LOCAL HISTORY: STOREY, Henry Wilson. HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY PA. Vol. 1
The Lewis Publishing Co., 1907.

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Martha Humenik.

There is an HTML version of this book, with page images, 
on the county web site: http://www.camgenpa.com/books/Storey/v1/ 


Copyright 2006.  All rights reserved.
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_______________________________________________ 
                                      CHAPTER XVII.

                              NEWSPAPERS AND PERIODICALS.

     In the list of newspapers of Cambria county the Western Sky, a paper edited 
in what was then known as "the town of Beula, Somerset county," during the year 
1798 (Cambria county had not then been organized), is given precedence as the 
first attempt at the establishment of a permanent newspaper within its limits. 
Although the literary part of the work was done in Beula, it was printed in 
Philadelphia by Ephraim Conrad. It was designed principally as an advertisement 
for the projected town, and, according to the statement of John Lloyd, of 
Ebensburg, whose grandfather was its editor, but one number of the Sky was 
published.
     The certainty of the publication of the second paper in the county cannot 
be established, but it has been said that a paper was in existence in Ebensburg 
at as early a date as 1810. If this were the case it could not have had any show 
of permanency, as the county advertising was done either in Philadelphia, 
Blairsville, or Bedford papers for many years.
     The late John Scott, of the firm of Canan & Scott, publishers of the 
Ebensburg Sky, is authority for the statement that when he came to Ebensburg in 
1817 at the age of five years, a paper was published at Beula.
     John Lloyd remembers an early paper which he thinks was called the 
Advocate, edited and published in Ebensburg in 1818 by Thomas Foley; and Mrs. 
Catherine Dimond, who died in Summerhill township at an advanced age, said that 
Foley published several papers in Ebensburg -- one she thought as early as 1815.
     Professor A. L. Guss, formerly a teacher in Johnstown, in an able paper 
treating on the subject of journalism in western Pennsylvania, read before the 
Juniata Valley Newspaper Association, in referring to Mr. Foley's efforts, says 
that Thomas Foley established the Olive Branch and Cambria Record in Ebensburg 
in 1818, but that the venture failed in 1819.
     Professor Guss also says that the Cambria Gazette was


368     HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

started in 1828 by John Murray and Thomas McFarland, but after two years the 
materials were removed to Blairsville, Indiana county, for use on the Record. 
They were subsequently brought back by John J. Canan and William B. Brown for 
the use of the firm in the publication of the Sky.
     Guss says that the paper known as the Mountain Telegraph and Cambria 
Gazette was first issued November 6, 1828, by Dr. Robert and Samuel Young, but 
was soon suspended. From the title, it seems probable that it was a merger of 
the Cambria Gazette with the Mountain Telegraph, as the idea of two papers 
having existed simultaneously in a town the size of Ebensburg at that time 
appears unlikely.
     W. R. Thompson, of Ebensburg, editor of the Mountaineer-Herald, has in his 
possession a copy of this paper which is No. 13, Vol. 1, bearing date January 
29, 1829, which contains some interesting information concerning the then 
projected Portage railroad; also an item regarding an "enormous cheese" which 
had been presented to President-elect Andrew Jackson by one Israel Cole. It 
weighed one hundred pounds, and was considered such a curiosity that as it 
passed on the road from Troy, New York, to Washington, many persons flocked to 
see the box containing it. The paper also contains a description of the then new 
and magnificent Capitol building at Washington. The publishers of the Telegraph 
and Gazette accepted "grain of every description in payment for subscription." 
and "linen and cotton rags" were taken in payment at the office, as notices in 
several conspicuous places in the paper testify.
     The census of 1830 credits Cambria county with one printing press, but says 
nothing about the existence of a newspaper; hence, we are forced to the 
conclusion that this was the press that was removed to Blairsville, and which 
was brought back in 1831 by Canan & Brown, and that no paper had an existence in 
the county at the time the census was taken.
     The journal next is the Sky, and Robert D. Canan, of Altoona, has the file 
of the paper during the time it was under the control of his father -- the late 
John J. Canan. This file includes, with two exceptions, all the numbers of the 
Sky from the time it was established in Ebensburg in 1831 until it passed into 
the hands of Steele Sample, in Johnstown, in the latter part of 1837. The Sky 
was a quarto, five-column paper, the editorials of which were in pica type. It 
was printed on a Ramage press, and at first balls were used to ink the type. It


369     HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

was published by John J. Canan and William B. Brown. No. 3, Volume I, bearing 
date Thursday, July 28, 1831, would indicate that the birth of the paper 
occurred July 14, 1831. Originally the paper was neutral in politics, as it 
circulated among people of all shades of opinion. Communications from persons of 
both parties were published, and notices of mass meetings, political conventions 
and so forth, are found in its columns. It was not until after the Cambria 
Democrat, which was published by Arnold Downing in 1832, had for years upheld 
the cause of the Democratic, or Masonic, party, that the Sky came out during the 
Ritner campaign in 1835, as a Whig, or anti-Masonic, journal. Its aspirations, 
however, were intensely patriotic, and there was not any friendliness for the 
"mother country" exhibited in its columns -- probably for the good reason that 
Moses Canan was the grandson of Captain William Henderson, who fighting under 
General Sullivan at the battle of Long Island, was there taken prisoner, 
confined for three months in a British prison ship in Wallabout Bay, and, upon 
his exchange after the battle of Trenton, served his country until the end of 
the war.
     Moses Canan himself fought against England in 1812, and if his pen did not 
write the editorials of the new paper, his judgment doubtless dictated them, for 
Moses Canan, besides being a patriot and a lawyer of ability -- one of the three 
legal gentlemen who attended the first court of Cambria county -- was a man of 
literary tastes, and as early as 1810 he was a partner with W. R. Smith in the 
publication of the Huntingdon Literary Museum and Monthly Miscellany, a 
compilation of gems of poetical literature from the best authors of the time.
     The editorials of the Sky were remarkable for their intelligence and 
dignity.
     On May 13, 1836, M. A. Canan became a partner in the publication of the 
Sky. Tuesday, October 7, 1837, is the date of the last issue of the files under 
the Canans. The paper was afterward run for about a year by Steele Sample, and 
was then purchased by Abraham Morrison, but suspended for three years, when, 
under the name of the Cambria Gazette, it was revived by Moses A. Canan, and, 
under various names, and under the control of different persons, continued to be 
the organ of the Whig party until, on December 7, 1853, the Cambria Tribune was 
launched on the sea of Cambria county journalism.
     The issue of Cambria Gazette from Tuesday, July 27,

     Vol. I-24


370     HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

1841 -- being No. 4 of Vol. I -- to Wednesday, February 1, 1843, had Moses A. 
Canan, son of Moses Canan, and brother of S. Dean Canan, of this city, for its 
accredited editor and proprietor, although the editorials give evidence of the 
style and force of Moses Canan, who was undoubtedly the writer of the greater 
part of them. Moses A. Canan had in 1835 edited and published a small society 
paper for young people in Ebensburg, which was called the Mountain Clarion. It 
was devoted to social amusements, society notes and literature.
     The Cambria Gazette (the second paper of that name to be published in the 
county) was a four-page, five-column paper, the columns eighteen inches in 
length. Tom Slick was its carrier.
     Moses A. Canan died while editor of the Gazette, and the paper was for a 
time conducted by his father, and his brother -- Robert H. Canan. Afterward 
Andrew J. Eckels and Thomas S. Reed conducted it for a twelvemonth, to be 
succeeded by James Morgan; but finally through lack of management, the paper 
came to a standstill. In 1848 William Foster, a young printer who had learned 
his trade in the office of the Bedford Inquirer, took hold, revived the paper, 
and changed its name to the Johnstown News.
     A copy of this paper, the Johnstown News, Vol. II, No. 17, dated August 8 
and 9, 1849, is a neat four-page, six-column paper printed and published by 
Foster & Cooper. A considerable part of the paper was devoted to a communication 
signed H. Yeagly, being a comparison of the relative merits of Dr. William A. 
Smith and John Fenlon, Democratic and Whig candidates for Assembly. There was 
about half a column of foreign news, but not a local item. A note explains, 
however, that one of the editors was sick that week.
     George W. Cooper, besides his ability as an editor, was also a successful 
practicing physician, and after he sold the Journal, which he published at 
Garnett, Kansas, until 1885, he resumed the practice of medicine at Peoria, 
Illinois, until his death at this former place, ten years later.
     In 1848 William Foster procured the press and materials of the Cambria 
Gazette and launched the Valley Wreath as a weekly paper in Johnstown. It was a 
Whig advocate. In 1849 or 1850 Dr. Cooper joined Foster as a partner, and became 
the editorial writer. In 1850 Frank W. Hay acquired the interest of Dr. Cooper, 
who had gone west, but withdrew in less


371     HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

than a year. Foster continued to publish it until 1852, when he quit. It was at 
this time that James M. Swank began to publish the Cambrian.
     The Cambrian was a Whig campaign paper edited and published in 1852, to 
advocate the candidacy of General Scott for the presidency. James M. Swank, not 
then twenty years of age, edited and published its first eighteen numbers, the 
first containing an account of the death of Henry Clay and the last an obituary 
of Daniel Webster and an account of the defeat of General Scott at the election 
that year. After the election its publication was continued by S. B. McCormick 
until that fall.

