Though short-lived, a bright little specimen of ambitious young journalism appeared in Middletown in September, 1866. It was called The Rising Sun, and was the first venture in this field by Stephen H. Sayer, a recent apprentice in the Whig Press office. The Rising Sun was a literary effort—it might almost be claimed as one of the earliest of the amateur publications, except that its ambitious young editor had higher and more mature aims when, out of the environing nebulae he called into existence his little star of hope. It was a four-column folio, printed from long primer and nonpareil type—the two tolerable extremes—and was listed at fifty cents a year. It was printed in Coe Finch's job printing office at Franklin square in the third floor of the building now occupied by the Middletown Savings Bank. Mr. Sayer announced that "The Rising Sun is not a local paper, but will circulate throughout Maine, Kansas, Iowa, etc., with as much profit to subscribers there as in the State of New York." The writer set type on the first issue of The Rising Sun, and had a sort of god-fatherly interest in this promising luminary, and regrets that one of the too common cataclysms in the journalistic empyrean over whelmed the bright little orb ere its rays had scintillated a single scintillation on either rock-ribbed Maine or bleeding Kansas.
But Mr. Sayer was not extinguished, even if the light of his little Rising Sun was dimmed forever. He was ambitious, and, what is more, determined. When he emerged from this celestial crash, he cast his optics over the universe, and discovered Montgomery, and forthwith hied him hither, and in April, 1868, issued the first number of the Wallkill Valley Times, a seven or eight-column folio, of good appearance, newsy, and well edited. In 1869 he issued the Dollar Weekly. Both publications passed into the hands of Lester Winfield in 1871.
In 1869 Mr. Sayer also started the Walden Recorder, at Walden. Chauncey B. Reed took it in 1870, and issued it as the Walden Recorder-Herald. Later he dropped the Recorder, and the paper has since appeared as the Walden Herald.
From these ventures Mr. Sayer went to Deckertown (now Sussex), N. J., and started the Sussex Independent, which has always been one of the brightest newspapers in New Jersey. After retiring from the Independent, Mr. Sayer joined the Texas colony of the seventies, and spent some years in the Lone Star State, farming, writing, editing, and making himself generally useful to the inhabitants of the far-away empire of the southwest. He and his estimable family returned to the north in the eighties, and he is now living in well-earned retirement on the old farm, near New Vernon, surrounded by his amiable wife and remarkably bright children—the latter now grown to maturity as useful and honored members of the community.
One of the marvels of success, for a few years, was Wood's Household Advocate, a monthly magazine, started in Newburgh by S. S. Wood in 1867. Later the name was changed to Household Magazine, and it attained a circulation of 60,000 copies. It died in 1874.
Lester Winfield started a paper at Galesville Mills, Ulster County, in May, 1864, which he removed to Pine Bush in September, 1868, under the name of the Pine Bush Weekly Casket. The same month (September, 1868), he continued the journey to Montgomery, and called the paper the Montgomery Republican. Mr. Winfield succeeded in uniting his Casket, his Republican and Mr. Smith's Standard into one publication, May 1, 1869, which he called the Republican and Standard, which is continued to this day, as the Montgomery Standard and Reporter.
Early in 1869 A. A. Bensel started at Newburgh the Home, Farm and Orchard, an eight-page weekly. It was a bright, useful journal, devoted to farm topics, and deserved the widest circulation, but it died in the spring of 1876.
April 22, 1869, James H. Norton, of Middletown late of the Mercury, and William H. Nearpass, of Port Jervis, began the publication in Port Jervis of the first tri-weekly paper in this county. It was called The Evening Gazette. It was a five-column folio, printed from new bourgeois type. It was newsy, bright, chatty, and entertaining from the start. Within a few weeks The Family Gazette appeared from the same office, and was issued weekly. Within a year the latter was enlarged and became the Port Jervis Weekly Gazette. The Evening and the Weekly Gazette soon attained big circulations, and have since continued to reach a large class of readers. Both were neutral in politics for years. Mr. Norton retired from the concern in 1871. Ed. H. Mott, of Honesdale, becoming associated with Mr. Nearpass in the publishing and editing of the paper. October 1, 1872, George A. Clement, a young New York lawyer, purchased the establishment, and turned it into a Republican organ, supporting General Grant in his second presidential campaign. July 1, 1873, William T. Doty, of Port Jervis, and William R. Waller, of Monticello, leased the plant. Mr. Doty becoming editor and business manager, and Mr. Waller taking charge of the mechanical department. In 1874, Mr. Clement sold the plant to Jesse M. Connor, a Port Jervis merchant, who, in turn, disposed of it to Hon. Charles St. John, ex-congressman from this district. Soon afterward Mr. St. John sold the plant to Ezra J. Horton, of Peekskill, and William T. Doty, and the paper became democratic. In 1875 the co-partnership between Mr. Horton and Mr. Doty ended, Mr. Horton retiring, and in October, 1876, Mr. St. John again became owner of the plant for two issues, when he disposed of it to William H. Nearpass. The paper has since been democratic. W. T. Doty continued as editor for several years, being succeeded by James J. Shier, of Middletown, and since his death, by Mr. Nearpass as editor. Associated with Mr. Nearpass in the management and ownership of the paper was Abram Shinier, A. M. May, James J. Shier, and since the eighties the paper has been conducted by the Gazette Publishing Co., with W. H. Nearpass as president and editor, Evi Shinier as secretary and treasurer and business manager, with Mark V. Richards as associate editor, and James Skellenger as city editor. The tri-weekly edition was changed to an afternoon daily issue (except Sunday), and to an eight-column folio, January 17, 1881.
In January, 1869, Isaac F. Guiwits started the first daily newspaper in Middletown. It was issued at four o'clock every afternoon, except Sunday, and was printed at the office of the Middletown Mercury, then located over what is now Hanford & Horton's news store on North street. It was a five-column folio, printed from brevier type, and was a model of neatness, sprightliness, and paid much attention to local news. Mr. Guiwits was an elegant writer, brimful of wit—a thorough all-round printer and "newspaper man," an apt pupil of the master journalistic mind, James H. Norton, and he made the Daily Mail a bright paper. But it didn't pay, as a daily, and April 28, 1869, Mr. Guiwits issued the Middletown Mail, a weekly publication of six columns (folio), this succeeding the Daily Mail. Some months later Mr. Guiwits sold the Mail plant to Evander B. Willis, a printer, stenographer, and reporter. A year or two later Dr. Joseph D. Friend became the owner of the Mail. In 1873 he made an arrangement by which the Mail was consolidated with the Mercury, when Dr. Friend and George H. Thompson became the proprietors of the combined publication. The Mail was a local newspaper, with democratic tendencies, but it never cut much of a figure in the newspaper life in the county, after it ceased to be a daily, though Mr. Guiwits and Dr. Friend were both fine writers, and Mr. Willis was popular. Dr. Friend, the genial, the easy-going, the friend, has long since passed away, but his memory is ever green with the few who yet linger—aye few—who associated with him in journalism in those early days. Mr. Guiwits went to Kansas City, and Mr. Willis to California.
The second experiment of publishing a tri-weekly paper in Orange County began in the office of the Orange County Press when Stivers & Kessinger (Moses D. Stivers and Albert Kessinger), on May 24, 1870, issued the first number of the Middletown Evening Press. October 26, 1872, the tri-weekly became a daily under the name of the Middletown Daily Press, and continued until merged with the Middletown Times in February, 1906, under the name of the Middletown Times-Press.