidoscopic changes of titles and owners. Mr. Ruttenber assures us that "_The Telegraph,_ although Democratic at all times, opposed the Albany Regency--a fact which led to its purchase by H. H. Van Dyck, or rather the purchase for him. Mr. Pitts, who had been sent to take Mr. Van Dyck's place, very soon fell into the line of thought of his local supporters, and not only approved the Regency, but upheld the 'Free Soil' banner of 1848 with marked ability. In the subsequent changes and revolutions," adds Mr. Ruttenber, "in politics it has maintained the Democratic faith."

An ambitious effort appeared at Goshen in 1808 when Gabriel Denton launched the _Orange County Patriot and Spirit of Seventy-six._ In this publication we recognize the third journalistic venture with sufficient tenacity of life to come down to our own day, though it, too, had to change its title and character somewhat ere it became the present well-known _Goshen Democrat._

From 1808 to 1820 there seems to be a hiatus. There does not appear a single new journalistic venture in that time, although it was in this period, in 1812-13, that the _Orange County Republican_ became the _Independent Republican,_ and in 1822 was removed from Montgomery to Goshen. The war of 1812, impending, progressing and ending, with war's all-demoralizing effects, may account for this cooling of the journalistic ardor for twelve long years.

At any rate, the next new publication to appear in the field--figuratively if not literally--was the _Orange Farmer,_ in 1820, at Goshen. Its founders, Williams and Farrand, were graduates, Mr. Ruttenber says, of the _Albany Plow-Boy_ publication. How long the _Orange Farmer_ ploughed through the journalistic heather of Orange County is not now known, but we never hear of it again. Mr. Ruttenber records that "Samuel Williams, the associate of Mr. Farrand, died at Rondout, June 16, 1878, in his ninetieth year--the oldest printer in the State, and for forty years a member of the Baptist denomination."

In June, 1822, John D. Spaulding began, at Newburgh, the publication of the _Newburgh Gazette._ This passed through many owners' hands, appearing in 1856, under the management of Eugene W. Gray as the _Daily News._ Later it passed a somewhat checkered career in alliances with the _Gazette,_ the _Telegraph,_ the _Daily Telegraph_ (1864), _Daily Union,_ same year, the _Press_ (1866), and the _Register_ in 1876.

The Rev. J. R. Wilson began at Newburgh, in 1824, the publication of a religious monthly of forty-eight pages, under the title of the _Evangelical Witness._ It was devoted to the exposition of the doctrines of the Reformed Presbyterian church, and was continued four years, to be succeeded (1828) by the _Christian Statesman,_ which gave up the ghost after one year's struggle in this cruel, cold world.

An anti-Jackson paper appeared in Newburgh during the campaign of 1828. It was called _The Beacon._ Its editor was Judge William B. Wright.

In 1829 the _Orange Telegraph_ appeared at Newburgh. It was merely our old friend, the _Political Index,_ in a new guise, under the tutelage of Charles M. Cushman, who subsequently named it the _Newburgh Telegraph._

A monthly quarterly appeared next in Newburgh in May, 1832, as _Tablets of Rural Economy._ John W. Knevels was the editor. The people then, as too often now, had no use for rural or other economy, and the quarterly died after a few issues.

In 1832 appeared another publication--one that time has dealt with so kindly that we find it to-day brandishing, as of old, "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon." The _Signs of the Times_ was started at Goshen in this year by Lebbeus L. Vail as an exponent or expounder of the Old School Baptist theology. The first numbers were printed at the office of the _Independent Republican._ Mr. Vail, though born a Congregationalist--his father, Isaiah Vail, being one of the founders of the present First Congregationalist church of Middletown--became an enthusiastic Old School Baptist through the influence of his wife, Sally, daughter of Wilmot Moore, and her father's family. Like most neophytes, Mr. Vail became very earnest, and gave freely of his purse, his time, and his energies, and the _Signs of the Times_ soon became a recognized factor in Old School Baptist work. This publication was only one of the forms of his contributions to the cause, with no hope of material reward. Two years later Mr. Vail became county clerk. Recognizing in a young enthusiast in the Old School Baptist faith an Elijah in the cause and fit to wear the mantle, he was forced by civic duties to lay aside, he turned over to Elder Gilbert Beebe the entire plant and good will of the _Signs of the Times._ Mr. Beebe removed the office to New Vernon, then a somewhat thriving hamlet with a well-appointed Old School Baptist church, with store, post-office, hotel, blacksmith shop, and the accessories of a live community. The place is on the Shawangunk Kill, on the Orange and Sullivan County line, about four miles northwest of Middletown. Mr. Beebe removed the plant again, this time to Alexandria, Va., whence he returned with it to New Vernon, and in 1847 or 1848 removed it to Middletown, where it still oscillates, as of old, the sword of Gideon. Elder Beebe preached to congregations in Middletown, Brookfield (Slate Hill), Bloomingburg, Van Burenville or Wallkill, and New Vernon. He was an energetic, tireless worker, and built up an immense circulation for the _Signs of the Times._ It became a power in Old School Baptist faith throughout the United States, and was for years--and is yet--the leading publication in this faith. In the sixties Elder Beebe reprinted sermons and Old School Baptist verses in book form, taken from files of the _Signs._ Two volumes were printed and they had great sale. The _Signs of the Times,_ first published as a monthly, became a semi-monthly, which it is now, with thirty pages and covers. It is one of the remarkable and quaint publications in this country to-day. Its contents are a study for the historian, whether of religious or secular subjects. Whatever its other merits, its very quaintness should preserve it from the vandalism of time, the sacrilege of events, and the blasphemy of environment. It stands as a monument to the enterprise, the religious feelings, enthusiasm, aims and forces of a period and a propagandism that seem slowly but surely fading into the twilight of the ages. It is now "Published the first and fifteenth of each month by J. E. Beebe & Co., Middletown, N. Y.," with Elder F. A. Chick, Hopewell, N. J., and Elder H. C. Ker, Middletown, as editors.

The _Newburgh Daily Journal_ was started in 1833 or 1834 by John D. Spalding, which he continued until 1843, when he changed the name to the _Highland Courier._ After his death, August 22, 1853, Mrs. Spalding, his widow, published it until 1855, when she sold it to William E. Smiley. Edward Nixon became its proprietor in 1858, and Rufus A. Reed in 1859, who changed its name to the _Highland Chieftain._

The name was afterwards changed to the _Newburgh Daily Journal,_ which it retains to the present day. On June 1, 1861, Cyrus B. Martin became the owner and its whole character at once radically changed for the better. Mr. Martin was peculiarly fitted for editorial duties and under his able management the paper soon attained a large circulation and eventually gained that high standing and wide sphere of influence, which under the wise control of his successors it has ever since retained.

Mr. Martin remained the owner of the _Journal_ until 1877, when he sold out to the Messrs. Samuel Ritchie, Lawrence C. Bodine and Frank S. Hull. Before the year was up, Mr. Bodine disposed of his interests to his partners, and those two gentlemen have managed the paper ever since, although their interests are merged in the corporation known as the Newburgh Journal Company.

The _Journal_ is housed in a building owned by itself, a handsome, spacious structure, located on the corner of Smith and Third streets, where it maintains one of the most complete printing establishments and book bindery plants to be found in the county.

The _Republican Banner_ existed in Montgomery in 1833 or 1834. or in both those years, with Calvin F. S. Thomas as its publisher, but that is all that seems to be known about it.

In 1834 a handsomely printed weekly appeared in the thriving locality of Brookfield or Slate Hill, known as the _Republican Sentinel,_ or "the _Farmers' Protests Against Political Speculation and Dictation."_

The writer has a few copies of the _Sentinel,_ which show it to have been a highly creditable publication, in its make-up, its typographical appearance, and in its literary features. The issue for April 12, 1834, was No. 6, of Vol. I, and it was "Printed by Tho's P. Evans for the Publisher." May 17 the issue was No. 10, and announced that "The _Republican Sentinel_ is printed every Saturday by D. Yokum for the Proprietor." The issue for June 28 was No. 16, and contained the same announcement as to the printer, but in no issue does it appear who the editor or publisher was. The _Sentinel_ was a five-column folio, improving typographically with each issue, and printed from clean-faced brevier or possibly minion type. When it ceased to exist no one now living seems to know.

In 1834, in Newburgh, Wallace T. Sweet issued the _National Advertiser,_ which was merged into the _Newburgh Telegraph,_ though in what year is not stated.

The _Reformed Presbyterian_ appeared in Newburgh March 1, 1836, with Rev. Moses Roney as editor. It was a monthly of thirty-two pages. In 1849 he removed it to Pittsburgh, Pa.

In 1840 A. A. Bensel began the publication of Middletown's first recorded newspaper venture. He called it the _Middletown Courier._ It was a weekly paper, democratic in politics. In April, 1846, he removed the entire plant to Kingston, N. Y., where he started the _Ulster Democrat._

In 1845, in Newburgh, the Rev. David L. Proudfit began issuing the _Christian Instructor,_ a monthly of thirty-two pages. Two years later he sold it to the Rev. J. B. Dales, who removed it to Philadelphia.

So far as records can be found the first publication to appear in Warwick was an Old School Baptist journal, the _Doctrinal Advocate and Monitor._ This was in 1845 or 1846, possibly earlier. It was published and probably edited by Elder Jewett. In 1846 it was merged with Elder Gilbert Beebe's _Signs of the Times._

Middletown was without a paper from April to July, in 1846. At the latter date John S. Brown began there the publication of the _Orange County News._ It was neutral in politics, and Mr. Ruttenber says it was hardly deserving the name of a newspaper. It died in 1849, the material being purchased by Gilbert J. Beebe for his new paper.

In August, 1848, Gilbert J. Beebe started in Middletown the publication of the _Banner of Liberty._ It was issued monthly as a conservative journal--opposing all the modern ideas of reform in politics, in religion, in laws and in temperance. In 1856 it became a weekly, and espoused the cause of the democratic party. In 1856 Mr. Beebe issued the _Campaign Banner_--a sort of auxiliary to the _Banner of Liberty._ Both were more or less pro-slavery in all their utterances; the particular limb of the democracy to which they clung being known as "Hunkerism" prior to the Civil War, as "Copperheadish" during and after the Civil War. In ante-bellum days both papers attained a big circulation for those times--"fully 27,000 copies," Mr. Ruttenber says. _The Banner of Liberty_ was taken everywhere in the South and Southwest, and below Mason and Dixon's line it was all-powerful. And even north of that line there were many who swore by the Great Horn Spoon and the _Banner of Liberty._ The income was great, and had Mr. Beebe been as astute a business man as he was aggressive in polemics, he would have been numbered with the exclusive few of that day known as millionaires. But Gilbert Judson Beebe was a different type of man. Like his venerable father, he had a principle--right or wrong, but right as he saw it--and pelf was powerless against his adamantine purposes.

His father, Elder Gilbert Beebe, was in position to "roll in wealth." He had a great income from his _Signs of the Times,_ and from his writings and books; he had the machinery of his church to manipulate for his own aggrandizement, if he so willed; he was almost an idol wherever the Old School Baptists had an abiding place in this country; but he disdained all sordid allurements, and, armed with his own peculiar interpretation of the Scriptures, he lived frugally and pounded his theorems and theological dogmas for three and four straight hours every Sunday in one of his pulpits, and during the fortnight in the columns of his _Signs._

The writer of this knew him well; set type a long time in his office in Orchard street, Middletown; fed his presses; helped get out one of his book of songs and sermons, and always held the venerable editor-preacher in respect if not in absolute awe. Looking back at those days from the year 1908, the writer understands better the magnetism which gave Elder Beebe his great power among the people.

This peculiar personality was not lost in his children. In Gilbert Judson Beebe--who made the _Banner of Liberty_ the most powerful pro-slavery journal for years in ante-bellum days--individuality, aggressiveness, polemics, even the most violent dogmatism, were constantly in evidence. Not only did he wield a most trenchant, bitter pen, ever dipped in the wormwood of invective and the gall of expletives--he was an orator as well; and could work his hearers up to a pitch of frenzy or tears. The writer, yet in his teens, was employed on the _Banner of Liberty_ as a "compositor" for a considerable time, and had much opportunity for learning the characteristics of the man.

The _Banner of Liberty_ lost much of its power when the Civil War boomed its terrors over the land. Its circulation fell off daily, but the editor every week just as religiously sailed into the "Lincoln hirelings" with a venom that came near landing him in Fort Lafayette. The writer was one of those "hirelings," and, while "sticking type" in his office had many doubtless indiscreet arguments with the aggressive editor on the issues of the day. Mr. Beebe seemed rather pleased, not to say amused, at the temerity of the boy-printer, and gave him opportunity to expound his "abolition heresies."

As the Civil War went on, the paper continually lost prestige, and when the venerable editor--broken-hearted in the lost cause--died in 1872, the _Banner of Liberty_ became homeless. It was bought by the Benedict brothers, Thomas E. and Gilbert H., and was removed to Ellenville. The writer's recollection is that it was later transferred to Brooklyn, L. I., where it ceased to exist. On this point, however, he may err; however, it did not long survive its talented founder.

Gilbert J. Beebe also, in 1848, started another paper--the _Middletown Mercury._ This paper was less virulent than his _Banner of Liberty,_ and being devoted to local news, attained a considerable circulation. In 1860 Mr. Beebe sold the _Mercury_ to James H. Norton, who had been conducting the _Tri-States Union_ at Port Jervis. Mr. Norton associated with him in this purchase a young printer and ready writer, Isaac F. Guiwits. The two were thoroughly practical men, and soon made their personality and their good taste vividly apparent in their work. The _Mercury_ was enlarged, new type and machinery were installed, and it was not many months before the paper began to grow in circulation and in power. It got better and neater with each issue; its managers seemed to vie with each other in this work. Within five years the _Middletown Mercury_ became famous for being the handsomest newspaper in the United States. For those days, it was a model of beauty. What is more, it became a leading newspaper; its local news was gotten up the best, much attention being paid to this feature--practically an innovation in journalism, strange as this statement may appear to newspaper men and readers to-day. Mr. Norton was a democrat of the pro-slavery type, and his editorial utterances during the war were often vitriolic, notwithstanding which the paper flourished, many paid-up republican subscribers contributing to its success, admiring its journalistic features while cursing its politics. In 1867 Isaac V. Montanye purchased an interest in the paper, and in 1868 became sole proprietor. In 1869 S. M. Boyd became its owner. In 1873 the _Middletown Mail_ was merged in the _Mercury,_ when Dr. Joseph D. Friend and George H. Thompson became its editors and owners. Dr. Friend retired in 1874. In 1878 the _Weekly Argus_ consolidated with the _Mercury,_ which became the _Mercury and Argus._ In 1876 Cornelius Macardell and George H. Thompson became proprietors, with Mr. Thompson as editor, who continued thus until his death in May, 1904. The _Mercury and Argus_ plant remains in the Macardell family, known as the Argus and Mercury Publishing Company, with Cornelius Macardell, president; A. B. Macardell, vice-president and secretary; A. E. Nickinson, treasurer and general manager; A. B. Macardell, editor; Henry P. Powers and Horace A. MacGowan, city editors.

In 1849 Thomas George began in Newburgh the publication of the _Newburgh Excelsior._ E. M. Ruttenber purchased this paper in May, 1851, and merged it with his _Telegraph._

In January, 1850, appeared the first newspaper in Port Jervis, the _Port Jervis Express._ This journalistic venture deserves especial notice from the fact that it was started by a colored man. P. H. Miller--the first publication of such distinction in Orange County, and possibly in the State. The _Express_ was well printed, and ably edited. But it died in October the same year.

The _Middletown Advertiser_ was started in Middletown in 1850 by G. J. Beebe. It was a monthly advertising sheet, and lived two years.

In November, 1850, Colonel Samuel Fowler--a leading citizen--started the _Tri-States Union_ in Port Jervis. It was a democratic paper, with John I. Mumford as editor. Lucius F. Barnes, a rising young lawyer of Milford, Pa., purchased the paper and edited it until August 10, 1854, when he sold it to James H. Norton. The latter sold the paper in 1861, to G. W. Allen, of Honesdale, Pa., and Wallace W. Farnum, a deaf mute, of Port Jervis. The latter was a practical printer, and remained in the office many years. It was under Allen and Farnum that the politics of the paper changed from democratic to republican. In 1862 Allen's interest in the paper was purchased by Daniel Holbrook, a recent graduate of Harvard College and fresh from the position of principal of the school at the House of Refuge, Randall's Island, N. Y. Mr. Holbrook made it a lively republican paper, ably maintaining the Union cause during the Civil War then waging. September 27, 1869, Mr. Holbrook sold the paper to Foster & Mitchell, of Chambersburg, Pa. In 1871 the paper was purchased by Charles St. John, Jr., William T. Doty, and Alfred E. Spooner. In 1872 Mr. Spooner's interest was purchased by Erwin G. Fowler. All through this year the _Union_ was one of the foremost supporters of the liberal republican movement that led to the nomination at Cincinnati of the lamented Horace Greeley for President. Soon after Greeley's nomination the Union's proprietors issued _The Wood-Chopper,_ a campaign paper which was full of fire and enthusiasm, but died with the ambitions of its martyred presidential candidate. In January, 1873, Mr. Doty retired from the firm to take charge of the _Gazette._ Mr. Fowler retired from the paper later in the same year. In April, 1877, Fred R. Salmon, Mr. St. John's brother-in-law, young and fresh from a commercial school, entered the office as bookkeeper. He displayed aptitude and business qualities from the start--points Mr. St. John quickly recognized--and in 1884 he was made a member of the firm, which became St. John & Salmon, and thus remained until 1894, when the same members became the Tri-States Printing Co. In May, 1895, the firm was incorporated as the Tri-States Publishing Co., which it remains, though on October 1, 1907, Mr. Salmon purchased Mr. St. John's interest and became sole owner.

In 1878 the _Tri-States Union_ was changed from a weekly to semi-weekly issue, but within a year or two was changed back to the weekly issue, which it continues. In 1871 it was changed from a folio to a quarto, which it remains.

In January, 1873, Mr. St. John started the _Port Jervis Daily Union._ It was issued as a morning paper for a year or two, since which time it has been an afternoon paper. It has been edited successively by Ed. H. Mott, E. A. Brown, Henry A. Van Fredenberg, E. G. Fowler, Fred R. Salmon, Charles O. Young, James Bennet, Charles A. Starr, Merritt C. Speidel, and at present by W. T. Doty.

On November 26, 1851, John W. Hasbrouck issued at Middletown the first number of the weekly _Whig Press._ In March, 1868, Mr. Hasbrouck sold the plant to Moses D. Stivers. In 1870 Albert Kessinger bought a half interest in the paper, and the firm was Stivers & Kessinger until August, 1872, when the junior member died. In October, 1872, Mr. Stivers sold the plant to F. Stanhope Hill, who sold an interest to John W. Slauson, and the firm became Hill & Slauson. Mr. Hill sold his interest to Mr. Stivers July 1, 1873, and the firm became Stivers & Slauson. In 1880 Mr. Stivers sold his interest to Mr. Slauson, and Charles J. Boyd entered the firm under the firm name of Slauson & Boyd. This continued until February, 1906, when the whole plant was sold to the Middletown Times Publishing Co., and the familiar old _Press_ lost its identity in the _Times-Press._ It seemed lamentable to see this staunch old paper die. It was the pet of that venerable and conscientious laborer in the literary field, John W. Hasbrouck, and his estimable wife, Dr. Lydia Sayer Hasbrouck. Both labored for years, literally side by side, in the editorial room and in the work-shop of the establishment, and they had built up a fine property. Under its successive changes, in the hands of Messrs. Stivers, Slauson and Boyd the _Press_ had become one of the best country newspapers in the State. Its plant was very valuable, with the most improved machinery, and the whole establishment was shrewdly managed, the paper ably edited, and nothing but the menace of a distinguished rival could ever have induced Messrs. Slauson and Boyd to consent to the disposal of so valuable a plant.

The temperance agitation evidently struck Port Jervis heavily early in the fifties, for in June, 1852, J. L. Barlow and John Dow began the publication of the _Mirror of Temperance._ This lived about eighteen months.

In 1853 another temperance paper appeared in Port Jervis, when John Williams issued _The Sentinel._ It died in 1855. Mr. Williams was a pugnacious Englishman, and while his _Sentinel_ was still on guard, he issued another temperance paper, in the fall of 1854, which he called _The Precursor of Temperance._

With the demise of the latter publication and the _Sentinel,_ in 1855, the starting of temperance papers in Port Jervis ceased entirely. Whether this was due to the complete and perpetual reclamation of the place by the army of temperance agitators that swooped down upon it in the fifties, or to the belief that the warfare was utterly hopeless, is not certain. Any way, the vanquished (or conquering?) John Williams shook the dust of the town from his heels and tarried long enough in Middletown to start the _Hardwareman's Newspaper,_ later the _Iron Age,_ in the office of the _Whig Press._

In 1855 the _Newburgh American_ was issued by R. P. L. Shafer. It had a life of only three or four weeks.

In 1855, at the office of the _Whig Press_ in Middletown, John Williams, who had wrestled with the liquor question in Port Jervis for a few years, started out in a new line. He had Mr. and Mrs. Hasbrouck print for him a trade journal--one of the earliest ventures of this kind in the country. He called it the _Hardwareman's Newspaper,_ and published it monthly. After three years its name was changed to the _Iron Age,_ and it is published yet in New York by David Williams, son of its founder, and is one of the leading trade journals.

A monthly of forty-eight pages was started in Newburgh in 1855 by R. B. Denton. It was called the _Literary Scrapbook._ Its life was short.

If the temperance workers had abandoned the western end of the county as wholly reclaimed or as irreclaimable, they had an eye or two on the eastern end of the district, and in March, 1856, Royal B. Hancock, "as agent for an association of gentlemen," started in Newburgh a temperance paper which he called the _Newburgh Times._ It passed into the hands of R. Bloomer & Son, who sold it to Alexander Wilson, he to Charles Blanchard, and the latter, in 1867, turned it into the _Newburgh Daily Democrat._ The latter failed in a few months.

In 1856 in the Middletown _Whig Press_ office Mr. and Mrs. Hasbrouck began the publication of _The Sybil,_ a fortnightly quarto. It was edited by Mrs. Hasbrouck, and was a particularly bright, able, fearless publication. It was continued eight years.

An association of students in Domanski's school in Newburgh, in 1857 started _The Acorn,_ a small but pretentious monthly of a literary character. It lived about one year.

In the early part of the winter of 1864 Eugene W. Gray began printing the _Daily Union_ at Newburgh. It was really the _Daily Telegraph,_ which had been suspended for a short time. In 1866 the title of both the weekly and daily was changed to the _Press._ In 1869 the title of _Telegraph_ was restored, and in 1876 it became the _Register,_ which continued until February 24, 1908, when it suspended under financial difficulties, and, as one paper expressed it, "Too much anti-Bryanism."

