and Express, was bought in 1888 and reorganized by Elliott Fitch Shepard (1833–1893). The Express was established in 1836 with the help of Willis Hall (1801–1868), a prominent Whig lawyer and politician, by James Brooks (1810–1873), who had formerly been on the Portland Advertiser and in 1832 had written (for the Advertiser) the first regular Washington correspondence. His brother Erastus (1815–1886) was joint owner of the Express in 1836–1877. James Brooks wrote several books of travel and was involved in the scandal of the Crédit Mobilier.
Of the New York newspapers not in English the most important are the following. The Staats-Zeitung (evening, 1834) is published by a company of which in 1909 Herman Ridder (b. 1851) was president, having since 1890 been treasurer and manager. Ridder, a prominent German Democrat and Roman Catholic, established in 1886 the Catholic News, a weekly with a large circulation, edited by his son Henry Ridder. The Zeitung (morning, 1845), Herald (evening, 1879), and Revue (Sundays) are other German papers published by one company. Mr Hearst’s Das Morgen Journal dates from 1890. A Socialist Labour paper—daily Volks Zeitung and weekly Vorwaerts—was established in 1878. The Jewish Daily News and (weekly) Jewish Gazette (1874) in Yiddish and English have large circulations; so have the Jewish Morning Journal (1901; Abend Post, 1899, and weekly, Jewish Journal, 1899); the Jewish Herald (evening) and Volksadvocat (weekly), both editions, 1887; and Forward (evening, 1897). The Courrier des États-Unis (1828) publishes small daily, Sunday and weekly editions. There are four Italian dailies, the more important being L’Araldo Italiano (1894) and Il Progresso Italo-Americano (1879). The Atlantis (evening, 1894) is a Greek daily. The Listy (1875) and Hlas Lidu (1886) are Bohemian dailies; the Narodni List (1898) is a Croatian daily; the Gaelic American (1903), Irish Nationalist (1888), Irish-American (1849) and Irish World are Irish weeklies printed in English; the Amerikai Magyar Nepsava (1897) is a Hungarian daily, also published in Cleveland, Ohio; the Glas Naroda (1893) is a small Slavonic daily.
Among the New York weekly publications must be mentioned Harper’s Weekly, founded in 1856; George William Curtis was first connected with it in 1857, and after 1864 was its political editor. Under Curtis it was a powerful advocate of civil service reform, and its campaigns against Tammany were made famous by the cartoons of Thomas Nast. During the Civil War Harper’s Weekly published Nast’s sketches in the field. Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper (now Leslie’s Weekly) was founded in 1855 by Frank Leslie (1821–1880), whose ability as a wood-engraver was the basis of its success. Nast was employed by Leslie in 1854 and subsequent years, and was sent to England to sketch the Heenan-Sayers fight. With Harper’s and Leslie’s Weeklies ranks Collier’s Weekly, established in 1888 by Peter Fenelon Collier (d. 1909).
The following are newspapers of Brooklyn. The Eagle (evening, 1841), of which Walt Whitman was editor in 1846–1847, came in 1885 under the editorship of St Clair McKelway (b. 1845), editor in 1878–1885 of the Albany Argus. The Times (evening, 1848), like the Eagle, makes a specialty of the news of Long Island. Brooklyner Freie Presse (evening, 1864). The Standard Union (evening, 1864). The Citizen (evening, 1886).
Outside of New York City the most important papers in the political history of the state have been those of Albany. The Albany Argus, established in 1813 (daily, 1824), was the organ of the famous Albany Regency. The Evening Journal of Albany was established in 1830 by Thurlow Weed, who controlled it for 35 years. After 1865 it became the property of Samuel Wilkeson (1817–1889), and in 1889 William Barnes, Jr., became its editor. The Argus and the Journal held alternately the valuable state printing. A factional fight in the Democratic party over the printing resulted in the establishment of the Atlas in 1843; in 1858 this was consolidated with the Argus.
In Buffalo the oldest paper is the Commercial, the successor of the Buffalo Gazette (1811, weekly), which in 1818 became the Niagara Patriot and in 1820 the Buffalo Patriot, and in 1834 the Buffalo Patriot and Commercial Advertiser. The daily issue began in 1835 as the Commercial Advertiser; the weekly was still called by the earlier name. The weekly ceased publication in 1909. In 1890 the daily became the Commercial. The first daily in Buffalo was the Courier (1828), controlled in 1909 by W. J. Conners. The Evening Times (1885) was in 1909 edited by Norman Mack, who was in 1908 treasurer of the Democratic National Committee.
In Rochester are the Democrat and Chronicle (morning and weekly; Democrat, 1826; Chronicle, 1868); Post-Express (evening, 1858); Herald (morning, 1879); and Union and Advertiser (evening, 1826). It was in Rochester that Myron Holly (1779–1841), who had formerly edited the Lyons (N.Y.) Countryman (anti-masonic), edited the Freeman, an anti-slavery paper; and here in 1847–1860 Frederick Douglass edited the North Star, called Frederick Douglass’s Paper after 1855.
