78 



HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK. 



will be ready to march within one week after its receipt ; and if the 

 teams start hither as soon thereafter as you can procure them, I will 

 detain them certainly no longer than a day, and be with you as early 

 as possible. I wish you to engage me a comfortable house and well- 

 lighted office, near to each other. The procuring of stands, trough, 

 &c., before my arrival, would facilitate the first publication. As you 

 have had one Prospectus in circulation, I leave it with you to decide 

 whether another would be useful. As I am not tenacious of a title, 

 and am a total stranger to your local politics, habits, manners, &c., I 

 feel delicate in issuing an address to the public until I meet you. 

 Please send the money immediately, and I will be ready to go with 

 the teams so soon thereafter as they can be here. 



"Very respectfully, B. Smead. 



'" D. Cruger, Esq. 



" Sept. 27. — I since find, among the fonts of type I purchased of 

 Mess. Websters, 8 dolls, worth of leads, which are so very useful, I 

 have added them to the purchase,- the amount, therefore, is 188 dolls, 

 as per Mess. Websters' Bill, which I enclose. When they receive the 

 joint note of yourself and Mr. McClure, they will deliver me the ma- 

 terials, — and all brethren of the type assure me it is a great bargain. 



" I return to you the order on Mess. Bruce's, because I really 

 believe I could not get so good a bargain of them for twice the sum — 

 as 12 cases, Gallies, some Long-primer, Gr.-Primer, and flowers are 

 given me in the bargain. 



"I again beg you to send 150 dolls, cash, — and if you could send a 

 note of 20 dolls, to Judge Buel, he will sell me, very cheap, some ele- 

 gant Blanks, some useful cuts, such as the U. S. and State arms, beau- 

 tiful card borders, &c., with flowers, — all are very useful, and cannot 

 be obtained in the country. 



" The money I want immediately, and the teams as soon they can 

 come. The uncertainty of the weather would render covered wag- 

 gons preferable, — one four- horse (hcav^y) and one two-horse might be 

 best, — but all must be left to your convenience. 



^^ Please write by the first return mail. 



" Very respectfully, 



"B. Smead. 



•' N. B. — I wish it to be understood that I do not reject your olTer of 

 $300, — but as, on close calculation, I shall want 150 in cash, I do ear- 

 nestly solicit that you send it. At this moment I could obtain, very 

 cheap, some rules, cuts, U. S. arms. State arms, and other necessary 

 additions, if I had cash. 



" I have given up engagements here, to go to you with all possible 

 speed. B. S." 



After a few weeks' further reflection on the subject, Mr. 

 Smead penned his third and last letter in relation to the 

 paper. It is as follows : 



"Albany, Oct. 2, 1816. 



" Dear Sir, — Since my last, I have more fully contemplated the 

 importance of having subscription papers in circulation, and have 

 therefore printed a concise sketch of my objects. I am not tenacious 

 of the title J but as you had given no hints of the desires of your 

 friends on this subject, I have intended to adopt one, short, expres- 

 sive, and sufficiently local. This may be altered, if thought best on 

 consultation. 



" I transmit them to you in separate packets, because I understand 

 I can frank only half an ounce, — and as this pursuit is for public 

 benefits, the public will not be defrauded, — and therefore (as members 

 of Congress have told me similar evasions are deemed and practiced 

 by them as honorable) I consider it no fraud. If there be any tax, 

 I will pay it to you. 



"My reasons for urging the transmission of 150 dolls, might be 

 further explained. I told you I was in low pecuniary circumstances. 

 Many real necessaries, for my family, for a long journey are indis- 

 pensable. I also want some Cuts, Blanks for early sales. Blank Cards, 

 Sticks, one or two chases, a few more flowers, with a number of etcet- 

 eras, which will be actually necessary, but not attainable in the country. 

