Delaware County, Indiana - Chapter 21: The Delaware County Press, 1908

In the pioneer community of seventy years ago the newspaper seemed to serve its principal purpose in publishing the legal notices and the business cards of lawyers, doctors and merchants. Where there were no newspapers, notices of sheriffs' sales, cstrays, elections and other legal business were laboriously penned on board or paper and affixed to the logs of the conspicuous buildings or to trees along the traveled thoroughfares. Until a county reached that degree of development where it could support at least one newspaper, its most important legal notices were, often published in the nearest metropolis. In Wayne county, from which so large a bulk of the immigration came into Delaware county, there was a paper as early as 1820, and the well known Richmond Palladium dated from 1831. Also a newspaper was published in the state capital from its establishment.

Thus, in a sense, the pioneers of Delaware county were not without the benefits of the newspaper press. But the first newspaper in this county was not issued until the spring of 1837, ten years after the county was formed. This was the Muncietonian. The only number preserved in the Muncie library files, and perhaps the only one in existence, is Vol. 1, Xo. 2, dated June 15, 1837. The first number had been issued several weeks previously. Xo copy has been preserved. But the Richmond Jcffcsonian in its issue of May 23, 1837, referred to the first issue of the Muncietonian, and also quoted some descriptive and statistical matter concerning Muncietown (found elsewhere in this history). It appears that only three or four issues of the Muncietonian appeared. The proprietors of the sheet, D. Gharky and J. White, found it impossible to continue the publication, and probably used the plant, so far as it was used at all, for the small amount of job printing needed in the village and surrounding country. It is said that the double two-story log building in which this paper was published was situated where in after years the brewery stood, on Ohio avenue near the cemetery.

David Gharky. David Gharky, the proprietor of the Muncietonian, was an eccentric individual, and had had a rather remarkable career. Born in Pomcrania, Prussia, in 1775, he came to America at the beginning of the 19th century, and was a pioneer settler along the Ohio river, at the new town of Portsmouth. At the close of his life he was moved to collect data for his biog- raphy, leaving it partly in the form of continuous narrative and partly as diary. This was afterwards published, according to his desires, by one of his sons, the title page bearing the following: "The life of David Gharky, as written by himself; also, a reeord of the Gharky family; a description of Muncietown, Indiana; of his adjoining possessions; of his lands in Bates county, Missouri, together with his last will and testament. Printed by John Gharky, Portsmouth, O., 1852." A queer old book, interesting to Muncic citizens for some facts relative to early history.

He lived in Portsmouth "until March, 1S30, when I resigned my office and went to Muncietown, Indiana. In March, 1S30, I bought a corner lot of Lemuel Jackson, with whom I lived. He entered a half quarter of land for me in Indianapolis. April the 12II1 I bought and entered 327 acres of school land. In May I entered into partnership with Lemuel Jackson and v.e built a sawmill. . . . August the 27th the mill began to saw and would have done very well, with good attendance, provided it had not been built on a sandy foundation." He soon went back to Portsmouth, where he lived until June, 1S36. "I came to Muncietown with the liver complaint; boarded with Justice [Patrick], dug out my medical spring which cured me, and I went back to Portsmouth in the fall and bought A. J. Bingham's printing establishment. In May, 1837, John White printed three numbers of the Muncietonian." He elsewhere says that he sold the printing establishment to Jones for $450 in spring of 1842. He continued to reside at Muncic for the greater part of his remaining years, as his diary shows, but died in Portsmouth August 9, 1850.

One clause of his will, which was made in 1846, reads as follows: "I request that two acres of my ground, on the highest part of my big mound, graveyard, with the Gharky street leading to it, for the only use and behoof of the Gharky family; and to be recorded as such; and in either of these places I wish to be buried, provided my decease will be in reach of either of them, within three hundred miles distance." The "big mound," once so familiar a feature of topography in southwest Muncic, has almost entirely disappeared, save a few hillocks near the railroad that will also be cut down to the general level as soon as convenience demands it. Gharky street and Mound street should always remind Muncic citizens of the glacial mound once owned by this pioneer citizen.

