CORNWALL PAPERS.
Cornwall, or rather Cornwall-on-Hudson, has had its full share of journalistic ups and downs. Through the courtesy of L. G. Goodenough, editor and proprietor of the Local-Press of that place, the writer learns that the first paper, probably, issued in that interesting old town appeared April 15, 1871. It was called The Cornwall Paper: "A Local Record of Things New and Old." It was published by P. P. Hazen, of Cornwall, in conjunction with A. A. Bensel, Ferry Building, Newburgh. It was stipulated, in the editorial announcement, that unless the necessary support in the way of subscriptions, etc., was received, the project would have to be abandoned. Mr. Goodenough has a copy of Volume 1, No. 1, of The Cornwall Paper, and as no other number seems to be in existence, it is assumed the requisite "support" never materialized, and that the paper practically "died aborning."
To a woman belongs the credit of having started the first regularly issued paper in this village. The Cornwall Times appeared May 24, 1875, with Miss S. J. A. Hussey, a highly educated woman, as editor and proprietor. The Times was continued for at least six years, and with credit to herself and to Cornwall. Miss Hussey died February 21, 1898, aged seventy-nine years. Her declining days were passed practically as a recluse in a cabin on Round Top Mountain, which she owned, and where she seemed to be happiest, efforts of relatives to persuade her to live with them proving unavailing.
The Cornwall Reflector was started about 1877 by John Lee, and later was edited by H. H. Snelling, an elderly gentleman of ability and a forceful writer. He continued as editor for ten years, and until failing eyesight forced him to retire, and he went to a St. Louis home for the blind, where he died in the early nineties, after having become totally blind.
In 1879 appeared the Cornwall Mirror. It was published at Highland Falls by James C. Merritt, and was represented in Cornwall by various persons at different times.
In April, 1888, the Cornwall Local appeared, under the management of H. A. Gates, and was an excellent paper. In September, 1889, he disposed of the Local plant to C. P. Brate, of Albany, who induced his brother-in-law, Thomas Pendell, to become its editor and publisher. In June, 1892, the paper came under the present efficient management of L. G. Goodenough. Mr. Pendell became connected with the New York Herald, later with the Middletown Sunday Forum, which he removed to Massena, N. Y., whence he went to Peekskill and then to Poughkeepsie. For the past fifteen years the Local has been conducted by L. G. Goodenough, and is a particularly handsome, bright and ably-edited local journal. Practically the paper's former politics was classed as "independent." In 1896 Mr. Goodenough made it distinctly and avowedly republican, and, as such, it has become an influential member of the county's republican press. In 1859 Mr. Goodenough purchased Mr. Merritt's Cornwall Mirror, merging it with the Local. Recently the name Local-Press was adopted as more significant of a newspaper than the name Local. The Local-Press is an eight-page weekly, issued Thursdays at $1.50 a year, and with an average circulation for the year 1907 of 1,225 copies.
In October, 1898, S. T. Morehouse started a paper known as the Cornwall Courier. It was conducted by Mr. Morehouse, by his son Claude, by the well-known writer Creswell MacLaughlin, Bernard Call, Clark J. Brown, Clayton Brown, and William Clark. It lived until 1906.
WALDEN NEWSPAPERS.
Walden has two good, newsy weekly papers. So far as the writer can ascertain the first paper started there was by Stephen H. Sayer, who, at Middletown, in 1866, started the Rising Sun, and at Montgomery the Wallkill Valley Times (1868), and the Dollar Weekly (1869). Mr. Sayer started at Walden in 1869 the Walden Recorder, but suffered it to go down. In 1870 Chauncey B. Reed resumed its publication and called it the Walden Recorder and Herald, but subsequently dropped the Recorder, and it has since appeared as the Walden Herald. It is now edited by Ward Winfield. It is a well-printed seven-column folio, and devoted entirely to local and general news.
The Walden Citizen was established in 1887 by Jacob Sears, and had its first home over John Simpson's cigar store. The outfit consisted of a Washington hand press and a small quantity of type. After struggling a year, the ownership passed into the hands of a Mr. Scudder, and the plant was removed to the top floor of what is now the Fowler building. Soon afterward Eugen Abel, a practical printer, and Prof. D. C. Dominick, principal of the high school, purchased the concern, enlarged the paper and plant, and were getting the business on a profitable basis when, in 1898, a fire swept everything away. The paper was revived, however, and soon afterward Whitfield Gibbs became owner of the plant and speedily put the paper on solid footing and made it a leading republican paper. John Barringer succeeded Mr. Gibbs, and since March, 1903, the Rev. J. H. Reid has been editor and publisher. The paper is republican in politics, and Mr. Reid makes it a lively publication.