THE PRESS OF FRANKLIN COUNTY, Maine.


Contributed by New England Old Newspaper Index
Project of Maine (R)
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Hills/1460 and
the Androscoggin Historical Society
http://www.rootsweb.com/~meandrhs Copyright. All
rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm


BY J. S. SWIFT.

FARMINGTON.

The history of the Press in Franklin County lays
claim to no great antiquity for the date of its
origin. At the time when the battle of Banker Hill
was fought, the first exploring party that visited
the valley of the Sandy River with a view to future
settle-ment, was examining the unbroken wilds of the
primeval forest which covered its extensive
intervals. Subsequently the region was settled by an
enterprising and intelligent community, largely made
up of emigrants from Massachusetts : but the
territory re-mained a part of Kennebec County until
1839; and its inhabitants, being supplied with their
periodical literature and school-books from
Hallowell and Augusta - long their marts of trade -
little encouragement was presented for the
introduction of a printing press.

The first attempt to establish a printing press
within the ter-ritorial limits of what is now
Franklin County was made in 1832 by W. A. Dunn, who
started a weekly paper at Farmington, called the
SANDY RIVER YEOMAN.

It was offered at two dollars a year, was
indifferently printed on a Rainge press, and
probably never circulated, weekly, more than three
hundred copies. It lacked a competent editor, and
was overburdened with the communications of literary
aspirants ; but its selections, especially in regard
to rural affairs, rendered it more satisfactory to
its patrons, than was the remuneration it offered to
its publisher. The Sandy River Yeoman struggled
through one year, when the enterprise was abandoned.
No efforts were subsequently made to introduce
another press until 1840, when the County of
Franklin, having been organized, and Farmington
having become the shire town, the first perma-nently
successful attempt was made to establish a press in
that town by the writer of this sketch. His boyhood
had been spent on a lonely promontory on
Sebascodiggin Island - the largest island in Casco
Bay, and a part of the town of Harpswell, and con-
nected with Brunswick by a bridge. There, almost
isolated from the world, he early became
passionately fond of books. Though poverty threw
serious obstacles in the way of the gratification of
his all-absorbing literary appetite, he managed to
introduce him-self to the printing offices in Bath
and Brunswick, where he gained access to exchange
papers for a trifling consideration, which his
juvenile perquisites enabled him to make. The
growing literary ambition of the boy at length
prompted him to procure a small font of worn-out
Brevier type, which had been thrown into pi in the
office of the Bath Maine Inquirer. This lie sorted
out, laid in a case of his own construction, and
having made a wooden chase, some tin rules, and cut
a head on a block of wood, he printed a seven-by-
nine weekly paper on an old cheese press. The paper
was called the Banner, and during its life of some
six months ex-cited the curiosity and comments of
the periodical press far and wide. The Harpswell boy
printer and editor received the patron-age and
encouragement of many of the literati of Bath and
Bruns-wick, who helped him by the loan of books. The
late John McKeon, Esq., became a regular
correspondent of the Harpswell Banner; and the file,
now in the writer's possession, contains valuable
results of his historical and antiquarian
researches. This boy's play initiated the young man
so far into the mysteries of the typographic art as
to induce Mr. John Harris, who had become proprietor
of the Bath Inquirer, to hire him as an assistant in
his office, where he remained till his 21st birth
day; when, by the as-sistance of friends, he
purchased the claims and succeeded to the business
of his employer. After publishing the Inquirer two
years he was compelled, by reason of failing health,
to dispose of his in-terest to Elisha Clark, Esq.
After spending some years in agri-cultural pursuits
to regain his health, he removed to Franklin county,
and in February, 1840, again connected himself with
the press by starting at Farmington the FRANKLIN
REGISTER.


The Register soon worked itself into a fair share of
popular favor and obtained an individuality chiefly
through its condensed sketches of the desultory
reading of its publisher in early life. At the end
of the first year pecuniary considerations induced
him to associate himself with John F. Sprague, who
had been an assis-tant in his office. Swift and
Sprague continued to publish the Register until the
close of the fourth volume, when the senior
publisher purchased the whole of the establishment
and suspended the Register - which had been run as a
political paper - and started in its place an
independent paper, which has ever since, though
under several different publishers, borne the name
of CHRONICLE.