January 27, 1866, Elder Leonard Cox, a practical printer, began printing Warwick's second paper, which he called the _Warwick Advertiser._ It was a five or six-column folio, neatly printed, well edited and newsy. To-day it is one of the best edited weekly newspapers in the county. It is republican in politics--in fact, has practically always been so. January, 1869, Elder Cox sold the paper to John L. Servin, and moved to Virginia. April, 1874, it was purchased by Daniel F. Welling. He sold it to Stewart & Wilson (August 5, 1876), who sold it to Stewart & Demerest. The office was burned out January 24, 1879, after which it was published by Stewart & Co. Samuel J. Stewart was its editor until Hiram Tate came into possession of the property. Mr. Tate was a practical printer, and was fresh from the office of Mr. and Mrs. John W. Hasbrouck's _Whig Press,_ and had good ideas of what a neat, live newspaper should be--as generally had the graduates of Mr. and Mrs. Hasbrouck's school of practical journalism. It is still in Mr. Tate's possession.

Though short-lived, a bright little specimen of ambitious young journalism appeared in Middletown in September, 1866. It was called _The Rising Sun,_ and was the first venture in this field by Stephen H. Sayer, a recent apprentice in the _Whig Press_ office. _The Rising Sun_ was a literary effort--it might almost be claimed as one of the earliest of the amateur publications, except that its ambitious young editor had higher and more mature aims when, out of the environing nebulae he called into existence his little star of hope. It was a four-column folio, printed from long primer and nonpareil type--the two tolerable extremes--and was listed at fifty cents a year. It was printed in Coe Finch's job printing office at Franklin square in the third floor of the building now occupied by the Middletown Savings Bank. Mr. Sayer announced that "_The Rising Sun_ is not a local paper, but will circulate throughout Maine, Kansas, Iowa, etc., with as much profit to subscribers there as in the State of New York." The writer set type on the first issue of _The Rising Sun,_ and had a sort of god-fatherly interest in this promising luminary, and regrets that one of the too common cataclysms in the journalistic empyrean over whelmed the bright little orb ere its rays had scintillated a single scintillation on either rock-ribbed Maine or bleeding Kansas.

But Mr. Sayer was not extinguished, even if the light of his little _Rising Sun_ was dimmed forever. He was ambitious, and, what is more, determined. When he emerged from this celestial crash, he cast his optics over the universe, and discovered Montgomery, and forthwith hied him hither, and in April, 1868, issued the first number of the _Wallkill Valley Times,_ a seven or eight-column folio, of good appearance, newsy, and well edited. In 1869 he issued the _Dollar Weekly._ Both publications passed into the hands of Lester Winfield in 1871.

In 1869 Mr. Sayer also started the _Walden Recorder,_ at Walden. Chauncey B. Reed took it in 1870, and issued it as the _Walden Recorder-Herald._ Later he dropped the Recorder, and the paper has since appeared as the Walden Herald.

From these ventures Mr. Sayer went to Deckertown (now Sussex), N. J., and started the _Sussex Independent,_ which has always been one of the brightest newspapers in New Jersey. After retiring from the _Independent,_ Mr. Sayer joined the Texas colony of the seventies, and spent some years in the Lone Star State, farming, writing, editing, and making himself generally useful to the inhabitants of the far-away empire of the southwest. He and his estimable family returned to the north in the eighties, and he is now living in well-earned retirement on the old farm, near New Vernon, surrounded by his amiable wife and remarkably bright children--the latter now grown to maturity as useful and honored members of the community.

One of the marvels of success, for a few years, was Wood's _Household Advocate,_ a monthly magazine, started in Newburgh by S. S. Wood in 1867. Later the name was changed to _Household Magazine,_ and it attained a circulation of 60,000 copies. It died in 1874.

Lester Winfield started a paper at Galesville Mills, Ulster County, in May, 1864, which he removed to Pine Bush in September, 1868, under the name of the _Pine Bush Weekly Casket._ The same month (September, 1868), he continued the journey to Montgomery, and called the paper the _Montgomery Republican._ Mr. Winfield succeeded in uniting his _Casket,_ his _Republican_ and Mr. Smith's _Standard_ into one publication, May 1, 1869, which he called the _Republican and Standard,_ which is continued to this day, as the _Montgomery Standard and Reporter._

Early in 1869 A. A. Bensel started at Newburgh the _Home, Farm and Orchard,_ an eight-page weekly. It was a bright, useful journal, devoted to farm topics, and deserved the widest circulation, but it died in the spring of 1876.

April 22, 1869, James H. Norton, of Middletown late of the _Mercury,_ and William H. Nearpass, of Port Jervis, began the publication in Port Jervis of the first tri-weekly paper in this county. It was called The _Evening Gazette._ It was a five-column folio, printed from new bourgeois type. It was newsy, bright, chatty, and entertaining from the start. Within a few weeks The _Family Gazette_ appeared from the same office, and was issued weekly. Within a year the latter was enlarged and became the _Port Jervis Weekly Gazette._ The _Evening_ and the _Weekly Gazette_ soon attained big circulations, and have since continued to reach a large class of readers. Both were neutral in politics for years. Mr. Norton retired from the concern in 1871. Ed. H. Mott, of Honesdale, becoming associated with Mr. Nearpass in the publishing and editing of the paper. October 1, 1872, George A. Clement, a young New York lawyer, purchased the establishment, and turned it into a Republican organ, supporting General Grant in his second presidential campaign. July 1, 1873, William T. Doty, of Port Jervis, and William R. Waller, of Monticello, leased the plant. Mr. Doty becoming editor and business manager, and Mr. Waller taking charge of the mechanical department. In 1874, Mr. Clement sold the plant to Jesse M. Connor, a Port Jervis merchant, who, in turn, disposed of it to Hon. Charles St. John, ex-congressman from this district. Soon afterward Mr. St. John sold the plant to Ezra J. Horton, of Peekskill, and William T. Doty, and the paper became democratic. In 1875 the co-partnership between Mr. Horton and Mr. Doty ended, Mr. Horton retiring, and in October, 1876, Mr. St. John again became owner of the plant for two issues, when he disposed of it to William H. Nearpass. The paper has since been democratic. W. T. Doty continued as editor for several years, being succeeded by James J. Shier, of Middletown, and since his death, by Mr. Nearpass as editor. Associated with Mr. Nearpass in the management and ownership of the paper was Abram Shinier, A. M. May, James J. Shier, and since the eighties the paper has been conducted by the Gazette Publishing Co., with W. H. Nearpass as president and editor, Evi Shinier as secretary and treasurer and business manager, with Mark V. Richards as associate editor, and James Skellenger as city editor. The tri-weekly edition was changed to an afternoon daily issue (except Sunday), and to an eight-column folio, January 17, 1881.

In January, 1869, Isaac F. Guiwits started the first daily newspaper in Middletown. It was issued at four o'clock every afternoon, except Sunday, and was printed at the office of the _Middletown Mercury,_ then located over what is now Hanford & Horton's news store on North street. It was a five-column folio, printed from brevier type, and was a model of neatness, sprightliness, and paid much attention to local news. Mr. Guiwits was an elegant writer, brimful of wit--a thorough all-round printer and "newspaper man," an apt pupil of the master journalistic mind, James H. Norton, and he made the _Daily Mail_ a bright paper. But it didn't pay, as a daily, and April 28, 1869, Mr. Guiwits issued the _Middletown Mail,_ a weekly publication of six columns (folio), this succeeding the _Daily Mail._ Some months later Mr. Guiwits sold the _Mail_ plant to Evander B. Willis, a printer, stenographer, and reporter. A year or two later Dr. Joseph D. Friend became the owner of the _Mail._ In 1873 he made an arrangement by which the _Mail_ was consolidated with the _Mercury,_ when Dr. Friend and George H. Thompson became the proprietors of the combined publication. The _Mail_ was a local newspaper, with democratic tendencies, but it never cut much of a figure in the newspaper life in the county, after it ceased to be a daily, though Mr. Guiwits and Dr. Friend were both fine writers, and Mr. Willis was popular. Dr. Friend, the genial, the easy-going, the friend, has long since passed away, but his memory is ever green with the few who yet linger--aye few--who associated with him in journalism in those early days. Mr. Guiwits went to Kansas City, and Mr. Willis to California.

The second experiment of publishing a tri-weekly paper in Orange County began in the office of the _Orange County Press_ when Stivers & Kessinger (Moses D. Stivers and Albert Kessinger), on May 24, 1870, issued the first number of the _Middletown Evening Press._ October 26, 1872, the tri-weekly became a daily under the name of the _Middletown Daily Press,_ and continued until merged with the _Middletown Times_ in February, 1906, under the name of the _Middletown Times-Press._

The first journal to be issued at Cornwall, or Cornwall-on-the-Hudson was called _The Cornwall Paper, a Local Record of Things New and Old._ It was published by P. P. Hazen, of Cornwall, in conjunction with A. A. Bensel, of Newburgh, issue No. 1 appearing April 15, 1871. So far as known no other issue of the paper ever appeared.

May 24, 1875, Miss S. J. A. Hussey started the _Cornwall Times,_ which, lived six years.

In 1875 Isaac V. Montanye started the _Middletown Argus,_ a weekly paper. It was merged with the _Mercury_ in 1876, and January 27, 1876, the _Daily Argus_ came forth and still does valiant service. The _Daily Argus_ was started by Cornelius Macardell, Sr., who had money as well as brains, and he made the _Argus_ and the _Mercury_ live democratic papers. George H. Thompson, who soon after leaving college became connected with the concern, and his ready pen and many other good newspaper qualities, soon won the attention of Mr. Macardell, who installed him as editor, which position he retained to his death. The present editor is A. B. Macardell.

An association of printers in Newburgh in October, 1875, started the _Daily Penny Post,_ as a representative of labor and union interests. While the _Post_ was struggling for existence the _Daily Mail_ was started by a rival organization, in 1876. In June of the latter year the _Post_ was discontinued, and having evidently accomplished its purpose, the _Mail_ merged, in 1877, with the _Register._

It was in 1876 that the _Newburgh Register_ came into existence, with many vicissitudes and owners, as previously explained, but finally emerging from the _Telegraph_ under the able management of the lamented Edward M. Ruttenber. The _Register_ later passed into the hands of Herbert P. Kimber & Co., who made of it a bright, newsy, democratic paper. Succeeding Mr. Kimber as editor were John A. Mason, Francis Willard and A. L. Moffatt, the latter of whom fought the Bryan element of the democratic party so vigorously that his retirement from the paper in 1907 was a matter of much rejoicing in the ranks of the reigning element of the party in Orange County. The recent editor of the _Register_ was John V. Tucker, whose utterances were evidently more in harmony with the views of the democratic county committee. But the _Register_ suspended publication February 24, 1908.

In 1877 the _Cornwall Reflector_ was started by John Lee. Later H. H. Snelling became editor. The paper lived until the latter part of 1888.

In 1879 James C. Merritt started the _Cornwall Mirror_ at Highland Falls. In 1895 it was merged with the _Cornwall Local._

On April 4, 1880, appeared in Port Jervis the first number of the _Sunday Morning Call._ It was a five-column quarto, neatly printed, ably edited, and destined, as its first number indicated, to make a stir in local social, political and religious circles. It was published by Erwin G. Fowler and A. L. Moffatt, with Mr. Fowler as editor. The latter was bright, witty, ready and fearless, and he girded on his editorial armor and leaped into the arena of local polemics with an ardor and a fearlessness that, for a time, set the town in a furor. He attacked the validity of the bond issue for the Monticello railroad, and came near having the bonds repudiated by the people in accordance with court decisions in similar cases. His iconoclasm aroused the frenzy of those most exposed to his vitriolic assaults, and they sought to muzzle his _Call,_ with the result that the last issue of his fearless paper appeared in December of the same year.

April 23, 1881, appeared in Middletown the _Liberal Sentinel,_ an independent weekly quarto, with John W. and Mrs. Lydia Hasbrouck as editors. The paper was never profitable to them, but it enabled these two benevolent people to again take up, for a time, the battle for human rights--a struggle in which they had practically sacrificed the bloom of their youth and the fruition of years. Mr. Hasbrouck has gone to his reward, after a life of struggle, in his own quiet, unassuming way, with the adverse forces of environment for the betterment of humanity. His noble, self-sacrificing companion through years, yet lives, a martyr to conventionality, a lover of the good, the pure, the true. May her declining days be as peaceful and as beautiful as the summer flowers that shed their fragrance and their luster around her own beautiful habitation on Linden avenue's fair lawn.

On the eighth of September, 1881, was issued at Port Jervis in the office of the Tri-States Publishing Co., the first number of the _Orange County Farmer._ It was a six-column quarto, and, as its name indicates, was devoted to the interests of the farmer, dairyman, and pomologist. The idea was one of the many conceptions of the fertile brain of Charles St. John, Jr., then the head of the Tri-States Publishing Co., a former supervisor of the town of Deer Park, a son of former Congressman Hon. Charles St. John, a young man who, ere he was out of his teens, was a leader in all the athletic sports of his native village, Port Jervis, active, energetic in business, and brimful of plans and ideas. He was one of the leaders in the county in the liberal republican movement that, in 1872, led to the nomination of Horace Greeley for President, and made the _Tri-States Union_ and the campaign publication, _The Woodchopper,_ red-hot champions of the Sage of Chappaqua. In starting the _Orange County Farmer_ Mr. St. John built far better than he knew, as subsequent events proved. The first number was, editorially, the joint production of himself and his brother-in-law, Fred R. Salmon, then a bookkeeper in the office of the _Tri-States Union._ Mr. Salmon had been active in the business department, but developed talent in connection with reportorial and editorial lines, and did some clever agricultural work for the first and for many succeeding issues of the _Farmer._ He was for some time known as managing editor of _The Farmer,_ though after the first issue Erwin G. Fowler, late of the _Sunday Call,_ and a former editor of the _Daily Union_ and of the _Middletown Press,_ and a lover of horticultural matters, became the active editor of _The Farmer,_ with Mr. Salmon as the business manager. Under this joint control, with more or less supervision of Mr. St. John, _The Farmer_ rapidly grew in popularity, in circulation, and in influence. In 1890 Mr. Fowler and John J. Dillon, then connected with the office and now manager of the _Rural New Yorker,_ purchased _The Husbandman,_ an agricultural paper at Elmira, and both retired from _The Farmer._ Mr. Fowler's successor was William T. Doty, and Mr. Dillon's successor in the business department was William F. Wade, now of the _Rural New Yorker._ In 1894 Mr. Fowler was again on _The Farmer's_ editorial staff and remained until 1897, when declining health forced his retirement--and his death in 1904 deprived the literary and agricultural world of one of its brightest workers, the social world of one of the most amiable, lovable, benevolent members, and Orange County's musical set an able leader.

Mr. Fowler's successor on _The Farmer_ was Henry A. Van Fredenberg, for years editor of the _Milling World_ and the _Lumber World,_ both of Buffalo. Mr. Van Fredenberg was born in Montague, N. J., was educated in the schools of Port Jervis, early became a school teacher, and had charge of the schools at Sussex (then Deckertown), N. J., when he entered the editorial harness on the _Sussex Independent,_ and developed rare talent, which quickly secured his recognition as a writer, a paragrapher, reporter, and editor. When he was called to the editorial chair of the _Orange County Farmer_ he had years of editorial experience, was a botanical scholar, a marvelous linguist, a proficient mathematician, had a rare knowledge of chemistry, geology and pomology, and was a careful student in dairy and agricultural matters generally. That _The Farmer_ has prospered beyond all expectations under his wise and able editorial management is not saying too much. Started as a county agricultural paper, it steadily grew out of its local bounds into State reputation, and then into national and now into international importance, with a circulation now (March, 1908), quoted at 25,000, with subscribers in almost every civilized country in the world, besides going into every State in the Union. It is quoted everywhere, its editorial utterances and contributions are transferred to other tongues, and it is recognized as one of the leading dairy journals of the world. This marvelous growth and influence outside its own county led its managers to change its title in 1897, when it became _The New York Farmer,_ as more expressive of its character and the scope of its work and operations. At this time (March, 1908), Mr. Van Fredenberg is still the editor, and _The Farmer_ is now a seven-column quarto, issued on Wednesday of each week.

In 1882 James J. McNally, the veteran newspaper man of Orange County, started at Monroe a weekly seven-column folio, the _Monroe Herald._ In 1888 he started at Goshen the _Goshen News,_ and printed both papers at Goshen until the spring of 1892, when he died, and both publications ceased.

In 1883 _The News_ was started in Middletown as a Sunday paper by that veteran journalist, James H. Norton. Associated with him was Charles H. Conkling, a practical printer, and later W. T. Doty, whom Mr. Norton induced to take a hand in the editorial work. _The News_ took an active interest in exploiting the farmer's interests during the famous "milk war" which waged in that year, when milk was spilled copiously in the Middletown streets and elsewhere, when encountered in surreptitious transfer to some unpopular dealer. _The News_ was an eight-column folio, nicely printed, and attained a considerable circulation. Mr. Norton, and later Mr. Doty, retired from the concern, and the material was sold to Mrs. Hasbrouck, later to Lawyer Reid, who issued a few copies of _The Jeffersonian,_ then to Isaac V. Montanye, who issued a few numbers of a labor paper, and finally the material was purchased by James J. McNally, to be merged with the _Monroe Herald_ and the _Goshen News._

In 1885 St. John & Salmon issued at Port Jervis _The Farm Guide,_ a monthly of eight, twelve and sixteen pages. It did not live long.

In June, 1885, George F. Ketchum started at Warwick the _Warwick Valley Dispatch._ It was an eight-column folio at first, and was afterward enlarged to a nine-column folio which it is at present. In 1889 a half interest in the paper was sold to I. W. Litchfield, Mr. Ketchum retaining control of the editorial policy. In 1894 Mr. Litchfield engaged in other business, Mr. Ketchum taking over his interest, which he still retains as sole controller of the paper and its policy. The _Dispatch_ has always been democratic in its politics, and for some years has been the leading--in fact, the main or only--exponent of the aggressive democracy represented by the Bryan forces in that party. Mr. Ketchum has been for several years chairman of the democratic county committee, and that he has proven himself an able editor and sagacious, fearless leader is evidenced by the growth in popularity of his paper, and the endorsement in growing aggressiveness of his course as leader of the democracy of the county and chairman of the county committee.

_The Daily News_ was started in Newburgh as a penny daily, in 1885, by William H. Keefe, who had been for many years the city editor of the _Newburgh Daily Journal._ The paper had its inception amid modest surroundings, but what its founder lacked in material resources, however, he made up for in aggressiveness, enterprise and versatility. The vigorous style of the newcomer in the journalistic field caught the public fancy at the very start, and the paper soon attained a large circulation and became a financial success.

William H. Keefe died in February, 1901, and the business was carried on by the Newburgh News Printing and Publishing Co., which had been organized several years prior to his death. Mr. F. W. Wilson is its present able editor.

_The News_ soon outgrew the meager mechanical facilities and restricted surroundings amid which it first saw the light, and in 1902 the plant was moved to its present home in the handsome building at 40 and 42 Grand street, which it purchased and remodeled for its own purpose. The installation of a still more modern and up-to-date equipment marked the beginning of a new era in the history of the paper, and successful as it had been up to that time, it has been still more so since.

The _Newburgh Daily News_ of to-day is concededly one of the leading newspapers of the Hudson River valley, not only in circulation, but also in influence. It is splendidly equipped, and is not surpassed by any newspaper in a city of equal size anywhere. Its plant represents a large investment of capital and it carries on its pay-roll upwards of fifty employees.

The handsome building, the modernly equipped plant, the large circulation and volume of advertising all indicate that the _News_ enjoys the support and large patronage of the community in which it is published and to which it is a distinct credit.

_The Daily Evening Press_ was established in Newburgh in 1888, as a democratic organ, by James G. Dunphy. Mr. Dunphy was born in Newburgh, August 21, 1842, and learned his trade under the late E. M. Ruttenber. For many years he conducted the _Press_ with an ability which brought success and secured it a great influence throughout the county. After a considerable period of prosperity, however, a blight seemed to fall upon the printing plant, and although for some time Mr. Dunphy struggled bravely against ever-increasing obstacles, he was finally obliged to give up the losing fight, and the _Press_ joined the large company of other Orange County organs which had flourished for a season and then passed silently from the scene.

In 1887 St. John & Salmon started in Port Jervis a small quarto called _Sunbeams._ It was a semi-humorous publication, but the quality or quantity of its revelry failed somehow to attack the risibles of a sufficient clientele of the American public, and its weary publishers concluded to let the prosaic citizens plod on in their own dull, flat, Boeotian way.

In 1888 N. E. Conkling & Co. started at Chester the _Orange County News,_ a weekly, six-column folio, with N. E. Conkling as editor. It was an independent paper, giving much attention to local news. At times the paper published editions for Unionville and Pine Bush. In February, 1908, the plant was sold to J. B. Gregory, and removed to Monroe, where the latter started the _Ramapo Valley Gazette,_ March, 1908.

In April, 1888, the _Cornwall Local_ appeared at Cornwall-on-Hudson, under the management of H. A. Gates. In September, 1889, he disposed of the plant to C. P. Brate, of Albany, who installed his brother-in-law, Thomas Pendall, a practical printer and bright writer, as editor and publisher. In June, 1892, the _Local_ came under the management of Lynn G. Goodenough, by whom it is still conducted. The paper was classed as independent politically until it came into Mr. Goodenough's possession. In 1896 he made the _Local_ a republican paper, and as such it became a useful and influential member of Orange County republican newspaperdom. Recently the name of the paper became the _Local-Press,_ as more significant of a newspaper than the name _Local._ In 1895 Mr. Goodenough purchased Mr. Merritt's right, title and good will in the _Cornwall Mirror,_ and consolidated that publication with the _Local._

In 1887 the _Walden Citizen_ came into existence. It is a six-column quarto, republican in politics, well edited by J. H. Reed, and is a newsy and meritorious publication.

A valuable monthly publication was begun in Port Jervis in 1888, when _Church Life_ was issued. It was printed under the auspices of the Reformed church of that place. It usually appeared in eight pages, with two and three broad columns to a page. Its work was largely that of gathering up local historical matters, and one of its most valuable contributors was William H. Nearpass, whose penchant in that direction enabled him to furnish much valuable historical information that otherwise might have been lost to all generations. Another contributor was the Rev. S. W. Mills, D.D., for many years pastor of the Reformed Church of Deer Park. The paper was issued for about fifteen years, but why it was allowed to cease no one connected with the church seems to know. It was printed at the _Gazette_ office.

The _Orange County Dairyman_ was started at Middletown in the office of the _Mercury and Argus,_ in December, 1888. The publishers were Macardell, Thompson and Barrett (Cornelius Macardell, Sr., George H. Thompson, and Leon Barrett, the artist.) Its editor was W. C. Cairns, of Rockland, Sullivan County, better known as "Rusticus." The _Dairyman_ was a five or six-column quarto. It never became profitable, and went out of existence in January, 1890.

