HISTORY OF STEUBEX COUNTY, NEW YORK. 



77 



THE STEUBEN AND ALLEGHANY PATRIOT. 



This paper was the parent of the present Steuben 

 Farmers' Advocate, and was established by Capt. Ben- 

 jamin Smead, in the year 1816. The following letters of 

 Mr. Smead to Gen. Cruger, who had been a member of the 

 Legislature from Bath the two preceding years, and was 

 that year Speaker of the House of Assembly, will explain 

 the origin of this long-lived and successful newspaper, and 

 through what difficulties it was originally established : 



^'Albany, July 28, 1816. 

 '' Hox. Danikl Crugeii, 



'' Sir, — My residence in this city during the last session of the 

 Legislature enabled me to learn your character, and influence in the 

 Assembly, and in your county. You will doubtless admit this circum- 

 stance as an apology from a stranger. In addressing you upon a 

 subject in which I am deeply and immediately interested, I thought 

 you would desire to learn who I am. I am a printer, and began at an 

 early age with a family, which has so rapidly increased that every 

 effort of enterprise and industry has failed to furnish more than an 

 ordinary subsistence. Four years I printed and edited a republican 

 paper in Brattleboro', Vt. and five years, another republican paper in 

 Bennington. It is not delicate for me to say more of these papers 

 than that they were always approved by the republicans,- yet, even to 

 this day, the stinted population of both Windham and Bennington 

 counties cannot give the encouragement an industrious printer re- 

 quires. In March, 1812, I quitted the latter place on receiving an 

 appointment in the army ; and continued in the service of my country, 

 with the command of a company in the 11th U. S. Inf'y, till last July. 

 The army being disbanded, I then left it — and returning to the citi- 

 zen's life, without much property, without a plan for settlement, and 

 with a wife and six lovely children, have ever since been obliged to 

 work as a journeyman, for a pittance to support them. Having often 

 marched through nearly the whole extent of the northern section of 

 this state, I became attached to habits and manners of the people, and 

 resolved to settle among them for life. In conversations with my 

 friends, it has been stated that Watertown, Jefferson Co., and Bath, 

 Steuben Co., both offer liberal encouragements to a printer. I am 

 most desirous to establish in Bath, and earnestly solicit your assist- 

 ance. My pecuniary circumstances are low, but retaining much of 

 the vigor of youth, with my eldest son, who is a printer, I could edit 

 and print a respectable paper. To embark in such an enterprise, at 

 such a distance, I want the loan of 5 or 600 dollars three years with- 

 out interest, office-room one year free of rent, and six months' credit 

 of stock. The stock comprises only paper and ink, and may amount 

 to nearly 200 dolls, per ann. The money is required to furnish print- 

 ing materials, and defray expenses of removal. I have an excellent 

 press, and the other materials shall be good: all these I will give over 

 as security for the money immediately on my arrival, which will be 

 as soon as possible after its receipt. 



''If you. Sir, shall feel disposed to contemplate this subject favor- 

 ably, I beg you to write Judge Buel, editor of the Argus, Albany — 

 and to Mr. John A. Stevens, editor of the Messenger, Canandaigua, 

 for any knowledge you may require of my moral and political char- 

 acter, and mechanical and editorial capacity. With the former, I 

 have assisted to complete the laws and Journals of the last Legisla- 

 ture—and with the latter have had about ten years' intimate acquaint- 

 ance — Mr. Stevens knows me fully, in public and private life. Either 

 of these gentlemen, I presume, will give you the necessary assurance, 

 that if yourself and friends will transmit or order for my use the sum 

 I ask, it shall be forthwith applied to, and effect the objects herein 

 proposed. 



" Having spent most of my years in New England, my acquaintance 

 with the local policy of N. York legislation you will consider limited; 

 I should therefore, in this arduous and responsible undertaking, re- 

 quire a liberal extension of charity, and all the aid which the influ- 

 ential republican and literary characters of your town and county can 

 find leisure to bestow. 



" Since completing the Laws, I am upon Smollets and Hume's Hist. 

 Eng. at Hosford's, adjoining the post-office. Any communication you 

 may deem proper to make me in reply to this, will therefore be received 

 and attended to on the instant of its arrival. 



