PRESS OF LINCOLN COUNTY. WISCASSET. BY JOSEPH WOOD. The first newspaper in the county, of which I have any knowledge, was the TELEGRAPH. (see also page 276 below) It was published at Wiscasset in 1798. 1 have a part of one copy in my possession, dated Friday, June 22, 1798. The princi- pal head of the paper is gone, and I cannot ascertain the name of the publisher. In size the paper is 21 by 18, four pages of four columns each, well printed. I found it among the papers of my great-grandfather, Gen. Abiel Wood, where it served as a wrapper for a flle of letters, bearing upon it the label in a full round hand, "Letters, 1798, 2d file." R. Elwell appears to be the principal (in the fragment in my possession the only) advertiser, and occupies a column of the third page with a catalogue of his goods, which 108 THE NEWS PRESS 0F MAINE. he "has just received and has now ready for sale at his store in Main Street, nearly opposite the Post-office, Wiscasset." Under the head of True Patriotism it is stated that "the inhabitants of Portland, on Monday last, voted to allow two thousand dollars, towards fortifying the harbor of that place." There was also an account of a "remarkable shower of hail at Kennebunk, on Satur- day last, with hailstones four and three quarters inches in circum- ference." EASTERN REPOSITORY. [A newspaper called the Eastern Repository was published at Wiscasset in June, 1805, as appears by an order of notice of the Massachusetts General Court, of the seventh of that month, re- quiring the petition of Elihu Getchell and sixty three others, for bridges "across Kennebec river, over both sides of Swan island," to be published "in the Eastern Repository, printed in Wiscasset, and in the Kennebec Gazette." That Wiscasset was without a paper on June 23,1802, appears from the charter, of that date, establishing the Lincoln and Ken- nebec Bank at that place, requiring the first meeting to be noti- fied "in the paper printed by Edes, in the county of Kennebec, and in Jenk's Portland Gazette.'"]* What follows, inclosed in brackets, is from the pen of Mr. JOHN DORR. THE LINCOLN TELEGRAPH. [In 1820 Samuel B. Dana commenced the Lincoln Telegraph with the old press and type before used by Babson and Rust, which had been for many years unused. That paper was contin- ued eighteen months, when, Dana having left, it was discontinued. In October, 1821, with the same old material, I issued the LINCOLN INTELLIGENCER. This paper I continued until May, 1827, when I sold to Amos C. Tappan, by whom it was published some three or four years, when, from ill health and other causes, he relinquished the busi- * Mss. letter, J. W. North, Esq., and Hist. Augusta, pp. 329,331. The Repository (says Mr. Wood) was published, by Babson and Rust, from 1802 to about 1808." Commenced,it might be,in the latter part of l8O2.-Ed. LINCOLN COUNTY. 109 ness to James Crowell, who was shortly afterward burned out, and that ended the Lincoln Intelligencer. While the paper was in my charge it advocated the election of John Q. Adams to the presidency. When, in 1828, Gen. Jackson became President, Mr. Tappan supported his administration.] Of the Lincoln Intelligencer (continues Mr. Wood) I have copies and extracts from it, preserved in a scrapbook, of some forty different dates -from, October, 1822, to October, 1835. The issue for Dec. 14, 1832, appears with its column rules re- versed, and contains the following announcement: - "Died on Sunday night last, Mr. Amos C. Tappan, late editor of this paper, aged 33. It devolves upon us to record this day the painful in- telligence of the editor's death. We have in former numbers of our paper apprised our readers of his severe illness, and its fatal termination is now communicated with deep and unfeigned sor- row." [Afterward, Anson Herrick started a paper at Wiscasset, called the CITIZEN, which lived but a year or two.] THE YANKEE. A paper of this name was published in Wiscasset somewhere about 1830, by Hon. Erastus Brooks, afterward editor of the New York Express. The name was probably suggested by the fact that his father distinguished himself in the war of 1812 as com- mander of the "Yankee," a vessel in which he was lost in 1814, while engaged in the public service. Mr. Brooks afterward relin- quished the position of editor, and fitted himself for college, pay- ing his expenses, while engaged in his classical studies, by setting type and teaching school alternately. THE LINCOLN COUNTY REPUBLICAN was published in Wis- casset in 1841-43, by Joseph B. Frith. Another paper by the name of the YANKEE was published in Wiscasset in 1845, by Joseph B. Frith. WISCASSET HERALD. Published weekly; size, 17 by 10; 4 pages, 3 columns each; printed in Wiscasset from July 1 to Sept. 30, 1859, by Charles A.J. Farrar and Joseph Wood; devoted to home interests and 110 THE NEWS PRESS OF MAINE. local news. This was a boys' paper. Neither of the proprietors had seen the inside of a printing office until they saw their own. A Lowe press and 100 lbs. of type, mostly bourgeois, formed the principal part of their material; their I imposing stone' was a pine Plank; the office supported but one composing stick, and other ar- rangements were on the same magnificent scale. Yet, notwith- standing these primitive fixtures, the young publishers carried on the paper for the full term of three months, (terms 25 cents), when having no capital to work with except the money they received for subscriptions and advertisements, they were obliged to sus- pend publication.