The only Sunday paper of the four or more started in this county that seemed to have vitality enough to come down to our day was the _Telegram_ of Newburgh. It was started in 1889 by Edward M. Ruttenber, the venerable and learned printer, editor, author and historian, who lately passed to his great reward, mourned by all, and beloved and revered by those who knew him best. The _Telegram_ is now published by J. W. F. Ruttenber, son of its founder. Though started as a Sunday paper, it is now issued on Saturday, and is known as _The Newburgh Telegram._ It is ably conducted, as it always has been. A free lance in principle, it is fearless in its assaults, and sometimes makes things very interesting for residents of the Hillside city and its purlieus.

One of the publications that made a sensation at its starting, and during its entire career was a subject of wide interest, was called _The Conglomerate._ It was started June 15, 1890, by patients in the State Homeopathic Hospital at Middletown. The first number was a four-column folio, but it soon grew to a quarto, and its circulation increased until, at its zenith, over 3,000 copies were issued. It circulated in all parts of America, had subscribers in New Zealand, and in fact in nearly every country, and its articles were copied everywhere. _The Conglomerate_ stood for reform in lunacy matters, and for this reason, and because of its too outspoken policy against the State's lunacy commission, the authorities caused its suspension. It was gotten out entirely at the State Hospital, where a fully-equipped newspaper and job-printing office was established by the patients under whose tutelage it was called into existence. Its pages were full of bright things. Not only were its editorials able, but its contributions were from brilliant minds, the names of whose writers, for obvious reasons, are withheld. It ceased publication in 1897, after a brilliant career, during which it was eagerly sought, read with avidity, and was a force for good throughout its whole brief career.

On the afternoon of April 29, 1881, appeared in Middletown one of the county's--aye, one of the State's--marvels of journalistic success under the title of the _Middletown Daily Times._ The first numbers were issued from the Hasbrouck printing office in the Hasbrouck block, corner of North and Depot streets, and was a seven-column folio. While it announced that Lewis S. Stivers and John D. Stivers were editors and proprietors, it was understood that ex-Congressman the Hon. Moses Dunning Stivers, their father, stood sponsor for the publication, and this able writer and shrewd politician soon made his personality evident in every issue of the _Times._ Rapidly did the paper gain in circulation, in influence, and in popular confidence. Congressman Stivers was a man of pronounced personality, had a way of winning friends and retaining them, and with the recent expiration of a successful term in Congress he was in position to build up a powerful country newspaper plant. And that is just what he did. In this work he was most ably assisted by his two sons, whose names appeared at the head of the editorial columns. Lewis S. Stivers was a practical printer, a pressman, and a thorough, all-round mechanical expert; young, with a love for the trade--credited by all printers as being not only practical but one of the most capable men in the State. His brother, John D. Stivers, had been his father's private secretary all through his congressional career, had acquitted himself with entire credit, and having been "brought up" in a printing office, was well qualified to enter the editorial department of the establishment. As a reporter, as one ready and quick to grasp the importance of legitimate news, he proved his fitness for the position by keeping the _Times_ in the lead in its local and general news departments. It was under such auspicious conditions that _The Middletown Daily News_ presented itself to the public every afternoon in the week, except Sunday, and its rapid growth in favor was the fulfillment of the auguries of those who best knew its esteemed sponsor and its managers. Within a short time the establishment was removed to the first floor on the James and Henry street corner of the Casino block. Here it remained until it was removed to its present quarters at the corner of King and Center streets, in the handsome four-story brick building of its own, and known as the Times building or Stivers block. Here are fast presses, three Mergenthaler Linotype machines and all the necessary accouterments to enable the management to issue one of the best daily newspapers in this country, outside of the larger cities. Its circulation is now daily considerably over 5,000 copies. The death of the Hon. M. D. Stivers and later of his son, Louis S. Stivers, removed two of the brightest members of the Orange County newspaperdom, and necessitated reorganization of the Times Publishing Co., which is now known as the Stivers Printing Company, with John D. Stivers as president and Dr. M. A. Stivers as secretary and treasurer. On February 11, 1906, the _Middletown Daily Press_ merged with the _Times_ and the combination has since issued as the _Middletown Times-Press._ The editorial writer on the _Times_ and _Times-Press_ since November 1, 1905, has been A. W. Russell, whose bright, well-put comments are one of the features that commend this widely-read journal.

The _News of Highlands_ was started at Highland Falls in 1891. It is published on Saturdays by F. F. & A. G. Tripp, and is politically independent or neutral.

In February, 1892, appeared in Port Jervis the _Port Jervis Morning Index,_ the second attempt in that place to establish a morning daily. It was started by Isaac V. Montanye, of Goshen, and Sherwood Rightmyer, his nephew; was an eight-column folio, independent, or rather neutral, in politics, Mr. Montanye being a democrat and Mr. Rightmyer a republican. The _Index_ was newsy, and well edited, but ceased publication in August of the same year.

Middletown seems to have been the theatre of the sensational in Orange County journalism. The _Banner of Liberty,_ the _Whig Press_ (whose editor was once caned in the streets for a bit of facetiousness); the _Sybil,_ the _Mercury,_ the _Mail,_ the _Standard,_ the _News,_ the _Liberal Sentinel,_ the _Labor Advocate,_ the _Conglomerate_--each had its day of riotous jest or caustic invective that set the town "by the ears" for a time.

The latest one to enter this field of humor, sarcasm and expletive was _The Forum,_ the first number of which was issued February 28, 1897, by W. T. Doty and H. W. Corey, and which, within a few weeks, expanded into the _Middletown Sunday Forum._ The first few numbers were printed in New York for the publishers by one of the "patent inside" concerns, and the warmth of its reception was such that its proprietors felt justified in putting in a plant of their own. The office at first was in the business office of the Casino building, in the second floor, but was later transferred to the first floor of the rear of the same building on Henry street. From the unique "greeting" in the first issue, the following excerpt is made as characteristic of the purposes, course and whole conduct of the publication:

"There are a number of reasons why we have concluded to publish _The Forum._ First, we want to publish it. Second, there are a number of people who don't want us to publish it. Third, there seems need of a publication in this city that will call a spade a spade. Fourth, we can stop it when we want to. Being able to stop publishing it, if we want to, encouraged us in the idea of starting."

And so it was started, and with a pace that took the whole county by storm. It was exultant, exuberant, jocular, sarcastic, hilarious, but never whining, simpering, brawling or lachrymose. It had features such as no other paper in the county had, and all these peculiarities brought it into wider and wider notoriety, and the editions printed almost invariably fell short of supplying the demand. A leading feature was the "sermons" of "Pastor" Corey. There was a vein of the keenest irony in them, generally of more or less local application, and the demand for these lively satires extended to all classes of citizens--those the severest hit as well as those who, from a safe "coign of vantage," liked to watch the unique assaults. Another of its peculiar features was the holding up to ridicule of the driveling "items" and personals sent in by so many cross-roads correspondents of country papers, and which were generally the clever work of "Deacon" Peter F. Kaufman, a local real estate man who always looked on the "funny side" of all events. The unfortunate and severe illness of Mr. Corey necessitated the abandonment of the "sermons." The concern was sold (December, 1897), to Frank L. Blanchard, of New York, and later (1898) to W. T. Doty and Thomas Pendell, of Cornwall. The latter two ran out a daily, _The Morning Forum,_ for some months, in 1898. Then Mr. Pendall purchased the outfit, and transferred it to Massena, N. Y. During the two or three years in which _The Forum_ lived in Middletown it "cut a wide swath," and kept the whole surrounding country wondering "what next?" and, had it continued as it began, would have landed its proprietors--who were getting a pile of fun out of the proceeding--in the ranks of the multi-millionaires or in the penitentiary. A unique financial feature of the experiment was the fact that the paper more than paid its own way from the very first issue.

In October, 1898, S. T. Morehouse started at Cornwall-on-Hudson the _Cornwall Courier._ This was conducted by various parties, including Mr. Morehouse and his son, Claude, by the well-known writer Creswell McLaughlin, Bernard Call, Clark J. Brown, Clayton Brown, and William Clark, and in 1906, ceased to exist.

The _Orange County Record_ was started at Washingtonville, May 17, 1899, by the Hon. Isaac V. Montanye (since deceased, December 26, 1906) and his nephew, Montanye Rightmyer. Since the death of Mr. Montanye, Mr. Rightmyer is the editor and publisher. The paper is devoted to local news.

In March, 1908, J. B. Gregory started at Monroe the _Ramapo Valley Gazette._ The plant was that of the _Orange County News_ at Chester, the paper started in 1888 by N. E. Conkling.

MISCELLANEOUS.

In addition to the above-mentioned so-called "regular publications," there have been numerous amateur, church, society, labor, semi-literary, and other more or less sporadic productions throughout the county from the time of the introduction of printing into the county at Goshen in 1788 to the present time.

An enterprise of importance that may be classed under this heading was that of the Franklin Printing Company, starting in Middletown, in 1879. At the head of the concern were James H. Norton, Isaac F. Guiwits, of Middletown and William H. Nearpass, of Port Jervis. A considerable building was erected on Mill street, Middletown, next to the residence of Mr. Norton, and several presses and a finely equipped printing establishment was installed, to print "patent insides." A big business was there built up, and continued until the purchase and absorption of the plant by the New York Newspaper Union, and the transfer of the same to that city.

From 1884 to 1886 the United States Official Postal Guide for New York City was printed by W. H. Nearpass at the Port Jervis _Gazette_ office. Anthony M. May & Co. had the contract for this work.

About 1886-7 lawyer T. A. Reid, of Middletown, amused himself for a few months with a paper he called _The Jeffersonian._

Soon after, the Rev. Charles M. Winchester, a Free Methodist, came to Middletown, probably in 1879, he started a daily paper which he called _The Standard_ or _The Standard-Bearer._ It was published in the interests of the temperance cause, and made a considerable excitement during the eight or ten months of its existence.

The Pine Bush _Herald_ is a lateral production of the Walden _Herald,_ and dates from 1904, with George W. Jamison as editor.

_Town Life_ was a weekly issued in Middletown from June, 1904, to January, 1905, by Nelson W. Dix. It was a humorous publication with illustrations by the young publisher, who has a taste and a remarkable aptitude for drawing and cartoon work.

The _Orange County Magazine_ was started in Newburgh in 1906, and in the same year the Goshen _Independent Republican_ issued a side edition called the _Chester Independent Republican,_ with George W. Ball as editor.

The first number of the _St. Paul's Herald_ was issued in August, 1892, and each month thereafter for about one year. It contained eight pages, 9 by 12 inches to a page, and a cover. The _Herald_ was issued in the interest of St. Paul's M. E. Church, and Middletown Methodism. The editor and proprietor was Henry P. Powers, the present City Editor of the Middletown _Argus,_ and it was printed at the _Times_ office.

_The Worker's Advocate_ was started in Middletown about 1903, and conducted several years by W. H. McCarter, as an independent weekly paper.

_The Church Helper_ was issued under auspices of Drew M. E. Church in Port Jervis, for about one year. The first number appeared in June, 1889. It was a monthly, devoted almost exclusively to church and temperance work.

_The Parish Monthly_ has been issued since 1906 by sanction of the Rev. John J. Morris, pastor of the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Port Jervis. It is a two-column folio, printed by P. J. Gaudy, Port Jervis, for the dissemination of local church news.

_The Golden Rod_ is a monthly issued by Frederick Arthur Gates, M.A., pastor of the Ridgebury Presbyterian church, and printed at the office of the Middletown _Times-Press._ The Associate Editor is Mary C. Clark, with a corps of correspondents. It contains 10 pages and a cover, with two columns to a page, and with a subscription price of 25 cents a year. It has some local news and advertisements, but is devoted mainly to church and temperance work. It was started in January, 1907.

AMATEUR PUBLICATIONS.

The county has seen the birth and death of many amateur publications. The first in the county, so far as now known, and believed to be one of the first in the whole country, was issued in Port Jervis in 1862. It was called _The Tiger._ It was a diminutive production of four small pages, and was printed on one of the Adams Amateur presses, one of the first made, and the type, furnished by the same concern, was set by the energetic young publisher, William Henry Nearpass. _The Tiger_ was issued semi-occasionally, to suit the whim or convenience of the publisher, for two or three years. Mr. Nearpass was then a clerk in the grocery and dry goods store of Charles St. John, at the corner of Pike and West Main streets. Mr. Nearpass was then about twenty-two years of age.

Newburgh has had many of these amateur prints, beginning in 1875. Among them may be mentioned the following: _Union Jack, American Eagle, The Comet, The Index, The Collector, The Packet, The Laurel, The Amateur Herald._

In 1877 Port Jervis had the _Amateur Guide,_ and in 1880 _The Cricket._

_Academy Miscellany_ was started by the Port Jervis high school students in March, 1889, and was discontinued in May, 1895. It was a monthly publication, of eight pages, with two broad columns to a page, was devoted to school matters almost exclusively, and was a bright publication.

_The Owl_ is a bright twenty-page monthly issued by the Middletown high school students, and printed at the office of the _Times-Press._ It has been issued for several years, and is a particularly commendable school publication, both for the neatness with which it is gotten out, the literary character of its contents, and the business-like character of the publication. The present editor is James A. Rorty, the business manager, E. C. Faulkner.

During 1897 _The Union School Journal_ was published by Merritt C. Speidel, now of the Tri-States Publishing Co., Port Jervis, and Hugh M. Cox, now a practicing physician in New York City, who were the editors and managers. It had 12 pages of 10 by 12 inches, three columns to a page, and had a circulation of 500. The publication was devoted to the interests of the schools and to matters of a general educational nature. The paper had the official sanction of the school authorities, and many prominent Orange County writers contributed to it.

The Publications of the County.

IN ANCIENT GOSHEN.

The _Goshen Repository_ was issued in 1788, by David Mandeville and David M. Westcott, at the Goshen Academy. The nature of the publication seems now unknown; nor is the size of the publication, or its character. In 1793 its office was near the court house. In 1800 it was sold to John G. and William Heurtin, thus showing a life of twelve years--a much better showing than that made by many of its successors there and elsewhere. Messrs. Heurtin changed its name to the _Orange County Patriot,_ and in 1801 William Heurtin sold his interest to William A. Carpenter, when the name was changed to _The Friend of Truth._ In 1804 it passed to the ownership of Ward M. Gazlay or Gazley, and again its name was changed. This time it became the _Orange Eagle._ A fire in 1805 in the office singed the _Eagle's_ feathers, but it was enabled to move about, and took its flight to Newburgh, where it became the _Political Index._

Taking its name from an extinct Newburgh paper, Gabriel Denton, in 1804, issued the _Orange County Gazette._ Edward M. Ruttenber traces its history to Elliott Hopkins in 1807, to Elliott Hopkins & Co. in 1811, to Elliott Hopkins in 1812. to F. J. & A. D. Houghton in 1813, and to 1818, when it was "printed and published for the proprietor." How long after this it lasted is not known.

In 1808 Gabriel Denton started the _Orange County Patriot and Spirit of Seventy-six._ It was doubtless a patriotic publication, probably a jingo organ firing the American heart for another struggle with Great Britain, which came in 1812. In 1811 it was removed to Newburgh by Lewis & Crowell, where it was published as a "new series." T. B. Crowell became its publisher, and announced that its columns were "open to all parties" but were "influenced by none." In 1822 Mr. Crowell moved the paper back to Goshen, and sold it to R. C. S. Hendrie, who, February 22, 1834, sold it to F. T. Parson, who changed its name to the _Goshen Democrat._ In 1842 Charles Mead associated with Mr. Parson. Nathaniel Webb secured Mr. Parson's interest, and the firm became Mead & Webb, and later Charles Mead & Son, after the death of Mr. Webb. In 1843 R. C. S. Hendrie started the _True Whig,_ two years later selling it to Charles Mead, who merged it with his paper under the title of _The Goshen Democrat and Whig._ Later the name _Whig_ was dropped, and the paper remains to this day the _Goshen Democrat._ The firm of Mead & Son came into existence January 1, 1865, and continued until January 1, 1892, when the elder Mead sold his interest to Edwin L. Roys. William W. Mead and Edwin L. conducted the establishment under the firm name of Mead & Roys until September 1, 1902, on which date they sold the concern to J. R. Colburn, of Washington, D. C. Two months later (November 1, 1902), John F. Barringer, of Walden, bought the plant and, two months later (January 1, 1903), sold it to John B. Scott and George V. Gregg, who conducted the same under the firm name of Scott & Gregg, until September 1, 1905. on which date Mr. Scott sold his interest to George F. Gregg, who has since been its proprietor.

In 1820 Williams & Farrand started the _Orange Farmer._ Mr. Ruttenber speaks of this as the _Orange County Farmer,_ but as the copies now in existence bear the title _Orange Farmer,_ the writer is inclined to believe the word "County" is a slip of the usually very accurate pen of Mr. Ruttenber. Its founders were graduates of the Albany _Plow-Boy,_ and aimed to make the _Farmer_ an agricultural publication. How long it lasted is not known. A well-preserved copy of this _Farmer_ is now in possession of Dr. James J. Mills, of Port Jervis. It is volume IV, No. 195, dated November 17, 1823.

About 1822 there moved into Goshen a lusty young pioneer, sixteen years of age, under the patronymic of _The Independent Republican._ This stripling was born at Montgomery, May 6, 1806, and there christened the _Orange County Republican._ Under the tutelage of Luther Pratt in 1812, in its sixth year, its name was changed to that of the _Independent Republican,_ and in 1818 James A. Cheevey became its sponsor, and removed it to Goshen about 1822. In 1832 the _Independent Republican_ plant was sold to Henry H. Van Dyck, who sold it in 1836 when he became State Senator, to Victor M. Drake, then a young printer twenty-seven years of age, who had for some time been employed in the office, as apprentice and journeyman printer. In 1841 Mr. Drake sold the establishment to Moses Swezey, who came to Goshen from Long Island in 1834 as a violinist and dancing master. He was a fine penman, a good bookkeeper, and an excellent accountant, and became the head clerk for County Clerk Lebbeus L. Vail. As editor of the _Independent Republican_ he wielded a powerful and caustic pen, and became a power in Orange County politics. He was the father of the present Surrogate, John B. Swezey.

In 1846 Mr. Swezey sold the plant to Clark & Montanye. It continued, as it long had been, the local organ of the "Hunker" faction of the Democracy. Late in the '50's Mr. Clark went to Iowa and started a Republican paper. James J. McNally purchased the plant in 1853, and sold it to Isaac V. Montanye in 1857, only to repurchase it, selling it again in 1869 to Edward M. Ruttenber and H. P. Kimber. Mr. Ruttenber retired, and in 1874 Mr. Kimber sold it to Thomas P. McElrath, an ambitious New Yorker, who had some fond illusions which he hoped to engraft into Orange County journalism. He made friends and foes fast and furious--particularly the foes--and in 1876 retired to New York, utterly disgusted with journalism in Orange County.

Then Hon. I. V. Montanye and his son, Lucien, secured the paper. In 1883 the former retired, and Frank Drake secured an interest in the concern, under the firm name of Montanye & Drake. In March, 1892, Mr. Drake became sole owner, and remains such to-day (March, 1908).

The present proprietor of the _Independent Republican,_ Frank Drake, is a son of that veteran Orange County journalist, Victor M. Drake, and is a "chip of the old block," a good newspaper man. He is making the paper newsy, keen, merry and bright. He changed it from a weekly to a semi-weekly edition, issued on Tuesdays and Fridays. It is a five-column quarto.

The _Independent Republican_ has not always had things its own way in Goshen Democratic politics. In 1843 Hector Vail, son of County Clerk Lebbeus L. Vail, and T. W. Donovan started the _Democratic Standard_ under the firm name of Vail & Donovan. The _Standard_ represented the "Barn-Burners" or Free Soil element in the Democratic party, and in antagonism to the interests represented the "Hunkers" and the _Independent Republican._ In 1844 Mr. Donovan retired, and Hector Vail changed its name to the _Goshen Clarion._ The Democratic factional fight became stronger, and the _Clarion_ had such backers as Lebbeus L. Vail, Asa D. Jansen, James H. Jansen, John B. Booth of Goshen; Merritt H. Cash, Minisink, and Francis Tuthill of Chester. On the death of Lebbeus Vail, the _Clarion,_ in 1879 was discontinued, the subscription list going to the _Independent Republican_ and the material to Milford, Pa., having been purchased by John M. Heller or James J. McNally, or both, and where it became the _Pike County Democrat_ and later the _Milford Herald._

One paper devoted exclusively to theological subjects had its origin in Goshen, and lives to-day to tell the tale. In 1832 the _Signs of the Times_ was started, by Lebbeus L. Vail, a convert from Congregationalism to the Old School Baptist tenets. Between politics and theology Mr. Vail was kept pretty busy. He was a candidate for county clerk on the Democratic ticket, and in 1834 was elected. About this time an earnest young expounder of Mr. Vail's new-grounded faith appeared on the scene. Mr. Vail could not very well run a religious journal and the county clerk's office at the same time, so he turned the _Signs of the Times_ over, body and soul, to the youthful preacher, and Elder Gilbert Beebe took his prize in a wagon, and landed it in New Vernon, near Middletown. Thence he moved it to Alexandria, Va., whence it came to Middletown, where it is domiciled to-day.

During the fight in the Democratic party between the "Hard-Shell" faction, representing the pro-slavery element, and the "Soft-Shell," representing the Douglas, Squatter-Sovereignty, or Anti-Nebraska element in the party, in 1854, the _Democratic Recorder_ was started by A. G. Tucker. The _Recorder_ had a short life, and the subscription list and materials were purchased by James J. McNally and absorbed by his _Independent Republican._

The next and last paper to appear in Goshen was the _Goshen News,_ in 1888, under James J. McNally, which, as already told, passed into that ever-open haven of refuge, the portals of the _Independent Republican,_ on the death of Mr. McNally, in 1892.

NEWBURGH AND NEW WINDSOR.

When New Windsor leaps into the arena of contest with a journal of uncertain antiquity, but clearly at the daybreak of journalistic chronology in Orange County, she has grounds for contesting the concession that Newburgh was second, or Goshen even first, in the honors due to pioneerism in the printing art.

E. M. Ruttenber says: "In 1799 Jacob Schultz removed to Newburgh the _New Windsor Gazette,_ the name of which he changed to _Orange County Gazette._" It is not in evidence when this New Windsor paper began and it may have been immediately or long prior to its removal to Newburgh.

But Mr. Ruttenber says the first paper published in Newburgh was the _Newburgh Packet_ in 1795. The proprietor was Lucius Carey, son-in-law of Rev. John Close, Presbyterian minister at Newburgh and New Windsor. Carey sold the paper to David Denniston in 1797, who changed its name to _The Mirror,_ Philip Van Home (1797) and Joseph W. Barber (1798) appearing as proprietors.

In 1796 a pamphlet entitled, "An Apology for the Bible," was printed in Newburgh, by David Denniston. It was written by R. Watson, D.D., F.R.S. It is said it was creditably printed and bound.

When the _Orange County Gazette_ emerged from the _New Windsor Gazette_ in 1799, Newburgh had two printing shops where books as well as papers were printed, and the legend is that the _Gazette_ became _The Citizen,_ though Mr. Ruttenber questions this, as none of the issues are to be found. As Mr. Denniston was, about this time, connected with the _American Citizen,_ of New York City, this fact may have given rise to the belief that a local _Citizen_ had existed.