*' Altho' bandied about by the malice of wayward fortune, I am too 

 proud to beg for support; yet I require a lifting hand— and have in- 

 dulged the hope that the interest, the honor, the security of a wise 

 administration, which the counties of Steuben & Allegany must duly 

 regard, would induce your most wealthy patriots to blend the relief of 

 a large and virtuous family with an object so well calculated to con- 

 tribute to their political happiness. 



" Please write me early, giving your opinion of my prospects in the 

 proposed undertaking — and accept the sincere assurances of my high 

 respect for your personal & public character. 



" Benjamin Smead." 



We have not a copy of the letter of Gen. Cruger in an- 

 swer to the above, but we infer, from Mr. Smead's second 

 letter, that it w^as immediately answered and a proposition 

 made for the publication of the proposed paper at Bath. 

 On the 25th of September, 1816, Capt. Smead writes again 



as follows : 



"Albany, Sept. 25, 1816. 



" Dear Sir, — I rec'd your reply to my proposition for establishing 

 a republican paper in Bath; and the sum offered being so much re- 

 duced below my real want for that purpose, I am sure to be excused 

 for spending a few days in contemplating economical methods to carry 

 a good office thither with 300 dolls, I agree to your proposition, and 

 Mr. Buel has cheerfully delivered me all your papers relating to me, 

 the orders for typo, &g., upon my repeating to him the assurance I 

 made yourself, of securing you with the types for your advances. The 

 sum is so small for the object, I have sought for, and obtained of 

 Mess. AVebsters here, a good and sufficient supply of type, of the 

 following sizes : 



*'4 lbs. fluted 2 line Minion, roman and italic. ^ 

 8 lbs. 5 oz. 2 line Q. Primer. 



3 lbs. 2 line L. Primer. }■ All entirely new. 



8 lbs. 10 oz. Double Pica, German. j 



72 lbs. Double Pica, Roman and Italic. J 



320 K)s. Pica, upon which only 600 pages have been printed, and of 

 which the enclosed is a specimen. I say it is nearly as 

 good as new. 

 10 lbs. Quotations, and about 8 lbs. of leads, with some Great Primer, 

 Flowers, and other type, and six cases, — all new. 

 '' I enclose Mess. Websters' Bill. 



" From the bills of the Mess. Binney & Ronaldsons', of the above 

 type, Mess. Websters deduct 25 per cent., and I therefore receive it at 

 180 dollars. In addition to this, I have 230 lbs. Long-Primer, very 

 good — and all our friends urge me to carry no smaller type. If, how- 

 ever, we may hereafter require Brevier, it may easily be obtained 

 from N. York. The weight of all my type is now about 700 lbs., well 

 assorted, and I can execute upon it as great a variety and as elegant 

 work as is done in the country. It is all a good bargain. My press 

 is nearly new, and as good as any I ever wrought with, — it is worth 

 140 dolls. [Old-fashioned wooden Ramage press], I shall be able to 

 carry a sufficiency of Chases, Sticks, etc., very good, — and the moment 

 I arrive at Bath with the whole, safe, (including transportation) the 

 materials will be well worth, and I am sure you will estimate them at 

 600 dollars. All these I will immediately make over to yourself and 

 friends, as security for your advances, to be refunded in 3 annual in- 

 stalments, if I rightly understand your proposition. You say 

 300 dolls. to be advanced. 



180 dolls. Mess. Websters require you to secure to them for type, 



by note, payable in 3 months, given by yourself and Mr. 



McClure. 

 remains a balance of the 300. Sir, to fit my family for 

 the journey, to procure some other necessary articles, 

 and for expenses for them on the way, 

 I shall require 150 dolls., which will make 

 only more than you offer. I wish you to send me 3 

 waggons, with 2 good horses each, cheap as they can be 

 hired ; they to bear their own expenses. This expense I 

 estimate on an uncertain foundation at 



120 dolls. 



150 



~30 



330 



150 dolls. 



480 in the whole. For this I presume all of you will estimate 



my property as liberal security. Now, sir, if you immediately send 

 me 150 dolls., by mail or otherwise, with the security for the type, I 



