John H. Hunt was an apprentice in the Telegraph office, and afterwards one of the publishers of the Album. He was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1846, from the city of New York, where he now resides.
Luther Tucker and those associated with him, were the pioneers of the Daily Press west of Albany. The Printing Business is greatly indebted to the persevering industry that characterizes the life of Mr. Tucker, for the great and growing impetus that has been given to it in the city of Rochester. Patient and enduring to the last, no obstacles however formidable they might seem to others, were too much for him to grapple with and surmount.—He has thus fought his way through the trials and adversities of life, and is now reaping the reward of his industry in the successful publication of the "Cultivator," an Agricultural paper printed at Albany.
Henry O'Reilly is another name conspicuously identified with the Press of Western New-York. He also is a practical Printer, and a man possessing a strong and vigorous intellect, schooled by many years of service in the arduous duty of a newspaper Editor.—He is indefatigable as a man of research, and the public are greatly indebted to him for his work entitled, "Rochester and Western New-York," published a few years since, and in which is contained a vast fund of information, personal, statistical, and local, which had it not been for him must have been soon lost and forgotten. He was for a number of years Post Master of the city of Rochester, and is now, and has been for some time past, engaged as the Agent for the Magnetic Telegraph Company, in superintending the erection and completion of those lines of communication at the West and South. He has prosecuted the business with great vigor and perseverance, and many of them have been brought to a successful completion under his management. He too, is a man of unbounded benevolence and charity, caring more for the woes of others, than the necessities of self. So much so, indeed, that it amounts to a fault. In this he errs—but it is an error of the head, for the heart is essentially right.
Thomas W. Flagg succeeded Mr. O'Reilly in the Editorial chair. I can say nothing of his personal history, for the simple reason that it is unknown to me
Thomas H. Hyatt, is a member of the Craft, and was from 1840 to 1842, at the head of the Advertiser and Republican. After relinquishing the business, he retired upon a farm in the vicinity of the city of Rochester, and there devoted his time and his money to the development of the "art of farming."—He was the means of introducing many valuable and rare kinds of stock into Monroe Co., and has done much to advance the cause of Agriculture. He is now one of the proprietors, and also the Editor, of the Daily Globe, published in New-York.
Hiram Bumphrey was for some time, previous and subsequent to his proprietorship, the Editor of the Advertiser and Republican. He is not a Printer, but left the plow to assume the duties of the quill. During the command which he exercised over the columns under his charge, the paper was very creditably sustained. Mr. B. is now Canal Collector at Rochester. The open, frank, and generous nature of the Major has secured him many friends.
Isaac Butts and Harvey L. Winants are now the publishers of the same paper.—The former, I believe, is not a Printer, but the latter is. The slight acquaintance I have had with these gentlemen, does not permit me to speak of their personal history. The paper is well conducted, and handsomely sustained.
In the catalogue, as connected with the Press in Rochester, appear the names of D. D. Stephenson, Samuel Heron, Daniel N. Sprague, and many others, of whom it would give me great pleasure to speak more at large, but my knowledge of their history will not warrant me in so doing. Of Mr. Sprague it is however stated, that he was in 1830 associated with Mr. Weed in the Rochester Anti-Masonic Enquirer, and after Mr. W. left Rochester to commence the publication of the Evening Journal at Albany, Mr. S. for a time continued the former paper. He is at present the Editor of the Wooster Democrat in Ohio, a paper which he has published for 12 or 14 years.
Erastus Shepard, is a name honorably connected with the business of Printing in Rochester. Mr. S. is a native of New Hartford, Conn., but spent his childhood is Oneida County, and entered the office of his cousin, Ira Merrill, in 1810, being then 14 years of age. His fellow-apprentices were George Camp, Chauncey Morgan, his brother Augustus, Chester Gurney, and Augustine G. Dauby. The latter was Mr. Shepard's senior at the business, one day, which of course threw the burden of carrying papers, treading pelts, fetching water, and distributing extras, upon the shoulders of Mr. S. long after Mr. D., had been excused from the performance of those necessary branches of the business. But notwithstanding all this, I have heard Mr. S. say, they always lived upon the best of terms. For six long years they sat at the same table, and shared at night, the same bed, without any of those petty broils which are too apt to mar the dull routine of the days of apprenticeship. The close of the war left Mr. Merrill, who, in addition to Printing, was also largely engaged in the Book trade, as it did many others—a total wreck in business. Mr. S., as I have heard him express himself, was thus left, at the age of 20, to "shack for himself," and with but little knowledge and less experience, he entered into business at Ithaca. As might reasonably be anticipated, he was