                                        ----------------

     James Moore Swank founded the Cambria Tribune December 7, 1853. It was the 
weekly successor of the Cambrian.
     The Tribune was a six-column folio, 22 by 32 inches, printed on an old 
Ramage hand-press. The subscription price was $1.50 in advance, and transient 
advertising was "one square, three insertions, $1.50," making the rate about 
twenty-two cents per inch for each insertion. For other advertisements he took 
whatever he could get in exchange. The early numbers, as was the custom of all 
country papers, were largely made up of literature and national politics, with a 
great scarcity of local news. Mr. Swank's change of plan with special attention 
given to local events was soon followed by other county papers.
     On May 28, 1856, when Mr. Swank temporarily withdrew from the Tribune and 
went to Wisconsin with his brother, George T. Swank, Colonel John M. Bowman 
became the editor and represented Mr. Swank's interest. During his absence D. J. 
Morrell and other Republicans procured a Washington press, which was substituted 
for the old Ramage. On March 20, 1858, Mr. Swank returned and entered into 
partnership for three years with Colonel Bowman, the former being the sole 
proprietor of the plant. They moved the office from the Mansion House building 
to the brick building on the northwest corner of Franklin street and Ebbert 
alley. On July 3 they printed the outside of the Tribune in blue and the inside 
in red. While Mr. Swank was absent Colonel Bowman, being a good newspaper man, 
enlarged the local features, which have been strictly observed in that office 
till this day. The Tribune was always a consistent and strong advocate of the 
Whig and Republican parties, and never bolted a regular nomination.


372     HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

     On February 5, 1861, the partnership was dissolved by limitation, when Mr. 
Swank was appointed superintendent of the public schools for Cambria county. 
Colonel Bowman continued as editor. On July 5, 1863, Cyrus Elder became an 
associate editor, continuing for a few months only. On October 14, 1864, Mr. 
Swank again assumed editorial control and changed the name to that of the 
Johnstown Tribune. On January 8, 1869, he enlarged it by making it an eight-
column folio, 26 by 38 inches, which made it the largest weekly paper in western 
Pennsylvania. In December, 1869, he sold the plant to his brother, George T. 
Swank, who moved it to the front part of the second floor of the present Tribune 
building, where he had his job office. On January 7, 1870, the first edition of 
nine hundred copies under his management was issued. These rooms were too small 
for the Tribune and the job office; therefore, on April 30 of that year, he 
moved the office and equipments to the second floor of the Mansion House, on the 
southeast corner of Franklin and Main streets, where it remained until March 7, 
1874, when it was again moved to the second floor of the present Tribune 
building. In a few years thereafter Mr. Swank purchased the ground and building 
and made it the permanent home of his newspaper.
     George Thompson Swank was a son of George W. and Nancy Moore Swank, born 
near Saltsburg, in Indiana county, November 6, 1836. He learned to be a printer 
on the Valley Wreath, the Mountain Echo, the Cambrian and the Cambria Tribune. 
In 1854 he went to Rock Island, Illinois, to work on the Rock Islander, and the 
following year was engaged on the Napiersville Journal, Illinois. In 1855 he 
returned to the Cambria Tribune. In the summer of 1856 he again went west and 
visited friends at Earlville, Illinois, but not finding employment at his trade, 
he started for Chicago, with a large deficit in his finances. When the train 
stopped at Aurora, Illinois, it was after dark. A strange and sudden impulse led 
him to alight without knowing a soul in that vicinity. Early the next morning he 
called at the office of the Aurora Beacon, seeking work, and to his surprise was 
given immediate employment as foreman at $12 per week, with board and lodging at 
the best hotel in the town at $4. The blues had taken flight, and he remained 
there until late in the fall of 1856, when he accepted a position on the 
Transcript in Prescott, Wisconsin. During the next two years he attended the 
Eldersridge Academy, and taught the


373     HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

public schools at or near Fallen Timber, in White township, and the Benshoff 
school in West Taylor township. He then went to Pittsburg and became a printer 
on The Union, a daily then just started, and which was edited by John M. Bailey, 
a subsequently elected judge of the court of common pleas for that county. The 
paper failed and he had difficulty in securing his wages. In 1859 he went to St. 
Louis and became a printer on the New Era, an abolition paper started by Francis 
P. Blair and Henry T. Blow. The office was located in Carondelet, a suburban 
town. The paper was an aggressive advocate for the overthrow of slavery, and one 
night the office was dismantled and the press and types were thrown into the 
Mississippi river. Blair was the candidate for vice-president in 1868, and Blow 
was our minister to Venezuela under Grant.
     In 1860 Mr. Swank went to New York city, and with the assistance of 
Salathiel Tudor Sellick, a Johnstown boy, he procured a position as "sub" on 
Horace Greeley's Tribune. It was difficult to get a case on that paper, but 
being coached by Sellick and Ben Gillespie, one of the fastest typesetters in 
the country, he soon had a case of his own. He remained there until his 
enlistment in Company D, Seventy-first New York Infantry. Upon the expiration of 
that term he re-enlisted as a private in Company D, Twenty-seventh Connecticut 
Infantry, and was promoted to corporal and then to first sergeant. He followed 
Hancock the Superb in the several assaults on Marye's Heights at Fredericksburg, 
and was with him at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. On July 2, when Hancock 
went to the assistance of Sickles in the wheatfield, Mr. Swank was seriously 
wounded, and his colonel, Henry C. Merwin, was killed, with many of his company. 
Owing to his wound Mr. Swank was honorably discharged, and upon his recovery 
returned to Greeley's Tribune, and took his old case, but was in a short time 
made a proofreader. In 1866 he and a companion, Alexander W. McDonald, 
established a job office in the Potter building, 37 Park Row, which was very 
successful. They printed the Galaxy, the Turf, Field and Farm, the Army and Navy 
Journal, and Richard Grant White's excellent book on the "Use of Words," and 
other high class periodicals and books. In 1868 he came to Johnstown and started 
a job office, as heretofore mentioned.
     When he took charge of the Tribune Mr. Swank was well equipped for his new 
position. He had what Greeley called a "nose" for news, and made a special 
feature of publishing all


374     HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

the local events worthy of notice. On Monday, March 3, 1873, was published the 
first daily Johnstown Tribune. It contained President Grant's message to 
Congress, and was on the streets five hours after the message had been delivered 
to the House, with a full Associated Press report of the day. It was a folio, 14 
by 20 inches, five columns, excepting on Fridays, which being a combination of 
the daily and weekly issues, consisted of eight pages. Since March 3, 1880, the 
editions have been separate. The daily was three cents a copy, or $7 per anum, 
and the weekly, $1.50. On March 4, 1878, the daily was reduced to $5. The 
advertising rates were $100 per column for the year in the weekly, and $250 in 
the daily, and fifty cents per inch for transient patronage. On March 8, 1895, 
the weekly was enlarged to eight columns of eight pages.
     Mr. Swank modeled his paper after the style of the New York Tribune, and 
the rules of the office as to make-up, punctuation, spelling, capitalization, 
etc., were those of Greeley and McElrath. He never used plate matter in either 
editions, nor inserted locals between reading matter. He would not permit his 
employes to solicit subscriptions, advertising or job work, but depended upon 
the merits of the office and paper as did his master.
     The weekly began its existence with a circulation of 450, and in 1870 it 
had 900. When Mr. Swank retired it had increased to 3,000, which consisted of 
the best list outside of the large daily papers, and was equivalent to cash 
payments in advance. The daily started with about 800 subscribers, and he closed 
it with 4,000. The Tribune is the only paper in the county having a complete 
file for fifty-three years, or of any other near it by thirty odd years. There 
were no papers issued between May 31 and June 13, 1889, both inclusive, inasmuch 
as the flood had almost destroyed the plant.
     When the daily was established and for many years thereafter, Mr. Swank was 
the editor, foreman, pressman, jobber, and business manager. Casper W. Easly was 
the first local, or city reporter, and an excellent one he was, as were all who 
followed. On the death of Mr. Easly, George J. Akers succeeded, and on the 
latter's death George C. Gibbs became the local. Mr. Gibbs was a versatile 
printer, and could do anything from a leading editoral to collecting bills, or 
setting up type. Elmer E. Conrath succeeded Mr. Gibbs. Mr. Swank assumed the