_The Rights of Man_ was started in 1799 by Dr. Elias Winfield. Mr. Denniston also purchased this paper, evidently merging it with his _Orange County Gazette._

_The Recorder of the Times_ was started by Dennis Cole, in 1803. _The Mirror_ was absorbed by the _Rights of Man_ in 1804, and the latter by _The Times,_ in 1805. Ward M. Gazlay, this year, drove into town with the remnants of his _Orange Eagle,_ whose office had been burned in Goshen, purchased the _Recorder of the Times,_ in 1806, and changed the name to the _Political Index,_ and it lived until 1829, when it became the _Orange Telegraph_ and the _Newburgh Telegraph_ under Charles M. Cushman. Under many changes it lived to become, under E. M. Ruttenber, in 1876, the _Newburgh Register._

In June, 1822, John D. Spaulding started the _Newburgh Gazette._ Through a succession of owners it came, in 1856, to Eugene W. Gray, who, in connection with the _Gazette,_ began the publication of a political paper which he called the _Daily News._ In 1864 the name of the _News_ was dropped and _Daily Telegraph_ substituted, and later in the same year it became the _Daily Union,_ in 1866 all the previous titles were dropped and that of _The Press_ substituted, in 1869 the title of _Telegraph_ restored, and in 1876 that of _Register._

The _Newburgh Journal,_ started in 1833-4 by John D. Spaulding, became the _Highland Courier_ in 1843, and in 1859, under Rufus A. Reed, it became the _Highland Chieftain._ The establishment came into the possession of Cyrus B. Martin, who resumed the name of _Newburgh Journal,_ and in 1863 began the publication of the _Daily Journal,_ which is continued to-day by Ritchie & Hull.

_The Beacon,_ an anti-Jackson paper, was commenced in 1828 by Judge William B. Wright. Wallace & Sweet, in 1834, published the _National Advertiser,_ and later merged it in the _Gazette._ In 1849 Thomas George issued the _Newburgh Excelsior,_ which was purchased by E. M. Ruttenber (May, 1851), who merged it in the _Telegraph._ For three or four weeks in 1855 R. P. L. Shafer published the _Newburgh American._ _The Newburgh Times,_ a temperance paper, was started in March, 1856, by Royal B. Hancock, "as agent for an association of gentlemen." After passing into the ownership of R. Bloomer & Son, Alexander Wilson and Charles Blanchard, it became, under the latter, the _Newburgh Daily Democrat,_ and lived thus only a few months.

An association of printers, in October, 1875, started the _Daily Penny Post,_ and in 1876 a rival association started the _Daily Mail._ The _Post_ died in 1876, and in 1877 the _Mail_ was absorbed by the _Register._

Newburgh's theological serial publications began in 1824, when the Rev. J. R. Wilson started the _Evangelical Witness,_ a religious monthly of forty-eight pages, devoted to the interests of the Reformed Presbyterian church. In four years (1828), it was succeeded by the _Christian Statesman,_ which lived one year. Authorized by the Synod of the same church, the Rev. Moses Roney, March 1, 1836, began the publication of the _Reformed Presbyterian,_ a monthly of thirty-two pages. In 1849 Mr. Roney removed the magazine to Pittsburgh, Pa., where he died in 1854, and his widow continued its publication until succeeded by the Rev. Thomas Sproul. For one year the _Family Visitor_ lived, a monthly quarto, conducted by the Rev. David L. Proudfit. Beginning in 1845 he published the _Christian Instructor,_ a thirty-two page monthly. Two years later the Rev. J. B. Dales bought it and removed it to Philadelphia. The _Catholic Library Magazine_ was begun in 1856 by the Catholic Library Association, with John Ashhurst as editor. It was published monthly, and lived until August, 1860.

Newburgh has been a fertile field for the production of newspapers and periodicals of all sorts, as seen above, the religious as well as the secular press felt the popular pulse, and then passed away.

There were also literary ventures more or less pretentious, each budding, blossoming and fading in a short season.

_Tables of Rural Economy_ was issued in May, 1832, by John Knevels. It was a monthly quarto and lived less than a year. The _Literary Scrap-Book_ was a monthly of forty-eight pages, started in 1855 by R. B. Denton. Its life was short. In 1857 Domaski's School began the publication of _The Acorn,_ which lived until 1859. Some time afterward the title was rescued in a publication by the students of the Newburgh Institute under charge of Mr. Siglar, and again it died.

One of the most profitable of all these literary ventures in Newburgh was that of the _Household Advocate,_ by S. S. Wood, begun in 1867. It was an eight-page monthly and soon secured a large circulation. Mr. Wood later changed its name to the _Household Magazine._ It attained a circulation of 60,000, and the writer is one of the many who read its pages with eagerness until it failed in 1874.

Another publication which the writer remembers reading with much pleasure was _Home, Farm and Orchard,_ an eight-page weekly started in 1869 by A. A. Bensel. It lived until the spring of 1876.

During the years of 1872 and 1873 Demorest & Burr issued the _Musical Bulletin,_ a monthly quarto.

In amateur papers there were several. Among them: _The Union Jack,_ by Master A. Ludlow Case (1865 to 1873); the _American Eagle,_ by Frank S. Hull, aged twelve years (1865); _The Comet,_ by Henri Gerard (1871); _The Index,_ by J. Walker F. Ruttenber (1871); _The Collector,_ by D. W. Jagger (1871); _The Packet,_ by W. H. Wood and D. W. Corwin (1872); _The Laurel,_ by a Milligan (1872); the _Amateur Herald,_ by T. R. Balf (1872).

AT MONTGOMERY.

Montgomery seems to have come forth into the journalistic arena.

The _Orange County Republican_ was printed there from 1806 to 1818. It was begun May 6, 1806, and was printed by Cyrus Beach and Luther Pratt. This publication, as already shown in the Goshen notes, was removed to Goshen and became the _Independent Republican._

In 1833-1834 the _Republican Banner_ was printed there by Calvin F. S. Thomas. In June, 1859, William H. Smith started the _Montgomery Standard._ The _Montgomery Republican_ was issued in September, 1868, by Lester Winfield, being a continuation of a publication he started at Galeville Mills, Ulster County, in May, 1864, and which he removed to Pine Bush and called the _Pine Bush Weekly Casket,_ in November, 1867. May 1, 1869, the _Standard_ and the _Republican_ united their forces and became the _Republican and Standard,_ under Lester Winfield. In 1896 Lyman H. Taft started the _Reporter._ Later the _Reporter_ and the _Republican and Standard_ united, and became the _Montgomery Standard and Reporter,_ which it is now (March, 1908), with Lyman H. Taft as editor and proprietor, and Charles M. Miller, associate editor. It is a large nine-column folio, republican in politics, with a decided tendency to be independent.

In April, 1868, Stephen H. Sayer started the _Wallkill Valley Times,_ a large seven-column folio. It was neatly printed, and the office well-equipped, with a cylinder press--a rare acquisition in those days. In 1869 Mr. Sayer issued the _Dollar Weekly._ In 1871 Lester Winfield purchased the _Times_ and the _Weekly_ outfit, and remained in Montgomery until his death a few years ago.

AT SLATE HILL.

Reference has already been made to a well-printed paper issued in Slate Hill or Brookfield, in 1834, the _Republican Sentinel._ The writer has several well-preserved copies of this neat publication, but when it passed out of existence is not now known. The name of the editor does not appear, nor of the publisher.

Slate Hill in that day was a thriving settlement, and doubtless would have continued to grow had not the Erie railroad come to Goshen in 1842 and to Middletown two or three years later.

IN MIDDLETOWN.

It was in 1840 that the first printing outfit landed in Middletown. In that year A. A. Bensel started the _Middletown Courier,_ a democratic weekly, which he continued until April, 1846, when, apparently scared by the entrance of the Erie railroad, he "pulled up stakes" and never stopped until his outfit was landed in Kingston, N. Y., where he started the _Ulster Democrat._

The _Orange County News_ was the second venture in Middletown. This was started in July, 1846, by John S. Brown, and it lived until 1849. It was neutral in politics and evidently in almost everything else, and, it is said, hardly deserved the name of a newspaper.

About 1847 Elder Gilbert Beebe came into town with his Old School Baptist _Signs of the Times,_ which he removed from Alexandria, Va., as already explained. This publication continues, changed somewhat in form but not in method or substance, and remains a monument to the peculiar tenets of the faithful band of adherents of a sturdy theological doctrine. For many years it was printed in the "meeting house" on Orchard street, where the Denton residence now stands, and directly opposite the residence of Elder Beebe. A few years ago, and some time after the death of Elder Beebe, the plant was removed to the upper floor of the brick building at the west corner of East Main and Roberts streets, and the "meeting-house," a plain brick structure, stands on the corner of Roberts and Cottage streets. The _Signs_ is published by J. E. Beebe & Co., and is edited by Elder F. A. Chick, of Hopewell, N. J., and Elder H. C. Kerr, of Middletown.

In 1848 Gilbert Judson Beebe started the _Banner of Liberty._ It was at first published monthly, eight pages with four columns to a page. After 1856 it became a weekly publication, the same size. It was a rank pro-slavery paper, and opposed and assaulted all lines of modern thought or suggestion of innovation or iconoclasm. This style of polemics met a hearty response in the South and Southwest, and the paper attained a circulation of 27,000 copies. For years it was printed in the old frame structure then known as the Pinkus Building on East Main street, next to the Holding House. When the Civil War broke out its circulation and income were greatly cut down by the interruption of mail communication between the North and the South, and the death of the talented but obdurate and intractable editor, after the war, left nothing for the _Banner of Liberty_ to do but to go somewhere and expire. It did. It went to Ellenville, and shortly was heard of no more.

In 1856 Mr. Beebe published a _Campaign Banner._

Gilbert J. Beebe also started in 1848, and in this case may fairly be said to have "established" the _Middletown Mercury_ which as elsewhere stated, became one of the brightest country newspapers in the United States under James H. Norton and Isaac F. Guiwits.

Mr. Beebe printed another paper in his early and more ambitious days. From 1850 to 1852 he ran out an advertising monthly for gratuitous circulation. It was called the _Middletown Advertiser._

The next paper to appear in Middletown was _The Whig Press._ It was started November 26, 1851, by John Whitbeck Hasbrouck, a young man from Ulster County. In 1866 he changed its name to the _Orange County Press._ This concern, always prosperous and influential, but which finally merged with the _Times_ and became a part of the _Times-Press_ (February 1, 1906), had an eventful career, which is best summed up in the following brevities taken from the last issue of the _Daily Press,_ February 28, 1906:

Established November 26, 1851, by John W. Hasbrouck, and conducted by him for about seventeen years.

April 9, 1868, purchased by Moses D. Stivers and conducted by him for twenty months.

December 3, 1869, firm of Stivers & Kessinger formed, the junior member being Albert Kessinger, who died in the summer of 1872.

May 24, 1870, a tri-weekly edition was started, issued Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

October 15, 1872, F. Stanhope Hill and John Whiting Slauson bought the paper under the firm name of Hill & Slauson.

October 26, 1872. this firm discontinued the tri-weekly known as the _Evening Press,_ and started in its place the _Middletown Daily Press,_ issued afternoons.

July 1, 1873, M. D. Stivers bought Mr. Hill's interest, and the firm of Stivers & Slauson was formed and continued seven and one-half years.

December 14, 1880, Mr. Stivers sold his interest to Charles J. Boyd, and the firm of Slauson & Boyd was formed.

July 24, 1883, Slauson & Boyd issued the first number of the _Orange County Semi-Weekly Press_--the first semi-weekly local paper in this section, and a pronounced success from the start.

August 1, 1883, M. D. Stivers again became part owner of the _Press,_ and the firm became Stivers, Slauson & Boyd, continuing for about seven and one-half years.

March 1, 1891, Mr. Stivers sold his interest to his partners, and the firm of Slauson & Boyd for the second time came into existence.

February 1, 1906, merged into the _Times-Press,_ after an honored and prosperous record of more than fifty-four years.

The term of service with the _Press_ of each proprietor in round numbers is: John W. Hasbrouck, seventeen years; Moses D. Stivers, nineteen years; John W. Slauson, thirty-three years; Charles J. Boyd, twenty-five years; Albert Kessinger, three years; F. Stanhope Hill, one year.

Reference has already been made to _The Hardwareman's Newspaper_ (1855), _The Sybil_ (1856), _The Iron Age_ (1858), _The Rising Sun_ (1866), _The Mail,_ daily and weekly (1869), _The Standard_ (1874?), _The Argus,_ weekly (1875), daily (1876), _The Liberal Sentinel_ (1881), _The News_ (1883), _The Jeffersonian_ (1886?), _The Forum_ (1897), and the _Worker's Advocate_ (1899?).

THE PRESS IN PORT JERVIS.

Printing was introduced into Port Jervis by a colored man, P. H. Miller. Of his personality the writer is unable, at this day, to learn a thing--whence he came or whither he departed. He began the printing here of an independent Whig paper, which he called the _Port Jervis Express,_ early in 1850. It was neatly printed, a five or six-column folio, and reflected credit on its founder. It was printed in an office on West Main street, on the west side of the canal. That section was then about all there was of Port Jervis, though the Erie had arrived, and started a station near the Delaware River which it called Delaware. The people of "the Port" objected to this name, and for a long time strife was keen between the residents and the Erie company over the name, the advocates of "the Port" finally winning.

The _Express_ saw the tail end of this fight, before its life of nine months drew to a close.

In November of the year (1850) when the Express passed away, the _Tri-States Union_ was started. Its founder was Col. Sam Fowler, a Jersey-man who had acquired considerable land in the village, all within the boundaries of the present city. He was ambitious, had money, vim and a purpose. He built a palatial home on the banks of the Neversink, erected the Fowler House, and was proceeding to make Port Jervis the booming town of the east, when financial disaster overtook him, and, to the great loss of the town, he left it never to return, his vast interests involved in hopeless encumbrances.

But before he left he started the _Tri-States Union,_ and it lives to-day. It was a Democratic newspaper, with John I. Mumford editor. _The Union_ has had a number of owners, and had its ups and downs, but it always managed to appear on schedule time, and in usual form, though at times during the Civil War it was sorely pressed to imitate many of its exchanges--when it was almost impossible to buy, beg or steal white paper--and appear in wrapping paper, or in "any old thing." It is now a six-column quarto, with a large circulation, has an afternoon edition of the _Port Jervis Daily Union,_ seven-column folio, has two of the latest Mergenthaler Linotype machines, and is of the concern that issues one of the leading agricultural papers of the country, _The New York Farmer._

The _Tri-States Union_ was first issued in a small building somewhere near where the Hubbard Building now stands, opposite the Fowler House and the present Erie depot (1908). Later it was removed to the old frame building Nos. 55-57 Pike street, now the four-story brick structure built by George Lea and occupied by Mason & Son, druggists. The early 60's found it located on Pike street, over the Union store, in the second floor of the two-story frame structure at No. 100 Pike street now (March, 1908) occupied as the Central or Northrup's meat market. Thence it was removed by Foster & Mitchell (1870) to the Creegan Block, No. 76 Pike street, over what is now Laidley's drug store. Next (1872) it was removed to the rear of St. John & Malven's, now the Gordon Company foundry building, on Sussex street. In 1873 it was removed to No. 81 Pike street, now Collin's news and confectionery store, and in 1882 to its present location No. 112 Pike street, in the Farnum Block.

Port Jervis has survived many severe temperance agitations. The most acute stage seems to have been in the extreme youth of the place--when impressions ought to be most lasting and beneficial. Between 1852 and 1855, it had three papers devoted to the cause of temperance. The first was the _Mirror of Temperance_ started in June, 1852, by J. L. Barlow and John Dow. This _Mirror_ reflected its surroundings for about eighteen months, and then faded away. It was a handsome paper, well printed and ably edited.

In 1853 an Englishman, John Williams, took up the fight where the _Mirror_ dropped it, and started _The Sentinel._ With the proverbial pugnacity of a "Johnny Bull," Mr. Williams thought he needed more paper weapons with which to fight the "drink evil," and so, in the autumn of 1854 he issued a campaign paper which he called _The Precursor of Temperance,_ and which died with the fall campaign. _The Sentinel_ lived until 1855, in which year Mr. Williams went to Middletown and in the _Whig Press_ office began issuing the _Hardwareman's Newspaper,_ the precursor of the _Iron Age,_ the leading organ to-day of the iron industry in this country, and which is now---or was recently--published by his son, David Williams, in New York City.

April 22, 1869, James Henry Norton and William Henry Nearpass began the publication of the _Evening Gazette._ It was a five-column folio, set in bourgeois type, was published tri-weekly, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Soon afterward appeared the weekly edition, _The Family Gazette,_ afterward changed to _The Port Jervis Weekly Gazette._ It was started on the third floor of the brick building then just built by Cook & Burrell as an umbrella factory at No. 92 Pike street, now (March, 1908), occupied by Johnson & Stoll's furniture store. Thence it moved to Westbrook's Hall, the third floor of the building now occupied by the J. W. Dalley Co., Nos. 66-68 Pike street; thence to its present quarters in the Mondon Building, 90 Pike street, corner of Pike and Ball streets. The tri-weekly became a daily afternoon issue, January 17, 1881. It is now a well-equipped office, has a Mergenthaler Linotype machine, and all the accessories of a good country newspaper.

E. G. Fowler's _Morning Call_ appeared on Sunday morning, April 4, 1880. It was printed in the Masterson Building, No. 10 Ball street. The _Morning Index_ appeared in an upper floor of the Hornbeck Building, now the Swift Beef House on Jersey avenue. The _Sunbeams_ and _Farm Guide_ were issued from _The Union_ office, and _Church Life_ and _Academy Miscellany_ from _The Gazette_ office. _The Bulletin_ is the name of a two-column folio that is issued occasionally in political and exciting local campaigns, from the press of printer P. J. Gaudy, on Ball street. It doesn't appear very often, but when it does it makes a sensation.

AT WARWICK.

The beautiful village of Warwick, the "Queen Village" of New York State, has two well-established, ably-edited, well-printed and influential weekly newspapers, reflecting with no exaggeration the sentiment and conditions of the Warwick valley--a land rich in nature's bounties, lavishly endowed with all the charms of rural romanticism and pastoral fervency.

The first paper published in Warwick, so far as present records are obtainable, was the _Doctrinal Advocate and Monitor._ It was probably started as early as 1845--possibly earlier--and was edited or conducted by Elder Jewett as an exponent of the Old School Baptist doctrine. In 1846 this _Monitor_ was merged with Elder Gilbert Beebe's _Signs of the Times,_ and for a while the latter paper was published under both titles.

The second paper started there was the _Warwick Advertiser,_ the first number of which made its appearance January 27, 1866. It was a well-printed, neat, newsy, and bright paper from the first, and age not only does not dim its luster, but seems to add to its sprightliness. Its first editor and proprietor was Leonard Cox, who was an elder in the Old School Baptist church of Warwick for a few years. It was independent, or rather neutral, in politics, but catered to the religious and moral sentiment as well as the local interests of the community, from its inception, and has never ceased to act as a propagandist theological, political, social and formal. Within three years Elder Cox sold the plant to John L. Servin, a local lawyer and farmer, a man of high standing and education. In 1873 Mr. Servin transferred the business to his associate editor, Daniel F. Welling, a practical printer, but took back the concern within the year and soon afterward sold the same to Samuel J. Stewart and Joshua C. Wilson. A few years later Mr. Wilson sold his interest to Dewitt C. Demorest, a workman in the office, who, after a year or two, transferred his share back to Mr. Stewart, who remained sole proprietor until April 1, 1882, when the plant was purchased by its present owner and able editor, Hiram Tate. Under Mr. Tate's management the _Advertiser_ became an advocate of the politics of the republican party, of which it has since remained a staunch and fearless supporter. The _Advertiser_ has been a factor of no little importance in the growth and general well-being of the village and Warwick valley. After a careful campaign of education on that special subject, it was largely instrumental in bringing about the now very popular and certainly sensible style of fenceless dooryards and lawns, so prevalent in Warwick as to excite the admiration of all tasteful visitors, and one of the distinguishing factors in earning for the place the well-merited title of the "Queen Village." It was also largely through the efforts of the _Advertiser_ that a teacher in music and elocution has been added to the Warwick schools. Other betterments in local affairs have been brought about by this paper's efforts, and the _Advertiser_ is certainly a paper of high tone and a credit to the Warwick valley.

The third newspaper to make its appearance in Warwick was the _Warwick Valley Dispatch,_ which has been a success from its start. It was established in June, 1885, by George F. Ketchum, who has since been its fearless editor and publisher. The _Dispatch_ has prospered under Mr. Ketchum's continuous and wise management of nearly twenty-three years, and has been a potent factor in shaping the progressive development of the village and town of Warwick. Its columns have been especially devoted to school improvement, the _Dispatch_ and its editor taking a leading part in the movement for two modern brick school houses--primary and high school--during the twelve years that Mr. Ketchum served as a member of the Warwick board of education, he being president of the board when the high school was built. It is generally acknowledged that the successful outcome of this agitation was largely due to the influence of the _Dispatch_ and its editor. The paper has been a leader in all efforts to secure improvements for the village and the valley, especially for increased water supply, fine streets, and roads, and the development of Warwick as a summer resort. The paper also heartily advanced the formation of the Warwick Valley Telephone Company, the Warwick Realty Company and the Warwick Knife Company. Politically the Dispatch is democratic, and is recognized as the most influential exponent of democracy in this section of the State. For a dozen years its editor has been chairman of the democratic county committee, during which time the influence of the Dispatch has been markedly shown in shaping the policy of the party in Orange County, and in the favorable results achieved for its candidates at the polls, although the county has a normal republican majority. The paper has gained a large local circulation because of its newsy features, and is respected for its fairness and fearlessness in controversy. The Dispatch was started as a nine-column four-page newspaper, and was first printed in a small frame building on Main street, adjoining the Warwick Valley Hotel. Since 1889 it has been comfortably housed in a brick structure known as "The Dispatch Building," which was erected on Main street by Thomas Burd, and is equipped with modern presses and a Simplex typesetting machine. Although Mr. Ketchum has always personally controlled the editorial policy of the Dispatch, Isaac W. Litchfield was a partner with him in its business from 1889 to 1894, and much of the reputation of the _Dispatch_ is due to his bright humor and facile pen.

CORNWALL PAPERS.

Cornwall, or rather Cornwall-on-Hudson, has had its full share of journalistic ups and downs. Through the courtesy of L. G. Goodenough, editor and proprietor of the _Local-Press_ of that place, the writer learns that the first paper, probably, issued in that interesting old town appeared April 15, 1871. It was called _The Cornwall Paper:_ "A Local Record of Things New and Old." It was published by P. P. Hazen, of Cornwall, in conjunction with A. A. Bensel, Ferry Building, Newburgh. It was stipulated, in the editorial announcement, that unless the necessary support in the way of subscriptions, etc., was received, the project would have to be abandoned. Mr. Goodenough has a copy of Volume 1, No. 1, of _The Cornwall Paper,_ and as no other number seems to be in existence, it is assumed the requisite "support" never materialized, and that the paper practically "died aborning."