* Farrar afterward learned the art of printing in a Boston office, and is at present publisher of the Boston Independent. The junior partner of the firm, Wood, served an apprenticeship in the office of the Portland Evening Courier. In 1867 he again opened a printing office in Wiscasset, and in 1869 commenced the publi- cation of the SEASIDE ORACLE. The size of this paper was 17 by 12, 4 pages, 3 columns to a page. It was started as an advertising sheet, with a free circula- tion of 5000 copies, depending upon its advertisements for sup- port. During the first year it was published monthly, and circu- lated in every post-office in the county. In 1870 it was changed to a fortnightly subscription paper, at $1.00 per year, the size remaining the same. It was continued fortnightly during 1871, but on the first of January, 1872, it was enlarged and has since been published weekly, the size being *We remember to have received several numbers of this juvenile paper, and can bear testimony to its respectable appearance. We have never known a boy who had the ambition, patience and perseverance to educate himself, while a mere child, so far as to print a juvenile paper, but gained eventually a high position for good ,in society. Several such cases will appear in the course of this History. A Maine boy, now in the Patent Office at Washington, and also editor of that well-conducted paper, "The Silent World," who has been totally deaf since nine years of age, commenced in this way. We furnished him with type, and he made himself a press, with which, at the age of ten to twelve years, he edited, printed and ,published quite a respectable news sheet. - Ed. 21 by 14, and the terms $2.00 a year. The publisher aims to fur- nish, in a neat and convenient form, a weekly record of the local news of Lincoln county, interspersed with entertaining miscellany, both original and selected. In politics and religion it is independ- ent; but devotes but little space to either subject, making a spe- cialty of local news. Its advertising columns are attractively set, and none but first-class advertisements are admitted. The origi- nal articles in the Oracle, both prose and poetry, have attracted much attention, and many have been widely copied. THE LINCOLN PATRIOT was published in Waldoboro, by Nich- ols Brothers, about 1837-1841. THE LINCOLN DEMOCRAT was published in Newcastle in 1856, by J. J. Ramsay. THE LINCOLN ADVERTISER Was published in Damariscotta in 1859. ******** page 276 PERIODICALS CONTINUED. WISCASSET TELEGRAPH. MR. EDITOR, DEAR SIR, - Through the kindness of my friend, Charles I- Noyes, I am in receipt of sheets from YOU of your "News Press of Maine." 1 have considerable interest in the, work, as my father was one of the earlier publishers in Maine. What you state in regard to the Wiscasset TELE- -GRAPH is imperfect. I regret not being able to help the matter much. My father died while I was in my infancy, and my mother marrying again nothing was preserved relating to my father's business. Since I have ar- rived at manhood, notwithstanding much research, I have been unable to ,obtain a file, or even a whole sheet, of his paper. I have before me the first half of a sheet dated March 11, 1797, No. XV. Vol. 1. The paper must therefore have been established in the autumn of 1796. The title is the Wiscasset Telegraph; the motto-,'The wilderness shall bud and blossom like the rose." Printed and published by J. N. Russell' and H. Hoskins, corner of Main and Fore streets, Wiscasset, at $1.75 per annum. It is well filled with current news of the day, foreign and domestic, and has a short editorial on the celebration of Washington's birth-day in Philadel- phia and New 'York. * The same J. N. Russell, probably, who, under the title of J. and J. N. Russell, commenced on Sept., 1795, the Boston Current and Marine Intelligencer. This firm was dissolved March 7,1796 ;- J. N. Russell left; and he is probably the same per- son who commenced with Hoskins, at Wiscasset, in the autumn of the same year. Jobn Russell of the Boston Current (afterward named Boston Gazette, a Federal paper which circulated largely in Maine) was an editor over forty years. Leaving the Gazette in 1823, he moved to Maine, where he died. The publishers were young men from Boston. Russell was a brother of Benj. Russell of the Boston Centinel. My father served his time with Thomas and Andrews, the leading printers at the time. Russell, as I un- derstood in my younger days, was unsteady and went south. My father died in the winter of 1804, and the paper stopped. It could not be true that there was no paper in Wiscasset on June 23, 1802. Why the bank notice was ordered to be printed in Edes, paper may have been on account of the residence of the stockholders, or politics may have been the cause. After my father's decease a paper was printed in Wiscasset by John Babson, which was reported to have been bought up and stopped on account of its 'politics. This may have been the Eastern Repository, mentioned in your account. With much respect, GARDINER, July 8, 1872. H. B. HOSKINS. *********************************************** Source for the above: "The Press of Maine" by Joseph Griffin 1872 Brunswick, Maine *********************************************** Courtesy of the New England Old Newspaper Index Project of Maine (R) and the Androscoggin Historical Society ] PO Box 152 Danville, Maine 04223 ************************************************* * * * * NOTICE: Printing the files within by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. We encourage links to the state and county table of contents. * * * * The USGenWeb Project makes no claims or estimates of the validity of the information submitted and reminds you that each new piece of information must be researched and proved or disproved by weight of evidence. It is always best to consult the original material for verification.