375     HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

responsibility of every word put in the paper, either in court or out of it; he 
read every line and gave out all the copy; he stood over the imposing stone and 
directed what should go in; and he met the irate who came in to tell him that 
"it wasn't so." On April 5, 1902, on account of ill health, he announced the 
sale of the Tribune plant to Anderson H. Walters and others, for a sum exceeding 
$82,000, and affectionately closed the editorial with "Good Bye." In due 
consideration of all the essential requirements for a newspaper man, -- as 
editor, published, printer, foreman, jobber, pressman and in business 
qualifications, Mr. Swank was pre-eminent in his profession and trade, and all 
in all was excelled by none.
     He was twice appointed and once elected clerk of the district court, which 
existed in Johnstown from '69 to '75. He was postmaster of Johnstown for three 
terms beginning in 1874. He was chairman of the Republican county committee in 
'72 when Grant carried the county against his old friend and preceptor, Horace 
Greeley, and was chairman at other times, and delegate to state conventions and 
congressional conferences on many occasions. He was an alternate delegate to the 
Hayes convention of '76, and that of Grant in '80. He was a delegate to the 
Harrison convention of 1888, and a presidential elector for McKinley in 1896. 
Mr. Swank is a member of the famous No. 6 Typographical Union of New York city; 
the Grand Army of the Republic, and of Johnstown Lodge of F. & A. Masons.
     When Mr. Walters assumed control of the Tribune, the Johnstown Tribune 
Publishing Company was organized, May 2, 1902, with a capital of $75,500. The 
officers were Anderson H. Walters, president, treasurer and editor, and Elmer E. 
Conrath, secretary and associate editor. That year three Merganthaler 
typesetting machines were introduced, when type setting and distribution by hand 
ceased in that office. In April, 1905, a Goss straight line rapid press was put 
in use. In March, 1907, the daily contained from twelve to sixteen pages, and 
the weekly from ten to twelve, seven columns each, and twenty inches in length. 
On December 1, 1905, the price of the daily was reduced to one cent, or $3 per 
annum. The weekly remains at $1.50. An early edition is printed for the 
afternoon trains, and at 4:15 the regular edition appears with a circulation of 
10,000. The weekly has about 3,000.


376     HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

     The Cambria Democrat was founded in Ebensburg in the year 1832 by Arnold 
Downing, then burgess of Ebensburg, Moses Canan being clerk, it was, as its name 
indicated, a Jackson paper. After a couple of years of precarious existence it 
suspended, doubtless owing to the fact that Johnstown was then just beginning to 
forge to the front, and the establishment of a paper of that party in the canal 
and railroad town did not leave the paper at the county seat sufficient 
patronage to justify its publication.
     No. 16 of Vol II. of the Johnstown Democrat and Cambria and Somerset 
Advertiser, bearing date of April 26, 1836, would seem to indicate that the 
journal was started about the beginning of 1835. It was a four page, six column 
paper, the columns seventeen inches in length, and was printed and published by 
William Latshaw, on Canal street, next door to the collector's office in 
Johnstown. Its publication was abandoned in the latter part of 1836.
     A source of official patronage was the publication of the then proposed 
constitution in 1838, the law requiring it to be published in two newspapers in 
the county, and as there was but one Whig paper in Cambria county -- the Sky, in 
Johnstown -- it was determined by James Fenlon and Alexander McConnell, then 
supervisor of the Allegheny Portage Railroad, to start a paper in Ebensburg for 
that purpose, and the Democrat Journal, with John Scott as publisher, was the 
result. The late Hon. John Fenlon was the writer of the editorials which, in 
dealing with political opponents, were generally caustic in the extreme. No. 4 
of Vol. I., bearing date September 20, 1838, published what purported to be a 
receipt given by David R. Porter, then Democratic or Masonic candidate for 
governor, to one George Davis, and charged that Porter in taking the oath 
required by the insolvent laws, the benefit of which he had taken, had perjured 
himself. The reply of the Porterites was that their candidate had acted in good 
faith, had been forced into bankruptcy by reason of indorsing the obligations of 
friends, and did not mean to defraud any creditor.
     "Wood taken at this office for subscription," is prominently advertised at 
the bottom of page 3.
     Shortly after this time Robert L. Johnston assumed the editorial control of 
the Journal.
     The Democratic Sentinel was published in Johnstown dur-


377     HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

ing the presidential campaign of 1844 to advocate the election of James K. Polk. 
No. 2, of Vol. I. bears date of September 20, 1844. George Nelson Smith was the 
editor. It was printed on "medium-size" paper, four fifteen-inch columns to the 
page, four pages, and the price was $1.50 per year. Judging from the import of a 
set of resolutions passed by a meeting of members of the party in Summerhill 
township, published in the paper, there was an urgent necessity for the leaders 
to get together. There was, it appears, a bitter fight between John Snodgrass, 
Thomas A. Maguire, Dr. William A. Smith, Joseph McDonald, and the Mountain 
Sentinel, on the side of the railroad faction, and George Murray, Colonel John 
Kean, James Potts, and the Democratic Sentinel, on the other.
     In 1835, the year after the opening of the double-track railroad system 
across the Allegheny mountains, between Johnstown and Hollidaysburg, William 
Bernard Conway came to Johnstown and commenced the practice of law. His office 
and dwelling were on Canal street, now Washington, adjoining the Cambria 
Library. He was probably the first lawyer to locate in this town, and there were 
then but two others in the county -- Moses Canan and Michael Dan Magehan -- both 
at Ebensburg.
     Mr. Conway was about thirty-three years of age at that time, and came here 
from Pittsburg. He was slender, probably five feet nine in height, and weighed 
less than a hundred and fifty pounds; neat in dress, usually wearing a frock 
coat and silk hat, and used spectacles, with an entire absence of whiskers or 
mustache. But Mr. Conway was a genius, and gave more thought to literature than 
to the science of law. The Johnstown Democrat, the first newspaper published in 
this town, had suspended, which gave him an opportunity to develop his natural 
bent toward journalism. He purchased the plant, and, in the early part of 1836, 
founded the Mountaineer and Cambria and Somerset Advertiser, which was commonly 
known as the Mountaineer. The office was on Canal street, next to the 
collector's office, about where Ludwig's store is now situated.
     In the winter of 1836 Mr. Conway moved the Mountaineer plant on sleds to 
Ebensburg, where he continued to issue weekly installments of wit, sarcasm, and 
eloquence until the latter part of '37, when it seems the paper suspended. 
During odd moments he was defendant in criminal libel suits, of which he had 
twenty on hand in a period of a few months, but only four were ever brought to 
trial.


378     HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

     The Mountaineer was an individuality; it was Conwayism from the first to 
the last letter on the editorial page, and it had a state reputation of value, 
as he was a most brilliant and versatile writer.
     Mr. Conway was a follower of Andrew Jackson, and at that time a vigorous 
opponent of Joseph Ritner, the anti-Mason and Whig governor, and a close friend 
of David R. Porter, who succeeded Ritner in 1838. During the year of 1837 he 
published many articles favoring Porter's nomination by the Democratic party, 
but he left before the election occurred.
     In the early part of 1838 friends in Philadelphia offered to fit out a 
newspaper plant in that city and give it to him to manage, but in June President 
Van Buren appointed him secretary of the Territory of Iowa, and he chose the 
latter position, which he held up to the time of his death. At this time Joseph 
Williams, Esq., a lawyer at Somerset, was also appointed one of the Federal 
judges of that territory. On one occasion, when Judge Black was in Buchanan's 
cabinet, Judge Williams called on him, with whom he had an intimate 
acquaintance, and sent in his card, which did not receive prompt attention. He 
thereupon sent in another with the following additional information, "When you 
were Jerry and I was Joe," which gave him an audience at once.
     William Bernard Conway was a son of John Conway, a native of County 
Fermanagh, Ulster, Ireland. His parents were married before emigrating to the 
new world, which was a short time after the Revolution of '98. When they came 
here they located on the Brandywine in Newcastle county, Delaware, probably at 
Wilmington, where William B. Conway was born about 1802. He was a weaver's 
apprentice until his father moved to Westmoreland county in 1818, when he 
purchased a farm one mile from Livermore, near Spruce run, which has remained in 
the Conway family until this date. It is now owned by the estate of John Conway, 
a nephew of William B. and the father of William B. Conway, a grandnephew, and 
ex-recorder of Westmoreland county, who now resides in Latrobe.
     It is not known when William B. Conway left the farm, but between 1825 and 
1833 he read law and was admitted to practice in Allegheny and Westmoreland 
counties, and also formed a partnership with Thomas Phillips, of Pittsburg, and


379     HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

published in that city the American Manufacturer, a Democratic newspaper.
     It was also during this period that he married Miss Charity Anne Kinney, of 
McKeesport. Their first child was Mary, who married Robert Daley, of McKeesport, 
and their children are Edward, Robert, and Annie Daley, now residing in that 
city, who are the only lineal descendants of this talented man. Their second 
child was a son, born in Ebensburg in the early part of 1837, and who died there 
November 7, 1837.
     William B. Conway died in Davenport, Iowa, in December, 1839, while he was 
secretary of the territory, and was buried on the westerly bank of the 
Mississippi river. His wife came to McKeesport and died there. Mary Conway 
Daley, his daughter, also died there in 1886. Mrs. Margaret Conway, a sister-in-
law of William B. Conway, died at the Summit, this county, 1879.
     After Mr. Conway's retirement the Mountaineer was published for a time by 
Seely & Glessner, the first number being new series, Vol. II., No. 1, bearing 
the date June 20, 1838. It was a four-page, six-column paper. From this it would 
appear that Conway began a new series of the paper in Ebensburg. The terms of 
the Mountaineer were $2 per year if paid within the first three months, or $3 
after that time. A notice at the bottom of the fourth page reads: "All kinds of 
country produce taken in exchange for the Mountaineer." On September 17, 1838, 
Seely & Glessner dissolved partnership, Glessner retiring and Seely assuming 
full control.
     In this issue of Wednesday, April 10, 1839, S. S. Seely gives notice that 
his connection with the Mountaineer has ceased, but that it will be continued by 
Thomas Lloyd, whose salutatory appears in the same column. At the top of the 
column is this:

                         "For President,
                        MARTIN VAN BUREN,
                              and
                  THE CONSTITUTIONAL TREASURY."

