by Isabel Morse Maresh - 8 April 2012
Welcome back, TRJ. I had thought for some time that someone should write a brief history of The Republican Journal, especially when it ceased to exist, but then there was no newspaper to send it to.
I have a copy or two of the 1929 Centennial issue of The Republican Journal, which, when pasted on pages, is a book in itself. Thinking that I could use it for an outline of a history, I spent one day looking for it. When I found it, it appeared that the history was probably from the pages of The History of Belfast, Maine by Judge Joseph Williamson [1828-1902]. The basis of this brief history is drawn from the pages of The History of Belfast, Maine.
In the early days of the settlement of Belfast, news usually came from Boston by vessel, six days or more old. Williamson wrote that when President George Washington died on 14 Dec. 1799, the news did not reach Castine, the then County seat, until Jan. 3. We were in Hancock County at that time.
Though there were a few newspapers in Bucksport and Castine, The Hancock Gazette, was the first newspaper issued in Belfast, on July 6, 1820. The early editions did not report many items of local events. Much of the news was from around the globe. The Gazette carried ‘Marine intelligence‘, giving the arrivals and departure of ships and their cargo, where they came from and were destined to. Occasionally there was a death notice of a noted person or a marriage. The local stores, of which there but a few, advertised their goods, such as rum and other liquors, coffee, and the houses to “entertain travelers”, which could be called inns. The newspaper also listed un-called for or unclaimed letters by the Post Master. After twenty-three issues of the Gazette were published, the name became Hancock Gazette and Penobscot Patriot.
The Waldo Democrat succeeded the Gazette, first published March 19, 1828. The following is part of a public statement, “The political character of this paper is to be, as its name purports, Democratic, heartily and entirely Democratic.” The paper was in existence less than a year with forty-four issues when it abruptly terminated unannounced. On Feb. 6, 1829, the presses and type of the Democrat were transferred for $1,358 to Robert White and Cyrus Rowe. The Republican Journal was born with one hundred thirty-three subscribers.
The publishers were young and determined to succeed. Williamson wrote, “Those were the good old times when news from Boston was a week old, and the latest Congressional intelligence twelve days [old]; when rum, as appears by the capitals [capital letters] in the advertisements, was the principal article in ‘family groceries’, when merchants went to Boston for their goods in ‘regular fast-sailing schooners’, when the whistle of the steam engine had not pierced our ears, and the electric wire had not sent tidings around the world, quicker than thought.” What would Williamson think of today’s electronics?
White and Rowe were partners until 1841. Mr. White retired [from the newspaper], was a merchant, Register of Deeds, County Treasurer, prominent shipbuilder, and owner. He died in 1866, aged sixty years. Mr. Rowe passed on a part of his interest in the newspaper to Benjamin Griffin of Boston, who became the editor.
An example of a tidbit of humorous news, is this item in Oct. 1835, TRJ which read: “Daniel Webster passed through this town [Belfast] on Tuesday last, on his way from Bangor to Wiscasset. He is a stout built man, weighing about two hundred, dark-skinned, very good looking, and so little of the sneak that one would naturally enough take him for a Democrat.”
In June 1845 the Journal was enlarged and improved. There was a succession of editors. One of the most interesting aspects of the history of TRJ was when the newspaper was sold in May 1858 to William H. Simpson, who also became editor. On Aug. 4, 1864, Mr. Simpson was indicted in the United States Court at Bangor on a charge under an Act of Congress in 1862, of giving aid and comfort to the Rebellion, which was a penal offense. One count alleged that an article published in the Journal of July 22, 1864 was entitled “More Victims for the Slaughter called for” was a violation of the law. He pled not guilty. Subsequently, his counsel argued that the article embraced no offense, and was sustained by Judge Ware. On Dec. 2, 1864, Mr. Simpson suspended publication of the Journal telling patrons that “as soon as a changed condition of the country and more encouraging business prospects shall permit, publication would resume.”
The Journal resumed publication on July 20, 1866, when an enlarged and improved newspaper was printed. Mr. Simpson was editor and proprietor until October 1880.