To a woman belongs the credit of having started the first regularly issued paper in this village. _The Cornwall Times_ appeared May 24, 1875, with Miss S. J. A. Hussey, a highly educated woman, as editor and proprietor. The _Times_ was continued for at least six years, and with credit to herself and to Cornwall. Miss Hussey died February 21, 1898, aged seventy-nine years. Her declining days were passed practically as a recluse in a cabin on Round Top Mountain, which she owned, and where she seemed to be happiest, efforts of relatives to persuade her to live with them proving unavailing.

The _Cornwall Reflector_ was started about 1877 by John Lee, and later was edited by H. H. Snelling, an elderly gentleman of ability and a forceful writer. He continued as editor for ten years, and until failing eyesight forced him to retire, and he went to a St. Louis home for the blind, where he died in the early nineties, after having become totally blind.

In 1879 appeared the _Cornwall Mirror._ It was published at Highland Falls by James C. Merritt, and was represented in Cornwall by various persons at different times.

In April, 1888, the _Cornwall Local_ appeared, under the management of H. A. Gates, and was an excellent paper. In September, 1889, he disposed of the _Local_ plant to C. P. Brate, of Albany, who induced his brother-in-law, Thomas Pendell, to become its editor and publisher. In June, 1892, the paper came under the present efficient management of L. G. Goodenough. Mr. Pendell became connected with the New York _Herald,_ later with the Middletown _Sunday Forum,_ which he removed to Massena, N. Y., whence he went to Peekskill and then to Poughkeepsie. For the past fifteen years the _Local_ has been conducted by L. G. Goodenough, and is a particularly handsome, bright and ably-edited local journal. Practically the paper's former politics was classed as "independent." In 1896 Mr. Goodenough made it distinctly and avowedly republican, and, as such, it has become an influential member of the county's republican press. In 1859 Mr. Goodenough purchased Mr. Merritt's _Cornwall Mirror,_ merging it with the _Local._ Recently the name _Local-Press_ was adopted as more significant of a newspaper than the name _Local._ The _Local-Press_ is an eight-page weekly, issued Thursdays at $1.50 a year, and with an average circulation for the year 1907 of 1,225 copies.

In October, 1898, S. T. Morehouse started a paper known as the _Cornwall Courier._ It was conducted by Mr. Morehouse, by his son Claude, by the well-known writer Creswell MacLaughlin, Bernard Call, Clark J. Brown, Clayton Brown, and William Clark. It lived until 1906.

WALDEN NEWSPAPERS.

Walden has two good, newsy weekly papers. So far as the writer can ascertain the first paper started there was by Stephen H. Sayer, who, at Middletown, in 1866, started the _Rising Sun,_ and at Montgomery the _Wallkill Valley Times_ (1868), and the _Dollar Weekly_ (1869). Mr. Sayer started at Walden in 1869 the _Walden Recorder,_ but suffered it to go down. In 1870 Chauncey B. Reed resumed its publication and called it the _Walden Recorder and Herald,_ but subsequently dropped the _Recorder,_ and it has since appeared as the _Walden Herald._ It is now edited by Ward Winfield. It is a well-printed seven-column folio, and devoted entirely to local and general news.

The _Walden Citizen was_ established in 1887 by Jacob Sears, and had its first home over John Simpson's cigar store. The outfit consisted of a Washington hand press and a small quantity of type. After struggling a year, the ownership passed into the hands of a Mr. Scudder, and the plant was removed to the top floor of what is now the Fowler building. Soon afterward Eugen Abel, a practical printer, and Prof. D. C. Dominick, principal of the high school, purchased the concern, enlarged the paper and plant, and were getting the business on a profitable basis when, in 1898, a fire swept everything away. The paper was revived, however, and soon afterward Whitfield Gibbs became owner of the plant and speedily put the paper on solid footing and made it a leading republican paper. John Barringer succeeded Mr. Gibbs, and since March, 1903, the Rev. J. H. Reid has been editor and publisher. The paper is republican in politics, and Mr. Reid makes it a lively publication.

MISCELLANEOUS.

It is not generally known that for two years (1884-1886) the _United States Official Postal Guide_ for New York City was printed in Orange County. A. M. May & Co. had the contract and the printing was done by William H. Nearpass at the _Port Jervis Gazette_ office.

Of the papers at Pine Bush, Monroe, Washingtonville and Chester, mention has already been made.

In the number of publications Newburgh leads with about forty publications or changes from one to another; Middletown comes next with 22, Port Jervis with 15, Goshen with 13, and Montgomery with 7.

Bloomingburg is in Sullivan County. So is New Vernon. But each is on the south slope of the Shawangunk range and on the Shawangunk Kill, which divides the counties of Orange and Sullivan. In each place there was once a paper that practically was an Orange County production, and depended to a greater or less extent on this county for its support. The first was the _Signs of the Times_ in about 1883. The other was the _Sullivan Whig_ at Bloomingburg, in 1846. The former was Elder Beebe's Old School Baptist organ; the latter John W. Hasbrouck found at Bloomingburg in 1846, where he began to learn the printing trade.

INCIDENTS.

As an auxiliary incident of Orange County journalism, it may not be entirely out of place to record some facts regarding journalism in Pike County, Pa., opposite Port Jervis. In 1846 or 1847 James J. McNally removed the material of the _Goshen Sentinel_ to Milford, in Pike County, and started the _Pike County Democrat,_ July 14, 1849. It was a seven-column folio. In 1852 he changed its name to the _Milford Herald._ Some time afterward John M. Heller purchased the plant, and put in charge John B. Adams and Harry Heller, the son of J. M. Heller. It passed to several owners, and when O. H. Mott took it, in January 1, 1878, he for some unknown reason changed its name to the _Milford Dispatch,_ which it remains, and now, 1908, it is edited by Josiah F. Terwilliger.

But the first paper in Milford was _The Eagle of the North,_ in 1827, with T. A. Wells, printer. In 1828 it became _The Northern Eagle and Milford Monitor,_ under Benjamin A. Bidwell. Somewhere between 1831 and 1840 the paper disappeared. A second _Northern Eagle_ appeared February 6, 1864, started by Dr. Edward Halliday. It was a red-hot republican journal, and, as might be inferred, had a small constituency in that land of 991 democratic and only a few republican voters, and it died January 1, 1866.

MORE OR LESS PERSONAL.

Orange County's pioneer journalists have been gathered to their fathers. Of the second generation there remains one--as if to link the memories of the first with the fast-reclining activities of the third generation of newspaper workers. And that one relic of the dead past is a woman, now in the sunset of life. Dr. Lydia Saver Hasbrouck is with us yet; a landmark in Orange County journalism--honored by those who know her best, beloved by kindred, respected by all. The twilight of her years is closing pleasantly at her beautiful home on Linden avenue, Middletown.

Of the third generation but few remain of printers, reporters, editors, publishers. The frosts of many winters have silvered their heads, but the "strength of years" finds a few of them still struggling with the insatiable demand of modern type-setting appliances for "copy" and the bustle and rush of daily newspaper life.

At this point it is interesting to take a look at the individuals, the characters--the men and women who have been on the scene of action, and who are there now. We have examined their work--the news and other papers and publications they have produced; we have scanned them in the best light afforded, refracted and reflected, and to know somewhat of those who, in their own and often crude way wrought these paper tablets of thought, let us again look over the field.

MANDEVILLE AND WESTCOTT--The first names to appear--the first characters to attract our attention--are those of David Mandeville and David M. Westcott as publishers of the _Goshen Repository_ (1788), "at the Academy." What relations they had with the old Goshen Academy, or why the _Repository_ was started "at the Academy" is not apparent. Victor M. Drake wrote from his recollections that David M. Westcott "was a practical printer and editor, who served a portion of his time in Benjamin Franklin's old printing office in Philadelphia, though, of course, not under Franklin's mastership. He was born in Cornwall of humble parentage, and in early life was apprenticed to a farmer, and afterward learned the printer's trade. His wife was the daughter of Coe Gale, one of the early settlers of Goshen, by whom he had five daughters and three sons, Mandeville, Nathan, and William. Nathan was clerk of Orange County from 1844 to 1855. David M. Prescott," continues Mr. Drake's recollections, "was not only a good practical printer, but a good merchant and farmer, an able editor, and a trustworthy public servant; he was county clerk in 1815 and 1821, member of assembly in 1828, state senator in 1831-34, and filled many other stations of honor and trust. He acted as editor of the _Independent Republican_ for a long time after Mr. Cheevey was struck down with paralysis. I have repeatedly called him from his labors on the farm to write editorials for the _Republican_," says Mr. Drake, "for such was the high state of party feeling that its public would trust no other man than 'little Dave Westcott' with the responsibility of editing that paper in critical election times." Such, then, was the character and standing of the first editor in Orange County. That he was a man whose character, whose personality, and whose extraordinary abilities stand clearly silhouetted against Time's somber background, is apparent to the reader and the student of history.

CAREY, LUCIUS--The name of Lucius Carey appears next as the printer of the _Newburgh Packet_ in 1795. Beyond the announcement that he was the son-in-law of the Rev. John Close, he cuts no illustrious figure.

DENNISTON, DAVID--David Denniston appears on the scene in 1797 as the purchaser of the _Packet_ from Carey, and as changing the name to that of _The Mirror._ He was early in the field as a printer, having a shop in Newburgh in 1796, when he got out a bound pamphlet or book for the Rev. R. Watson, entitled "An Apology for the Bible." Mr. Ruttenber says he was of the New Windsor stock of Dennistons. Mr. Denniston was certainly a busy man, and a thinker. He died in Newburgh, December 13, 1803, of malignant fever, having up to that time been connected, at different times, from 1796 or earlier, to 1803, with the _American Citizen and Watch-Tower,_ of New York City, and _The Mirror, The Citizen,_ and the _Rights of Man,_ in Newburgh.

SCHULTZ, JACOB--A local contemporary of Mr. Denniston was Jacob Schultz, also of New Windsor, where he was born April 23, 1776, and February 14, 1799, married Anna, daughter of John Denniston, of that town. He first appears in the journalistic field as editor and proprietor of the _New Windsor Gazette._ When this paper came into existence is not known, though it was as early as, and probably some time prior to, 1799, for in that year he moved the paper and plant to Newburgh. In 1818 he retired to a small farm in the town of New Windsor, where he erected a substantial stone house, and where, in rural pursuits and pleasures, he passed the remainder of his days, and was gathered to his fathers in 1859, aged eighty-three years.

WINFIELD, DR. ELIAS--Next on the scene is Dr. Elias Winfield, who, in 1799, started the _Rights of Man,_ and later removed to Kingston, and was lost to subsequent Orange County history.

HEURTIN, JOHN G. AND WILLIAM--John G. and William Heurtin are heard of in 1800 as purchasers of the _Goshen Repository,_ the name of which they changed to that of the _Orange County Patriot._ They seem to have retired from public view after 1803, when the _Patriot_ passed into the hands of Gabriel Denton and William A. Carpenter, and became _The Friend of Truth._

DENTON, GABRIEL--Gabriel Denton appears in 1801 as purchaser of the interest of William Heurtin in the _Orange County Patriot._ In 1803 Mr. Denton sold his interest to William A. Carpenter. In 1804 Mr. Denton began the publication of the _Orange County Gazette_ at Goshen. In 1808 he started in Goshen the _Orange County Patriot and Spirit of Seventy-six._ Mr. Denton seems to have been industrious as a founder of newspapers, but others must have reaped the reward, for his last days were passed in the Orange County poorhouse.

COLES, DENNIS--The name of Dennis Coles appears in 1803 as starting the _Recorder of the Times,_ in Newburgh.

GAZLAY, WARD M--In 1804 Ward M. Gazlay appears on the scene for the first time. He was a native of Pennsylvania, and became engaged in the printing business at Goshen as the purchaser of the _Friend of Truth,_ the successor of the _Repository_ and the _Patriot._ He changed its name to that of the _Orange Eagle._ His office was destroyed by fire in 1805, and with the remnants he drove into Newburgh, purchased the _Recorder of the Times,_ of Dennis Coles, and changed its name to the _Political Index,_ under which name it continued until 1829. The _Recorder_ claimed to be Republican in politics, but was generally regarded as representing the Federalists and Burrites. When Mr. Gazlay merged the _Times_ with his Goshen paper, and evolved therefrom, at Newburgh the _Political Index,_ the interests of the Republican party were apparently consolidated. It supported Jefferson and Madison, and the War of 1812. Jonathan Fisk wrote the editorials for the _Index,_ and with the inspiration of this able man's articles, the _Index_ cared little for its only contemporary, the _Orange County Patriot,_ a Federalist paper, and the latter retired to Goshen, whence it came, to become the _Goshen Democrat._ He sold his _Index_ to Charles M. Cushman, in 1829. Mr. Gazlay served as a magistrate in the village of Newburgh for some years, and died there in April, 1836, aged fifty-four years. His wife was Bridget, daughter of Jonathan and Bridget Carter, by whom he had three sons.

BEACH, CYRUS; PRATT, LUTHER--At Montgomery, May 6, 1806, appeared the names of Cyrus Beach and Luther Pratt, as printers, or rather publishers, "for the proprietors," of the _Orange County Republican._ The proprietors were twenty-four "patriotic citizens of the county." Pratt's name remained connected with the paper until 1818, when it became the _Independent Republican,_ with James A. Cheevey as its proprietor.

HENDRIE, R. C. S--The name of R. C. S. Hendrie appears in Goshen between 1822 and 1834, through coming into proprietorship of the _Patriot._ He sold it to F. T. Parsons, who changed its name to the _Goshen Democrat,_ February 22, 1834. In 1843 Mr. Hendrie started the _True Whig,_ and two years later sold it to Mead & Son, who united it with the _Democrat_ under the name of the _Democrat and Whig._

CROWELL, T. B--T. B. Crowell appeared in 1812 as the publisher of the _Patriot,_ and in 1822 as its proprietor. Then he passed from the scene.

VANDYCK, HENRY H.--In 1832 the name of Henry H. Vandyck appears, in connection with the purchase of the _Independent Republican_ at Goshen. In 1836 he was elected to the State Senate. In October, 1839, he became proprietor of the _Newburgh Telegraph._ His course in favoring the building of the Erie Railroad--a terrible commercial blow to Newburgh--was so displeasing to the people of Newburgh that he disposed of the paper to Elias Pitts, and left. He went to Albany, and became editor of the _Albany Atlas,_ and was later elected Comptroller of the State. He was a Democrat of the Jackson school.

VAIL, LEBBEUS L.--Lebbeus Lothrop Vail was born at Middletown, in 1793. His father was Squire Izaiah Vail, a farmer and miller, and his mother, Azuba Horton. Mr. Vail, after engaging in various occupations, finally started at Goshen the _Signs of the Times_ in 1832. In 1843 Vail and Denton started the _Democratic Standard,_ which afterwards came into the possession of his son Hector, who changed its name to the _Goshen Clarion._

Mr. Vail was a highly popular citizen, and was elected county clerk for two terms by handsome majorities. He died in 1849, and was buried in Middletown, but the remains were afterwards transferred to Goshen. Mr. Vail was married to Sally Moon, who lived until 1876.

CUSHMAN, CHARLES M.--Charles M. Cushman in 1829 purchased Gazlay's _Political Index_ at Newburgh. He changed it to the _Orange Telegraph_ and later to the _Newburgh Telegraph._ Mr. Ruttenber says of him that he was a descendant of Robert Cushman, one of the original company of Pilgrims who sailed for the New World August 5, 1620 (O. S.) He was born in Washington County, N. Y., March 20, 1802, served as an apprentice in Rutland, Vt., and subsequently in Boston; and retired from printing in 1839. He was one of the founders of the Newburgh public libraries, and also helped to establish the Quassaic Bank, and also the Newburgh Savings Bank. In 1853 he was chosen to represent the first assembly district of Orange County in the legislature. In June, 1832, he married Mary, fourth daughter of Captain John Birdsall. He died without issue at Rhinebeck, June 1, 1859.

SPALDING, JOHN D.--A contemporary of Mr. Cushman was John D. Spalding or Spaulding. He was born in Salem, Mass., January, 1800, and came to Newburgh in 1815 with his father, the Rev. Joshua Spaulding, of the Presbyterian Church. He served an apprenticeship as "devil" with Ward M. Gazlay, was subsequently connected with the _Newburgh Gazette_ and the _Journal,_ for about thirty-eight years. He married Elizabeth L., daughter of Rev. John Johnston, D.D., of Newburgh, and died August 22, 1853, in his fifty-fourth year. He was survived by several children.

PITTS, ELIAS--Elias Pitts practically succeeded Mr. Cushman in Newburgh journalism. He was born in Columbia County, N. Y., in 1810, graduated at the Kinderhook Academy, served an apprenticeship in the _Kinderhook Sentinel,_ and became interested in the paper. Later he was in the editorial department of the _Rochester Advertiser,_ and succeeded Mr. VanDyck on the _Newburgh Telegraph_ in the winter of 1840, which continued until 1850. He was next heard of at Poughkeepsie as editor of the _Poughkeepsie American._ Soon after 1853 he received an appointment to a clerkship in the State Department at Washington, which continued until his death at Washington, July 21, 1854. His first wife was Elizabeth, daughter of John Jamieson, of Newburgh. His second wife was Margaret, daughter of John Whited.

It is practically at this point that we come to the parting of the ways--the passing of the real pioneers in Orange County journalism. The generation has come and gone, so far as activity is concerned, and we find coming on the stage new actors. They were, however, evidently of the same mould of character, infusing into their work their personality, and stamping on their productions the ineffable marks of strong individuality.

SECOND GENERATION JOURNALISTS.

DRAKE, VICTOR M.--First and clearly foremost in the second generation of early journalists was Victor M. Drake. He was born at Milford, Pa., March 20, 1813. His father was Rufus J., a son of Francis Drake, of Blooming Grove, Orange County, N. Y. From the seventeenth century the family had lived in Orange County, in the towns of Goshen and Chester. His great-grandfather, Joseph Drake, was said to be a lineal descendant of Sir Francis Drake, of England, who died in 1794. The mother of V. M. Drake was Rhoda Pierson, a daughter of Rachel Bull, whose mother was a sister of Mary DeWitt, the mother of DeWitt Clinton. At the age of eleven years, Victor M. Drake entered the office of the Goshen _Independent Republican,_ where he served as apprentice, journeyman, editor and proprietor of the paper, and in 1846 he became connected with the _New Jersey Herald,_ at Newton, as reporter, editor and proprietor, remaining there until 1871. Mr. Drake lived an abstemious, careful, circumspect life, and died in Goshen in 1894, and his remains repose in the cemetery at that place.

Frank M. Drake, the present able and dignified editor and proprietor of the Goshen _Independent Republican,_ is a son of this venerable and respected journalist, who infused a high standard in local journalism, and left a name that should ever be revered in Orange County newspaper circles.

BEEBE, ELDER GILBERT--Elder Gilbert Beebe, the editor of the old-school Baptist publication, the _Signs of the Times,_ of Middletown, for nearly half a century, was the son of David Beebe and Eunice Case. He was born at Norwich, Conn., November 25, 1800, and died May 2, 1881 at his home in Middletown, N. Y. He was of the old-school Baptist faith and was licensed to preach in 1818. In 1823 he married at New York City, Miss Phoebe A. Cunningham, and the same year he was ordained pastor of the Baptist Church at Ramapo, N. Y. After serving pastorates in this church and the Baptist Church at New Vernon, he moved to Middletown, N. Y., in 1847, which place henceforth became his home, where the remainder of his life was passed in editorial work on the _Signs,_ which he moved there in 1848, and in expounding the Baptist faith as stated supply for several nearby churches.

When Elder Gilbert Beebe became editor of the _Signs of the Times,_ a David had entered the theological field, armed with the slings of regeneration, the rocks of inspiration, and the strength of devoutness--backed by a printing press and waiting shrines. He was a worker, and became a power in the land. When Elder Beebe passed away the old-school Baptist creed lost its leader, and no one seems to have risen to take his place; the stage of Orange County journalism lost one of its most picturesque figures, the field one of its unique landmarks--a type of preacher and editor that has already passed, never to return.

MEAD, CHARLES--A contemporary of Victor M. Drake was Charles Mead, though born six years later, November 19, 1819, at Newburgh. His father was Xenophon Mead, and his mother was Abigail, daughter of Moses Burr, a relative of Aaron Burr. Charles Mead was educated under the then well-known Goshen teacher, Nathaniel Webb. At the age of fifteen years he was apprenticed in the office of the _Orange County Patriot,_ under William B. Wright, who afterward became judge of the supreme court of New York State. He went to Carbondale, Pa., in 1839, and remained one year as editor of the _Carbondale Journal._ In 1841-42 he was employed on _Graham's Magazine,_ in Philadelphia. May 9, 1842, he married Caroline A., daughter of Daniel Worden, of Goshen, who died November 11, 1880. Shortly after his marriage he purchased the _Goshen Democrat_ of the heirs of Frederick T. Parsons. In 1865 he associated with him his son, William B. Mead, and January 1, 1892, sold his interest to Edwin L. Roys. His second wife was Miss Fannie Jackson, of Goshen. Mr. Mead lived a quiet, unobtrusive life, and made his paper a handsomely printed, model conservative Republican journal. He died April 22, 1893, and his remains repose in St. John's cemetery, Goshen.