     Shortly after his accession to the editorial chair Mr. Lloyd published 
"proposals for continuing the publication and increasing the circulation of the 
Mountaineer," but, despite these declarations of principles and claims to 
patronage, the Mountaineer appears to have had a hard road to travel. Party 
animosities were running riot, often even to deeds of malicious mischief and 
violence, and one night, probably in the fall of


380     HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

1839, its office was entered and the type carried off it is said by a journeyman 
printer and dumped into a vault not far distant. This malevolent act caused the 
suspension of the paper for some time. It was resuscitated, however, and in 1842 
John B. Brown had editorial charge, reducing the paper to four columns to the 
page. The following year Thomas C. McDowell, Esq., was the avowed editor, and 
after him James McDermitt assumed control of its destinies, to be succeeded in 
1844 by John G. Given, late of Mexico, Indiana, who changed its name to the 
Mountain Sentinel, which in time gave way to the Democrat and Sentinel, and 
that, in 1867, to the Cambria Freeman.
     In an article under head of "The Press in Ebensburg." the Alleghenian of 
May 24, 1866, says that in 1842 McDermitt succeeded Lloyd, who went west, where 
he died some years afterward, and that, after having run the paper a year, James 
Brown took hold of it and conducted it until his death, which resulted from his 
being thrown from a buggy, in 1844. John G. Given succeeded him and changed the 
name of the paper to the Mountain Sentinel; but in the files of the Cambria 
Gazette, under date of May 25, 1842, may be read an account of an accident which 
befell John B. Brown, editor of the Mountaineer, by being thrown from a buggy 
and so severely injured that at first his life was despaired of, after which we 
see no notice of him in the paper. The conclusion is that the above statement is 
correct. Brown may, however, have lingered for years, and may have succeeded 
McDermitt, and may have afterward died from the result of the injury referred 
to.
     The Mountain Sentinel was the name given to the Mountaineer by its new 
proprietor -- John G. Given. It supported Polk and Dallas, the Democratic 
candidates for president and vice-president of that year, and favored the 
annexation of Texas. Mr. Given continued to edit the paper until the breaking 
out of the war with Mexico, when he enlisted in the Cambria Guards, and served 
with distinction in that memorable war.
     During the absence of Mr. Given, Daniel Zahm graced the sanctum of the 
paper as editor, and the Sentinel had ample opportunity to supply its readers 
with accounts of the stirring events of the conflict.
     On April 12, 1849, Mr. Given resumed the editing of the Mountain Sentinel, 
and continued in that capacity until February 27, 1851, when A. J. Rhey 
succeeded to the editorial chair. Mr. Rhey edited the paper through the campaign 
of


381     HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

1852 and until August 26, 1853, when the paper was merged with the Mountain 
Democrat, founded the previous year by Richard White, into the Democrat and 
Sentinel.
     Of this continuation of the Mountain Sentinel William B. Sipes became 
editor and proprietor and Robert Litzinger printer. This arrangement was not of 
long duration, for on December 9, 1853, Richard White and H. C. Devine assumed 
the roles of editors and proprietors, and Charles Wimmer that of printer. White 
and Devine continued in partnership in the editorship and proprietorship of the 
paper until May 13, 1857, when Mr. White retired and Mr. Devine assumed sole 
control, calling to his aid as assistant editor C. D. Murray, a talented young 
man of Ebensburg.
     The Mountain Democrat was a venture of Richard White in the arena of 
journalism. The paper was published in Ebensburg in 1852; but after an existence 
of one year was merged with the Mountain Sentinel into the Democrat and 
Sentinel.
     In 1859 we find Mr. Murray editor and D. C. Zahm, publisher and proprietor, 
who retired March 13, 1861, to be succeeded by James S. Todd as publisher on 
April 10th of that year. Mr. Murray continued to grace the editorial sanctum 
until June 18, 1862, when Mr. Todd succeeded him, retiring on April 13, 1864, to 
be succeeded on May 4th of the same year by Michael Hasson, Esq.
     On June 7, 1865, Clark Wilson bought the plant and the "good will" of the 
paper, and J. Ellison Downes became assistant editor. August 16, 1866, W. H. 
McEnrue became editor and proprietor, and conducted the paper until the time of 
its demise, about two months afterward.
     Robert L. Johnston, Esq., and Philip Collins, about the beginning of the 
year 1867, purchased at sheriff's sale the press, types, etc., of the defunct 
Democrat and Sentinel of Ebensburg. Mr. Johnston, as editor and proprietor, and 
Mr. Henry A. McPike, as publisher who had previously acted in a similar capacity 
on the Crusader, a Catholic paper published at Summit, this county, and on the 
Mountain Echo in Johnstown, on January 31, 1867, launched the Cambria Freeman on 
the precarious sea of journalism as the organ of the Democratic party at the 
county seat. John S. Rhey, Esq., a writer of much force, perspicuity and 
ability, wrote the greater part of the editorials for the Freeman while it was 
under the control of Messrs. Johnston and McPike, the latter becoming sole 
proprietor about the


382     HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

year 1875, and continuing in that relation to the paper until, in the early part 
of 1884, he sold the "good will" of the paper and the appurtenances of the 
office to J. G. Hasson.
     After leaving Ebensburg, Mr. McPike became one of the projectors and 
proprietors of the Altoona Times, but along on the early '90s disposed of his 
interest in that venture, and now lives in Washington City.
     On July 1, 1903, Thomas A. Osborne and H. G. Andrews purchased the Freeman. 
On January 1, 1905, Mr. Andrews sold his interest to Mr. Osborne. It is a folio, 
eight columns to the page, and 22 inches in length, with a circulation of 1,672.

                             ---------------------

     The Democratic Courier was published in Johnstown, No. 1, Vol. I, New 
Series, bearing date September 2, 1846. On the first page appears, "The 
Democratic Courier and Tariff Advocate -- Not Bound to Swear According to the 
Dictates of Any Master." The paper was one of four pages, five columns to the 
page. In the first numbers the name of H. C. Devine appears as publisher, and 
later on that of Thomas A. Maguire as editor. What "New Series" means, unless 
the Courier was a revival of the Democratic Journal which had been also a tariff 
advocate, is not apparent. On March 16, 1847, the arrangement between Maguire 
and Devine having expired by limitation, the patrons of the paper were called 
upon to settle up, and that was the last of the Courier.
     The Cambria Transcript was the successor of the Democratic Courier. H. C. 
Devine was the publisher and John B. Onslow, a brother of James Onslow, of 
Pittsburg, was its editor and proprietor, as may be seen from a card published 
by him in the Mountain Echo and Cambria Transcript, the successor of the 
Transcript in No. 3, of Vol. I, of which paper bears date August 20, 1849, he 
says that, having disposed of the Transcript to Captain G. Nelson Smith, all 
persons indebted to him are authorized to pay the same to Captain Smith.
     Under various modifications of its name, and often under adverse 
circumstances, the Mountain Echo had a desultory existence, at different periods 
extending over a space of more than twenty years. Captain George Nelson Smith 
was for the greater part of the time its editor.
     Smith had fought in the Texan War of Independence, being present at the 
battle of San Jacinto, where Texan in-


383     HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

dependence was won. He was an able writer, and advocated the principles in which 
he believed in a rational and generally decorous manner, in striking contrast 
with the generality of the newspaper men of his time. He had in 1844 and for 
some time subsequently edited the Democratic Sentinel. He bought the Cambria 
Transcript from John B. Onslow, and changed the name to the Mountain Echo and 
Cambria Transcript. the Third copy of this paper, bearing date August 29, 1849, 
noticed that Queen Victoria had at last paid her long-promised visit to Ireland.
     Volume II, No. 3, of the paper, under the heading of the Mountain Echo, 
bearing date Friday, February 14, 1851, is a four-page, six-column paper. Much 
of its space was given to editorial matter, correspondence and news. The issue 
of May 11, 1853, under the flaming head of the Mountain Echo and Johnstown 
Commercial Advertiser and Intelligencer -- "New Series, Vol. I, No. 2, Whole 
Number CVI," would seem to indicate that the Echo had been resurrected after a 
period of suspension. In this issue appears the name of Emanuel J. Pershing as 
associate editor, a position he held until May 31, 1854, when he severed his 
connection with the paper, and on August 21st of that year, accompanied by 
Messrs. A. J. Hite and Geo. T. Swank, then recently employes in the Echo office, 
went to Rock Island, Illinois, to establish the Rock Islander.
     On August 26, 1853, in an editorial notice commenting on the salutatory of 
the Alleghenian, started the previous week in Ebensburg, the Echo -- by that 
time the Allegheny Mountain Echo, etc. -- says:

     "FORTHCOMING -- The Whig paper of this place is again to be resuscitated by 
James M. Swank, Esq. The first issue will appear about the first of December. It 
is now to be called the Cambria Tribune. Every time this paper is revived it 
comes out under a new name. This makes the sixth since it was first published in 
this place."