Elsewhere in the little volume is a description of his Muncic land. "My tract of land adjoining Muncie contains 260 acres of high, dry and fertile land, well timbered and well watered ; with an improvement of 50 acres under fence, nine of which is sown with grass, and the rest ready for any sort of grain. Two state roads, one leading to Indianapolis and the other to Pendleton, run directly through it. Upon this land there are a mound 55 feet high, overlooking the town and its vicinity, of a very rich soil, now continuing grass; a number of springs near the double cabin, and a medical spring on lot Xo. 7, near which there is a mound 300 feet long and 30 feet

The next paper in Muncie and Delaware county was the Muncictoivn Telegraph, whose publisher was John S. Garvcr. It is probable that the printing outfit was the same employed to print the few numbers of the Muncietonian. The machinery and other equipment of such a pioneer printing establishment was so primitive and the capital it represented was small even for those days, and the loss of interest on the investment was insignificant and the space required to store the plant could be found in the corner or attic of one of the small houses that then adorned Muncie's main street. The owner of the outfit, if he found no patronage for his paper, could, without detriment to the public good and perhaps to his personal advantage, close up shop, and apply himself to such avocations as fishing and hunting or to the more usual pioneer industries.

The Muncictoxvn Telegraph, which was a stanch advocate of Whig principles, then triumphant under the first Harrison administration, was issued from March 15, 1841, to March 19, 1S42, a little more than a year. The plant was then sold to Joseph G. Jones, who changed the name to the Village Herald, and continued under the same political banner. The issue of the Herald was rather irregular, and the last number is said to have appeared on November 5, 1S42. The only numbers preserved in the library files are Nos. 6 and 7, the first dated June 4 and the latter dated June 25.

The Muncietonian Yeoman, the fourth of Delaware county's newspapers, lasted through ten issues, beginning on August 5, 1843, and ending October 7 the same year. Lev; L. Hunter and Obadiah Coffeen were the editors.

The term "political organ" was more applicable to the newspapers of this period than to the modern press. As political sentiment and discussion engaged the daily activities of the people to a degree of greater earnestness if not greater enlightenment than in the twentieth century, so the newspapers reflected a more strenuous partisanship and devoted more space to political affairs. It was quite common for the members of one of the parties to form an organization to publish a paper during campaign and then suspend. Local news was given scant attention in the old papers, and to reconstruct the history of the locality from that source alone would prove an almost impossible task.

The newspapers which have been mentioned so far had all been conducted under Whig auspices. But only three days after the extinction of the Muncietowni Yeoman, there appeared the first number of the Delaware County Democrat. This paper was an avowed advocate of Jcffcrsonian

I>c:ii"cr.-vcy, and for two years or more was the only newspaper in the county. The fiics m' this paper as preserved in the Muncic library end with the issue of December 29, 1S45, ^"liich is probably the last number published. Isaac >,'orris was editor until November 30, 1844, and from then on Joseph S. Buckles, one of the young lawyers and a prominent local politician of that time, directed the paper.

Shortly after the Democrat ceased publication, a successor, of Whig oolitics, appeared in the Muncic Journal. It is impossible to speak with certainty, but it seems likely that these successive papers all used the same plant, with such improvements and additions as were made necessary from time to time. The first number of the Muncic Journal is dated January 10, 1846, and the file closes May 22, 1S47. Warren IT. Withers was editor.*

For some months Muncie was without a paper. Then, early in 1S48, when polities became lively with the opening of the Taylor campaign for the presidency, John C. Osburn started the Indiana Signal. No. 6 of Volume I is dated April 22, 1848, this being the first number preserved. The last number of the Signal came out January 23, 1850. Osburn then sold the plant to Estabrook and Jones, and with A. F. Estabrook as editor they begin the issue, reviving the name of the first paper of the county, of the Muncictonian. The file runs from February 2 to December 31, 1S50. In politics this paper was "independent" on men and measures, but "advocating Republican principles."

The files of the oldest Delaware county newspapers preserved in the public library close with the last number of the Muncictonian; there is a lapse of twenty-five years of which the newspaper record has not been kept. The Whig Banner was the last paper to uphold Whig principles in the county, continuing from 1S51 through the presidential campaign of 1S52.

The Muncic Messenger was probably the successor of the Banner. Rev. J. B. Birt and his son, James H., were the first proprietors. In 1856 J. R. S. Bond, formerly editor of the Clermont (Ohio) Courier took control and was succeeded in June, 1S57, by Joseph F. Duckwall, also of Clermont county, Ohio. Mr. Duckwall, one of the most prominent of the old-time editors, was also one of the first in this part of the state to turn the influence of a newspaper to strenuous advocacy of the new Republican party and for abolition of slavery. Flowever, the Mcssoigcr was short-lived, the plant being removed to Anderson in the fall of 1S5S.

