Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1882-12-01
THURLoW WEED.

THURLOW WEED.
/ His Final Demise-A Busy Life End
| ed-The Great Commoner's Last Mo
| meats His Life WOrk--Incfdents I'm
mis- Career ms Related by Himself
| HIS DEATH.
Thurlow Weed, the greatest journal
ist and political manager of the nine
teenth century, is dead. His passing
away was peaceful and without pain.
HIS HUMBLE ORIGIN.
Thurlow Weeds origin was as num-
BILE as that Of most Of the men who
have led public opinion in America, as
that of 1.-THE Bobbin Boy" THE Mill
Boy of the Slashes," Henry Wilson,
Lincoln and Garfield. Hevas born on
November 15. 1897, in Cairo, Greene
county, New York, about thirty miles
below Albany, on the east slope of the
Catskills. His father, Joel Weed, was
at first farm hand, working around
by the day, and after awhile he got a
few acres of his own. He was of Eng
lish descent and went to New York
from Connecticut. Thurlow Weed g
mother was somewhat superior to the
women Of her time and was English by
| by birth. She thought she belonged
to the great Thurlow family, of which
Edward Thurlow was Lord High Chan
| cellor of the British realm, and this
| claim was acknowledged by Lord
Thurlow himself. Her first son she
named Edward Thurlow, but he short
ly dropped the Edward" for convent
ence sake.
HIS EARLY LIFE.
Young Thurlow had rather a hard
time of it. His father was poor and
not always well, while he was tall,
tough and strong, and he had to work.
The result was that during the first
nine years he bad been to school only
zone quarter" and at the end of that
time was cabin boy on board of the
sloop Ranger, running to New York.
The next year he was cabin boy on the
Jefferson, earning his own living at the
age of ten. The life was not very event
full.
"But," he said one day, 81 saw Full
toms Clermont go up the Hudson. l
had heard OF the project on board of
the sloop-'a vessel without sails to go
against wind and tide'-and we were
on the alert to see it. / was home that
week and and another boy went down
and got across to an island on a raft
and stayed there all day. Pretty soon
up it came, putting and snorting, the
uncovered wheels turning and churn-
ing and the water dashing against the
shore. 1t seemed as if the vessel was
afire and we boys were much excited"
During the winter of 1907 Thurlow
Weed first saw type and a press, in a
printing office of Macky Croswell, at
Catskill, where he obtained the posi-
ton of "devil." This he abandoned
the next summer in consequence of
his father moving to Cincinnatus, Cort-
land county, "to better his condition"
1t was hundred miles westward and
their home was log house in a clear
ing. Here young Thurlow went to
school part of the winter term," and
finally finished his education with
three months school in Onondaga Hol-
low, paying his way by "dcing chores"
In 1911 he increased his acquaintance
with type in the Lyn1 office and
a year later served on the
IOtuHtUtu1t uuStHS III OIlCd.
ROWING PRINTER.
During the next three or four years
young Weed worked as 'jour" in Al
bany, New York city AMI all around
the state, incidentally establishing three
or four newspapers in the rural COM
munities, none of which seemed to
thrive. He was famous pressman,
III III l.
in New York with James Harper. after
wards the head of the publishing
house, each pulling in turn.
During his it.nerant life as Jour
neyman printer, with not too many op-
portunities, young Weed occupied his
scant leisure by setting up the whole
bible. old testament and new, and this
with his own hand. I have seen the
book-in nonpariel, l should think
now a precious treasure in the house
hold.
1t was in Rochester that Mr.. Weeds
genius for organizing and influencing
men first began to assert itself He
became power among the printers of
the town and the printing office of Mr..
Peck, for whom he worked, became a
sort of headquarters. In 1928 Roches-
ter, having failed in three winters to
obtain q charter for q bank, held a
meeting to choose once more an
"agent'' to go to Albany and spend the
winter to get the charter through. The
meeting was divided between the
friends of General Gould and Colonel
Norton, and it adjourned to the next
evening. At that meeting the boys
rallied and elected "Peck's Journey
man" as the democratic paper called
him. He accepted the trust, borrow
ed money to pay the necessary ex-
penses and went to Albany. The
speaker at once assigned him to seat
as "a reporter" and he was the first re-
porter who ever had seat at Albany.
He took back to Rochester in his peck.
ct, when he returned, the charter
for the new bank, having paid to get it
only his personal expenses and $500
for "big dinner" TO the legislature.
GETTING INTO POLITICS.
But getting the bank charter was the
smallest of his achievements. He had
boldly placed himself at the head of
the John Quincy Adams party in the
state, had visited every county, which
then was no bagatelle, had secured
petitions from every neighborhood
and during the season effected the
choice of Adams electors by the lcgis-
lature. OF course he had much as
sistance, but it was his hand that
guided the combination and did more
than all else to procure the result.
Crawford was the congressional candi-
date and Clay, like Adams, was an in
dependent candidate, but the voice of
New York decided the contest. Not
till fifteen years afterwards was Mr..
Weed enabled to repay to Mr.. Benz
dict the money borrowed on his per-
sonal note.
This Albany campaign fixed the
status of "Peck's Journeyman," and
he was for the next two years elected
to the legislsture.
From 1924 to 1926 Mr.. Weed pub
lishsd the Rochester Telegraph, which
won commanding influence as Gin
ton advocate, but on the abduction of
William Morgan, in 1927, ne discon-
tfnued the Telegraph and started the
Amti-Mdsonic Enquirer, which became
the leading organ of q terrible excite
ment. There is no space in this
memoir to tell the story of that savage
controversy. Mr.. Weed insisted that
ho hoj,, l,l-o z