     Mr. Swank, in the first issue of the Cambria Tribune (now the Johnstown 
Tribune), December 7, 1853, retorted as follows:

     "The above courteous allusion to the resuscitation of 'the Whig paper of 
this place' is, we presume, by the senior of 'one of the neatest weeklies 
extant!' We do not deny that in a period of thirteen years the name of the Whig 
journal 'of this place' has undergone the changes referred to, but, without 
addition or subtraction, we claim to have discovered a striking coincidence in 
the history of the Locofoco paper 'of this place.' The only


384     HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

defect in the coincidence arises from the fact that this Locofoco paper has had 
six names in about as many years, being in this respect a trifle more 
progressive than the 'Whig paper.' Let us look at the record: First, we have the 
Democratic Courier and Tariff Advocate; second, the Cambria Transcript; third, 
the Mountain Echo and Cambria Transcript; fourth, the Mountain Echo; fifth, the 
Mountain Echo and Johnstown Commercial Advertiser and Intelligencer, and sixth 
and last, though not least by half a dozen tri-syllables -- the Allegheny 
Mountain Echo and Johnstown Commercial Advertiser and Intelligencer. There, now! 
Great snake country, this!"
     In 1855 Mr. Smith, the Union candidate for the legislature in Cambria 
county, was elected. The Union ticket was nominated by Democrats and Old Line 
Whigs who would not join the Know-Nothing party.
     On January 1, 1856, Cyrus L. Perhsing, Esq., became editor of the Echo, 
during the absence of Mr. Smith at Harrisburg as a member of the legislature 
that winter. On May 1st following, Mr. Pershing, who throughout the winter had 
acceptably filled the editorial chair, published a graceful valedictory, and Mr. 
Smith once more assumed control as editor and proprietor.
     In the issue of October 22, 1856, the result of the election was announced 
under flaming heads and large spread-eagle cut, underneath which was the legend: 
"Cambria County, the Banner County of the Keystone State."
     On January 1, 1857, Editor Smith, having been a second time chosen 
Representative from this county, had consequently to temporarily relinquish the 
quill in the Echo sanctum, during which time Cyrus L. Pershing, Esq., for a 
second time became editor, but withdrew on the 28th of the same month "for many 
reasons not necessary to be stated," without however impairing any of the 
friendly relations existing between himself and Captain Smith. For a 
considerable time Smith's name appears as publisher and proprietor, where it 
once more appears as editor and proprietor. In 1858 the editor returned to the 
legislature a third time, and H. A. Boggs took his place.
     On May 5, 1858, Henry A. McPike, who had formerly published the Crusader at 
Summit, and had for several years previous been foreman in the Echo office, 
became associate editor and partner with Mr. Smith. On November 7, 1860, the 
partnership between Messrs. Smith and McPike was dissolved, the former retaining 
control of the paper and the latter retiring.


385     HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

     The War of the Rebellion coming on shortly after this time, and the 
determination of the men of Johnstown, without regard to party lines, to save 
the Union at all hazards, and Captain Smith's determination to be at the seat of 
war in behalf of the Union, caused the Echo to be abandoned, to be replaced 
shortly afterward by the Johnstown Democrat as the organ of the Democratic party 
in the south of the county.
     In the issue of the Tribune of April 26, 1861, appeared an item stating 
that the Echo had suspended publication that week for the reason that owing to 
the unsettled state of the country, Captain Smith had been publishing the paper 
at a heavy loss for some time, with no bright prospects for the future.
     Colonel A. K. McClure, in his entertaining volumes of "Old Time Notes of 
Pennsylvania," relates an incident occurring in the legislature in the session 
of 1858, when George Nelson Smith saved the bill authorizing the construction of 
what is now the Philadelphia & Erie Railroad.
     Governor Packer was intensely interested in the measure. The bill did not 
reach him until within a few days of the final adjournment, and upon careful 
examination of it the governor discovered a single sentence in it which would 
possibly nullify the project. He could not return it and have it passed over his 
veto; there was no time for the passage of a new bill; and it could not then be 
amended without a joint resolution. A joint resolution was required to lay over 
a day, and to suspend this rule would have required a two-thirds vote, which 
delay would be fatal.
     Speaker Longenecker ruled, when interrogated, that a joint resolution could 
not be read and passed finally on the same day. The friends of the bill were in 
distress. George Nelson Smith, well versed in parliamentary law, was not 
inclined to be defeated where the merits overbalanced the objection. He was one 
of the most popular of all the members; he told a good story, sang a good song, 
and had been with Sam Houston at the battle of San Jacinto. Under these 
circumstances it was suggested to Speaker Longenecker that if he would permit 
Smith to preside the difficulty could be evaded and the amendment passed in 
time. He consented. Smith took the chair and the resolution was changed from the 
usual form of a joint resolution by stating: "Resolved, If the senate concurs," 
giving it the appearance of a house resolution requiring simply the concurrence 
of the senate. As soon as it was read the point was

     Vol. I-25


386     HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

raised that it was a join resolution and must lie over for a day, but Smith 
faced the emergency with magnificent boldness deciding that it was not a joint 
resolution, and directed a final vote to be called, which was duly taken, and 
the bill passed. The senate concurred and the bill was saved.
     From one of a series of articles entitled "The Press in Ebensburg," 
published in the Alleghenian of that place in 1866, the following facts relating 
to the founding of that paper are gathered:
     "August 23, 1853, the first number of a new paper called the Alleghenian 
made its appearance. It was Whig in politics and edited by Messrs A. C. Mullin 
and Charles Albright. Its motto was, 'The free communication of thoughts and 
opinions is one of the invaluable rights of man.' The Alleghenian was edited 
with much talent and more vigor, yet all its days were numbered by the brief 
space of two years. During these two years it had for its editors, besides 
Messrs. Mullin and Albright, Joseph R. Durborrow, R. L. Johnston, and John M. 
Bowman. Upon the suspension of the paper in 1855, the establishment was bought 
by Dr. A. Rodrigue, who took the press, type and fixtures to Kansas. Arriving in 
that then turbulent Territory, the office was seized by a body of border 
ruffians, and thrown into the Missouri River. The stock was subsequently fished 
out, however, and was afterward used, first, to spread abroad the pestilential 
heresy of pro-Slaveryism, and next, as a countervailing good, to preach the 
doctrines of Abolitionism."
     A notice from a paper called the Union, published at Junction City, Kan., 
in speaking of the old type of this paper, which the editor thereof was then 
about to throw into the "hell box," says that Dr. Rodrigue was the founder of 
the town of Lecompton. Messrs. Mullin and Allbright, it appears, were in 1853 
prosecuted for libel by Colonel John Piper, and muleted in a small sum in the 
Blair County court.
     On August 25, 1859, a paper called the Alleghenian and bearing at its head 
Bolsinger & Hutchinson, was started in Ebensburg to fill the long-felt want of a 
Republican paper at the county seat. About three months later Bolsinger dropped 
out, and the name of J. Todd Hutchinson alone appeared. After two years A. A. 
Barker appeared as editor and J. Todd Hutchinson as publisher.
     The Alleghenian was a four-page, six-column paper, the columns twenty 
inches in length. The editorials were vigorous and uncompromising, the literary 
and historical selections, many of which bear unmistakable evidences of being 
the work


