This breathes the solmen grandeur of the new world. Through it the spirit of the wilderness speaks of the mysterious trinity-life, death, eternity. In these improvised lines are the elements of "Thanatopsis." This is sentiment, this is poetry.

With all its defects this pioneer paper had its good points. Its issues would compare favorably with an equal amount of matter clipped at random from the average newspaper of to-day. The arrangement was systematic. The order was, foreign news, national news, territorial news, advertisements. It is a noteworthy fact that the papers published in the early half of the nineteenth century observed, as a rule, a more systematic order of matter than those published to-day. Any one who has followed legislative proceedings through files will understand and appreciate the great advantage of systematic arrangement.

In the summer of 1796, William Maxwell, who had been appointed post-master of Cincinnati, sold the Centinel of the North-Western Territory, to Edmund Freeman, who changed the name to Freeman's Journal. It was published here till 1800 when Mr. Freeman moved the establishment with the Territorial Government to Chillicothe, where Mr. Coggeshall tells us that Mr. Freeman purchased the Gazette. Here Mr. Coggeshall is again in error. Freeman's Journal was published for a time

in Chillicothe, where the editor died. In The Scioto Gazette of October 19, 1801, appears a notice by S. Freeman, administrator, relative to the death of Edmund Freeman, late of Chillicothe, printer, deceased. Nathaniel Willis, editor of The Scioto Gazette, purchased the outfit of Freeman's Journal in October, 1801. It was therefore merged into The Scioto Gazette, which continues under that name to the present day.

The second paper of the Northwestern Territory was The Western Spy and Hamilton Gazette. Its first issue bears date of May 28, 1799. It was edited and published in Cincinnati by Joseph Carpenter, who came west from Massachusetts. In the the summer of 1806, the name of the paper was changed to Western Spy and Miami Gazette. It was later changed to The Wig. After continuing about one year, it was changed. to The Advertiser, and suspended soon afterward. In September, 1810, Mr. Carpenter brought forth the new Western Spy, which continued under that name to January 9, 1819, when it appears as theWestern Spy and Cincinnati General Advertiser. On April 29, 1820, it united with the Literary Cadet and became the Western Spy and Literary Cadet. The name was again changed January 1, 1823, to The National Republican and Ohio Political Register. Subsequently it became, January 3, 1830, the National Republican and Cicinnati Daily Mercantile Advertiser. The name was further modified July 11, 1833, to the Cincinnati Republican and Commercial Register.

The third paper published in the Northwest Territory was The Scioto Gazette, first issued in Chillicothe, April 25, 1800. There is a tradition of a Scioto Gazette printed at an earlier date, but it seems to be tradition only. If such a paper was published, it suspended and began anew on the date here given. As we have seen, it absorbed the Freeman's Journal in 1801. It was first published by Nathaniel Willis, who was born in Boston, February 7, 1755, was a member of the Boston Tea Party, and, according to tradition, at one time an apprentice under Benjamin Franklin He was editor until 1807, when he returned to his farm. He died April 1, 1831. The Scioto Gazette, in August, 1815, absorbed the Fredonian and continued as The Scioto Gazette and Fredonian Chronicle. In March, 1821, the Gazette united with the Supporter, under the name of The Supporter and Scioto Gazette. With volume 101, number 1, April 28, 1900, it resumes it natal name, The Scioto Gazette. In this centenñial issue is published a very exhaustive history of journalism in Chillicothe. The article has been prepared with great care and is unusually free from error. One mistake occurs, however. In speaking of The Supporter, the writer twice states that it was founded by George Nashee, in 1811. Another excellent authority fixes the date in the year 1807. Recently a file of this paper has been found, covering almost the entire period of its publication, and is now in the Ohio State Library. It shows that the paper was born September 29, 1808.

EXECUTIVE DOCUMENTS.

In 1801, Wyllys Silliman and Elijah Backus bought printers materials in Philadelphia and, on December 7, of that year, published in Marietta the first issue of the Ohio Gazette and the Territorial and Virginia Herald. This was the fourth paper published in the Northwest. Territory. In 1850 the name was changed to Ohio Gazette and Virginia Herald. In 1810 the paper failed and was sold by the sheriff. In October of the same year the Western Spectator took its place. This in time was sold to the proprietor of the American Friend, first issued April 24, 1813. Ten years later the name was changed to American Friend and Marietta Gazette. In 1842 the paper was merged into The Intelligencer. In 1862 it was sold to R. M. Stimson who changed the name to Marietta Register.

So much for the papers started under the government of the Northwest Territory.

In 1810 fourteen newspapers were reported in Ohio. In addition to the Scioto Gazette, The Supporter, the Ohio Gazette and Virginia Herald and The Whig, of which mention has already been made, there were, according to this report so frequently quoted, ten others: The Fredonian, and the Independent Republican, Chillicothe; Liberty Hall, and The Advertiser, Cincinnati; the Commentator, Marietta; the Muskingum Messenger, Zanesville; the Ohio Patriot, New Lisbon; the Western Herald, Steubenville; the Impartial Expositor, St. Clairsville; the Western Star, Lebanon. The Independent Republican was founded by Peter Parcels; the Fredonian, by R. B. Richardson, date doubtful; Liberty Hall, first called Liberty Hall and Cincinnati Mercury, by Rev. John W. Browne, December 4, 1804; the Commentator, by Dunham and Gardner, September 16, 1807; the Muskingum Messenger, by White and Sawyer, 1810; the Ohio Patriot, by William D. Lepper, 1808, afterward re-established November 4, 1809; the Western Herald, by Lowry and Miller, 1806; the Western Star, by John McLean, 1806. The Advertiser said on good authority to have been the short-lived successor of The Whig, was perhaps never published contemporaneously with it. In the list is omitted the Ohio Centinel, established in Dayton, May 3, 1810, by Isaac G. Burnett, and the Muskingum Express, founded the same year by J. H. Putnam and Co.

Nine years later, the following papers were published in the state:

LIST OF ALL THE NEWSPAPERS PRINTED IN THE STATE OF OHIO
AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE YEAR 1819.

Those

Those marked thus (†) are printed on an imperial sheet, with six columns on a page. marked thus (*) are printed on a super-royal sheet; and the remainder are printed on a smaller sheet than super-royal.

(See Columbus Gazette, January 7, 1819.)

1

A matter of quite as much importance to librarians as the history of these early papers is a knowledge of where files of them may be found. Such information is contained in a publication recently issued by the Ohio State Library.*

Having already briefly reviewed the history of some of the early Ohio newspapers, we return to the editor of The Centinel of the NorthWestern Territory. William Maxwell's last days were spent in Greene County, Ohio, about five miles from Xenia, on a farm to which he moved in 1799. Here where his furrow broke the "stubborn glebe," where the forest bowed beneath his sturdy stroke, this modest, brave old pioneer in 1809 sank to rest. Cadmus sailing into Greece on a mission that enlightened the world, is doubtless a myth. But William Maxwell, soldier, pioneer, and printer, bending over the types and losing his subscription. list in a soul-absorbing effect to bring forth The Centinel of the NorthWestern Territory, William Maxwell, laboring by blazing knot and tallow dip over his "code," the first book published in the territory, which his industrious young wife sewed with bristle tipped "wax-end," and which "Newspapers and Periodicals in Ohio Libraries" etc. sent on application. Vol. III. 11 Ex. D.