Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1907-09-02
JOURNALISM IN ORLEANS COUNTY.


or favored with an en-
larged sphere of action in the state at
large, is necessarily encyclopedia and
within the radius OF Its
and as repository of cur
rent information is one Of the most
valuable adiuncts to an earnest ana
intelligent civilization, every number
of which is significant in narration
and an equally important factor in
the making and compendium of his
tory. however limited in size, however
ANAL in comparison its orbit of radia'
ton. Hence, 1t would seem to be
difficult to name a subject which pos
sesaes more undeniable claims to our I
attention than that indicated in the
title to this paper-nor one involving |
more OF embarrassment in placing |
upon correct record the birth, growth
and development of periodic itera-
ture in our county, particularly in its
earliest history, taking into considera-
ton the paucity of material at hand;
a condition of suspended animation
not unlike the Saracenic legend of
Mahomers coffin hanging between
earth and heaven. And of appro-
pirate mention of the editors, Heaven
bless theml like Ichabod Crane of
blessed memory the personi6cation OF
consequence in a rural community
and inferior in learning only to the par
sons; conductors of thrilling gazettes
of local gossip of ever increasing mag
nitudes, veritable cities of refuge to
the peripatetic office seeker, and like
Goldsmith's schoolmaster
"And still the wonder grew
That one small head could contain all he
knew"
An account of the first newspaper
projected and published within the
territorial limits of our county Is OF
necessity quite meager in detail and
indistinct in the fast fading memory
of the Oldest inhabitant. It's some
what euphonic patronymic was that
of the Northern Osiris" a cogno-
men, poetic and dramatic in procla-
nation, suggestive of the lotus and
papyrus of the Nile, and
'oi IA land that far away
Into the golden Orient lay
Where sleep the lion lights of bygone days
and in allusion to the Mogian worship
of the blazing fire god on the SUBMITS
of the Persian mountains thousands
of years ago, long antecedent to Ilium
and it's Homeric heroes. Its situs of
publication was Derby Center, a viii
lage of the plain, of Academic renown
and endowed with variegated land
scape OF scenic beauty as to which enc
might we'll ard appropriately apply
the words of the Gaelic Chieftan:
al marked the sand delighted eye
Far tothe south and east where lay
In succession gay
y Deep waving fields and pastures green
with fertile slopes and groves between"
To this village in the year of Grace
1881 came j. NJ. Stevens, first in the
knight errantry of the goose quill,
paste pot and scissors in this county
who, encouraged by an earnest oil
financial support by a syndicate OF
joint proprietorship, established 9
newspaper, no doubt quite diminutive
in size, printed on coarse paper, scant
in equipment and adorned with bu
few advertisements, and as to these
it may be stated in an imaginative
way that it may have contained brie
mention of Isaac F. Redfield as {
practicing attorney of this village
afterward chief justice of the court o
final resort of the state, and of Stod
dard B. Colby as student in Mr., Red
fields office; of Lemuel Richmond
the village physician and surgeon; o
the wooden mill of municipal impor
lance as the chief manufacturing
industry; and of other matters impor
tant as matters of historical data
This early newspaper is entitled t
grateful remembrance as the advanc
nalism in Orleans county. The frs
in the line of descent, it was sporadi
and intermittent in publication an
without doubt confined to a Unite
area of circulation, the initial numbe
bearing date December II, 1881. Afte
an interval of month the secon
number appeared, in which it wa
editorially announced, sit will con
tinue to be published on every Thar;
day morning during the year, and "
have no doubt 1t will continue so
be published for the next half Ger
tury," the final number and thir
number appearing April 10, 1882, a
interregnum of editorial activity I
four months and five days. Not /
any means an isolated case of extren
l. frN-