Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1922-08-24
"reminiscences
OF THE "HERALD"
Mr.. Editor:-

MIR. EdltOr:-
l see by your last issue that
the Herald" is fifty years old
don't mean much to you but it
makes me feel darned old, too,
because my mind goes wander
ing back to the time I first saw
the paper, 1875, when | went
to work for Hiram A Cutting
at Lunenburg. If l remember
rightly, John w. Hartshorn of
that town, financed the "Her-
aid" and his son Harry and his
son-in-law George H. Emerson
published it. There were about
$50 subscribers then in Lunen-
burg. | never see any Lunen-
burg items nowadays in your
paper, what's the trouble?
James Morse, a prominent Lu-
enburg man of that period,
christened the Herald" the
Essex County Bible" because
he got it Saturday mornings
and said he read it Sundays in
stead of going to church. ,
If you have your files for 49,
78 and 1879 you will find reg
ular correspondence ovef the
signature of Essex" Well, I
wrote them all. I started writ
ing for "Dick" Burnham, he
promised me three cents per i
tenn, and I ran up to a credit
account for about four dollars
and had hard luck collecting
it. He sold out to, w. H. Bishop
who wanted me to continue, he
said he couldn't pay money.
but would pay postage and
give me something which might
come to him thru advertising.
I told him maybe his word
wasn't any better than the
other fellows, so he went home
and fitted it into Burnham, who
sent me a check. I then wrote
for Bishop and we got along
so we'll at long distance that l
came to Island Pond, Jan. 1,
1882 and worked on the "Her-
aid" four years. It was then To-
Gated in the old Island Pond
House. The press was the old
fashioned "Washington" and
it was some stunt to pull off
the edition on a hot summer
day. We used to trv and run off
the Island Pond list Wednes-
day afternoon, and the rest
Thursday forenoon. With due
respect to all the other owners
of the Essex County Herald. I
think Mr.. Bishop put out the
best paper of anv of them, al
though he would insist on rub
bing it into the dirty Democrats
| give YOU credit for one
thing. You have no fixed politi-
cal policy and so offend no
one. The support of a country
newspaper is too small as a
whole to be able to stand split
ting up politically, and the po-
licv of the average country pa
per doesn't change peoples
ideas. Of course, at that time,
Essex County had some of the
big men of the state in its citi-
zenry and Mr.. Bishop thought
it to his advantage to side a.
long with George N. Dale, I'm
Mansur. David S. Storrs. Sam
uel D. Hobson, Charles E. Ben
ton, John w. Hartshorn, but he
seemed to forget he was anita
gonizing Eber Robinson, Char
les M. Dyer, ed" Gonya, PR.
Follansby, Franklin Bell. He
just robbed "Peter to pay
Paul"
1t is the custom to make fun
of papers of the small town,
but l tell you from long exper-
ience, that when l go up to the
post-office and get the Boston
Globe and the Essex County
Herald at the same time, | in
variably look at the Bud
first. (By the way, who invent
ed that nickname and why?)
We have occasional letters
from Island Pond, but none SC
complete a recorder of news as
the local paper, and every lit
tie thing that we read is of in
torest.
| once thought of buying the
Herald" with Porter H. Dale
| wonder what would hav,
been the result? Would h,
1 have become a Congressmal
inst the Same 7 never woIIlt