One of the most profitable of all these literary ventures in Newburgh was that of the Household Advocate, by S. S. Wood, begun in 1867. It was an eight-page monthly and soon secured a large circulation. Mr. Wood later changed its name to the Household Magazine. It attained a circulation of 60,000, and the writer is one of the many who read its pages with eagerness until it failed in 1874.
Another publication which the writer remembers reading with much pleasure was Home, Farm and Orchard, an eight-page weekly started in 1869 by A. A. Bensel. It lived until the spring of 1876.
During the years of 1872 and 1873 Demorest & Burr issued the Musical Bulletin, a monthly quarto.
In amateur papers there were several. Among them: The Union Jack, by Master A. Ludlow Case (1865 to 1873); the American Eagle, by Frank S. Hull, aged twelve years (1865); The Comet, by Henri Gerard (1871); The Index, by J. Walker F. Ruttenber (1871); The Collector, by D. W. Jagger (1871); The Packet, by W. H. Wood and D. W. Corwin (1872); The Laurel, by a Milligan (1872); the Amateur Herald, by T. R. Balf (1872).
AT MONTGOMERY.
Montgomery seems to have come forth into the journalistic arena.
The Orange County Republican was printed there from 1806 to 1818. It was begun May 6, 1806, and was printed by Cyrus Beach and Luther Pratt. This publication, as already shown in the Goshen notes, was removed to Goshen and became the Independent Republican.
In 1833-1834 the Republican Banner was printed there by Calvin F. S. Thomas. In June, 1859, William H. Smith started the Montgomery Standard. The Montgomery Republican was issued in September, 1868, by Lester Winfield, being a continuation of a publication he started at Galeville Mills, Ulster County, in May, 1864, and which he removed to Pine Bush and called the Pine Bush Weekly Casket, in November, 1867. May 1, 1869, the Standard and the Republican united their forces and became the Republican and Standard, under Lester Winfield. In 1896 Lyman H. Taft started the Reporter. Later the Reporter and the Republican and Standard united, and became the Montgomery Standard and Reporter, which it is now (March, 1908), with Lyman H. Taft as editor and proprietor, and Charles M. Miller, associate editor. It is a large nine-column folio, republican in politics, with a decided tendency to be independent.
In April, 1868, Stephen H. Sayer started the Wallkill Valley Times, a large seven-column folio. It was neatly printed, and the office well-equipped, with a cylinder press—a rare acquisition in those days. In 1869 Mr. Sayer issued the Dollar Weekly. In 1871 Lester Winfield purchased the Times and the Weekly outfit, and remained in Montgomery until his death a few years ago.
AT SLATE HILL.