The globe-independent. (Hagerstown, Md.) 1943-19??, 1947-07-03

horses IN Oruer TO save them from
the hungry army. Now l read in
Williams History that the term was
also used on Civil War draft dodg-
ers. Well, you can be sure it is a
good Cd old Pennsylvania Dutch
term and will probably find it used
a few more ways.
In past columns have made brief
references to some of the newspa-
pers of our County. Few people
realize the important part the news
papers have played in shaping the
history of a community. Our Coun-
ty has seen many papers, some good,
some poor, but it is safe to say that
every one of them left a mark of
good infuence-or otherwise-some-
where.
It is reported that the people of
Hagerstown were "astonished" in
July, 1795, by the appearance of
''The Spy" Washington County's
first newspaper. Williams reports
that most of the people of our Coun-
ty at that time had never even seen
a newspaper, as there were very few
published in the United States, and
that large proportion of the peo-
pie could not have read one if they
had it. A few papers were coming
into the county before this, from
Frederick and Winchester, the near
est printers.
The Spy was a good paper. If
! could describe it accurately you
would at once disagree with this
statement, but common sense does
not allow us to measure a paper of
that time with one of our modern
machine-produced papers. This one
was but ten by fifteen and a half
inches in size. The publisher was
Stewart Herbert, who died only five
years later.
Phoebe Herbert, the founders wi
dow, continued to publish the Spy,
with. the aid of John D. Carey, until
1896 when she married Thomas
Greeves. Mr.. Greeves was a Scotch
man, but the Spy promptly folded
up financially.
But Mr.. Greeves proved he was a
successful publisher, for he founded
the Maryland Herald" which he
edited for more than 80 years. This
paper is considered the descendant of
The Spy. This was the only paper
printed in English until William Bell
founded the Torch Light" in 1918.
The Herald by this time had been
sold by Greeves and his step-son,
Stewart Herbert, to DR.. John Rey-
nolds who in turn sold it to Bell. 1t
is reported that as late as 1858 Mr..
Bell was using some of the same
type that printed the first 1895 Spy,
for his Torch Light.
A complete file of the old Wash
ington Spy and the Hagerstown
Herald is preserved in the library of
the Maryland Historical Society.
Sometime after the appearance of
The Spy, J. Gruber, publisher and
originator of the famous almanac
bearing his name, founded his Ger
man Western Correspondent" This
paper persisted in 1880
Another early paper was started
by Richard Williams in 1902, which
he named the Farmers Repository,
and another in 1909, The Gazette,
by William McPherrin. Both were
short lived.
At this time story appeared in
the papers about an old colored
woman known as NANNY Lucy"
She died in Hagerstown at the re-
ported age of one hundred and thir-
ty, which would have made her
birth year 1886.
The Torch Light was one of the
longlived papers founded at this
time. 1t was Wing paper and had
a wide influence throughout the
State. Mr.. Bell supported Henry
Clay and he bitterly opposed Gen
eral Jackson after Mr.. Jackson We
toed bill and thereby blocked the
chances of Federal construction of
the National Turnpike and the Ches-
apeake and Ohio canal From 1841
to 1849 his son Edwin Bell edited
the Torch Light After the death of
Edwin Bell in 1851 Mrs. Bell sold
the paper to Mittag and Sneary,
owners of the Herald of Freedom,
begun in 1889 by James Maxwell
The Torch Light and the Herald
of Freedom were now combined and
named The Herald and Torch Light.
This paper changed owners many
times thereafter, but John R. Sneary
remained its editor for forty years.
He was called "The Spirit of the
Machine" for his outstanding
achievement in printing in spite of
an humble start. He was the son
of a moor woman with no chance for