Just before the suspension of the Messenger several weil known men started the Delaware County Free Press. After two years of successful management, Messrs. James H. Birt, H. H. Wachtell and Enoch Davis, who,

* Mr. Withers after leaving Muncie moved to Fort Wayne and became editor of the Fort Wayne Times. He was a lawyer by profession, and at one time was judge of tin1 circuit court at Fort Wayne. He died in October, 1SS2.

early in iS(3o, sold the paper to C. B. Smith and John Q. Thompson, who changed the name to the Eastern Indiana Courant, with the intention of making it more than a local or county paper. In a few months Joseph F. Duckwall, by obtaining the interest of one of the partners, had again become a force in the Muncic newspaper field and directed the editorial policy of the Courant. When, soon after, he became sole proprietor, he resumed the original name of Free Press, and throughout the period of the Civil war and until the latter part of 1S67, he conducted the Free Press as a tranchant champion of the Republican administration and the war for the Union. Alfred Kilgore was the next proprietor, and he not only changed the name, making it the Guardian of Liberty, but continued the brief existence of the paper under the banner of the Democratic party.

Muncie Times. The oldest newspaper man in the county, though no longer active in the work, is Xathanael F. Ethell, who has been a resident of Delaware county the greater portion of seventy years, and who in 1S60 began the publication of the Delaware County Times, which (later as the Muncie Times) was the first paper in the county to have a continuous existence of more than a decade. Mr. Ethell, who was born in Licking county, Ohio, in 1S34, was brought to Muncie in 1S39, and gained his education in the local schools and at the state university. After several years in civil engineering and railroad construction work, he became city editor of the Daily Atlas, at Indianapolis, and on January 1, 1S60 (?), issued the first number of the Delaware County Times. The first home of the Times was a small building on the west side of the public square, and the second in a brick building near the corner of Main and Walnut. Mr. Ethell* had entire management of the Times during the first seven years, and for the next two years had M. D. Helm as an associate. Thomas J. Brady, then practicing law at Muncie, bought the Times in 1S69, and in the following year his law partner, A. C. Mellette, also took a hand in the management of the Times. Both were abie men, and under their direction the Times soon became one of the most influential Republican papers east of Indianapolis. Besides raising the paper's standard editorially, they gave Muncie its first improved newspaper equipment, discarding the old-fashioned Washington press and using steam power to turn the cylinder press. From the third floor of the Odd Feilows block on the north side of Main street, they moved the plant, in 1873, to a new two-story brick building on the corner of Washington and Walnut streets (where for a number of years the postofficc also was located). October 20, 1S7S, the plant was ruined by fire, but was soon restored by Mr. Brady, and in a short time the

Times plant was known as one of the most complete in Indiana. About the time of the lire Mr. Mellette retired from the newspaper business. He took a prominent part in Republican politics, and later became the first governor of the state of South Dakota.

For a quarter of a century the Times continued to be the leading Republican evening' paper, the name being eventually changed to the Evening Times. W. E. Sutton was the last editor of the Evening Times, and durin^ die latter years the paper was published at 112 East Adams street. The Weekly Times is still published, as a Republican paper, and, in this form, can claim the honor of being the oldest paper with a continuous existence in Delaware county.

For a time in its early history there was published the "Sunday Morning Times," Vol. 1, No. 3, being dated Jan. 15, 1SS2. At this time John C. LTer, for a long time one of the leading Republicans of Muncie, was publisher.

.May 2S, 18S7, was issued the first number of the Muncie Daily Times, Wildman and Ferrier being proprietors. They frankly stated in the salutatory that "we do not know that any 'long felt want' has existed that this paper has come to fill ; but we hope to create for it a want by publishing a paper that will be abreast with the industrial and intellectual status and advancement of the city." And so the Daily Times continued for nearly twenty years, with various changes of publishers and proprietors.

In 1S70 Samuel Shafer established the Muncie Democrat, a paper representing the minority parly in the county and destined to many vicissitudes of existence. In 1871 Mr. Shafer went to Ohio, and the Democrat in a few months was suspended, the material being stored, so it is said, in corn sacks, and kept until needed by the Democratic central committee. In December, 1S73, a Tennessee gentleman, Col. J. D. Williams, came to Muncie, and purchasing the old outfit, began the issue, on January 15, 1S74, of a new Democrat. Under this management the Democrat improved and held its own for several years. In August, 1S77, Walter L. Davis, another familiar name in Muncie 's newspaper annals, who had been connected with the Democrat as city editor, became a partner with Mr. Williams, this firm continuing until January 1, 1S79. Thereafter changes occurred in quick succession. L. A. Kirkwood, who had published the Muncie Observer, bought the Democrat and made it the Democratic Observer. Other changes occurred, and in September, 18S0, Davis and Williams (W. L. Davis and C. A. Williams) became owners. In February, lSSi, A. C. Stouder and L. A. Kirkwood bought the plant and merged the paper with the Observer. W '. L. Davis then became connected with the Daily News.