In Syracuse are the Evening Herald (1877) and the Post-Standard (morning, Standard, 1829, and Post, 1894, consolidated in 1899).
In Troy are the Record (morning and evening, successor to the Post, 1812), the Times (daily, 1851; weekly, 1856), the Evening Standard (1877), and the Northern Budget (weekly only, 1797).
The Utica Herald-Despatch and Daily Gazette is the successor of the Whitestown Gazette (1793); the Daily Gazette first appeared in 1842; the Morning Herald (1847) was consolidated with it in 1867; and in 1900 it was purchased by the owners of the Evening Despatch (1898).
In Catskill, Greene county, New York, was established in August 1792 by Mackay Croswell the Packet, which in May 1804 was succeeded by the Recorder, which in 1909 was still published as a weekly, the largest in the county. Mackay Croswell’s son Edwin Croswell (1797–1871) left the Recorder in 1823 and in 1824 became editor of the Albany Argus; Croswell was state printer in 1824–1840 and 1844–1847.
Other papers (mostly with small circulations) in New York state founded before 1801 are: the Gazette of Hudson (weekly, 1785; daily, Evening Register, 1866); the Register of Newburgh (1796; now a daily only); the Washington County Post of Cambridge (weekly only, 1798); the Journal of Ballston Spa (weekly, 1798; Ballston Daily Journal, 1894; Republican); and the Gazette of Owego (weekly only, 1800).
Ohio.—The Repository (weekly, 1815; daily, 1878), formerly the Ohio Repository, of Canton, is one of the oldest papers in Ohio. The Western Hemisphere of Columbus was purchased in 1836 by Samuel Medary (1801–1864), who changed its name to the Ohio Statesman; Medary—the “old wheel horse of Democracy,” who is said to have originated the cry of “Fifty-four, forty, or fight!”—was a friend of Stephen A. Douglas and governor of Minnesota in 1857–1858 and of Kansas in 1858–1860; S. S. Cox was editor of the Statesman in 1853–1854.
The Weekly Gazette of Cincinnati (founded in 1793 as the Centinel; in 1804–1815 called the Liberty Hall; in 1815–1883 the Cincinnati Gazette), and the Commercial Tribune (morning; formed in 1896 by the consolidation of the Commercial Gazette and Tribune), are published by the same firm. In 1825–1840 Charles Hammond (1779–1841), an anti-slavery leader, was editor of the Gazette. The Commercial was made by Murat Halstead (1829–1908), prominent Republican politician, and writer of several “campaign lives” of Republican presidential candidates, who was the first editor in the Middle West to get news freely by telegraph. The Cincinnati Enquirer (morning, 1842) became a great power in Ohio politics under the ownership (after 1852) of Washington McLean and his son John R. McLean. The Post (1880), the Times-Star (Times 1836), the Volksblatt (1836), the Volksfreund (daily 1850; weekly 1852), and the Freie Presse (1874) are the other large dailies of Cincinnati. In Cincinnati James G. Birney established in 1835 the Philanthropist, an anti-slavery paper, which Gamaliel Bailey edited in 1837–1847.
The Cleveland Leader (Republican, 1847) was bought in 1853 by Edwin Cowles (1825–1890) and Joseph Medill (after 1855 of the Chicago Tribune). Cowles became sole owner in 1854; he was an anti-slavery Whig and one of the founders of the Republican party in the state. The Leader of 1853 was a consolidation of the Cleveland Forest City, a Whig paper founded in 1849 by Joseph Medill and united in 1852 with the Free Democrat. Like the Chicago Tribune it was in 1909 controlled by Medill’s grandson, Medill McCormick (b. 1877), a son-in-law of M. A. Hanna. The Press of Cleveland (evening, independent) was established in 1878 by James Edmund Scripps (1835–1906); with Milton A. McRae (b. 1858) he formed the Scripps-McRae Press Association of Cleveland and the Scripps-McRae League, which included the Cincinnati Post, the St Louis Star-Chronicle, the Cleveland Press, the Kentucky Post of Covington, the Columbus Citizen, and the Times, the News-Bee and Times-Bee of Toledo. Scripps and McRae organized the Publishers’ Press Association of New York, a rival of the Associated Press. Scripps in his later years was a benefactor of the city of Detroit, where he had established (1873) the Evening News. The Cleveland Plain-Dealer (morning, 1841) is a well-known paper; in its columns appeared the first “Artemus Ward” sketches, contributed by Charles Farrar Browne (1834–1867), who in 1861 went to New York to edit the short-lived humorous Vanity Fair. The Waechter und Anzeiger (Waechter 1852; Anzeiger 1872) is published in Cleveland.