Mr. Swift continued the sole publisher of this paper
until 1847, when he relinquished the printing and
publishing department to his former partner, Mr.
Sprague, and for several years devoted himself
chiefly to the mechanical details of the typographic
art in Portland, Bath, and Boston. In 1854 he again
succeeded Mr. Sprague, and soon after associated
himself with Lucien N. Prescott, to whom he
subsequently relinquished the whole business. Mr.
Prescott, for several years edited, printed and
published the Chronicle ; and, while under his
control, political considerations introduced a
competitive press into Farmington. In 1S58 the
FRANKLIN PATRIOT, a Democratic paper, was
established in Farmington by Messrs. Pillsbury and
Stetson, and printed at Lewiston for some two years,
and afterwards at Farmington by J. W. Swift.* The
*J. A. Linscott succeeded C. B. Stetson at the
commencement of its issue from Farmington.

Patriot was well supported until near the close of
the war of the rebellion. Its printer introduced an
extensive job-printing estab-lishment, and managed
it with so much mechanical ability as to secure
patronage to a considerable extent beyond the limits
of the county. In 1861 while the Patriot was in the
most successful part of its career, and the
Chronicle was published by Mr. Prescott, then
postmaster at Farmington - and printed in connection
with a job-office by B. A. Swan - the originator of
the Chronicle again entered the field and
established the third printing office in Farm-
ington. He started the COUNTY RECORD, as an
independent, literary, and semi-religious paper,
which was received with so much favor as to induce
the publisher of the Chronicle to make overtures for
the union of the two papers, which overtures were
accepted, and the Record was merged in the
Chronicle. Prescott and Swift edited the Chronicle
for some three years, while it was printed by Mr.
Swift and his youngest son, E. Sprague Swift. In
September, 1867, Mr. Swift who had for many years
sus-tained the responsibilities of the gospel
ministry, retired from all connection with the press
and devoted himself exclusively to his ministerial
duties and rural pursuits. Mr. Prescott at the same
time disposed of his interest in the Chronicle, and
Andrew C. Phillips, a gentleman of the legal
profession, became the purchaser. Mr. Phillips
engaged competent printers, and (the Patriot having
been suspended before Swift and Prescott retired
from the Chronicle) continued to be the only printer
and publisher in the county until 1869, when he
transferred all his interests to A. 11. Davis. The
Chronicle now (1872) has reached its 27th volume,
and is edited and printed by Mr. Davis. It is now
the only pa-per published in the county, and is
liberally sustained. The comparatively young county
of Franklin has not yet be-come conspicuous for
authorship, though a considerable amount of pamphlet
literature has been written and printed within its
limits. A comparatively large number of young men
and young ladies have acquired the art of printing
in the Farmington office, and sev-eral have become
conspicuous for their skill in other States. Per-
haps the most important work, originated and printed
in Franklin county, is the History of Farmington by
the late Judge Parker. Another bound volume printed
in Farmington is the Life of Rev. Howard Winslow.
Besides these a great number of sermons, ad-dresses,
and catalogues of schools and academies have been
printed at this place.

MAINE NORMAL.

Among the periodicals printed at Farmington, the
Maine Normal, edited by Mr. G. M. Gage, principal of
the Normal School, attained a high reputation for
literary merit and mechanical exe-cution. It was
printed by J. W. Swift one year. In connection with
the Franklin Register, a small agricultural paper,
called the

SANDY RIVER FARMER was printed during six months,
when it was merged in the REGISTER. A small paper,
issued from Mount Vernon by It. M. Mansur, was
printed in one of the Farmington offices for some
time. The MUSICAL ADVERTISER, issued from New Sharon
by Mr. Chase, was printed in the Chronicle office
one year. A neat monthly paper, connected with the
Abbott School, was printed in the Chronicle office
for a short time. Within the present year a well
furnished book and job office has been opened at
Farmington by Mr. David Knowlton.

***********************************************
Source for the above: "The Press of Maine" by Joseph
Griffin 1872 Brunswick, Maine