COLORFUL JOURNALISM
Colorful Journalism in Fort Wayne is a continuation from an essay written by Herbert G. Bredemeir and presented to the Fort Wayne Quest Club 28 January 1966: Interested citizens of Fort Wayne in 1833 decided to invite Thomas Tigar and S.V.B. Noel to move from Indianapolis to Fort Wayne and start publication of a newspaper. Financial backing for the city’s first newspaper was promised in the amount of $500 by Henry Rudisill, Dr. Lewis J. Thompson, Joseph Holman. C. W. Ewing, Allen Hamilton and Francis Comparet. The money was to be used for the purchase of a printing press. The backers were to hold the press if Mr. Tigar and Mr. Noel should fail to re-pay them within a year. It seems however, Tigar and Noel had already accumulated sufficient funds from their operation in Indianapolis and they did not need a cash advance.
Mr. Noel, a Whig, remained with the newspaper for only about a year. Mr. Tigar, however, was with the newspaper until 1865, except for a short span of four years when the paper was turned over to George W. Woods. In politics Mr. Tigar was a strong Democrat and apparently a writer of considerable force. In common with many a frontier editor, he labored under the disadvantages which were inseparable from journalism of those days. In his five column four-page sheet there are found many items which might be classed as a quasi-literary form in which life was depicted in short snippets, to be forgotten after about 24 hours. This was suitable to a rapidly moving society whose producers and consumers of the printed word were varied in background and taste as in other frontier places.
There were only about 300 people in Fort Wayne when the Sentinel was started. Perhaps it was fitting that the literature of the democratic nation which was always busy would be a kind of magnified newspaper account of existence. It was common to editorialize news items. There were also many editorials appealing for money from delinquent subscribers, or if money could not be given, then for wood, produce, provisions, etc.
On one occasion the Sentinel explained that no paper had been issued the preceding week but that “those who wish to know the reason can be informed by sending us the amount of their indebtedness.” Mr. Tigar apparently had considerable patience, perseverance and willingness to do a lot of hard work. In the end he was quite successful.
The Sentinel gained in circulation and influence and in general business. While Mr. Tigar had a certain amount of provincial patriotism and advocated measures calculated to improve and benefit the City of Fort Wayne, he was very much aware of what was going on in the state and nation.
The newspapers from Detroit and Cincinnati in the early days were his chief source of “telegraphic” news. From time to time the size of the paper was enlarged and the appearance improved. In January of 1861, Mr. Tigar even issued the first number of the Daily Sentinel; the earlier Sentinel was normally scheduled as a weekly.
At the time of his retirement in 1865, two more newspapers were being published in the city, The Gazette and the Times. Booth Tarkington says in his Gentlemen from Indiana: “Politics is the one subject that goes to the vitals of every real American and a Hoosier will talk politics long after he is dead.” It was only natural then, inasmuch as many of the papers were political organs, that some of the editors should get into public life. John W. Dawson, the editor of the Fort Wayne Times, was such a person. The Times was a Whig paper established in 1841 by George W. Wood. Dawson together with T. N. Hood, leased The Times in 1853 and the following year Dawson became the sole owner and on July 16, 1854, he began issuing the Daily Times.
To be continued…
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