387     HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

of Mr. Hutchinson, are as near perfection as it is possible for such things to 
be in a country printing office.
     A few weeks before the close of the seventh volume, Mr. Barker announced 
that he would vacate the editorial chair at the end of that volume, and offered 
the paper for sale. On October 18, 1866, he published his valedictory, giving as 
the reason for retiring that his private business demanded his entire attention. 
No arrangement for the continuation of the paper having been entered into at 
that time, it suspended until January 24, 1867, when publication was resumed, 
with J. Todd Hutchinson as editor and William E. Hutchison as publisher.
     William E. Hutchinson having died on December 19, 1867, from the effects of 
an illness occasioned, it is said, by over-exertion in a game of baseball three 
months previously, the name of his brother appeared as editor and publisher 
until the end of the eighth volume, on February 20, 1868, from which time until 
August 13, 1868, the commencement of the ninth volume, in the first number of 
which appear the names of J. Todd Hutchinson and E. James as editors, the paper 
was suspended. This new arrangement continued for a year, when Mr. James dropped 
out and Hutchinson was once more editor and publisher.
     The Crusader was a Catholic paper published by Henry A. McPike at Summit, 
then the seat of the diocesan seminary, the first number appearing about the 
first of January, 1852. Revs. John Walsh, of Hollidaysburg; Joseph Gallagher, of 
Loretto; Thomas McCulloch, of Summit, and T. Mullen, of Johnstown, afterward 
Bishop of Erie, were its editors. Whether the paper had, like many secular 
papers of the county, its period of suspension, or whether the publisher forgot 
to change the Roman numeral at the head of the paper -- a mistake he sometimes 
made -- cannot positively be told, while inclining something to the former 
opinion, but Vol. I, No. 6, of a Crusader in the Tribune office bears date March 
10, 1853. Some time in that year, however, it was merged with the Alleghenian 
and the seminary was about the same time moved to Pittsburg.
     In September, 1871, Edmund James changed the name of Alleghenian to the 
Cambria Herald, which continued until 1881, when Festus Lloyd purchased it, and 
his name appeared as editor at the head of its columns until his appointment to 
the postmastership of Ebensburg in the early part of 1898, when he sold out to a 
syndicate of politicians. It was soon merged


388     HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

with Walter R. Thompson's Mountaineer, the result of which amalgamation is the 
present Mountaineer-Herald.
     During the agitation caused by the opposition of Stephen A. Douglas to the 
admission of Kansas as a state under the Lecompton constitution, which the 
administration of Buchanan espoused, the Democrat and Sentinel being an 
administration paper, the friends of Douglas in Ebensburg formed an association 
to start a Douglas paper. The result was the resurrection of February 4, 1858, 
of the Mountaineer (No. 2), with Philip S. Noon, Esq., editor and proprietor, 
and D. C. Zahm, publisher; but the new editor retired on the 22d of September of 
the same year, giving as his reason therefor that he preferred to give undivided 
attention to the legal profession. He was succeeded in the next issue of 
September 29th by his brother -- James Chrysostom Noon -- the name of Robert 
Litzinger appearing at the same time as publisher.
     During the political campaign of 1860, on August 20th, Mr. Noon retired 
from the editorial chair, and the adherents of Douglas, anxious to continue the 
publication of the paper, induced John Lloyd to become its editor for one year, 
guaranteeing that he should not lose pecuniarily by his association with the 
paper. The defeat of Douglas at the general election in that year removed the 
motive for the continuation of the paper, and at the expiration of Mr. Lloyd's 
contract with the proprietors the paper ceased to exist.
     On April 11, 1856, the Beobachter, the first German newspaper of Johnstown, 
was printed on a press and types that had previously belonged to the Allegheny 
Republikaner, a Whig paper that had been published in Somerset. Germanus Voegtly 
and William Hermann were the publishers and the latter was the editor. It was a 
four-page, five-column paper, sixteen ems wide to the column. On November 28, 
1856, the name of the paper was changed. Der Johnstown Demokrat was the new name 
given, which, it was stated, was more significant than Beobachter (Observer), 
the politics of the paper being Democratic. The firm name was then changed to G. 
Voegtly & Co., and on April 24, 1857, to Voegtly & Young, Joseph Young then 
becoming the editor. On August 19, 1857, Richard White, of No. 4, bought out the 
interest of Voegtly, who it appears was sole owner, for the reason, the Tribune 
then asserted, that Young, while a good editor, had a leaning toward the 
Republican party, and was opposed to G. Nelson


389     HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

Smith's legislative aspirations. White, who was quite a linguist, occupied the 
editorial chair until April 5, 1858, when he made Hermann associate editor, 
which arrangement lasted for some time. White and Hermann both joined the army, 
the latter in a New York regiment.
     About the beginning of the civil war, Victor Voegtly bought Der Demokrat 
and conducted it for several years. A man named Lechner afterward became owner.
     In 1871 the name of the paper was changed to the Freie Presse by Mr. 
Lechner, from whom C. T. Schubert bought the paper about the year 1877. He 
continued to conduct it until the great flood of 1889, in which he lost his 
life. His office being on the third story of the building now occupied by the 
Dollar Deposit bank, on the corner of Main and Franklin streets, escaped 
uninjured, and a couple of weeks later the paper was started anew by Mrs. 
Schubert, as publisher, and George A. Bauer, as editor. In 1900 William F. and 
F. J. Schubert became the proprietors, with the former as editor. The office is 
in the Fend building on Main street. It is an eight page paper, 17x24, and the 
only German paper in the county. It is Democratic, and has a weekly circulation 
of 1,700.
     The Johnstown Democrat, the second paper of the name to be edited and 
published in the place, made its first appearance on March 5, 1863, with James 
F. Campbell, Sr., as editor, and James F. Campbell, Jr., as associate editor. 
The elder Campbell had previously edited a paper in Blairsville. He was a 
violent anti-war Democrat, as was apparent from the first issue of the paper, in 
its editorial notice of which the Tribune made this prediction, which was soon 
fulfilled:

     "Altogether, if the initial number is to be taken as an index of the 
future, the Johnstown Democrat will soon earn for itself a precious load of 
odium in the estimation of Union men who are less loyal to 'the party' than to 
the government."

     The journalistic career of the Messrs. Campbell in Johnstown was a most 
stormy one. So bitter was the feeling engendered, it was alleged that at the 
time of the return of the nine-month men, the editors, expecting violence at the 
hands of the exasperated volunteers, had an armed body of friends in the office 
of the paper ready to repel any attack. The friends of the defenders of the 
Union averred that such had never been contemplated. Once afterward there was a 
disturbance on one


390     HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

of the streets, the responsibility for which the Tribune charged to the editors 
of the Democrat.
     A vile caricature of the president, entitled "The Ebony King" was published 
in the paper, and the Hon. Cyrus L. Pershing, then member of the legislature, 
was charged with being an accessory, as he was reputed to be the owner of the 
paper at the time; but he disclaimed all responsibility therefor. In the fall of 
1864 the paper was suspended for a short time, but was revived, as appears from 
the Tribune of December 2d of that year, and the terms of the paper raised to $3 
a year in advance, or $3.50 if not so paid.
     On December 23, 1864, the Tribune in an editorial notice said:
     "The Johnstown Democrat has at last changed hands, Mr. James F. Campbell 
being succeeded as editor and publisher by H. D. and L. D. Woodruff -- the 
father and son -- late of New Bloomfield, Perry county. Personally we welcome 
these gentlemen to Johnstown; pecuniarily we hope they may meet with the most 
gratifying success; politically, we tell them frankly we do not like their first 
editorial about 'the reserved rights of the states,' nor do we admire the tone 
of the following sentences:
     "'We have just closed a presidential contest, and committed the destinies 
of this nation for years to the Abolitionists of the north and the Secessionists 
of the south, and we must await the development of the future. The election has 
been carried against us, with a less majority than there are officials whose 
tenure of office is dependent on the will of the president.'"
     In 1870 the elder Woodruff was the Removal candidate for the legislature, 
for which position he was supported by the Tribune as well as the Democrat, and 
opposed by the Cambria Freeman and Alleghenian of Ebensburg. During this 
campaign the anti-Removalites started a paper in Johnstown in opposition to the 
Democrat, called the Mountain Echo with G. Nelson Smith as editor. He was 
succeeded in turn by Thomas E. Myers, Casper W. Easly, and D. W. Hite. W. Horace 
Rose, Esq., who was the candidate on the regular Democratic ticket that year, 
was elected by a majority of 222 votes.
     In 1876 the senior editor retired, leaving his son, L. D. Woodruff, editor. 
For two terms, 1876-80, Mr. Woodruff was one of the representatives of this 
county in the legislature. He was also postmaster for Johnstown in Cleveland's 
second term and mayor of Johnstown from 1899 to 1902.


