BIOGRAPHY: Victor M. Drake; Goshen, Orange co., New York

transcribed by W. David Samuelsen for USGenWeb Archives

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Portrait and Biographical Record of Rockland and Orange Counties New York
Containing Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative
Citizens of the Counties.
Together with Biographies and Portraits of all the Presidents of the United
States.
New York and Chicago; Chapman Publishing Co., 1895

VICTOR M. DRAKE, late editor of the Goshen Independent Republican, departed
this life at his residence here in June, 1894, previous to which event he had
been retired from newspaper work for several years. He was a native of
Pennsylvania, having been born in Milford, March 20, 1813, and his father,
Rufus J., was the son of Francis Drake, of Blooming Grove. The family are
among the very earliest settlers in Orange County, having located here in the
first part of the seventeenth century. The great-grandfather of our subject,
Joseph Drake, who died in England in 1794, is supposed to have been a lineal
descendant of Sir Francis Drake.

The grandfather, Francis Drake, had nine children by three wives, Rufus J.
being the only male child of the last marriage. His mother, who was in
maidenhood Rhoda Pierson, was the daughter of Rachel Bull, whose mother was a
De Witt, and sister of Mary De Witt, the mother of De Witt Clinton. The
grandfather of our subject was taken prisoner when Ft. Montgomery was captured
by the British in 1779, while serving in Colonel Drake's regiment. Rufus J.
served for two years in the War of 1812, as a volunteer in the Eighty-first
Pennsylvania Regiment. He departed this life in 1828, leaving a widow and five
children. His wife survived him until 1866, when she, too, passed away.

The subject of this sketch was placed in a printing-office to learn the "art
preservative" when a lad of eleven years, and the knowledge gained therein was
about the only schooling he ever received. He worked for eleven years in the
office of the Independent Republican, in the various capacities of apprentice,
journeyman, editor and proprietor. In 1846 he removed to Sussex, N. J.,

where, until 1865, he was connected with the New Jersey Herald as reporter,
editor and proprietor, making of it one of the most influential political
journals in the state. He was active in instituting reforms and advancing the
welfare of the public, materially, socially and morally. Aftter severing his
connection with the Herald, Mr. Drake returned to Goshen, where he assumed the
editorship of the Independent Republican until 1869. He subsequently went to
Honesdale, Pa., and assisted B. F. Haynes in starting the Independent. Our
subject's son, Frank Drake, assumed the management of the Independent
Republican (which is Democratic in its politics) in 1883. He is a young man of
strong convictions, and does not hesitate to express them frankly and freely,
and with all the vigor that he can command. His father devoted his best
energies to the work of making a newspaper that should educate his
constituency, and be a potent factor in the upbuilding of the city and county.
This he accomplished, and the journal, which owes its strength and high
position to his genius, is read far and wide and has helped to mould public
opinion on many of the important questions of the day.