DOTY, WILLIAM T.—Mr. Doty was born at Crabtree's Corner, Sussex County, N. J., March 11, 1847. His parents were Jonathan Fisk Doty and Phoebe Jane Van Wert Doty. Mr. Doty is a descendant of Edward Doten or Doty, who came over in the Mayflower and settled at Plymouth, Mass., in 1620. His mother was one of the Van Wert or Van Wart family, one of whom assisted in the capture of Major Andre. Mr. Doty received a good education in the public and best private schools of that day.
Mr. Doty's first connection with Orange County journalism was at the early age of sixteen, when he became attached to the Tri-States Union at Port Jervis, in which latter city he is yet. He afterwards became connected with the Middletown Mercury, the Banner of Liberty, the Whig Press, the Signs of the Times, and in Col. Finch's job printing office on Franklin Square when in 1866 S. H. Sayer's Rising Sun flickered above the horizon a few times and disappeared. The Mercury and the Banner of Liberty each had offices in the frame building (now a brick block) next to the Holding House, on East Main street. When Isaac F. Guiwits started his Daily Mail in 1869, Mr. Doty set type on it. He was employed on the Whig Press in 1866, when John W. and Mrs. Lydia Hasbrouck changed its name to the Orange County Press. He was also on the Press, though not continuously, when, in 1868, it was purchased by Moses D. and Jesse Lewis Stivers. In the meantime he was employed for several months on the Warwick Advertiser while it was yet conducted by Elder Leonard Cox. It was not until April, 1869, that he returned to Port Jervis, this time to become foreman of the Evening Gazette, at the time James H. Norton and William H. Nearpass started that paper. Except for short intervals in Port Jervis and a few months in Warwick, he was continuously employed in the various Middletown offices from 1865 to 1869. His personal recollections of the older inhabitants of that place, and particularly of the newspaper men and women—John W. and Dr. Lydia Sayer Hasbrouck, Elder Gilbert Beebe and his sons, G. J. and Benton Beebe, James H. Norton, Isaac F. Guiwits, Hon. Moses D. Stivers, Dr. Joseph D. Friend, Hon. Isaac V. Montanye, Evander B. Willis, Gilbert Van Sciver, Elder Cox of Warwick, Coe Finch, E. Malcolm Norton, "Doxy," Charles Coleman and others, is pleasant to recall after half a century's flight of changing years. Leaving the Gazette, Mr. Doty was a compositor on the New York Tribune soon after the present structure replaced the squatty old home of the office on Printing House Square, and when the composing-room was in the wonderful "Tall Tower" overlooking City Hall Park—which structure used to amuse the Sun so much that it never tired of being facetious over the Tribune's "Tall Tower." He was also a compositor on the Times and the World in those days. In 1871 he, in company with Charles St. John, Jr., and Alfred E. Spooner, bought the Tri-States Union, of Port Jervis, of Foster & Mitchell. They made many changes in the Union, and in politics they heartily supported Horace Greeley in his candidacy for the Presidency. They also issued as a campaign paper The Woodchopper. In 1873 he associated with William H. Waller, of Monticello, in leasing the Gazette of George A. Clement. Some years later he again went to New York City, this time as printer in charge of the issuing of a little Liberal or Free Thought paper called Man, published at 744 Broadway by Thaddeus B. Wakeman and Thoron C. Leland. Later he became reporter on the New York Star, then the Tammany organ, and printed at North William street just off of Chatham street (now Park Row). In the latter part of the '80's he was employed as editor of the Port Jervis Daily Union until 1888, when in obedience to a telegraphic offer from Morris Koch, manager of William A. Clark's Daily Miner, he was called to Butte City, Montana, to become editor of that paper in the interests of the Montana Democrats. He went there in June of that year, and in the fall moved his family there. In the fall of 1889 he went to the Pacific Coast, with the intention of going into business in Seattle. He was accompanied by his son Vernon, and they spent some time in Portland, Salem, Tacoma, and Seattle, the lad attending school in this latter city. Unfortunately Seattle was then a city of tents, a great fire having, late in that summer, devastated the whole lower and business section of the city. In the winter of 1890 Mr. Doty returned East with his family, and became editor of the Middletown Daily Press under Stivers, Slauson & Boyd. The following year he became editor of the Orange County Farmer of Port Jervis, and remained in that position until 1897, when he returned to Middletown, and associated with Horace W. Corey in the publishing of the Sunday Forum. When that paper was sold to Thomas Pendell, Mr. Doty returned to Port Jervis as editor of the Daily Union, which position he occupies at this time (March, 1908).
William T. Doty and Catharine Elizabeth, the daughter of Andrew W. Dickert, of Youngsville, Warren County, Pa., were married October 6, 1875. Three children bless that union: Gwendolen, the wife of John S. Hatch, Jr., of near Scotchtown, this county; Vernon Dickert Doty, train dispatcher on the Panama R. R. at Colon; Louaine, wife of Charles A. Miller, of Midland Lake, near Middletown. A fourth child, Wentworth Doty, died in Port Jervis, March 12, 1888, aged thirteen months. There are four grandchildren: Helen and Louaine Miller, and Naomi and Llewellyn Hatch. Mr. Doty's home is at Circleville, this county, where he has a "little farm well tilled" that affords him more comfort and pleasure than all that the cities or town can offer. During his many years of residence in Port Jervis, and where his children were born, he was for twelve years a more or less active fireman and a member of Delaware Engine, and later, Hose Company No. 2, which he joined in 1863, and of which he was foreman two years. Later he was first assistant chief engineer two years, acting as chief one year, after the removal of Leopold Fuerth, the chief, to Honesdale. He is a member of Port Jervis Lodge No. 328, F. A. M., and Neversink Chapter 186, R. A. M., of which he joined the former in 1871 and the latter in 1872. He is also a member of Delaware Commandery No. 44, Knights Templar, and of Mecca Temple A. A. O. N. M. S., of New York City; past grand of Utsayantha Lodge of Odd Fellows and past chief patron of Deerpark Encampment, I. O. O. F., and was the first chancellor commander of Mount William Lodge 105, K. of P.; is a member of Orange Chapter No. 33, O. E. S., and of Port Jervis Lodge No. 645, B. P. O. Elks.