391     HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

     On Wednesday, August 22, 1888, began the publication of the Daily Democrat. 
The plant was damaged but little in the great flood of May 31, 1889, and 
publication was resumed in July of the same year. Mr. Woodruff edited and 
published the paper until February 1, 1893, since which time it has been 
conducted by Mr. Warren Worth Bailey, assisted by his brother -- Edward Homer 
Bailey. On the night of March 4, 1896, the Hannan block on Franklin street, in 
which the office of the paper is located, was badly damaged by fire and the 
Democrat suffered severely, without, however, any serious interruption in its 
business or delay in its publication.
     Warren Worth Bailey entered the office of the Kansas (Illinois) Citizen in 
1868, when thirteen years of age, and held the position of "devil" for three 
years. He then became a telegraph operator on the Big Four Railroad, and was 
made station agent when he was eighteen. Two years thereafter he returned home 
to attend school, and again went into the office of the Kansas News, the 
successor of the Citizen, where he worked before and after school hours and on 
Saturdays. His brother, Edward Homer, was also employed on the News from '73 to 
'77, and was an apt apprentice in the art. Homer Bailey accepted a position on 
the Carlisle (Indiana) Register in the latter year, when he was nineteen. After 
working there a short time he was offered the plant in partial payment for wages 
due, which he accepted. He invited Warren to join him in its management, under 
the name of the Democrat. They found it a heart-breaking proposition for some 
time. The public never knew how close they were to "Starvation Hollow," but the 
proprietors were doing good work and kept up appearances in a businesslike 
manner. When returns suddenly began to come in, the paper leaped into 
prosperity. In 1879 the brothers bought the Vincennes (Indiana) Reporter, and 
consolidating it with the Carlisle Democrat, changed the name to the Vincennes 
News. This venture also was successful, and in 1887 they sold out, and both 
entered journalism in Chicago.
     Warren Worth Bailey became attached to the reportorial and later to the 
editorial staff of the Evening Mail, and with a brief interruption was on the 
editorial staff of the Chicago Daily News until he came to Johnstown. In the 
meanwhile he did incidental work for the Times, the Tribune, the Herald, the 
Globe and the Evening Post. While on the News he exploited his radical views 
along economical, social and reform lines, con-


392     HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

sisting of single tax, free trade and control of public utilities, or payment 
for the same, which he has continued as the policy of the Democrat.
     Edward Homer Bailey engaged with the Blakeley Printing Company, a large job 
office in Chicago. He then became editor of the Lake View Record, in a suburban 
town, and later accepted a position on the editorial staff of the News in the 
city. In 1889 he was news editor on the Railroad Age. The next two years he was 
editor of the Bloomington (Illinois) Daily Leader, a Republican journal, 
relinquishing that to become a part owner of the Normal (Illinois) Advocate, 
where he remained until he came to Johnstown.
     On February 1, 1893, the brothers purchased the Daily and Weekly Democrat; 
the former had a circulation of about 300, and the latter 900. The Daily was a 
seven-column folio, with twenty-inch columns. It was a morning two-cent paper, 
or $5 a year subscription. In April, 1907, this daily edition has from twelve to 
sixteen pages, printed on a Webb perfecting press. The price was reduced to one 
cent on January 1, 1894, becoming the first penny paper in the county. In 1895 
they introduced the Merganthaler type-setting machines, and now have four. Its 
circulation on April 6 was 8,900, and on the opening of the baseball season it 
rose 700. The weekly has about 1,100. A Sunday edition was published from 
October 4, 1903, to February 28, 1904, when it was discontinued. Warren Worth 
Bailey is the editor and publisher, and owns two-thirds of the plant, while 
Edward Homer Bailey, the associate editor, owns one-third. A cash offer of 
$100,000 was made for it recently.

                       ------------------------

     During the existence of Smith's Mountain Echo the paper, to use that 
gentleman's facetious expression, had been frequently threatened by the Tribune 
with the specter of an Allegheny Mountain Voice. This phantasm at last took 
shape in the founding of a paper by a number of persons to politically oppose 
the Echo's editor, of whom H. A. Boggs was one of the leading spirits. If we are 
to judge by an item in the Tribune of April 17, 1858, the "publishers, 
proprietors and editors" remained incog., but to a certain John McCormick, a 
school teacher by profession, was given credit of writing the leading 
editorials.
     The first issue of the National Democrat appeared in Johns-


393     HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

town on September 21, 1857, in opposition to the Echo, which was an anti-
Lecompton organ. A. J. Hite was the publisher. Joseph Young was the reputed 
editor of this publication and of the Herald, a German paper of the same 
proclivities that appeared about the same time. As Lecompton Democrats were not 
very plentiful in Johnstown, the paper did not long survive.
     The Johnstown Herald, according to the Echo of that time, was a German 
sheet printed in Pittsburg in 1857 on the press of Victor Seriba, of the 
Pittsburg Democrat, at the instigation of National Democrats, headed by General 
Bowman, of Bedford, to fight the regular, or Administration, ticket in Cambria 
county. Joseph Young was the reputed editor.
     Mountain Echo No. 2. In 1870, after Henry D. Woodruff had accepted the 
nomination for Assembly on the Removal ticket, the friends of Ebensburg started 
a paper (the Mountain Echo No. 2), in opposition to the Democrat and the 
Tribune, both of which favored the removal of the county seat, and George Nelson 
Smith was placed in control as editor. He was succeeded successively by Thomas 
E. Myers, Casper W. Easly and D. W. Hite.
     The Voice and Echo was a weekly paper started in opposition to the Tribune 
a short time before the inauguration of the Daily Voice. James F. Campbell, Sr., 
was its editor. Its name was probably a compound of the Allegheny Mountain Voice 
and the Mountain Echo.
     On July 2, 1872, J. B. Campbell, Jr., and brother started the Daily Voice 
in Johnstown. After an existence of two years this paper suspended. This was the 
first attempt at establishing a daily newspaper in Johnstown.
     The Sunday Times was published in Johnstown for a short time in 1879-80. 
James F. Campbell, Sr., was the editor. The demand for a Sunday paper did not 
justify the expense of publication, hence it was discontinued. McPike in the 
Freeman facetiously alluded to the cause of its demise in the following:

     "Dimes and dollars, dollars and dimes,
     The want of money, the worst of crimes,
     Was what was the matter with the Sunday Times."

     The Ebensburg Local News was a Republican paper established by S. E. 
Humphreys in 1887. Its publication was suspended in 1890.
     The South Fork Courier was ushered into existence by S. E. Humphreys after 
he had discontinued the publication of


394     HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

the Local News in Ebensburg, and was by him conducted for several years, when he 
sold the press and good will of the paper to the proprietors of the Record.
     The South Fork Record succeeded the Courier in 1894, with John L. Sechler 
as one of its first editors. On August 13, 1897, W. I. Stineman became the 
editor and proprietor, with Otis C. Lloyd as manager. On August 8, 1898, it was 
moved into its own building. H. C. Stineman is the present editor and publisher. 
It is a folio, twenty by twenty-six inches, issued on Thursday, and has always 
been a Republican journal.
     The U. B. Conference Journal began publication in 1888, Rev. W. H. Mingle 
being its editor and Rev. L. W. Stahl publisher. It is a monthly journal devoted 
to religious intelligence, dated at Johnstown.
     Thompson's Mountaineer was founded in Ebensburg in opposition to the 
Cambria Herald by W. R. Thompson and J. L. Sechler, June 18, 1891, but in 
October of the same year Mr. Sechler retired, leaving the paper in control of 
the senior editor, whose name continued at the head of its columns down to the 
merging of that paper with the Herald, and still appears at the head of the 
Mountaineer-Herald. The consolidation took place in April, 1898. The Herald had 
been an eight-column folio, but since the consolidation it has been one of six 
columns of eight pages, twenty inches in length. It is well equipped, having a 
Cottrell drum cylinder press and a Mergenthaler double-magazine linotype, which 
were introduced in that year. The machinery is run by electricity. Eighteen 
hundred copies are issued every Thursday. It is the only Republican paper in the 
county sear, and Mr. Thompson is editor and owner.
     The Teachers' Advocate was an educational paper first issued in January, 
1867, by J. Frank Condon and T. J. Chapman. Its subscription price was seventy-
five cents per annum, with a circulation of about five hundred copies. In 
January, 1868, Mr. Chapman retired and was succeeded by A. C. Johnson. Four 
months later the proprietor sold to George W. Cope, who moved the paper to 
Ebensburg. In December, 1869, the Advocate again changed owners, George J. Akers 
and David W. Hite assuming control, with T. J. Chapman as editor. Johnstown 
again became the place of publication, and the Advocate took the shape of a 
pamphlet, but its publication was given up in the year 1870.
     At the beginning of the year 1873 George W. Wagoner, now


395     HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

a physician in Johnstown, started in this place a weekly paper called the 
Literary-Herald, whose life went out at the end of a year. It was 13 by 26 
inches in size. Dr. Wagoner, at the time of its publication, was but seventeen 
years of age, having previously worked a couple of years at the printing trade 
in the Tribune office.
     The Gallitzin News was published for a short period prior to the founding 
of the Vindicator. J. I. Campbell was its editor, but he soon became convinced 
that the position of mail agent on the Pennsylvania railroad was more 
remunerative than that of editor of a paper on the mountain top.
     About the beginning of 1887 Mr. James W. Kilduff, who in his youth had been 
a miner by occupation, and had taken a conspicuous part in the Greenback-Labor 
movement and in the United Mine Workers and Knights of Labor organizations, 
projected the Gallitzin Vindicator and Industrial Liberator as the official 
organ of the United Mine Workers of America of District No. 2 and of the Knights 
of Labor and other labor organizations of this county, and afterward of the 
Ancient Order of Hibernians. While the circulation was large, many of the 
subscribers did not pay, with the result that the paper had to succumb to the 
inevitable. The press and office fixtures were sold, and on them the Gallitzin 
Times was printed.
     The Gallitzin Times was started in 1894 to succeed the Vindicator. W. S. 
Strickland was its editor and publisher. It suspended publication in the summer 
of 1906.
     The Gallitzin Item was established in November, 1906. Charles Platt is the 
editor and proprietor. It is exclusively a paper for local events.
     The Carrolltown News was established in 1879 by T. Scott Williams, who was 
succeeded by T. W. Letts and W. H. Waltz as publishers. It was afterward edited 
by J. S. Foley, when it had passed into the hands of Joseph A. Gray. It was for 
a time edited by Joseph E. Farabaugh, and then became the property of sons of 
Joseph A. Gray. It has always been Democratic in politics, and is a six-column, 
eight-page paper, issued on Friday, G. E. Hipps being the editor and publisher.
     The Johnstown Daily News was a venture of John E. Strayer in 1888, a short 
time before the establishment of the Daily Democrat. It was for a time fairly 
successful, but lack of sufficient capital to carry on as expensive an 
undertaking


