the office of the same paper, as apprentices together in boyhood, they learned the printer's trade, side by side, and worked together, harmoniously in the same way from first to last. By an arrangement entered into in the outset, when the establishment came into their hands, the editorial work was done by the two alternately, one editing the paper one week and the other the next, which arrangement was followed out without interruption to the close, Mr. Harvey acting as editor the first week of their proprietorship, and, in regular order, the last week also.
The early history of this paper was almost as remarkable for changes in proprietorship and management, as its after history for the reverse. The "Spectator" was established at Claremont, in August, 1823, by Cyrus Barton, who subsequently became well known as an able writer and a prominent Democratic politician. In January 1825, the paper was removed to Newport, and was there published by Mr. Barton, as sole proprietor, until September of the following year, when Dunbar Aldrich, a practical printer and a brother-in-law of the late venerable John Prentiss of the Keene Sentinel, became a partner in the concern. This partnership continued until April, 1829, when Mr. Aldrich withdrew, and Messrs. B. B. French and Cyrus Metcalf, the former a lawyer who came to Newport from the town of Chester, and the latter a printer, became Mr. Barton's partners in the business. Not long after Mr. Barton himself withdrew to assume an editorial connection with the New Hampshire Patriot at Concord, and the paper was conducted by French and Metcalf. This partnership was also of short duration, Mr. Metcalf going out, and Mr. Simon Brown a printer, and a brother-in-law of French, also from Chester, coming into the concern, which was then managed under the firm name of French and Brown. A few years later Mr. French disposed of his interest to his partner, removing to Washington, D. C., and Mr. Brown became sole editor and proprietor. About this time the "Argus" another Democratic paper, was established at Claremont, by a company of gentlemen, and Edmund Burke, then a young lawyer, who had been in practice two or three years at Whitefield, became its editor. Mr. Brown not giving satisfaction to many of the Democrats of Newport, they soon secured the removal of the Argus to Newport. This was in 1835. The two papers were run independently for a few months, when Mr. Brown sold out the "Spectator,"' the same being united with the Argus under the name of the Argus and Spectator, (by which it has ever since been known), the proprietorship being in a company of several gentlemen, mostly residents of Newport, and one of whom was Mr. Burke its editor, by whom it was conducted until his election to Congress a few years later, when the paper passed into the hands of Henry C. Baldwin and William English, two practical printers. Mr. English soon left to assume a position in the Boston Custom House, and Samuel C. Baldwin, a brother of Henry E., became a partner in the concern, which was, however, soon after sold to Messrs. Carleton and Harvey, who had learned and followed the printer's trade in the office, as has been suggested, entering in 1831, when French and Brown were proprietors.
In the seventeen years from the commencement of the paper in Claremont, till it passed into the hands of Messrs. Carleton and Harvey, nine different men had been actively engaged in its management—all men of more than ordinary ability, and several of whom acquired distinguished reputation in public life. Mr. Barton, the founder of the paper, was a State Senator and Councillor, State Printer, U. S. Marshal, and a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1850. He fell dead while making a political speech in the town of Loudon in the campaign of 1855. B. B. French became clerk of the National House of Representatives, and held various other offices at Washington, where he died in 1870. Simon Brown, who was subsequently editor of the New England Farmer, at