COX, ELDER LEONARD—Elder Leonard Cox came to Warwick early in the '60's as an Old School Baptist preacher and started the Warwick Advertiser. The Advertiser not only lives, but after 42 years of useful existence is to-day a monument to the preacher-editor's judgment, force of character and early craftsmanship. In 1868 or 1869 Mr. Cox returned to Virginia, where he is still living and editing, in connection with his son, the Charlotte Gazette, at Charlotte Court-House, Va., and still active at the age of ninety years. The writer has very pleasant personal recollections of this venerable worker, having for a time been employed in his office in Warwick as a journeyman printer.
STIVERS, HON. MOSES D.—The name of Moses Dunning Stivers deserves an important niche in the county's journalistic gallery, for, after he began to take part in newspaper work, he was an active, energetic, progressive and leading factor. He was an able writer—incisive and wonderfully effective. He was well educated, ever affable and courteous, a clean-cut gentleman. He first appeared in active connection with journalism in March, 1868, when he purchased of John W. Hasbrouck the Orange County Press in association with his brother, Lieutenant Jesse L. Stivers. The latter was a practical printer, had twice enlisted in the army in the Civil War, and died in New York City, April 30, 1871, aged thirty years. Hon. M. D. Stivers was with the Press when the Evening Press (tri-weekly) was started, and later when the tri-weekly became a daily edition. He was instrumental in making it one of the leading country Republican papers of the State. Associated with him, at different times, in the business and editorial departments of the Press, were John W. Slauson, Charles J. Boyd, Albert Kessinger, and F. Stanhope Hill. In December, 1880, Mr. Stivers sold his interest in the concern to John W. Slauson, and retired.
In 1891, in conjunction with his two sons, Lewis S. and John D. Stivers, Mr. Stivers started the Middletown Times. From the first this paper was a success, and the popularity it attained at its inception has never waned, but continued after the death of their father in February, 1895. Moses D. Stivers was born near Bennerville, Sussex County, N. J., December 30, 1828, and was the son of John Stivers and Margaret Dunning, his wife. In 1845 the family purchased and removed to the Deacon Hallock farm at Ridgebury in this county. Mr. Stivers attended both the public and private schools, finishing his education at the Ridgebury Academy, after leaving which, for several years, he taught school winters and worked his fathers farm summers.
On September 26, 1855, he married Mary Elizabeth Stewart, of Wawayanda, and then for two years kept a store at Ridgebury, and in 1859 engaged in the mercantile business in Middletown, first under the firm name of Evans & Stivers, and then under that of Stivers & Wallace. In 1864 Mr. Stivers was elected county clerk, and in 1868 he became connected with journalism by the purchase of the Orange County Press.
Mr. Stivers held several political offices besides that of county clerk, being postmaster at Ridgebury under President Pierce, was appointed collector of internal revenue in 1868 for this district, and was elected to Congress. Mr. Stivers was also active in civic affairs, being a director of the Unionville and Water Gap Railroad, a trustee of the Middletown Asylum for the Insane, and of the Hillside Cemetery; also a trustee of the Middletown Savings Bank. He also took a keen interest in firemanic affairs, and filled the highest offices in the lodges of the Free Masons and Odd Fellows.
Mr. Stivers was a man of strong personality, indomitable will-power, and diplomatic and statesmanlike qualities, which made him a commanding figure in Orange County politics and journalism.
ST. JOHN, CHARLES.—When he was in the work there was no more enthusiastic or energetic newspaper man in Orange County than Charles St. John, Jr., the founder of the Port Jervis Daily Union (1873), and the New York Farmer (1881). He entered the journalistic field in 1871 in company with W. T. Doty and A. E. Spooner, when the three purchased the Tri-States Union at Port Jervis. For years he was more or less active in the work, and retained an interest in the Union and the Farmer, until October, 1907, when his partner and brother-in-law, Fred R. Salmon, purchased his entire interest in the two papers. While Mr. St. John could write energetically and with much effect, it was as an organizer, solicitor and business hustler that he shone brightest. Mr. St. John was a graduate of the famous old Mt. Retirement Seminary in Sussex County, N. J., near Deckertown, and of the Eastman Business College at Poughkeepsie. He was born in Port Jervis, August 30, 1849, a son of Hon. Charles St. John, of Port Jervis, and Ellen S. Thompson, of near Marlboro, Ulster County. The St. Johns were an old family, that early came from Connecticut to New York State, and nearly a century ago Stephen St. John came to Port Jervis and purchased nearly all the land where Port Jervis now stands. In 1870 Charles St. John, Jr., married Miss Mary Salmon at Honesdale, Pa., a daughter of Conductor Charles M. Salmon and Jeannette Russell.