The Muncic Democrat continued to cxi.st until 1SS5. In the summer of 1SS5 it closed its thirteenth volume, with L. A. Kirkwood as publisher, who had resumed the name Democrat instead of Observer.

The successor of the Democrat was the Muncic Daily Herald, the first number of which was dated March 15, 1SS6. The first publishers were Davis and McKillip, and the office was in the Mitchell block on South Walnut street. The founder of the Herald was Thomas McKillip, who came to Muncic in 1SS2, and in 1SS5 purchased the plant of the Newcastle Mercury, removing it to Muncic, and on October 2, 1SS5, issued the first number of the Muncic Democrat-Herald. W. L. Davis retired from the Democrat- Herald and the firm became Hilligoss & McKillip on August 9, 18S9.

In 1S91 a half interest in the Herald was bought by F. D. Haimbaugh, who is now the dean of the newspaper profession in Muncic, none of those who were publishers or editors in 1S91 being still active. Mr. Haimbaugh is independent, vigorous and public spirited in the conduct of a newspaper, qualities that characterize both his business management and his writing.

March 21, 1905, the Press Publishing Co. purchased the Muncie Times and the Muncie Herald, the evening papers, and consolidated them under the name of the Evening Press, the first number under that name being issued March 26. The weekly issues of the Times and the Herald have been continued, as mentioned. F. D. Haimbaugh. the editor of the Herald, continued with the new publication as business manager, and W. E. Sutton, of the Times, as editor. September 3, 1907, another change was made, at which time Mr. William M. Butler, an experienced newspaper man, who has had a varied career in this line with leading papers in Indiana and elsewhere, bought the McCulloch stock and assumed the position of editor, Mr. Haimbaugh continuing as business manager. The Evening Press is an independent newspaper, and is rapidly being improved to the high standards of an influential metropolitan paper.

Muncie News. That the exigencies of a political campaign have often called a newspaper into existence has been alluded to, but most of such papers have a brief life. Of more permanence and greater interest, however, is the case of the Republican, a paper started by a joint-stock company early in the famous Greeley-Grant campaign of 1872. W. P.. Kline. Walter March, II. C. Winans, G. W. Stephenson and others were said to be the principal movers in the enterprise. The office was in a small frame building on the north side

In 1S73 Mr. N. F. Ellicll again becomes an active factor in newspaper circles, by his purchase of the Liberal. lie changed the name to the Muncic Sews, and during the following twelve years he won his largest share of success in the newspaper field as editor and publisher (alone much of the time) of the News. That the News was the successor of the Republican is indicated by the fact that the first issue of January, 1S76, was numbered as Vol. IV, No. 31, marking its beginning in the year 1S72. At the beginning of 1S76 the Nczvs was published in the Odd Fellows building on Walnut street, under the firm name of Ethcll and Turner. Mr. Ethell's progressive conduct of the paper is shown in a change effect May 10, 1S76, when the News became a semi-weekly, the first in the county. C. M. Turner retired from the firm in the following July, and Samuel Leavilt of New York City became city editor.

During these days the News remained true, in large measure, to the principles under which it originated. It supported, and while a weekly devoted much of its news space, to the grange movement and to the advocacy of greenback principles. In 1876 it proclaimed its allegiance for Peter Cooper as head of the Independent National ticket. The issues of the News at that time, as can be seen from an examination of the files preserved in the public library, arc quite filled with reports from the various grange organizations that were then flourishing in nearly every locality of Indiana and other states.

May 20, 1S7S, the Ncius began a daily issue. The News was the first daily newspaper in the county, and for many years held an assured lead as the best patronized daily paper of the city. From his greenback allegiance, the editor had returned to his original stand with the Republican party, and throughout the years of its existence the Daily News was an exponent of Republican principles, yet seldom with offensive partisanship and invariably edited with ability and independence.

After making the News a strong and successful paper, Mr. Ethell finally, on November 9, 1SS5, sold the Daily News to Charles F. W. Neely. A. H. Harry-man then became local editor. Under the new management the News continued to improve. The best evidence of this came four years later, when a two-story brick building, 35 by 62 feet, was constructed near the Anthony block, and the entire plant was installed there in January, 1S90, at which time it was the most complete and efficient newspaper office and printing plant in the city.

