The Church Helper was issued under auspices of Drew M. E. Church in Port Jervis, for about one year. The first number appeared in June, 1889. It was a monthly, devoted almost exclusively to church and temperance work.
The Parish Monthly has been issued since 1906 by sanction of the Rev. John J. Morris, pastor of the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Port Jervis. It is a two-column folio, printed by P. J. Gaudy, Port Jervis, for the dissemination of local church news.
The Golden Rod is a monthly issued by Frederick Arthur Gates, M.A., pastor of the Ridgebury Presbyterian church, and printed at the office of the Middletown Times-Press. The Associate Editor is Mary C. Clark, with a corps of correspondents. It contains 10 pages and a cover, with two columns to a page, and with a subscription price of 25 cents a year. It has some local news and advertisements, but is devoted mainly to church and temperance work. It was started in January, 1907.
AMATEUR PUBLICATIONS.
The county has seen the birth and death of many amateur publications. The first in the county, so far as now known, and believed to be one of the first in the whole country, was issued in Port Jervis in 1862. It was called The Tiger. It was a diminutive production of four small pages, and was printed on one of the Adams Amateur presses, one of the first made, and the type, furnished by the same concern, was set by the energetic young publisher, William Henry Nearpass. The Tiger was issued semi-occasionally, to suit the whim or convenience of the publisher, for two or three years. Mr. Nearpass was then a clerk in the grocery and dry goods store of Charles St. John, at the corner of Pike and West Main streets. Mr. Nearpass was then about twenty-two years of age.
Newburgh has had many of these amateur prints, beginning in 1875. Among them may be mentioned the following: Union Jack, American Eagle, The Comet, The Index, The Collector, The Packet, The Laurel, The Amateur Herald.
In 1877 Port Jervis had the Amateur Guide, and in 1880 The Cricket.
Academy Miscellany was started by the Port Jervis high school students in March, 1889, and was discontinued in May, 1895. It was a monthly publication, of eight pages, with two broad columns to a page, was devoted to school matters almost exclusively, and was a bright publication.
The Owl is a bright twenty-page monthly issued by the Middletown high school students, and printed at the office of the Times-Press. It has been issued for several years, and is a particularly commendable school publication, both for the neatness with which it is gotten out, the literary character of its contents, and the business-like character of the publication. The present editor is James A. Rorty, the business manager, E. C. Faulkner.
During 1897 The Union School Journal was published by Merritt C. Speidel, now of the Tri-States Publishing Co., Port Jervis, and Hugh M. Cox, now a practicing physician in New York City, who were the editors and managers. It had 12 pages of 10 by 12 inches, three columns to a page, and had a circulation of 500. The publication was devoted to the interests of the schools and to matters of a general educational nature. The paper had the official sanction of the school authorities, and many prominent Orange County writers contributed to it.