McNALLY, JAMES J.--One of the men who left their impress on the printing art in Orange County, as well as in Sussex and Pike Counties, was the venerable James J. McNally. He learned the printing trade in the office of the _Signs of the Times_ at New Vernon. Thence he went to Newton, N. J., and worked on the _New Jersey Herald._ From there he went to Milford, Pa., where, it is believed, he started the _Pike County Democrat,_ which became the _Milford Herald,_ now the _Dispatch._ In the spring of 1852 he went to Goshen and bought the _Independent Republican,_ which, seven years later, he sold to Isaac V. Montanye. In the spring of 1859 he again went to Newton, N. J., this time as the editor and proprietor of the _New Jersey Herald._ This paper he finally sold and returned to Goshen, and again became owner of the _Independent Republican._ In 1869 he sold the same to Edward M. Ruttenber. The same year he became owner of the _Newburgh Telegraph,_ daily and weekly, purchasing the same of A. A. Bensel. In 1874 he sold it to Dr. Cooper, of Warwick. For a short time he conducted a grocery store in Middletown, then became connected with the _Carmel Courier._ In 1882 he went to Monroe and started the _Monroe Herald._ In 1888 he started at Goshen the _Goshen News,_ and for a time conducted both of these publications, printing them at Goshen. This he continued until the spring of 1892, when he died, and both publications ceased. Mr. McNally was a good printer, a sharp, witty writer, and an energetic worker. His son, William C. McNally, is the owner and editor of the Ellenville (Ulster County) _Press._

RUTTENBER, EDWARD M.--Edward M. Ruttenber was born in Bennington, Vt., July 17, 1824, entered the office of the _Vermont Gazette_ in 1837, as a "printer's devil," came to Newburgh in 1838, as an apprentice to Charles M. Cushman, an old friend of his father, on the _Newburgh Telegraph._ Three years later he entered the office of the _Newburgh Gazette,_ where he remained until 1845, when he became foreman of the _Telegraph,_ then owned by Elias Pitts. In May, 1850, he purchased the _Newburgh Telegraph,_ and successfully conducted the same until 1857. It was a weekly, printed on a hand-press. To Mr. Ruttenber belongs the honor of bringing to Orange County the first steam-power press, on which the _Telegraph_ was printed in 1853. In 1851 the _Telegraph_ absorbed the _Newburgh Excelsior,_ and the _Gazette_ in 1857. Early in 1857 Mr. Ruttenber and E. W. Gray began issuing the _Daily News_ from the office of the _Telegraph._ Mr. Ruttenber sold the plant late in 1857, repurchased it in 1859, sold it in 1861, repurchased it in 1866, and in 1867 sold it to A. A. Bensel. In 1869 he and James J. McNally became owners of the plant. In the autumn of that year Mr. Ruttenber retired, to become part owner of the _Goshen Independent Republican,_ which in 1870, he sold to H. P. Kimber. After leaving that paper he and a younger son started a job printing office in Newburgh. From July, 1863, to January, 1865, when he resigned, Mr. Ruttenber was engaged in the Bureau of Military Records at Albany. Added to his other accomplishments Mr. Ruttenber delved deeply and learnedly into historical lore, and became the first authority on Indian nomenclature and the author of four or five valuable historical works. The first was a "History of Newburgh" (1859); the next was a work entitled "Obstructions to Navigation of Hudson's River": next "A History of the Flags of the Volunteer Regiments of the State of New York." A "History of the Indian Tribes of Hudson's River" followed, and is a work that is now in great demand. In 1875 he began in serial form a "History of Orange County." His last work was "Footprints of the Red Men," containing Indian geographical names in the valleys of the Hudson, Mohawk and Delaware, their location and probable meaning. This was issued in 1906, and was published under the auspices of the New York State Historical Association. In addition to his journalistic and historical work, Mr. Ruttenber found time to work in local educational matters, and in 1870 had served twelve years as a member of the Newburgh board of education. In 1846 Mr. Ruttenber married Matilda A., daughter of Mark McIntyre, of Newburgh, to whom two sons were born: Charles B., who became a musician of considerable repute, and Walker F., associated with his father in the printing business, and editor and publisher of the _Newburgh Telegram._ Edward M. Ruttenber died in December, 1907, aged eighty-three years, deeply loved by his family and those who knew him best, and respected and honored by all. He was a man of genial temperament, companionable, and the evening of life found him amiable, courteous, warm-hearted, lovable. Orange County was greatly enriched by his coming, and impoverished by his going. His grave on the banks of the historic Hudson, in the hillside city of his adoption, should ever be kept green.

HASBROUCK, JOHN W.--John Whitbeck Hasbrouck, the son of Richard Hasbrouck and Mary Johnson, was born at Woodstock, Ulster County, N. Y., November 20, 1821. In 1834 the parents of John W. Hasbrouck removed from Woodstock to Kingston, where the subject of this sketch completed his education at the famous Kingston Academy, and began his journalistic career in 1845 with the _Kingston Journal._ In the spring of 1846 Mr. Hasbrouck purchased the _Sullivan Whig_ at Bloomingburg, Sullivan County, but disposed of it in 1851, and the same year went to Middletown, where he started the _Whig Press,_ which later became the _Orange County Press,_ merging finally into the _Times-Press_ in 1906. Mr. Hasbrouck retired both from his paper and active journalism in 1868, though his graceful pen was never entirely idle until stilled by the Great Destroyer in 1907.

Mr. Hasbrouck married Miss Lydia Sayer, M.D., of Warwick, N. Y., July 27, 1856, who still survives him. He found in this cultured lady a true help meet, one with ready brain and brawn, and together, hand in hand, they traveled down life's pathway, with a harmony seldom paralleled, and the parting of the ways found them with silvered heads and the harvest of autumn goldened by the rays of life's declining sun.

HASBROUCK, DR. LYDIA SAYER, was born December 20, 1827, in the town of Warwick, N. Y. She early determined to fit herself for a professional life, and graduated at the Hygiea Therapeutic College in New York, with the degree of doctor of medicine. Mrs. Hasbrouck's life-work has been chiefly that of an educator, lecturer and physician, and her connection with Orange County journalism was of brief duration. For eight years she was editor of her husband's paper, the _Sybil,_ a semi-monthly reform paper, and she started a paper called the _Liberal Sentinel._

MONTANYE, ISAAC V.--Isaac V. Montanye was born May 3, 1825, on the eastern slope of the Shawangunk Mountain near New Vernon, and died December 26, 1906, in the eighty-second year of his age. He entered the office of the Goshen _Independent Republican_ in the early forties, as an apprentice under Victor M. Drake. In 1846 Mr. Montanye and John S. Clark purchased the _Independent_ of the late Moses B. Swezey, who had succeeded V. M. Drake. Later Mr. Montanye purchased Mr. Clark's interest, and, in 1853, sold the paper to James J. McNally, and in 1875 became, for the second time, the owner of the _Independent Republican._ A few years later he again sold the plant to James J. McNally. In 1876 he became owner of the plant for the third time, having this time purchased it of T. P. McElrath. In 1883 he disposed of his interest to his son Lucien Montanye, and Frank Drake. He had been connected with the _State Journal_ in Madison, Wis., the _Mercury_ at Middletown, the _Telegraph_ at Newburgh, the _Index_ at Port Jervis, and the _Record_ at Washingtonville. He started the latter two papers, and was connected with the _Record_ when he died. Mr. Montanye installed the first cylinder press, turned by hand, in Orange County, which he set up in the office of the _Independent Republican_ in 1850, replacing the old hand-press. He also installed the first newspaper folding machine in the _Middletown Mercury._ In 1870 Mr. Montanye was elected member of assembly from the second district of Orange County, and later secured an appointment in the New York custom-house. In 1899 he resigned this position, and, with his grandson, Montanye Rightmyer, established the _Orange County Record_ at Washingtonville.

MARTIN, CYRUS B.--Cyrus B. Martin appeared in the field in 1861, when he became the purchaser of the _Highland Chieftain,_ and changed its name to the _Newburgh Daily Journal,_ which it retains to this day.

Mr. Martin was born in Argyle, Washington County, N. Y., September 6, 1830, and having early learned the printer's trade, was employed as a compositor on the _Albany Journal,_ where he remained from 1850 to 1855, when he became one of the editors of the _Chenango Telegraph,_ published at Norwich, N. Y. He continued on this paper until he purchased the present _Newburgh Daily Journal_ in 1861. Upon severing his connection with the latter publication in 1877, he returned to Norwich, where various interests demanded his care and attention. He became president of that great industry known as the David Maydole Hammer Company, and also president of the Chenango County Bank. He departed this life some years ago while still actively engaged in business duties.

RITCHIE, SAMUEL--Samuel Ritchie, who as editor and part proprietor of the _Newburgh Daily Journal,_ and president of the Newburgh Journal Company, has been connected with that paper for over thirty-one years, was born at Larne, Ireland, July 3, 1836. He was the son of Robert L. and Sarah E. Ritchie, and came to Newburgh in 1839, where, with the exception of one year, he has resided ever since. He was for many years connected with the _Newburgh Daily Journal_ in a reportorial capacity and as city editor, and on March 1, 1877, with Messrs. Hull and Rodine, he purchased that paper from Cyrus B. Martin, and became its editor, remaining such to the present time.

Mr. Ritchie has long been recognized as an able editorial writer, and being possessed of a keen wit, he wields a trenchant pen. His kindly nature, however, has ever rendered him cautious against wantonly injuring the feelings of others, and now, in the evening of life, he reaps the reward of his upright conduct, in the regard and esteem of his fellow-men.

HULL, FRANK S--Frank S. Hull, for many years part proprietor of the _Newburgh Daily Journal,_ and at present the vice-president and treasurer of the Newburgh Journal Company, was born in Newburgh, June 6, 1853. He became while a boy highly interested in printing and successfully carried on several amateur periodicals. Upon the retirement of Cyrus B. Martin, in 1877, from the management of the _Newburgh Daily Journal,_ he was one of the three gentlemen who purchased the former's interest, and has remained connected with that paper ever since.

TUCKER, JOHN F.--John F. Tucker was born in Poughkeepsie, N. Y., on July 3, 1850, and after leaving school became connected with the _Poughkeepsie Eagle._ He left that paper in 1872 to take charge of the Government printing office at West Point, where he remained for twelve years, resigning in 1884 to become city editor of the _Newburgh Register._ With that paper he remained connected as city editor, part proprietor and sole editor, until its suspension in February, 1908. Mr. Tucker has been one of the hardest workers among newspaper men, and ever noted for the conscientious manner in which he discharged the various duties allotted to him. For many years he has been the secretary of the Newburgh Board of Trade, and to his efficiency in office, and active interest in every movement likely to benefit his city, is due a great part of the success attained by the Board of Trade.

THIRD GENERATION JOURNALISTS.

The most recent of the old school of second generation journalists to pass away was the Hon. Isaac V. Montanye, of the _Orange County Record,_ at Washingtonville, who died December 6, 1906, and in December, 1907, Edward Ruttenber of Newburgh.

There now remains on the stage of life only Mrs. Hasbrouck of the second generation; and of the third generation, Gilbert Van Sciver, Middletown; Isaac F. Guiwits, Kansas City; Samuel Ritchie, Newburgh; William H. Nearpass, Port Jervis; William T. Doty, Port Jervis; Evander B. Willis, California. These are named in the order of their appearance in the journalistic field of Orange County, rather than with reference to their ages.

VAN SCIVER, GILBERT--Probably the oldest male printer in the county to-day is Gilbert Van Sciver, of Middletown. He has been almost continuously "in the harness" since 1852 until two years ago (1906), when the _Press_ and _Times_ of that city united. He became an apprentice in the office of John W. Hasbrouck's _Whig Press_ in 1852, when the office was located in the building on North and Depot streets, opposite the carpet-bag factory. In 1857 he went to New York and was there employed as a journeyman for eight years. In 1865 he returned to Middletown, and was re-employed in the _Press_ office, and there remained until the paper lost its identity and merged with the _Times._

NORTON, JAMES H.--August 10, 1854, the name of James H. Norton first appeared in Orange County journalism. On that date Mr. Norton purchased the _Tri-States Union_ of Port Jervis, of Lucius F. Barnes, and there then entered Orange County a journalistic genius--a talent that was destined to cut a most important figure in the newspaper life of the county and far beyond its boundaries. James Henry Norton was born at Goshen, Connecticut, in May, 1823, and after a common school education in his native town, he was admitted to the bar before he was twenty-one years old, and was appointed District Attorney of Wayne County, Pa. He finally decided to abandon the law for journalism, and purchased and edited the _Wayne County Herald_ at Honesdale, and some years later sold the plant and went to Boonville, Oneida County, N. Y., where he started the _Boonville Ledger_ in partnership with H. B. Beardsley. From Boonville he came to Port Jervis in 1854 and purchased the _Tri-States Union,_ which he edited until 1861. In 1862 he removed to Middletown and purchased G. J. Beebe's _Middletown Mercury,_ which he and Isaac F. Guiwits made the brightest country newspaper in the United States. In 1867 he disposed of his interest in the _Mercury_ to Isaac V. Montanye, and April 22, 1869, he and William H. Nearpass started the _Evening Gazette,_ tri-weekly, at Port Jervis. A few years later, in company with W. H. Nearpass and I. F. Guiwits, he organized a concern known as the Franklin Printing Company, for printing "patent insides" for country newspapers, and in 1882-3 started _The News_ at Middletown, which he sold to Charles Conkling. His later work was as correspondent for the _Sun, Herald_ and _Times._ In 1847 he married Miss Elizabeth Monson at Bethany, Pa. He died January 20, 1894, at his home in Middletown, and his remains rest in Hillside Cemetery.

GUIWITS, ISAAC F.--Shortly after Mr. Norton came to Orange County, he induced a bright young printer from "up State" to join him in Port Jervis as a journeyman, and Isaac F. Guiwits came, then a mere boy. But he had talents, and Mr. Norton knew it. Young Guiwits accompanied Mr. Norton to Middletown, and the two made the _Middletown Mercury_ the great country newspaper that it became in the '60's. In 1869 Mr. Guiwits started the first daily newspaper in Middletown, the _Daily Mail._ Later he was connected with the Franklin Printing Company, and when that merged with the New York Newspaper Union, and became the Union Printing Company, Mr. Guiwits still retained an interest and a position, and he was sent to St. Louis and later to Kansas City to manage a branch of the concern. His wife, who was a Miss Mackey, of Middletown, died four years ago, since which time Mr. Guiwits's health has steadily declined. Three years ago he went to Los Angeles, California, where he died at the age of sixty-nine, March 25, 1908. Mr. Guiwits was one of the most graceful writers that ever adorned the Orange County press.

FRIEND, DR. JOSEPH D.--One of the able editorial writers on the Democratic papers in Middletown from about 1860 to his death in the '80's, was Dr. Joseph D. Friend. He was a regular medical practitioner, but preferred newspaper work, and many of the stirring editorials in the _Mercury,_ the _Mail_ and the _Argus_ were from his trenchant pen. For a time he owned the _Mail,_ and when it was merged with the _Mercury,_ he became a partner with George H. Thompson, from which he retired in 1874. Dr. Friend was a genial, whole-souled man, and the writer remembers him as one who gave him encouragement, kind words, and good advice at a time when such were needed and did the most good.

NEARPASS, WILLIAM H.--William Henry Nearpass was born in Montague township, Sussex County, N. J., May 9, 1840, being the son of Michael Nearpass and Charlotte E. Stewart. He removed with his parents to Port Jervis in 1856, and attended the schools there until he was nineteen, when he embarked in mercantile pursuits which he successfully pursued until he retired from business to devote himself to journalism. With Evi Shinier he became the proprietor of the _Gazette,_ and has retained his interest in that successful publication ever since.

Mr. Nearpass has always been an active Democrat and very influential in his party's counsels, having held various village offices, and elected supervisor of the county nineteen times.

Mr. Nearpass has always enjoyed the highest esteem of his fellow citizens, for his character has ever been above reproach, while every public duty has been faithfully and ably discharged. During the many years he has been the editor of the _Gazette,_ he has never used its columns for the gratification of private spite or the furtherance of selfish interests, but has always hewed close to the Golden Rule in all his walks of life; and now the afternoon of his career finds him with a blameless life, a clear conscience, a love for his fellow mortals that no faults of others, injuries, assaults or misconceptions have ever chilled.

Mr. Nearpass was twice married, his first wife being Miss Anna W. Newman, of Brooklyn, L. I., who died in 1879. On September 8, 1881, he married Miss Josephine Westfall near Port Jervis.

DOTY, WILLIAM T.--Mr. Doty was born at Crabtree's Corner, Sussex County, N. J., March 11, 1847. His parents were Jonathan Fisk Doty and Phoebe Jane Van Wert Doty. Mr. Doty is a descendant of Edward Doten or Doty, who came over in the Mayflower and settled at Plymouth, Mass., in 1620. His mother was one of the Van Wert or Van Wart family, one of whom assisted in the capture of Major Andre. Mr. Doty received a good education in the public and best private schools of that day.

Mr. Doty's first connection with Orange County journalism was at the early age of sixteen, when he became attached to the _Tri-States Union_ at Port Jervis, in which latter city he is yet. He afterwards became connected with the _Middletown Mercury,_ the _Banner of Liberty,_ the _Whig Press,_ the _Signs of the Times,_ and in Col. Finch's job printing office on Franklin Square when in 1866 S. H. Sayer's _Rising Sun_ flickered above the horizon a few times and disappeared. The _Mercury_ and the _Banner of Liberty_ each had offices in the frame building (now a brick block) next to the Holding House, on East Main street. When Isaac F. Guiwits started his _Daily Mail_ in 1869, Mr. Doty set type on it. He was employed on the _Whig Press_ in 1866, when John W. and Mrs. Lydia Hasbrouck changed its name to the _Orange County Press._ He was also on the _Press,_ though not continuously, when, in 1868, it was purchased by Moses D. and Jesse Lewis Stivers. In the meantime he was employed for several months on the _Warwick Advertiser_ while it was yet conducted by Elder Leonard Cox. It was not until April, 1869, that he returned to Port Jervis, this time to become foreman of the _Evening Gazette,_ at the time James H. Norton and William H. Nearpass started that paper. Except for short intervals in Port Jervis and a few months in Warwick, he was continuously employed in the various Middletown offices from 1865 to 1869. His personal recollections of the older inhabitants of that place, and particularly of the newspaper men and women--John W. and Dr. Lydia Sayer Hasbrouck, Elder Gilbert Beebe and his sons, G. J. and Benton Beebe, James H. Norton, Isaac F. Guiwits, Hon. Moses D. Stivers, Dr. Joseph D. Friend, Hon. Isaac V. Montanye, Evander B. Willis, Gilbert Van Sciver, Elder Cox of Warwick, Coe Finch, E. Malcolm Norton, "Doxy," Charles Coleman and others, is pleasant to recall after half a century's flight of changing years. Leaving the _Gazette,_ Mr. Doty was a compositor on the New York _Tribune_ soon after the present structure replaced the squatty old home of the office on Printing House Square, and when the composing-room was in the wonderful "Tall Tower" overlooking City Hall Park--which structure used to amuse the _Sun_ so much that it never tired of being facetious over the Tribune's "Tall Tower." He was also a compositor on the _Times_ and the _World_ in those days. In 1871 he, in company with Charles St. John, Jr., and Alfred E. Spooner, bought the _Tri-States Union,_ of Port Jervis, of Foster & Mitchell. They made many changes in the _Union,_ and in politics they heartily supported Horace Greeley in his candidacy for the Presidency. They also issued as a campaign paper _The Woodchopper._ In 1873 he associated with William H. Waller, of Monticello, in leasing the _Gazette_ of George A. Clement. Some years later he again went to New York City, this time as printer in charge of the issuing of a little Liberal or Free Thought paper called _Man,_ published at 744 Broadway by Thaddeus B. Wakeman and Thoron C. Leland. Later he became reporter on the New York _Star,_ then the Tammany organ, and printed at North William street just off of Chatham street (now Park Row). In the latter part of the '80's he was employed as editor of the Port Jervis _Daily Union_ until 1888, when in obedience to a telegraphic offer from Morris Koch, manager of William A. Clark's _Daily Miner,_ he was called to Butte City, Montana, to become editor of that paper in the interests of the Montana Democrats. He went there in June of that year, and in the fall moved his family there. In the fall of 1889 he went to the Pacific Coast, with the intention of going into business in Seattle. He was accompanied by his son Vernon, and they spent some time in Portland, Salem, Tacoma, and Seattle, the lad attending school in this latter city. Unfortunately Seattle was then a city of tents, a great fire having, late in that summer, devastated the whole lower and business section of the city. In the winter of 1890 Mr. Doty returned East with his family, and became editor of the Middletown _Daily Press_ under Stivers, Slauson & Boyd. The following year he became editor of the _Orange County Farmer_ of Port Jervis, and remained in that position until 1897, when he returned to Middletown, and associated with Horace W. Corey in the publishing of the _Sunday Forum._ When that paper was sold to Thomas Pendell, Mr. Doty returned to Port Jervis as editor of the _Daily Union,_ which position he occupies at this time (March, 1908).

William T. Doty and Catharine Elizabeth, the daughter of Andrew W. Dickert, of Youngsville, Warren County, Pa., were married October 6, 1875. Three children bless that union: Gwendolen, the wife of John S. Hatch, Jr., of near Scotchtown, this county; Vernon Dickert Doty, train dispatcher on the Panama R. R. at Colon; Louaine, wife of Charles A. Miller, of Midland Lake, near Middletown. A fourth child, Wentworth Doty, died in Port Jervis, March 12, 1888, aged thirteen months. There are four grandchildren: Helen and Louaine Miller, and Naomi and Llewellyn Hatch. Mr. Doty's home is at Circleville, this county, where he has a "little farm well tilled" that affords him more comfort and pleasure than all that the cities or town can offer. During his many years of residence in Port Jervis, and where his children were born, he was for twelve years a more or less active fireman and a member of Delaware Engine, and later, Hose Company No. 2, which he joined in 1863, and of which he was foreman two years. Later he was first assistant chief engineer two years, acting as chief one year, after the removal of Leopold Fuerth, the chief, to Honesdale. He is a member of Port Jervis Lodge No. 328, F. A. M., and Neversink Chapter 186, R. A. M., of which he joined the former in 1871 and the latter in 1872. He is also a member of Delaware Commandery No. 44, Knights Templar, and of Mecca Temple A. A. O. N. M. S., of New York City; past grand of Utsayantha Lodge of Odd Fellows and past chief patron of Deerpark Encampment, I. O. O. F., and was the first chancellor commander of Mount William Lodge 105, K. of P.; is a member of Orange Chapter No. 33, O. E. S., and of Port Jervis Lodge No. 645, B. P. O. Elks.

COX, ELDER LEONARD--Elder Leonard Cox came to Warwick early in the '60's as an Old School Baptist preacher and started the _Warwick Advertiser._ The _Advertiser_ not only lives, but after 42 years of useful existence is to-day a monument to the preacher-editor's judgment, force of character and early craftsmanship. In 1868 or 1869 Mr. Cox returned to Virginia, where he is still living and editing, in connection with his son, the _Charlotte Gazette,_ at Charlotte Court-House, Va., and still active at the age of ninety years. The writer has very pleasant personal recollections of this venerable worker, having for a time been employed in his office in Warwick as a journeyman printer.

STIVERS, HON. MOSES D.--The name of Moses Dunning Stivers deserves an important niche in the county's journalistic gallery, for, after he began to take part in newspaper work, he was an active, energetic, progressive and leading factor. He was an able writer--incisive and wonderfully effective. He was well educated, ever affable and courteous, a clean-cut gentleman. He first appeared in active connection with journalism in March, 1868, when he purchased of John W. Hasbrouck the _Orange County Press_ in association with his brother, Lieutenant Jesse L. Stivers. The latter was a practical printer, had twice enlisted in the army in the Civil War, and died in New York City, April 30, 1871, aged thirty years. Hon. M. D. Stivers was with the _Press_ when the _Evening Press_ (tri-weekly) was started, and later when the tri-weekly became a daily edition. He was instrumental in making it one of the leading country Republican papers of the State. Associated with him, at different times, in the business and editorial departments of the Press, were John W. Slauson, Charles J. Boyd, Albert Kessinger, and F. Stanhope Hill. In December, 1880, Mr. Stivers sold his interest in the concern to John W. Slauson, and retired.

In 1891, in conjunction with his two sons, Lewis S. and John D. Stivers, Mr. Stivers started the _Middletown Times._ From the first this paper was a success, and the popularity it attained at its inception has never waned, but continued after the death of their father in February, 1895. Moses D. Stivers was born near Bennerville, Sussex County, N. J., December 30, 1828, and was the son of John Stivers and Margaret Dunning, his wife. In 1845 the family purchased and removed to the Deacon Hallock farm at Ridgebury in this county. Mr. Stivers attended both the public and private schools, finishing his education at the Ridgebury Academy, after leaving which, for several years, he taught school winters and worked his fathers farm summers.