The riles of the Daily News have afforded the larger part of the material for this history of the county during- the past quarter century. In the chronological record will be found several items concerning the history of the News, and only the main features of its career need be sketched here. The News became an 8-pagc paper on December r, 1891, and for the following ten years kept pace with the improvement of the city by additions of equipment and news facilities that marked it as a metropolitan daily. After Mr. Xeelv sold his interests, the Muncic News Co. was organized, the principal officers of the company being P. S. and C. R. Heath and F. J. Claypool. In July, 1901, the Heaths sold their controlling interest in the company, and within a few weeks the News was in the hands of a receiver. The plant was eventually purchased by George F. McCulloch, and for a time the name of Muncic Daily Nczvs was carried on the Morning Star, though the latter was not successor to the News nor was there a consolidation of the

The Muncie Morning Star was founded May 29, 1S99, George F. Mc- Culloch having the principal financial interests in the enterprise. The paper is one of the three Star papers published in Indiana, all morning issues, the other two being at Terre Haute and Indianapolis. Mr. McCulloch continued in the active management of the Star until October 27, 1904, having in the meantime given the three papers a combined circulation of about 150,000, that of the Muncie Star being over 25,000. The Star still occupies the field as the leading morning daily of eastern Indiana, and with Associated Press service, special correspondents, and first-class mechanical equipment, furnishes its readers all the important news of the world selected with reference to Muncic and this section of Indiana. The Muncie Star building at Mulberry and Adams streets, is one of the modern business blocks of the city, and the presses, linotypes and other machinery are of the highest type of

R. T. Winters, who has been connected with Muncie journalism a number of years, with the Times, Herald, News and Star, is proprietor of "The Observer (Always Republican)", published at 111 North Mulberry street. September 28, 1907, it closed its fifth volume, during which time it has occupied a useful place as a weekly newspaper, characterized with a certain individuality and independence of opinion that recommended it to a considerable

Besides the earlier papers already mentioned, there have been numerous cases of newspaper ventures where considerable ability and worth were indicated by the journal, but as permanent and successful enterprises, failed. The Muncie Telegraph was started in 1S70 by S. W. Swiggett and Son. of Cincinnati, intended to become popular as the family and fireside paper, and devoted to Republican politics. In April, 1871, the original owners sold the

^r to William Chandler and J. \Y. Perkins. Mr. Chandler retired in Au- ;. 1S72. and Mr. Perkins, with A. J. Wells, continued the enterprise until ir.uary, 1S73. when the end came.

The Muncic il/w/e had a breezy and jolly existence of about six months. : v.ould he difficult to describe its hybrid character; the copies that still exist .- v, tint it did not attempt to fill the place of the standard-gauge news-

,-r. It was a small four-column folio, and ran from the latter part of 1S75 ,: metimc the following year. The original members of the firm were ,; Smith, Charles Alf Williams, D. J. Hathaway and Will H. Williams, all of sume note in Muncic, whose ability and success in life were not to be

The Muncie Weekly Advertiser was an advertising medium, with perinea! issue and carrying enough news to make it read. A. C. Stouder was -. .prsetor, and it was started about 1SS0. Vol. 2, Xo. 18, is dated June 4, \St. and Vol. 4, Xo. 5, is March 11, 1SS2. The Saturday Pink, which was :-: issued December 5, 18S5, was also an advertising sheet. Some time later . C. Stouder started another publication, called The School and Home, "a rictly moral and educational journal. . . . conducted on a plan that calculated to lift the reader above the light trashy reading of the day." he first number was issued in December, 1S88. Mr. Stouder was one of ;c early editors of the News, and had a varied experience as printer and r.vspaper man.

During the nineties a Rev. Sly conducted the Dimetallist for about a ear, and the publication continued under another proprietor a few months :;til F. D. Haimbaugh bought the plant and discontinued the publication. he Muncie Tribune lived about a year under the proprietorship of George

In the towns outside of Muncie the newspaper history is naturally brief :u! disconnected. About May, 18SS, the Eaton Gas Light was established ;. M. A. Fisher. Charles Jester, who is still proprietor of a job printing :i:ce at Eaton, and has issued the Eaton Advertiser as an advertising sheet, Liblished the Gas Light for a time. In 1S92, during the boom, it was re- that the Eaton Land and Improvement Co. purchased the plant. J. .'. McCarty is now proprietor of the New Gas Light, which is issued every r-s.lay.

The Gazette, at Gaston, was established about 1897 by C. W. Mcintosh ::d son, well known citizens of the town, who still continue the publication - a bright and newsy weekly, offering an advertising medium and the local cws of the northwest corner of the countv.