The Daily Evening Press was established in Newburgh in 1888, as a democratic organ, by James G. Dunphy. Mr. Dunphy was born in Newburgh, August 21, 1842, and learned his trade under the late E. M. Ruttenber. For many years he conducted the Press with an ability which brought success and secured it a great influence throughout the county. After a considerable period of prosperity, however, a blight seemed to fall upon the printing plant, and although for some time Mr. Dunphy struggled bravely against ever-increasing obstacles, he was finally obliged to give up the losing fight, and the Press joined the large company of other Orange County organs which had flourished for a season and then passed silently from the scene.
In 1887 St. John & Salmon started in Port Jervis a small quarto called Sunbeams. It was a semi-humorous publication, but the quality or quantity of its revelry failed somehow to attack the risibles of a sufficient clientèle of the American public, and its weary publishers concluded to let the prosaic citizens plod on in their own dull, flat, Boeotian way.
In 1888 N. E. Conkling & Co. started at Chester the Orange County News, a weekly, six-column folio, with N. E. Conkling as editor. It was an independent paper, giving much attention to local news. At times the paper published editions for Unionville and Pine Bush. In February, 1908, the plant was sold to J. B. Gregory, and removed to Monroe, where the latter started the Ramapo Valley Gazette, March, 1908.
In April, 1888, the Cornwall Local appeared at Cornwall-on-Hudson, under the management of H. A. Gates. In September, 1889, he disposed of the plant to C. P. Brate, of Albany, who installed his brother-in-law, Thomas Pendall, a practical printer and bright writer, as editor and publisher. In June, 1892, the Local came under the management of Lynn G. Goodenough, by whom it is still conducted. The paper was classed as independent politically until it came into Mr. Goodenough's possession. In 1896 he made the Local a republican paper, and as such it became a useful and influential member of Orange County republican newspaperdom. Recently the name of the paper became the Local-Press, as more significant of a newspaper than the name Local. In 1895 Mr. Goodenough purchased Mr. Merritt's right, title and good will in the Cornwall Mirror, and consolidated that publication with the Local.
In 1887 the Walden Citizen came into existence. It is a six-column quarto, republican in politics, well edited by J. H. Reed, and is a newsy and meritorious publication.
A valuable monthly publication was begun in Port Jervis in 1888, when Church Life was issued. It was printed under the auspices of the Reformed church of that place. It usually appeared in eight pages, with two and three broad columns to a page. Its work was largely that of gathering up local historical matters, and one of its most valuable contributors was William H. Nearpass, whose penchant in that direction enabled him to furnish much valuable historical information that otherwise might have been lost to all generations. Another contributor was the Rev. S. W. Mills, D.D., for many years pastor of the Reformed Church of Deer Park. The paper was issued for about fifteen years, but why it was allowed to cease no one connected with the church seems to know. It was printed at the Gazette office.
The Orange County Dairyman was started at Middletown in the office of the Mercury and Argus, in December, 1888. The publishers were Macardell, Thompson and Barrett (Cornelius Macardell, Sr., George H. Thompson, and Leon Barrett, the artist.) Its editor was W. C. Cairns, of Rockland, Sullivan County, better known as "Rusticus." The Dairyman was a five or six-column quarto. It never became profitable, and went out of existence in January, 1890.
The only Sunday paper of the four or more started in this county that seemed to have vitality enough to come down to our day was the Telegram of Newburgh. It was started in 1889 by Edward M. Ruttenber, the venerable and learned printer, editor, author and historian, who lately passed to his great reward, mourned by all, and beloved and revered by those who knew him best. The Telegram is now published by J. W. F. Ruttenber, son of its founder. Though started as a Sunday paper, it is now issued on Saturday, and is known as The Newburgh Telegram. It is ably conducted, as it always has been. A free lance in principle, it is fearless in its assaults, and sometimes makes things very interesting for residents of the Hillside city and its purlieus.
One of the publications that made a sensation at its starting, and during its entire career was a subject of wide interest, was called The Conglomerate. It was started June 15, 1890, by patients in the State Homeopathic Hospital at Middletown. The first number was a four-column folio, but it soon grew to a quarto, and its circulation increased until, at its zenith, over 3,000 copies were issued. It circulated in all parts of America, had subscribers in New Zealand, and in fact in nearly every country, and its articles were copied everywhere. The Conglomerate stood for reform in lunacy matters, and for this reason, and because of its too outspoken policy against the State's lunacy commission, the authorities caused its suspension. It was gotten out entirely at the State Hospital, where a fully-equipped newspaper and job-printing office was established by the patients under whose tutelage it was called into existence. Its pages were full of bright things. Not only were its editorials able, but its contributions were from brilliant minds, the names of whose writers, for obvious reasons, are withheld. It ceased publication in 1897, after a brilliant career, during which it was eagerly sought, read with avidity, and was a force for good throughout its whole brief career.
On the afternoon of April 29, 1881, appeared in Middletown one of the county's—aye, one of the State's—marvels of journalistic success under the title of the Middletown Daily Times. The first numbers were issued from the Hasbrouck printing office in the Hasbrouck block, corner of North and Depot streets, and was a seven-column folio. While it announced that Lewis S. Stivers and John D. Stivers were editors and proprietors, it was understood that ex-Congressman the Hon. Moses Dunning Stivers, their father, stood sponsor for the publication, and this able writer and shrewd politician soon made his personality evident in every issue of the Times. Rapidly did the paper gain in circulation, in influence, and in popular confidence. Congressman Stivers was a man of pronounced personality, had a way of winning friends and retaining them, and with the recent expiration of a successful term in Congress he was in position to build up a powerful country newspaper plant. And that is just what he did. In this work he was most ably assisted by his two sons, whose names appeared at the head of the editorial columns. Lewis S. Stivers was a practical printer, a pressman, and a thorough, all-round mechanical expert; young, with a love for the trade—credited by all printers as being not only practical but one of the most capable men in the State. His brother, John D. Stivers, had been his father's private secretary all through his congressional career, had acquitted himself with entire credit, and having been "brought up" in a printing office, was well qualified to enter the editorial department of the establishment. As a reporter, as one ready and quick to grasp the importance of legitimate news, he proved his fitness for the position by keeping the Times in the lead in its local and general news departments. It was under such auspicious conditions that The Middletown Daily News presented itself to the public every afternoon in the week, except Sunday, and its rapid growth in favor was the fulfillment of the auguries of those who best knew its esteemed sponsor and its managers. Within a short time the establishment was removed to the first floor on the James and Henry street corner of the Casino block. Here it remained until it was removed to its present quarters at the corner of King and Center streets, in the handsome four-story brick building of its own, and known as the Times building or Stivers block. Here are fast presses, three Mergenthaler Linotype machines and all the necessary accouterments to enable the management to issue one of the best daily newspapers in this country, outside of the larger cities. Its circulation is now daily considerably over 5,000 copies. The death of the Hon. M. D. Stivers and later of his son, Louis S. Stivers, removed two of the brightest members of the Orange County newspaperdom, and necessitated reorganization of the Times Publishing Co., which is now known as the Stivers Printing Company, with John D. Stivers as president and Dr. M. A. Stivers as secretary and treasurer. On February 11, 1906, the Middletown Daily Press merged with the Times and the combination has since issued as the Middletown Times-Press. The editorial writer on the Times and Times-Press since November 1, 1905, has been A. W. Russell, whose bright, well-put comments are one of the features that commend this widely-read journal.