On September 26, 1855, he married Mary Elizabeth Stewart, of Wawayanda, and then for two years kept a store at Ridgebury, and in 1859 engaged in the mercantile business in Middletown, first under the firm name of Evans & Stivers, and then under that of Stivers & Wallace. In 1864 Mr. Stivers was elected county clerk, and in 1868 he became connected with journalism by the purchase of the _Orange County Press._

Mr. Stivers held several political offices besides that of county clerk, being postmaster at Ridgebury under President Pierce, was appointed collector of internal revenue in 1868 for this district, and was elected to Congress. Mr. Stivers was also active in civic affairs, being a director of the Unionville and Water Gap Railroad, a trustee of the Middletown Asylum for the Insane, and of the Hillside Cemetery; also a trustee of the Middletown Savings Bank. He also took a keen interest in firemanic affairs, and filled the highest offices in the lodges of the Free Masons and Odd Fellows.

Mr. Stivers was a man of strong personality, indomitable will-power, and diplomatic and statesmanlike qualities, which made him a commanding figure in Orange County politics and journalism.

ST. JOHN, CHARLES.--When he was in the work there was no more enthusiastic or energetic newspaper man in Orange County than Charles St. John, Jr., the founder of the Port Jervis _Daily Union_ (1873), and the _New York Farmer_ (1881). He entered the journalistic field in 1871 in company with W. T. Doty and A. E. Spooner, when the three purchased the _Tri-States Union_ at Port Jervis. For years he was more or less active in the work, and retained an interest in the _Union_ and the _Farmer,_ until October, 1907, when his partner and brother-in-law, Fred R. Salmon, purchased his entire interest in the two papers. While Mr. St. John could write energetically and with much effect, it was as an organizer, solicitor and business hustler that he shone brightest. Mr. St. John was a graduate of the famous old Mt. Retirement Seminary in Sussex County, N. J., near Deckertown, and of the Eastman Business College at Poughkeepsie. He was born in Port Jervis, August 30, 1849, a son of Hon. Charles St. John, of Port Jervis, and Ellen S. Thompson, of near Marlboro, Ulster County. The St. Johns were an old family, that early came from Connecticut to New York State, and nearly a century ago Stephen St. John came to Port Jervis and purchased nearly all the land where Port Jervis now stands. In 1870 Charles St. John, Jr., married Miss Mary Salmon at Honesdale, Pa., a daughter of Conductor Charles M. Salmon and Jeannette Russell.

FOWLER, ERWIN GALLATIN.--Erwin Gallatin Fowler, who started the _Sunday Call_ in Port Jervis, and for several years edited the _Daily Union_ and the _Orange County Farmer,_ was born at Walden, N. Y., November 28, 1837, and died April 3, 1904. His parents were Charles Fowler and Millie Ann Lehman. He attended the schools at Walden, became a teacher, enlisted in the Duryea Zouaves, went to the front in the Civil War and became first lieutenant. After the war he was employed in Newburgh for a while, part of the time on the _Journal._ In 1870 he removed to Huguenot, and in 1872 became connected with the _Port Jervis Union._ Later he started the _Sunday Call,_ and was called hence to Middletown to edit the _Daily Press._ September 8, 1881, he became editor of the _Orange County Farmer,_ just started, and remained with this paper until he and John J. Dillon bought the Elmira _Husbandman,_ going thence to the _Rural New-Yorker_ and later to the _American Agriculturist._ The last work that he did in the editorial line was as editor of the _Orange County Farmer,_ when fatal illness stilled forever his able pen. During the World's Fair at Chicago in 1893 he had charge of the New York horticultural exhibit. Mr. Fowler, in addition to his editorial work, interested himself considerably in musical matters, and was president of the Orange County Musical Union. As a writer Mr. Fowler was able, ready, and facile. His homilies were not long-drawn-out, but were wonderfully effective, and his descriptive powers were fine. He had an extensive knowledge of agricultural matters, and when in charge of the _Orange County Farmer_ put that paper on a high plane, and made it popular and its circulation grew to large proportions. Personally, Mr. Fowler was genial, the soul of good-nature, philanthropic and benevolent to the last degree. Mr. Fowler and Miss Fannie F. Dunning were married March 19, 1862.

MOTT, ED. H.--Though not directly connected with Orange County journalism, Ed. H. Mott, the well-known writer and correspondent of the New York _Sun,_ was for a time, in 1871, editor of the _Gazette,_ and after that the _Daily Union_ at Port Jervis. Mr. Mott was too restless to be tied down to the drudgery of the daily grind on a newspaper, and in time he found himself in the regular employ of the New York _Sun,_ with a desk in that office, grinding out Pike County tale's and character delineations that brought him notoriety and shekels galore. He is at present located in Goshen, and yet writing for the New York _Sun._ He also wrote a history of the Erie Railroad, which is valuable and a high-priced production. Mr. Mott is a gifted writer. His witticisms, character sketches, and stories generally are original, unique, and clever.

VAN FREDENBERG, HENRY ABSALOM--One of the ablest writers in the State to-day; one who has such command of words that they are as playthings to a child; a remarkable linguist; mathematician, botanist, chemist, geologist, and all-round naturalist, with abilities which his own modesty and lack of self-appreciation prevent him from fully recognizing--is the genius who is doing editorial work on an Orange County paper to-day. The writer of these lines has for many years known the gentleman, worked side by side with him, tried to fathom the depth and height, the breadth and length of his marvelous mentality. While it is a pleasure to make record of these facts, it is done with hesitation for fear of misconception, misconstruction, and misinterpretation. Henry Absalom Van Fredenberg was born in the town of Montague, Sussex County, N. J., December 30, 1849. His parents were the late Aaron Van Fredenberg and Marie De Witt Van Fredenberg. His parents, in 1850, moved from Montague, N. J., to Sparrowbush, N. Y., where his youth was passed. He was educated in the public schools and in Professor A. B. Wilbur's seminary in Port Jervis, and at an early age became a school teacher. He taught in Sparrowbush, Sanfordville, Mount Hope, Otisville, Slate Hill, and Deckertown (now Sussex), N. J. In Deckertown he became interested in journalism and edited the _Sussex Independent_ for several years. He edited the Port Jervis _Daily Union,_ the Washington (N. J.) _Star,_ and the Mauch Chunk (Pa.) _Coal Gazette_ and _Daily Times_ in succession. In 1885 he went to Buffalo, N. Y., where he served as editor-in-chief of the _Lumber World, Milling World, The American Tanner,_ the _Iron Industry Gazette,_ the _American Woodworker,_ and the _Factory and Dealers' Supply World._ In that city he served as associate editor of _The Magazine of Poetry,_ now merged with _Poet Lore,_ of Boston, Mass. In 1898 he returned to Orange County, making his home in Sparrowbush. Mr. Van Fredenberg succeeded the late Erwin G. Fowler as editor of the _Orange County Farmer_ in 1899 (now the _New York Farmer_), and is in that position at this date (March, 1908), making the _New York Farmer_ an authority on all dairy matters, and quoted extensively wherever dairy interests have an intelligent force.

STIVERS, LEWIS STEWART--Lewis Stewart Stivers was born in the town of Wawayanda, Orange County, April 20, 1859, the oldest son of Hon. Moses D. and Mary Elizabeth Stewart Stivers. After his parents removed to Middletown he attended the public schools in that city and the Wallkill Academy, and then entered Peekskill Military Academy, from which he graduated in 1876. On concluding his studies, he entered the office of the _Middletown Press,_ of which his father was then editor and part owner and in 1891 he and his brother, John D. Stivers, began the publication of the _Middletown Daily Times_ and the _Orange County Times,_ the latter a semi-weekly issue. He was united in marriage, in Middletown, with Miss Cora D. Mackey, daughter of John Mackey, who, for many years, was connected with the Orange County Foundry Company. Mr. Stivers died October 30, 1905, deeply lamented by everyone who knew him, for he was the soul of honor, the friend of all; courteous, amiable, generous.

SLAUSON, JOHN WHITING--Many bright minds have been engaged in the field of Orange County journalism. It is not vaunting to say that one of the keenest of these was he who made his entrance into active newspaper life October 15, 1872, by the purchase of the _Orange County Press_ of Stivers & Kessinger at Middletown, and under him the _Press,_ already influential and highly respected, became one of the leading Republican journals of the State. Mr. Slauson remained with the _Press_ thirty-three years, associating in its management with F. Stanhope Hill one year, the Hon. Moses D. Stivers seven years, and Charles J. Boyd twenty-five years, retiring from the printing business in 1906. In all these years the _Press_ property became very valuable, owning one of the finest locations in Middletown, and conducted in such a manner that it was a positive pleasure to be employed therein. Mr. Slauson is a writer of ability, using the choicest language in diction, structure in phrasing, and style enriched with the higher graces of composition. John Whiting Slauson was born September 18, 1846, in the town of Greenville, this county. His father was David Slauson, and his mother was Antoinette, daughter of John Whiting, a member of a prominent Connecticut family. Mr. Slauson attended the Westtown Academy and the Dolbear School for Young Men in New York City, and at the age of twenty began teaching in the public schools of the county, and after filling an unexpired term as school commissioner of the Second District of Orange County, he purchased an interest in the _Press_ and thenceforth devoted himself to journalism. In 1875 Mr. Slauson married Miss Olivia, daughter of Horatio R. Wilcox, of Middletown. For over twenty-five years Mr. Slauson has been a member of the New York State Press Association, was one of its vice-presidents in 1894, and is still an active member of the Republican Editorial Association of this State.

Mr. Slauson's reputation for fair dealing and steady adherence to the principles of the Golden Rule in all relations of life, have earned for him the merited esteem of his townsmen generally, and the highest regard of those who know him best--a pleasure falling to the writer many years ago, and he cherishes the friendship thus formed as one of the pleasantest incidents in his life.

MACARDELL, CORNELIUS--An important factor in Orange County journalism entered when Cornelius Macardell came, and a distinct loss when he passed away. He founded the _Daily Argus_ in 1876 at Middletown and in 1878 consolidated the _Argus_ and _Mercury._ In 1896 he turned the control of the paper over to his son, Cornelius, and his official connection with journalism ceased from that date.

Cornelius Macardell was born at Darien, Georgia, October 24, 1837, the son of Cornelius and Rebecca Campbell Macardell, and returned with his family to New York in 1841. He was educated in the public schools of Brooklyn, and then, after a few years of reporting for the city papers, became interested in a newspaper venture in New Orleans. In 1861 he came North, entered Wall street, New York, and in 1866 became a member of the Stock Exchange. A few years later he retired from the street and bought a farm near Mount Hope in Orange County. In 1877 be again became active in Wall street, but he sold out his seat in the Stock Exchange a number of years ago. For years Mr. Macardell was interested in banking in Middletown, and was elected president of the First National Bank in 1891. He was also interested in many ways with other business institutions in Middletown, and his business life was full of activities. In 1860 Mr. Macardell married Esther, daughter of Oliver and Penelope Crawford, of near Middletown. Mr. Macardell died April 9. 1904, lamented by everyone who knew the genial, kindly old gentleman.

THOMPSON, GEORGE H.--An able journalist of the fourth generation in Orange County was George H. Thompson, whose work began on the _Middletown Mercury_ about 1873. He was educated at Williams College, had a good style in writing, and was one of the brightest and most satirical writers in the county. He also made a good editor and until his death, a few years ago, kept the columns of the _Argus_ and the _Mercury_ alive with his bright sayings and well-rounded sentences. Mr. Thompson was at one time president of the Board of Education of Middletown, and for a short time was postmaster under President Cleveland. His wife was a daughter of Colonel D. C. Dusenberry, but both have passed away, leaving one daughter, Maysie Thompson.

WINCHESTER, REV. CHARLES M.--About 1874 the Rev. Charles M. Winchester, who came to Middletown from one of the New England States to preach temperance and the Gospel according to the Free Christian Church, started the _Standard,_ an afternoon paper, and forthwith engaged in newspaper work of the most lively character. To say that affairs grew hot in Middletown for a year or two, is to state facts very moderately. Mr. Winchester was bubbling over with his ideas of theology, temperance and morals, and his powers of invective seemed unlimited. He preached Sundays and through the week in tents and other places, and hurled his javelins of wit, of satire, of denunciation, of imprecation, and execration orally from the pulpit, and daily through his paper. The _Standard_ was finally purchased by the _Mercury_ people, and Mr. Winchester went to New York, where he died a year or two ago.

SALMON, FRED R.--Fred R. Salmon, the present business manager of the _New York Farmer_ and the Port Jervis _Daily Union_ and _Tri-States Union_ plants, was born at Susquehanna, Pa., January 18, 1858. His parents were Charles M. and Jeannette Russell Salmon. The family removed to Port Jervis and then to Honesdale, in both of which places Mr. Salmon attended schools, graduating from the Honesdale High School. He entered the office of the Port Jervis _Union_ in April, 1877, as bookkeeper for his brother-in-law, Charles St. John. In 1884 he entered into partnership with Mr. St. John under the firm name of St. John & Salmon. In 1895 they organized the Tri-States Publishing Company, as its sole owners. This concern continued until October 1, 1907, when Mr. Salmon purchased Mr. St. John's interest, and became the sole owner of the stock. October 6, 1889, Mr. Salmon married Miss Flora Dunning, daughter of Joseph and Clara Owen Dunning, of near Middletown. For several years Mr. Salmon was secretary of the Republican County Committee and prominent in the councils of his party. He is now a member of the Civil Service Commission of the new city of Port Jervis; is a member of the Board of Education; is trustee of the First Presbyterian Church, and a trustee of the Port Jervis Board of Trade.

DRAKE, FRANK M.--The present editor of the Goshen _Independent Republican_ is Frank Drake, who became connected therewith as part owner January 1, 1883, and sole owner in March, 1892. Mr. Drake is a practical printer, an able writer, and is a "worthy son of a worthy sire." His father was Victor M. Drake, one of the Nestors of Orange County journalism, and the son is giving in the semi-weekly issues of his _Independent Republican_ evidence that the "journalistic instincts" of the father have descended to the son. He is a Democrat of the conservative type; is sprightly in his treatment of all subjects, and deftly sprinkles a bit of attic salt in much of the palatable literary provender that he sets before his readers. Mr. Drake was born at Newton, N. J., in 1855, and after his school days he entered the office of the _Independent Republican,_ after his parents removed to Goshen, and became an apprentice in 1874, at the age of nineteen years. He never found it necessary or advisable to migrate, and it is fitting that he should find his life work in the very office in which the genius of his gifted father for so many long years was exercised for the public good. Mr. Drake is unmarried.

KETCHUM, GEORGE F.--With the establishment at Warwick in 1885 of the _Warwick Valley Dispatch_ there entered the arena of Orange County journalism a champion who has proven his right to become a leader. George F. Ketchum, who founded the _Dispatch,_ is the son of the late George W. Ketchum and Elizabeth Strang Wright. George F. Ketchum has made his _Dispatch_ the leading Democratic paper in the county, by reason of his unquestioned honesty of purpose, his fearless but always fair and courteous advocacy of principles which he believed conducive to the public weal, his persistent, aggressive efforts, and his fair treatment of all opponents. Mr. Ketchum has been for more than a decade the chairman of the Democratic County Committee--a position that he has not held through mere favoritism, but by reason of the force of character and the indomitable energy that has characterized his whole public career.

BOYD, CHARLES J.--About 1880 Charles J. Boyd became interested in newspaper work through partnership with John W. Slauson, under the the name of Slauson & Boyd, as publishers of the _Middletown Press._ Mr. Boyd remained with the _Press_ until it was merged with the _Times_ in 1906, when he retired from the work, to engage in insurance and real estate business. Mr. Boyd was a first-class newspaper man in every particular. He wrote a good article, had neat descriptive powers, good judgment, clear discernment and discrimination, and his work was ever in evidence on the Press. It would seem that one so clever, so well endowed by nature for newspaper work, should have remained in the field. Mr. Boyd was supervisor of his ward for a number of years, and made one of the most efficient members of the county legislature. He was also by appointment one of the Prison Commissioners of the State.

STIVERS, JOHN D.--In 1891 John D. Stivers entered actively into journalistic duties, though he had been connected therewith more or less all his life. In that year the _Middletown Times_ came into existence, and he became its normal editor. Since the lamented death of his father, the Hon. Moses D. Stivers, in February, 1895, John D. Stivers has been the real head and front of the establishment. Mr. Stivers is a young man who deservedly stands well with his party and the public. Through its well-written editorials, its daily supply of the local and general news served in the most concise and acceptable manner, the _Times_ is a power in politics and in general thought that needs to be reckoned with by politicians and caterers to the public in any form whatever. John Dunning Stivers was born August 30, 1861, at Middletown, N. Y., the second son of the Hon. Moses D. and Mary Elizabeth Stewart Stivers. He attended the public schools of Middletown and Wallkill Academy, where the rudiments of his education were obtained, and later Peekskill Military Academy, from which institution he was graduated in 1878, at the age of seventeen years. He then began his journalistic career, entering the office of the Middletown _Press_ as bookkeeper and later filling the position of city editor. Resigning from the _Press,_ Mr. Stivers became private secretary to his father, the Hon. Moses D. Stivers, during his term as Member of Congress from this district. Upon the latter's retirement from office, John D. Stivers returned to Middletown, and, with his brother, Lewis S. Stivers, established the _Middletown Times._ After the death of his father, he was elected to take the latter's place as trustee of the Orange County Trust Company. Mr. Stivers was appointed a member of the Board of Managers of the Middletown State Hospital by Governor Morton, and was secretary of the Board for several years, and until the reorganization of the asylum management throughout the State by Governor Odell.

NICKINSON, ALBERT E.--Albert E. Nickinson, the present treasurer and general business manager of the Middletown _Argus_ and _Mercury,_ was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, July 8, 1863. He was a son of John Nickinson and Elizabeth J. Phillips. Albert E. was educated in the public schools of Indianapolis, Philadelphia, and Suffern, N. Y. He entered the employ of the _Argus_ and _Mercury_ in 1888, remained until 1901, and returned to the office upon its reorganization as a new company in 1906. Mr. Nickinson is a good business man, and when necessary can wield a descriptive pen. On November 28, 1889, Mr. Nickinson and Miss Penelope Macardell were married.

SPEIDEL, MERRITT C.--The present efficient associate business manager of the Port Jervis _Daily Union, Tri-States Union_ and _New York Farmer_ is Merritt C. Speidel. He was born May 19, 1879, in Port Jervis, son of Martin and Hannah M. Patterson Speidel, members of well-known Deerpark families. During his student days he frequently wrote for the local newspapers, and on October 25, 1897, he became employed in the business department of the Tri-States Publishing Company, and several months later became reporter for the Port Jervis _Daily Union,_ and then successively city editor, associate editor, and editor. January 1, 1904, he became associate business manager of the Tri-States Publishing Co., and in January, 1908, became secretary and a director of the company. Mr. Speidel, though a young man, has been much identified with local public affairs and is now serving his seventh year as secretary of the Port Jervis Board of Trade; is one of the Health Commissioners; is president of the Deerpark organization of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle.

POWERS, HENRY P.--Henry P. Powers, city editor and desk man of the Middletown _Daily Argus_ and semi-weekly _Mercury,_ was born at Groton, Tompkins County, N. Y., June 30, 1857, a son of Jacob B. Powers and Nancy G. Bouton. He early developed a love for the printing trade and entered the office of the _Groton Journal,_ when a lad, as apprentice, serving there seven years, and about eighteen years ago he came into Orange County and located at Middletown. For a year and a half he was employed as city editor of the Middletown _Daily Press._ In January, 1903, he became reporter for and then city editor of the _Daily Argus._ Mr. Powers is a thoroughly good newspaper man; active, reliable, a ready writer, of good discrimination, and he is a valuable addition to Orange County journalism. Mr. Powers was twice married. His first wife died at Groton twenty-two years ago. His second wife was Miss Minnie L. Hill, daughter of John W. Hill, of Middletown.

GREGG, GEORGE F.--In January, 1903, George F. Gregg, in company with John B. Scott, became part owner of the _Goshen Democrat,_ and September 1, 1905, he became sole owner of the same. To say that he has made the _Democrat_ a bright, newsy, weekly paper is to express the fact mildly but justly. He is a vigorous writer, with a fervor and animation that is born of the intensity of earnestness and zeal, and he is surely making the _Democrat_ read by friends and political foes. In 1906 Mr. Gregg was elected supervisor of the town of Goshen, and again in 1907, and brings to this public office the same earnestness, push and capacity that characterizes his work as an editor. Mr. Gregg is yet a young man, and he is in a fair way to be one of the leaders of thought and action in Orange County. George F. Gregg was born at Walden, N. Y., April 30, 1875. His parents were Edgar M. Gregg, of Walden, and Rose L. Faron, of Corning, N. Y. His education was at the public schools. He passed several years in Chenango County, this State. For a short time he was connected with the advertising department of the New York _Times._ He was also in the Ordnance Department of the United States Navy, in the naval magazine at Fort Lafayette. Mr. Gregg seemed to have an "intuitive leaning" to journalistic work, for in addition to his service on the New York _Times,_ we find he was fifteen years in newspaper work, several of which were in the office of the "now esteemed contemporary," the _Independent Republican._ For two years he was city editor of the _Middletown Argus,_ immediately prior to purchasing an interest in the _Goshen Democrat._ The good work he is doing in the columns of that old paper, and the esteem in which he is held by the people of Goshen, as shown by his being twice chosen as supervisor of the town, is evidence that he has found his life's work and its field. Mr. Gregg and Miss Jane A. Brundage, of Newark, N. J., were married July 11, 1900.

TAFT, LYMAN H.--One of the most thoroughly independent editors in the county is Lyman H. Taft, of the Montgomery _Standard-Reporter,_ who was born December 5, 1865, at Oneida Valley, Madison County, N. Y. His father was Thomas J. Taft, and his mother was Jane Baum, whose father, Rev. John Baum, was a Methodist minister at Mendenville, N. Y. The parents went to the Pennsylvania oil country, when Lyman was but three months old, and settled at Warren, Pa. He attended the Warren high school, leaving the same to enter the office of the Warren _Ledger_ (1877), where he served an apprenticeship of three years, and then traveled over the country, working as a journeyman printer, and visited forty States of the Union. September 1, 1888, he arrived at Montgomery, purchased the _Recorder_ and in 1898 the _Standard,_ and consolidated the two papers under the title of the _Standard and Reporter._

MacGOWAN, HORACE A.--Horace A. MacGowan, city editor of the Middletown _Daily Argus,_ was born January 7, 1877, near Circleville, this county, a son of John Nelson and Julia Woodruff MacGowan, and of Scotch ancestry. His parents removed to Middletown when Horace was but four years of age, and he attended the schools until thirteen years of age, when (July, 1891) he entered the employ of the Middletown _Daily Press,_ where he remained fifteen years. When the _Press_ was merged with the _Times,_ Mr. MacGowan, February 1, 1906, became city editor of the Middletown _Daily Argus,_ which position he still holds. Mr. MacGowan has time and again proven his capability as a good writer and newspaper man by work of recognized merit. April 23, 1903, he married Miss Elizabeth Tappan, daughter of Mrs. Catherine Tappan, of Middletown.