396     HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

as the publishing of a daily paper caused its suspension. The first issue was on 
February 20.
     Johnstown Herald, Weekly and Daily, was started in April, 1891. It was 
published by the Herald Publishing Company, Frank C. Hoerle being the editor. 
The daily was a four-page, seven-column paper, published at first for $5 per 
year. A weekly paper was also published at $1.50 per year, being established 
previous to the Daily. This was afterward, in January, 1894, changed to a semi-
weekly at the same price, at which time the price of the Daily was reduced to 
one cent per copy. This effort to secure patronage, however, did not meet with 
success, and the result was the suspension of the paper.
     The Hastings Herald and Tribune was started at Hastings with the assistance 
of General D. H. Hastings, who donated a lot on which to build an office for a 
paper for the then new town, the first number appearing February 7, 1889. The 
paper was ostensibly independent, with Republican proclivities. R. M. Huston was 
its editor. R. J. Kaylor purchased the plant August 1, 1890, and when appointed 
postmaster in 1893 leased the paper to G. A. Gill, who conducted it for one 
year, when he relinquished the paper to its owner, who thereafter, until the 
summer of 1898, continued its publication. In the latter year, believing there 
was an opening for a Democratic paper at the county seat, Mr. Kaylor endeavored 
to buy the Freeman in Ebensburg, but the owner -- Mr. Hasson -- being unwilling 
to sell, the plant of the Hastings Tribune was moved thither, and on June 1, 
1898, with R. J. Kaylor and H. G. Kaylor, of Johnstown, as editors and 
publishers, the first issue was put out under the name of the Cambria Tribune. 
The Tribune was changed from a seven-column folio to a six-column, eight-page 
paper, columns eighteen inches. On June 1, 1903, Lewis E. Kaylor purchased the 
plant. Since June 1, 1906, it has been a seven-column, eight-page paper, with a 
circulation of 1,800. R. J. and H. G. Kaylor then organized the Journal company 
in Johnstown.
     Beulah had its Sky printed in Philadelphia, and Johnstown had its Herald 
printed in Pittsburg; so likewise Ebensburg had its Democrat printed in Patton 
on the press of the Herald in 1898. The first issue was also the last.
     The Johnstown Daily Times, a four page, eight column daily paper, was 
started in December, 1895, by F. W. Clark. In conjunction with this paper Mr. 
Clark continued the publi-


397     HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

cation of the Morrellville Times, which he had run as a weekly paper for several 
years previous to coming to Johnstown.
     The Lilly Signal was started in December, 1896, by a stock company, the 
late James W. Kilduff being employed as editor, who was succeeded by James 
McCann. The original company was named the Signal Publishing Company, but Mr. 
McCann changed the name to the Lilly Publishing Company. It has now a 
subscription list of thirteen hundred, and circulates in every mining town in 
the county. It is a folio 17 by 24 inches. While not an official organ of the 
miners from choice it nevertheless publishes the official mining news of 
District No. 2, U. M. W. of A., and is considered an authority on mining matters 
in this region.
     The Johnstown Presbyterian was a monthly paper, published, as the 
salutatory of the editor -- the Rev. Dr. C. C. Hays -- stated, to keep the 
somewhat scattered members of that denomination informed with regard to church 
services, works of benevolence, and so forth. Its first number made its 
appearance in February, 1894, when the congregation had two chapels. The 
publishing company was composed of Messrs. Campbell Rutledge, John P. Lloyd, 
Charles H. Alter, H. V. Smith, Charles W. Horrell, and William Boyes. The paper 
was well edited. It was printed on the Theocrat press, and the subscription was 
twenty-five cents per year. After five years, publication was suspended, the 
want which called the paper into existence having passed away when the members 
in the suburbs organized independent churches.
     The Aloysian is the euphonious name of a quarterly publication edited by 
the pupils of Mt. Aloysius Academy, Cresson. It is devoted to college news, 
essays, poems, etc., the literary productions of the pupils, and was started 
about 1899.
     The Neue Welt was the name given a German paper, or New World, in the 
English signification of the term. After a few months Otto Nickel bought out his 
partner Paul Schmidt. It suspended May, 1901. The Neue Welt was an eight-page, 
six-column paper.
     After the Neue Welt had been established the company that had formerly 
published the paper for Mr. Nickel continued the publication of the Neue Zeit 
with Louis Golder as manager. This arrangement, however, was not of long 
duration and ceased in 1899.
     The Patton Courier was established in 1893 by the Patton


398     HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

Publishing Company. E. Will Greene was its editor. It is independent in 
politics, and is devoted principally to general and local news and literary 
selections. It is an eight page weekly, 15x22. R. E. Decker is the editor.
     The Patton Herald was a Democratic paper started in Patton by R. A. 
Kinsloe, Jr., as editor and publisher in 1898. Its life was not of long 
duration.
     The Johnstown Theocrat was a religious and temperance paper started by the 
Rev. M. L. Weaver. Barring temporary suspensions on account of adverse 
circumstances it was published weekly until it was discontinued in.
     The Spangler Sentinel was a Republican paper established at Spangler in 
1893. Milton Spencer was the editor and the Spangler Printing Company the 
publishers. About 1900 it was removed to Barnesboro and became the Barnesboro 
Star, published by the Star Publishing Company, as independent in politics. It 
contains 8 pages, 15x22, and is issued on Fridays. Mr. Spencer is the editor.
     The Morrellville Journal was the first paper started in Morrellville, the 
first issue bearing date of January 4, 1895, and the last January 17, 1896. It 
was a neat four-page, five-column paper, and was devoted to local and general 
news. C. E. Hurrell was its editor.
     The Item was a small paper published in Johnstown about 1891 by J. Morrell 
Goughnour. It came out Saturdays, and devoted its space to sporting and society 
news. It lived only through a few issues.
     The Cresson Record was established in 1895 by Joseph E. Farabaugh, who 
bought the plant of the Cherrytree Record and moved it to Cresson. After a short 
time he sold out to Swope Brothers, A. H. Swope being the editor. At this time 
F. N. Harrington is the editor. It is Independent in politics, and has four 
pages, 17x24, published on Friday.
     The Johnstown Journal is an Independent-Democratic daily, first issued 
December 5, 1903, from its office, corner Main and Clinton streets, by the 
Journal Publishing Company, which was incorporated September 27, 1903; H. M. 
Benshoff, president; Geo. Wild, vice-president; R. J. Kaylor, secretary, and H. 
G. Kaylor, treasurer. It is a seven-column, twelve-page morning paper. When the 
Wild building was destroyed by fire, March 28, 1906, the plant was moved to 221 
Franklin street. On June 2, 1906, a new Hoe press was installed. At the


399     HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

present time it is made up of from ten to sixteen pages, the columns being 
twenty-one inches in length. It has no weekly issue. R. J. Kaylor is the 
managing editor, and H. G. Kaylor business manager. Its circulation in February 
was 6,900. R. J. Kaylor is a practical printer, having learned the trade on the 
Freeman, the Altoona Mirror and the Altoona Sunday Morning. January 1, 1889, he 
became foreman of the Carrolltown News. In '90 he was engaged in the Times 
Printing Company job office in Philadelphia, owned by John Wanamaker.
     The Northern Cambria News is published by the News Publishing Company, at 
Hastings, with H. E. Williams as editor. It was established in 1902, and now has 
eight pages, 13 by 20, and is issued on Friday.
     The Portage Press was established in 1903, as an independent newspaper. F. 
W. Eicher was editor and publisher. It had eight pages, 13 by 20. It ceased to 
appear in the fall of 1906.
     The Conemaugh Valley Monthly was a magazine published in Johnstown by the 
Conemaugh Valley Publishing Company, the first number appearing in August, 1906. 
Rufus Hatch Holbrook was the editor and Benjamin F. Watkins, business manager. 
It was a literary production and especially aimed to portray picturesque views 
in the valley; the illustrations were taken from very fine photographs. But four 
numbers of the monthly had been issued when on December 1, 1906, the Saturday 
Night appeared in its place. The latter, controlled by the same parties and 
published by the Conemaugh Publishing Company, was a twenty-page, 11 by 14, 
illustrated weekly, consisting of general literature, cartoons and portraits, 
and pictures of local scenery, which suspended publication in March, 1907.