This was the only interruption from 1829, through wars, births, deaths, marriages, launching of ships, Temperance Union, Sheriff’s Auctions, Constable’s sales, Lost and Found, Pauper notices, legal notices, and whatever news that were available to the public.
Over the years, owners and editors came and went, competition came and went, but The Republican Journal withstood the winds and trials of time, with bragging rights to being the oldest newspaper, perhaps in the country.
In 1875, Belfast had three newspapers, The Republican Journal, Belfast Advertiser, and Progressive Age, which was always a strong supporter of the ideas and convictions of TRJ. The Age then endorsed the Greenback party, before becoming an entirely Democratic newspaper. In the early newspapers, Democratic-Republicans advertised their gatherings and Caucus.
Another well thought-up item in May 1877 TRJ read: “The days have shortened just one minute. Notice it?”
One Belfast newspaper of note was Edgar Hanson’s Waldo County Herald in the early 1900s. When I was new to genealogical research, I was puzzled that I could not find my great grandfather, Francis Levenseller’s obituary in TRJ. He had been a Selectman of Lincolnville, a teacher in that town, and had been Superintendent of Schools for fifty terms. I had visited the Belfast Library searching the old issues of TRJ. One of the then wise librarians, now deceased, asked if I had looked in the Waldo County Herald, which I had not heard of. She directed me to the shelves where the Waldo County Heralds were. Sure enough, my Democratic ancestor’s obituary was in the WCH, as was his wife’s who had died one year earlier in 1910.
In the early years the weekly newspapers carried births, marriages, and deaths, in that order. In the early 1950s, there was a ’Welcome Babies’ column, published with a photo of a local child or children announcing the new babies of the week born in the local hospitals. They also printed marriage intentions from the City Clerk. It is a trip down Memory Lane to read old Journals, including the Letters to the Editor debating the issues of the day.
I once had a confrontation with an editor, now deceased, who told me in the newspaper that the paper was not in the business of printing items for scrapbooks. I took issue with ‘Ye Ed’ that he hadn’t seen many scrapbooks, which for the most part are made up of newspaper items. I recently went through some of my mother’s scrapbooks, containing columns that I’ve written, notices about reunions, obituaries, engagements, weddings, deed transfers, and even court news, etc. What a gold mine for a researcher to find a scrapbook, many of which I have photocopied over the years.
Another item that I had confronted the same above editor with, was when I sent a write-up with a photo of one of our sons who was in the U.S. Army in Korea. In the photo, our son was in training, holding a rifle. Ye Ed did not print the photo because of the gun. I asked what he thought war, or training for it was. It was not a romp in the park, but a serviceman serving our country.
Many a genealogical and historical researcher has gleaned much data from the births, deaths and marriages reported in TRJ over many, many years. The late Priscilla Jones hand-copied all of the vital records from the Belfast newspapers going back to the very beginning in 1829, and the earlier Hancock Gazette, up to the late 1880’s. Whenever we see the note, TRJ, on a date in some vital statistics, we immediately know what of the source of the date was. Much of the data in Williamson’s History of Belfast was also taken from the newspapers.
In more recent times, we all remember The Waldo Independent and The Citizen, as well as the Midcoast Beacon. Once again, Belfast was a three-newspaper city. It would take volumes to write of all the goings and comings of Belfast newspapers. It is interesting reading from the pages of the past newspapers themselves.
We have been raised reading TRJ, until around Dec. 1, 2011, when the paper became the Village Soup Journal, much to the chagrin of life-long readers. Then came the day, March 9, 2012, that Facebook and emails were immediately circulating the news that the Midcoast Maine newspapers no longer existed.
There was ‘wringing of hands’, and murmers of “What will we do without our newspaper?” There was bustling of ideas of how to get news out. Then a glimmer of hope within a few days with rumors of a buyer of the newspapers, even to the return to old names of the papers.
On Thursday, April 5, 2012, the post-woman delivered TRJ to our mailbox. There was rejoicing in the households of the Midcoast area of Maine. The newspapers are back with their old names. Thank you.
Note: Isabel Morse Maresh has been a genealogical and historical researcher since 1978. She is a native of Belmont, Me.
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