MACARDELL, CORNELIUS, JR.--Cornelius Macardell was educated in the public schools of Middletown, and entered the office of the _Argus_ in 1891, becoming publisher of the _Argus_ and _Mercury_ in 1896, and continuing in that capacity until the formation of the corporation in March, 1906. He is president of the Argus and Mercury Company.

RICHARDS, MARK V.--The city editor of the Port Jervis _Gazette_ since 1905 is Mark V. Richards, an industrious, alert reporter, a descriptive writer, and a conscientious, painstaking worker. Mr. Richards was born in Port Jervis, February 24, 1880, the son of David S. and Martha Isadore Bunting Richards. Mark V. Richards graduated from the Port Jervis High School, June 24, 1898. He began newspaper work, January 2, 1897, as a paper carrier for the _Gazette._ In the year and a half thus employed he was constantly picking up bits of news for the _Gazette,_ often writing them out in such readable form that he attracted the attention of Editors Nearpass and Bennet, with the result that at the first opportunity he was engaged as reporter for the _Gazette._ This work he began in September, 1898, and continued until 1905, when he became city editor. July 7, 1903, he married Miss Bertha E. Lobb, of Honesdale, Pa.

SHIMER, EVI--The present business manager of the Port Jervis _Gazette_ is Evi Shimer. He has held that position since April 1, 1886. Mr. Shimer was born December 8, 1860, on the old Shimer homestead in Montague, Sussex County, N. J. His parents were Abram and Adaline Cuddeback Shimer. When Evi was about seven years of age, the family moved to Port Jervis, where he attended the public schools. Later he graduated from the Binghamton Business College. After that he was ten years in the wholesale hardware business in New York City. April 1, 1886, he returned to Port Jervis and became business manager of the _Gazette_ establishment, which position he still holds. Mr. Shimer was for four years one of the trustees of the village of Port Jervis. In November, 1888, Mr. Shimer and Miss Susan A. Donaldson were married.

BROWN, MELVIN H.--The present city editor of the Middletown _Times-Press_ is Melvin Halstead Brown, an alert worker and ready writer. He was born at Otisville, N. Y., December 25, 1867, a son of Orville and Emeline Ketcham Brown. Melvin H. attended the public schools at Paterson, N. J., and later in Middletown and the Wallkill Academy. He learned the printer's trade in the _Argus_ office, beginning at the age of fifteen years. When the Middletown _Times_ was started he became a compositor thereon, later foreman of the composing room, and twelve years ago became a reporter, which position, and that of city editor, he has since filled. His wife was Miss Anaina, daughter of Alderman and Mrs. George Miller.

RUSSELL, ALEXANDER W.--One of the ablest editorial writers on the country press of to-day is the young man who is on the staff of the Middletown _Times-Press,_ Alexander W. Russell. He is alert to events of local as well as of State, national and international importance, and treats them in a most able manner, in language that is choice, pleasing and expressive. Mr. Russell was born at New Berlin, Chenango County, N. Y., April 14, 1865. His parents were Edward and Elinor Tillinghast Russell. He learned the trade of a printer in the office of the Brookfield _Courier,_ at Brookfield, Madison County, N. Y. Later, he attended Hobart College at Geneva, N. Y., leaving there in 1886, to become city editor of the Oneida _Union,_ Oneida, N. Y., which position he filled for ten years, at the end of which time he became city editor of the Brockton, Mass., _Gazette,_ where he remained two years. Soon after this he came to Middletown, N. Y., where he has since remained, and has been on the _Times-Press_ editorial staff since 1906.

MACARDELL, ABRAM B.--Abram Bennet Macardell, the editor of the _Argus_ and _Mercury,_ and vice-president and secretary of the Argus and Mercury Publishing Company, was born at Mount Hope, this county, a son of Cornelius and Esther Crawford Macardell. In January, 1886, the family removed to Middletown, and he was educated in the public schools there and graduated from Wallkill Academy in 1897, a member of the last class to graduate from that time-honored and historic institution, which, after that year, became the Middletown High School. He entered Hamilton College and graduated in 1901. In November, 1902, he entered the _Argus_ office and succeeded George H. Thompson as editor at his death in May, 1904. He was active in the formation of the Argus and Mercury Company in March, 1906. Mr. Macardell is an easy, graceful writer, and, while "young in the harness," is doing good editorial work.

STAGE, ALBERT L.--The present city editor of the Port Jervis _Daily Union_ is Albert Louis Stage. He was born in the town of Lumberland, Sullivan County, N. Y., June 8, 1876. His parents were Albert and Caroline Cowen Stage. He attended the public schools at Barryville, N. Y., and Equinunk, Pa., qualified himself for teaching, and for several years was thus engaged in the public schools at Blooming Grove, Greeley, Mast Hope, and Flagstone, Pa. Later, for a time, he was a salesman for Rand, McNally & Co., educational and book publishers, of New York City. During 1904 he was employed in the wholesale house of E. P. & E. Kinney, spices, coffees, teas and groceries, in Binghamton, N. Y. In March, 1905, he became city editor of the Port Jervis _Union,_ which position he has since most acceptably filled.

STIVERS, DR. MOSES A.--Moses Asby Stivers was born in Middletown, November 14, 1872, the youngest son of the Hon. Moses D. and Mary Elizabeth Stewart Stivers. He graduated in the Middletown schools, and became bookkeeper in the Middletown _Times_ when it was first started. Later he entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City in 1894. Dr. Stivers is a practicing physician in Middletown, is connected with Thrall Hospital, and is now secretary and treasurer of the Stivers Printing Company, of which his brother, John D. Stivers, is president, printing the _Daily Times-Press._ He is a young man of superior mental qualities and ever amiable and courteous.

CALLED ELSEWHERE.

Among the newspaper men, aside from those already mentioned, who have come and gone--some to their final reward, others to new or different fields of labor--who were more or less important actors on this stage of life's industry, were some who were peculiarly adapted to journalistic work and had rendered highly satisfactory service in their day. Among such were:

HOLBROOK, DANIEL--Daniel Holbrook, who, in 1862, bought the _Tri-States Union_ in Port Jervis--a college graduate, a linguist, scholar, and able writer, a native of Boston. After less than a decade of newspaper work, he sold the plant, and has since been engaged in the real estate and insurance business in Port Jervis, and is now justice of the peace and police justice in the city of Port Jervis.

SLAWSON, WILLIAM G.--William G. Slawson was, in the '70's, one of the liveliest reporters that ever labored in Middletown, and he kept the columns of the _Press_ teeming with his clever work. He has been for several years in other work, lately at Cleveland, Ohio.

SHIER, JAMES J.--James J. Shier, a graduate of the Middletown _Mercury and Argus,_ was city editor there some time, and in the '80's went to Port Jervis and secured an interest in the _Gazette,_ where he remained until he died, June 2, 1893.

HELLER, BURRELL--An old Milford and Port Jervis printer and a good writer and reporter was Burrell Heller, who died late in the '80's. He was employed in various capacities on the Port Jervis papers, latterly as reporter on the Port Jervis _Gazette._

YOUNG, CHARLES O.--Charles O. Young, of Port Jervis, admitted to the bar as a lawyer in the '80's, son of the late Oliver Young (a prominent lawyer of Port Jervis), edited the Port Jervis _Daily Union_ several years. He is a most accomplished writer, highly educated, a scholar, a linguist, and a man of high literary tastes. He prefers literature to law, and the Port Jervis papers are occasionally favored with emanations from his gifted pen.

WILLIS, EVANDER B.--Evander B. Willis appeared in Middletown early in the '60's, and learned the printer's trade, later becoming an expert stenographer, then reporter and editor, and for a time conducted the Middletown _Mail._ He was born at Unionville. Early in the '70's he went to California and became court stenographer.

BENNET, JAMES--One of the men who figured prominently in the western end of orange County newspaper circles for about a quarter of a century was James Bennet, of Port Jervis. He was a good newspaper man and had a knack for seeing the droll side of events and for putting the same into print, and some of his "yarns" were extremely witty. Mr. Bennet is the youngest son of James and Sarah Westfall Bennet, and he was born at Carpenter's Point (now Tri-States, and a part of the Fourth Ward of the city of Port Jervis). James Bennet graduated at the famous old Mount Retirement Seminary in Sussex County, N. J., near Deckertown (now Sussex), in 1863. He studied medicine two years, and abandoned the same to go into the flour and feed business in Port Jervis. In 1886 he accepted a position in the business and editorial department of the Port Jervis _Gazette,_ and became associate editor. In 1889 he went with the _Union,_ remaining there fifteen months, and then returned to his former position with the _Gazette,_ where he remained until 1906, when he resigned to go into the insurance business--the retreat of so many old newspaper men. His wife was Alice Stiles, daughter of the late Edward A. Stiles, for so many useful years the principal and proprietor of the Mount Retirement Seminary.

BARRET, LEON--One of the brightest cartoonists of the metropolis, Leon Barret, began his work in Orange County, having come to Middletown in the '70's, where he conducted a book and stationery store at the corner of James and King streets. He soon developed a talent for drawing that attracted the notice of newspaper men, and Messrs. Macardell and Thompson found a place for him on the _Argus and Mercury,_ and eventually took him into partnership. His artistic ability so rapidly improved, however, as to receive recognition from the New York press, and severing his connection with the _Argus_ he went to the metropolis, where a wider field was afforded for the exercise of his remarkable talents, and where he has won fame and standing.

WHEAT, WALLACE B.--Wallace B. Wheat, for the past twenty-five or thirty years, has been connected with the Port Jervis _Gazette_ as typesetter and reporter, and for many years has been the local representative of the New York _World._

BENNET, JAMES EDWARD--James Edward Bennet was the son of James Bennet, and for four years was a reporter for and city editor of the Port Jervis _Gazette,_ and is now a practicing lawyer in New York City.

PINE, COL. CHARLES N.--Col. Charles N. Pine was an old Philadelphia journalist who, in the '90's, passed his last years on the Port Jervis _Gazette,_ going there from Milford. He was brainy and brilliant. He died in Port Jervis, October 26, 1894.

BAILEY, WILLIAM P.--William F. Bailey through the '90's was one of the most alert reporters that Middletown ever had. He was a graduate of the _Press_ office, and his work was always in the lead. He is now in the insurance business in New York City.

GIBBS, WHITFIELD--Whitfield Gibbs was, for a short time, in Orange County journalism, having been the owner of the _Walden Citizen_ late in the '90's. Mr. Gibbs now resides at Hackettstown, N. J. He is an able writer, and a good newspaper man.

CRANE, STEPHEN--Stephen Crane, the gifted author of "The Red Badge of Courage" and other tales, and magazine and newspaper articles, began his literary career in Port Jervis, and did reporting a short time on the _Daily Union._ His father was a resident of that city, pastor of Drew M. E. Church, and died in that city.

COREY, HORACE W.--Though connected with journalism only briefly and through his interest in the Middletown _Sunday Forum_ (1897-99), Horace W. Corey gave evidence of unique ability in that work which, pursued, would have brought reward and fame. His "sermons" and other satires were features that "pointed morals" where much needed.

PENDELL, THOMAS--Thomas Pendell came into Orange County through Cornwall (1889) and to Middletown in 1898-99 on the _Forum;_ later on the _Argus,_ and again on the _Forum,_ which he removed to Massena, N. Y. He is a ready writer, a rapid worker, a practical printer, and one of the best all-round newspaper men that have ever tarried in Orange County. He is now publishing a paper at Peekskill.

BLANCHARD, FRANK L.--Frank L. Blanchard, of New York, was connected with the Middletown _Forum_ from December, 1907, to March or April, 1908. He is a good writer.

IN THE HARNESS.

Connected with the newspapers at the present time one finds an array of rising talent, the fourth generation of workers since journalism gained a foothold in Orange County.

WILSON, FREDERICK WILLIAM--In Newburgh the Newburgh _Daily News_ has as editor Frederick William Wilson. To the energy and ability of Frederick W. Wilson, editor of the Newburgh _Daily News_ and president and treasurer of the Newburgh News Printing and Publishing Co., is due in great measure the success that newspaper has achieved as a business proposition, and also its recognized standing among the leading newspapers of the State.

Mr. Wilson's connection with the _News_ dates almost from its inception, when as a lad in his teens he entered the business office of the paper in its second year of publication as bookkeeper. The founder of the _News,_ the late William H. Keefe, was not slow to recognize the aptitude of the young man for the business, and in his twentieth year he practically had the entire business management of the then very modest _News_ establishment in his hands, Mr. Keefe confining himself principally to the editorial conduct of the young and rapidly growing paper.

Mr. Wilson was born October 8, 1869, near Brighton, the renowned watering-place in the south of England. His father, Henry Wilson, was a surgeon in the British navy and saw service in the Crimean War. He died when the subject of this biography was but ten years old. After his death his widow, Sarah Jane Cleaver, daughter of a prominent woolen goods manufacturer and former mayor of Northampton, came to Newburgh, where an older son, Dr. Henry Wilson, was established in the practice of medicine. Other relatives lived in New York and the New England States. She died here in 1894, leaving, besides the two sons mentioned, two daughters, Kathryn and Maude, both of whom are married and live in New York City.

Young Wilson evinced an early aptitude for literary work, and having completed his education, frequently contributed to the _News,_ which about that time was started by its founder.

In 1896 a company was organized to conduct the _News._ Mr. Wilson was one of the incorporators and directors, and at the meeting of the board of directors was chosen secretary and treasurer. Mr. Keefe was elected president. On the latter's death, in 1901, Mr. Wilson succeeded to the presidency of the company. He immediately set on foot plans for the enlargement of the paper and the betterment of its mechanical equipment. One of these was the introduction of typesetting machines. Next the large double brick building, Nos. 40 and 42 Grand street, was purchased and remodeled into an up-to-date newspaper and printing plant at an outlay for alterations alone exceeding $15,000. A perfecting press (the first in the city) was installed therein, and the building was equipped with every known contrivance to facilitate the work of production of a modern newspaper. The plant and equipment to-day represent an investment of over $100,000, and the home of the _News_ is regarded as one of the most complete and handsome newspaper establishments in the State. Simultaneously with the removal of the _News_ to its new home (in the spring of 1902), Mr. Wilson changed the appearance of the paper by discarding the old-fashioned nine-column "blanket" sheet for the modern seven-column folio form--an innovation at that time for small city dailies, but now generally in vogue. The history of the paper under his direction has been one of evolution, progress and marked success.

Besides being a fluent and forceful writer, Mr. Wilson possesses rare business tact and executive ability--a combination seldom found in newspaper men.

He is a moving spirit in all that makes for the welfare and growth of Newburgh and is an earnest advocate both through his paper and orally, of progress and enterprise in municipal matters. He is actively identified with the work of the Business Men's Association for a "greater Newburgh," and is the chairman of the committee which has in hand the arrangements for Newburgh's part in the celebration of the tercentenary of the discovery of the Hudson River and the centennial of the navigation of its waters by Robert Fulton's Clermont, to be held in September, 1909.

Mr. Wilson early displayed a liking for politics, his first inclination in that direction finding vent in the organization of a juvenile "Tippecanoe Club," which participated in the local parades of the Harrison campaign of 1888. Later he took part in the organization of a club of young voters known as the Union League Club. The one hundred and fifty members unanimously elected him president.

He has always been an admirer and earnest supporter of former Governor Odell. He was a delegate to the State convention at Saratoga in 1900, when Mr. Odell was first nominated for the governorship, and again in 1902, when he was renominated. He was also a delegate to the convention of 1904, which nominated Higgins, and to that of 1906, when Governor Hughes was nominated. He has himself never desired or held public office, but has been a factor in putting many of his friends in elective and appointive positions of trust.

Mr. Wilson enlisted in the Tenth Separate Company at the age of eighteen and served six years. He volunteered to return to the ranks at the outbreak of the Spanish-American War and was offered a commission, but the company was not ordered to the front.

He is active in social as well as business life, being a member of the Powelton Club, City Club and Newburgh Wheelmen, the Old Orchard Club of Middletown, and the Press Club and Republican Club of New York. He is a past exalted ruler of Newburgh Lodge of Elks; a member of Continental Lodge No. 287, F. and A. M.; Jerusalem Chapter No. 8, R. A. M.; Palestine Commandery No. 18, K. T.; New York Consistory, Scottish Rite, 32nd deg; Mecca Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine; president of the Wilbur H. Weston Shriners' Association; president of the Newburgh Automobile Club, and a member of the New York State and American Automobile Associations.

Mr. Wilson resides in a handsome residence owned by him at 268 Liberty street, Newburgh.

RUTTENBER, J. W. F.--The editor of the Newburgh _Telegram_ is J. W. F. Ruttenber, who was born at Newburgh, N. Y., December 14, 1857. After receiving a good education in the public schools of his native city, he became associated in business for several years with his father, E. M. Ruttenber. Subsequently he embarked in several newspaper ventures, and finally started the Newburgh _Sunday Telegram_ in 1889. This is a non-partisan paper, and is especially devoted to local events and local characters, in the discussion of which a full opportunity is afforded the editor for the exercise of that wit and caustic humor, with which he is well equipped. The _Telegram_ was a success financially from the start and has now developed into a very valuable newspaper plant.

In Middletown the _Times-Press_ has as editor John D. Stivers; as editorial writer Alexander W. Russell, and as city editor Melvin W. Brown. On the _Argus_ the editor is A. B. Macardell, ably assisted by Henry P. Powers and Horace A. MacGowan as city editors. The _Signs of the Times_ is published by Gilbert Beebe's Son, with Elders F. A. Chick and H. C. Ker as editors.

On the Port Jervis _Union_ is Fred R. Salmon, business manager; Merritt C. Speidel, assistant and formerly city editor; W. T. Doty as editor, and Albert L. Stage, city editor. On the _Gazette_ is Evi Shimer, business manager; William H. Nearpass, editor; Mark V. Richards, city editor, and James Skellinger, assistant. The _New York Farmer_ is edited by Henry A. Van Fredenberg.

In Goshen Frank Drake is editor and manager of the oldest newspaper in Orange County, the _Independent Republican;_ and George F. Gregg, the editor and manager of the next oldest paper, the _Goshen Democrat._

At Warwick the _Advertiser's_ business manager and editor is Hiram Tate; while the _Valley Dispatch_ has George F. Ketchum as editor and business manager.

At Montgomery the old _Standard and Reporter_ has Lyman Taft as editor and proprietor, with Charles H. Miller as associate editor.

The _Walden Herald's_ editor and proprietor is Ward Winfield; and the _Citizen_ has a clergyman editor and publisher in the Rev. J. H. Reid.

At Cornwall-on-Hudson is the _Local-Press,_ with L. G. Goodenough editor and proprietor.

The _Pine Bush Herald's_ editor and proprietor is George W. Jamison, a former school teacher and an educated man and good writer.

Monroe has the _Ramapo Valley Gazette_ (started March, 1908), with J. B. Gregory as publisher and proprietor.

The _Orange County Record_ at Washingtonville has Montanye Rightmyer as editor and manager.

JUST A FEW REFLECTIONS.

Inspecting the field of Orange County journalism one sees the Glebe strewn with wrecks of ambitious effort, and sympathy goes out to the disappointed strugglers, they of tattered aims and ambitions; of immolated hopes and desires.

Looking at the files and samples of the papers of to-day and the relics of early journalism in Orange County, one's pride over progress in certain lines is mixed with humiliation. The old papers were printed with artistic ideals. The type was neat, the page was pleasing to the eye, and the printer showed evidence of intelligence. Words were divided at the ends of lines with some idea of method and reason; the break-lines were made neat. The old-time compositor who would have divided "campaign" on the "p" and run "aign" over, or worse yet, made a break-line of "ed," "ly," or a single or even two numerals, would have been laughed out of the office by his companions. The writer will never forget an incident in his own very early career at the "case," when he divided "Messrs," running the "srs." over into the next line. It was a long time before he heard the last of that break, and it was never repeated. To-day one sees all sorts of divisions--anywhere, everywhere; it matters not whether it is on the vowel or the syllable or between--it all goes. The outrage on neatness of a single numeral making a full break-line is no longer confined to the "blacksmith" who was aiming to gel a "phat line," but is seen in the work turned out from the marvelous Mergenthaler Linotype, the excuse being that it "takes too much time" to space and adjust the line neatly. This same excuse is given for a lot of other abominations--really intolerable and vexatious--that one sees in the machine-set newspaper. Really, if modern mechanical appliances are sweeping the "art preservative" back to the most crude and primitive specimens of workmanship, there is cause for deep regret. Neatness should go hand in hand with improved methods and aids.

The old-time newspaper was not a hand-bill. It was a model of taste and neatness. The idea of the average editor, publisher and printer today seems to be how he can make his paper the most hideous to the eye, and to the aesthetic senses. Big, black type for headlines, and glaring, sensational, spectacular, flaring "big heads" are the order of the day.

Compare these modern newspapers with almost any of those printed one hundred, fifty, forty, thirty years ago. The contrast is so markedly in favor of the papers printed under the old regime that one who really loves the art is disgusted with modern printers and printing as applied to newspapers.

This criticism, it should be borne in mind, is made with reference to newspapers, and not of "job work." The man who is getting out bill-heads, letter-heads, etc., is constantly striving for neatness, and his work is a great advance over that done by his predecessors in the "job department." This is as it should be.

The modern job printer is an artist; the modern newspaper printer a botch. The printer may blame the editor or publisher, but that does not excuse his vile distortions and caricatures on the art. The publisher or editor may blame the "popular demand" for his efforts to cater to the sensational and hideous; but that does not help the matter any, nor does it tend to elevate the art of newspaper printing.

Journalism, indeed, seems to have fallen, or wandered, into dangerous or demoralizing ways. This, also, is laid at the door of "popular demand," etc. The old-time editor had a personality, and this he infused into the columns of his paper. He was not always right, of course, but the general tendency of such journalism was to breed a spirit of independence, of character, of research. The consensus thus evolved by the masses was wholesome.

To-day the editor is a mere machine. His individuality is suppressed, and the effort is to keep him entirely under the thumb and rack-screw of the publisher, who manipulates the finances, the "business" end of the concern. This publisher generally gets his "cue" from his banker, who may be his backer, and, who, at any rate, sets the pace for editorials, news--and in fact the whole tone of the paper. In all this there is concert. From some great business center the word goes out, and the newspapers catch up the echo. In this way the individual, the great personality that once made the newspaper a power for good, is lost; instead, the press has become a mob--the most dangerous mob that ever existed, for it comes in the guise of instruction, of morals, of culture, of learning. Thus masquerading, journalism to-day is fast lapsing--or rather plunging--into a vortex that is positively appalling in its aspects. How and when the remedy will come is of grave concern. The mob may, in sheer desperation, rend itself, commit hari-kari; or it may go on until in frenzy, the long-deluded and outraged populace shall rise and revolutionize newspaperdom.