 I choose, however, to borrow as low a sum as will possibly answer the 

 requirements of such an establishment, and have confined my calcu- 

 lations therefore to the narrowest limits. The confidence you have 

 placed in me must be reciprocated. I am therefore in full surety that 

 I shall be assisted to arrive in Bath with the utmost speed. To meet 

 the arrangements, I have relinquished places here for labor; journey- 

 men out of business induced me, for this object, to give places I had re- 



served for myself and son till next summer. The expenses of living here 

 without property or employment, and the uncertainty of the weather of 

 the season, will account to you for my haste. And further, little fear 

 as you express relative to the influence of the proposed federal paper, 

 if the inteniei publisher has any cunning, he will secure among the 

 changeable, unfixed portion of influential politicians, a support which 

 we may not soon recover. The papers I enclose may do good, if they 

 are distributed in your own enclosures, accompanied with such re- 

 marks respecting the tone of my paper as you may (with your friends) 

 feel disposed to advise on my arrival. And I repeat my former as- 

 surance on this subject, that altho' my own general political opinions 

 will always continue unmoved and independent, I shall require in this 

 State further knowledge of your local politics, and adhere to the best 

 judgment of the most intelligent and influential men of your county. 

 "I am myself assured, and it is the expressed opinion of all the 

 printers here (and they know the value of my type) that with this 

 variety of sizes, the excellence of metal, and beauty of the cuts, I can 

 make with it as handsome work as is common in the State — it is 100 

 dolls, below its real value. All advise that I carry no smaller size 

 than Long-Primer. 



" Very respectfully, B. Smead. 



"D. Cruger, Esq. 



" 3d Oct., nine o'clock at night. — Have rec'd my press from Binney, 

 and shall to-morrow box it ready for transportation. Have already 

 contracted for Bules, Cuts, Chases, Sticks, Flowers, and other neces- 

 saries in expectation of help from you — and in a very short period, I 

 will exert all my powers to give you a respectable newspaper. 



^'The very strict rules of our new Postmaster have induced me to 

 cut off the blank paper at the foot of my subscription papers — and I 

 beg you to paste to them white paper, and urge your friends to fill 

 them immediately." 



The paper thus established continued the property of 

 Mr. Smead, who was editor and publisher, till the office was 

 sold to William C. Rhodes, in 1849. In 1857, Mr. Rhodes 

 sold to Perry S. Donahe, Esq., who conducted the paper 

 till August, 1860, and sold to the present editor and pro- 

 prietor, Mr. A. L. Underbill. 



The original name of the paper was changed to the /ar- 

 77167'' s Advocate and Stenhen Adverttse7', in 1822. and under 

 the management of Mr. Donahe it was changed to its pres- 

 ent name — The Steubex Farmer's Advocate. 



It is the oldest paper except two in the State of New 

 York, having existed uninterruptedly for sixty-three years. 

 The facilities of this office and management for making a 

 good county newspaper are attested by the five thousand 

 copies sent out weekly to subscribers. 



THE STEUBEN COURIER. 



Henry H. Hull, founder and for thirty-three years editor 

 of the Steuben Courier, published weekly at Bath, was 

 born at Preble, Cortland Co., N. Y., in the year 1816. 

 For a number of years he attended the Homer Academy, 

 then one of the noted institutions of learning in the State, 

 and there prepared to enter the junior year in Union Col- 

 lege ; but in 1839 he abandoned this idea, and went to 

 Corning, where he taught school for two years. During" 

 this time he studied law in the office of Judge T. A. John- 

 son, and in 1843 he was admitted to the bar, but did not 

 follow this profession, finding journalism more congenial to 

 his taste. In 1841 he bought the Corning and Blossburgh 

 Advocate of Charles Adams, and continued its publication 

 for two years, when, finding it unprofitable, and receiving 

 a call from leading Whigs at Bath, who had been deprived 

 of an "organ" by the demise of the Constitutionalist three 

 weeks previously, he moved the material of the Advocate 



