Part 2 — CHAPTER XXXVII. (continued 3)

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.