The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1888-07-26
OLD TIMES IN STARK.
More About Printers Who Lived
in Canton and Massillon.
About One Who Became a Lawyer and
Judge, and Prominent as an Actor
on thefIissOric Stage. and as op
.antRdit6r, BriIianey Of s.qca,
HIS Talents. al U5
w ltten for the Nuws-prMocnAr.

had a conversation with the late Hon.
George w. Belden about starting a
paper in Massillon. Mr. Belden, then a
young man, who had acquired a knowl-
edge of printing in the village of Mid
dleburg, in the county of Portage, in
the Office of the Portage Journal; the
establishment being owned by Messrs.
Bowen q Mason. Mr.. Bowen after
wards studied law, removed to Marion,
Marion county, O., was elected a Judge
of the Supreme Court, and his name
will be found as such in the Ohio Re-
ports. Mr.. Belden, then a young man,
ambitious and of much promise, on
leaving the Office Of the Portage Journal,
determined to study medicine. He
commenced and made remarkable
progress as a student in the Office of Dr.
Martin Johnson, who was Mr.. Belden's
patron and friend. About the close of
the year 1927, DR.. Johnson died, which
changed the map of Mr., Belden's life.
In 1890 Mr.. Belden and Capt. James
Allen made an arrangement by which
Allen took the subscription list of the
Ohio Sentinel, the paper of which Mr..
Belden and the writer had anticipated
great success; Allen brought the Ohio
Democrat from Canton to Massil-
lon and there started the Mas
sillon Gazette. Mr.. Belden then
went into the office of the late Hon.
John Harris at Canton put in his two
wears of probation, was admitted to
The bar, and was at once taken into
partnership by his perceptor, elected
prosecuting attorney, and in 1887 a
Judge of the Common Pleas court, OH
Joint ballot of the Ohio Legislature of
Ohio, for seven years, which he served
to the acceptance of the bar, and the
people of the large circuit which was
composed of the counties of Stark, Tus-
caravans, Carroll, Harrison, Jefferson
and Columbiana. Always a Democrat,
aud there being a Wing Legislature at
the close of his term, he was not re-
elected, but Immediately resumed pra(-
tice with eminent success, and contln-
ned until 1851, when under the present
constitution he was elected Common
Pleas Judge of the first sub division OF
the 9th Judicial District-composed OF
Stark. Carroll and Columbiana. 1t was
not of Judge Belden as lawyer or Judge
that your correspondent intended to
write, but as a printer who had dlstln-
guished himself and risen to emlnence
Oy the fame of his character, unalded
by wealth, he acquired by his one exer-
ton, a name, and made friends who
will ever kindly cherish his memory,
Of Capt, Allen, the following extract
from the history of Stark county, pre-
pared by the writer hereof for that
work, will be regarded as truthful by
those who knew him, as did your cor.
respondent. Some of the facts stated
in the following extract have appeared
in some articles prepared for the DEM
oCRAT by the writer, and might be
omitted at this time, but on an exami'
nation of the sketch as it originally ap'
peared, and as the repetitiOns are not
important, the extract is given nearly
entire:
Elm 1880 Capt, James Allen, of Can.
ton, who had served his apprenticeship
to the art p~reservative' in the office OF
the Ohio Repository, at Canton, came
to Massillon with the material for 9
newspaper and rented the upper room
of building on Main street, immedl
ately east of the store of l. BrOwnell
about where now stands the drug store
of Mr.. Ph. Morgenthaler. The materia
that he brought included all that wa
necessary to put out a paper, such a.
was gotten out half a century ago.
The Or, s; on which the paper was II
be, and was printed was an old Ram
age press. SO old and dilapidated tina
the inventor, Adam Ramage, would
hardly have recognized it asa copy O
his invention. 1t, with other material
was brought into this county in 1897 b!
that veteran printer, now gone to MI
long rest, Joseph Atkinson'Whlte, Wht
had started more newspapers in Ohit
and elsewhere in the United States
west of the Ohio river than any mai
| living or dead, except Sam Pike.
When White brought his printing
materials to Stark county he was bount
to start a paper to support the admin
istration and reelection of John Quln
cy Adams, the year 1928 being its las
year. but falling in with several infiu
| entail Democrats at Canton, he con
cluded to start a paper at Paris, in thi
county, then a little hamlet, in the sup
port of General Jackson. He did SC
and his paper, the Ohio Democrat, live
and lourished until after the Presiden
tial election, when it was removed t.
Canton, but did not flourish there. Cap
tain Allen was in some way connected
with it at Canton and finally becam
owner of the establishment, brought /
to Massillon at the time named, ant
with DR.. John Townsend started tn
Massillon Gazette. 1t was printed on
small super-royal sheet. Massillon a
that time had possibly 500 inhabitants
when the Massillon Gazette, by Allel
& Townsend, made its appearance IL
April, 1880.
The political tidal wave that la,
carried General Jackson into the Presi
dency had scarcely subsidized; tn
ground-swell after the storm was stll
rolling. Everybody was Democrati
save a few who inherited the faith o
the Federal fathers, and under thes
circumstances the Gazette, without an
particular principles was started. Town
send soon withdrew from it. Allen, Oh
of the most genial men ever connecte
with the Stark county press, and Of re
markable ability as a writer, and who's
colloquial powers were rarely eve
equalled, and a. practical withal, wa
unable to make the Gazette a success
The Democrat of MassiIloh, unde
the lead of Alexander McCully bough
out the paper and it went into tn
hands of Bunard & McCully; Bunar
being a practical printer. In the Aut
umn of 1881, Allen was elected to tn
Legislature, the House of Represents
tives, but did not return to Stark count
from Columbus. When the Legisls
tnrn ndionrnad he want to Cincinnati