New London Newspapers — Part 1

Newspapers are important to history. This is as true for New London as any place where people organize themselves around a common idea or decide on a common place to call “home.” It recounts and preserves a common history for anyone who appreciates that sort of thing. It also provides a gold mine of information. It introduces people who we’ve only heard about. It gives us the ability to imagine what they were like. We may imagine right or we may imagine wrong, but what a rich experience it can provide.

We start the New London news story with Doctors Frank and George Wilson. They are credited with the first New London newspaper. It was called the New London Voter and the copy that was found was dated Jan. 11, 1869. Remembering that the Civil War had only been over for a little more than 3 ½ years, the paper reportedly was devoted to “white supremacy, state equality, and federal union.” As one can imagine, it had a short life span.

There is a Dr. Frank R. Wilson buried a Burge Cemetery. According to his tombstone, he was born in 1852 and died in 1912. In 1869, he would have been 17 years old, probably too young to be a doctor as of yet or a seasoned newspaper publisher. Yet it seems likely it is him, but we’ll never know for sure. Dr. George has not been found.

New London’s next paper was the New London Weekly Times, editor Frank B. Fleak. It lasted for about six months in 1872. It seems Fleak took his equipment and moved back to Morning Sun. Alas, Fleak died the same year, and with him went the Morning Sun News. He can be found in the Hillcrest Cemetery in Brighton.

The information gets harder to follow as it seems that during these years there were several New London papers in a short span of time. It also seems that “newspaper publisher” was a job anyone could do or at least try.

In 1874, the New London Star hit the presses. Long touted to be the ancestor of what would become the New London Journal, the Wilson brothers were the editors. Was it Frank and George again … now older and wiser? You, the reader, can decide which story you like best.

There was another paper, the New London Independent, that was published by Charles Morehouse. He already was publishing the Daily Reporter in Mt. Pleasant. The year was 1876 and the Independent was published in a shop on the north side of Main Street, west of Elm Street.

In 1940, Jessie Allen recalled a Morehouse story, It seems that Morehouse walked around town carrying a large basket. When personally collecting payment for advertising, he gladly accepted merchandise when the advertisers were low on cash.

Allen also reported that the Independent only lasted a year.

Mr. Morehouse left New London to others and went back to Mt. Pleasant to edit the Evening News and the Weekly Reporter. He is buried in the Mt. Pleasant Old City Cemetery. Morehouse died on June 24, 1895 at the age of 65. In his obituary, it says “C.L. Morehouse, one of the oldest newspaper men in the state, committed suicide at Mt. Pleasant by cutting his throat. Recent sickness had affected his mind.”

In a 1932 Journal, it was reported that W.P. Moffett was editor of New London’s newspaper in 1884. A 1927 Journal quoted New Londoner Lucy Fuller (1847-1931). She said that James Clark started the Sun in 1884 at the southeast corner of the park. Lucy can be found at Burge too.

In April 1887, another version of the New London Sun was founded by William Scott Dover (1853-1935) and Edward Lyman. By August of 1887, Lyman had sold his share of the Sun to Dover and started the Eclipse. Lyman’s paper had a brief life span, and in a year, Dover sold his paper to M. C. (Caleb) Daily and departed for Oregon.

Hiram Allen (1850-1919) then takes center stage in our little saga. He returned to New London after graduating from law school at Ann Arbor, Michigan. He opened a law office but found that it wasn’t his cup of tea. Sometime between 1887 and 1892, Allen bought the Sun and started his career as a newspaper man. Operating out of the third floor of the bank building on Main and Division, he often irritated his readers by urging the town to make “impractical” improvements that included electricity, a water system, telephone lines, a library, and intellectual pursuits. Allen discontinued the paper in 1901 due to financial problems and health issues.

In 1897, Artemus Noble and Ed Whitney started the New London Moon. Noble bought Whitney out in 1897. Then in 1900 sold it to E. J. Brown, a Shenandoah lawyer, who sold it to Ray Gifford in 1901.

Noble started the New London Farmer in October of 1901. It started out as a monthly magazine, but in January 1902 it became a weekly paper. It was printed with the aid of a cylinder press powered by a gasoline engine. He died at age 46 in New London on Dec. 12, 1903.

Part 2 next week — the 20th Century