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CHAPTER XXXIV
ERIE COUNTY NEWSPAPERS
On the 24th day of April, 1822, David Campbell issued the first
number of the Sandusky Clarion, which afterward became the Daily
Sanduskian, and after passing through the hands of several owners was
succeeded by the Daily Register.
The Toledo Blade of May 20, 1862, says, under the head, A TYPICAL
NARRATIVE: "The history of some of the job type burned Avith the
Register office at Sandusky is of sufficient interest, at least, to induce a
short notice. We have no trace of them back of 1819. They Avere then
taken to Courtland Co., N. Y., by the late David Campbell, Avhere they
were used until 1822, Avhen he brought them to Sandusky. There they
formed a part of the Clarion establishment until 1837, at Avhich time
they were purchased by a joint stock company at Lower Sandusky (now
Fremont), AVIIO then started the Lower Sandusky Times, with Dr. A. G.
White, later of Elmore, OttaAva Co., as publisher. In 1838 they passed
with the Times establishment into the hands of Peter Yates, and in the
spring of 1839 another change brought them into possession of the writer
of this notice (understood to be Clark Waggoner, Esq.), Avho, with a
variety of 'job letter' as not often falls to the lot of the craft, for four
years 'executed jobs with neatness and despatch' in the office of the
Sandusky Whig, at the end of Avhich time (1843) the material Avas removed
to Milan. Here, reinforced by 'large additions,' the original
stock continued to do business for eight years and until 1851, Avhen they
returned to Sandusky and remained there the eleven years intervening
before they Avere melted, in company Avith a great variety of younger
and more modern associates. One 'font' Avas a 'fourteen line' Roman
metal letter, a kind not now much cast, the large sizes being made cheaper
of Avood.
"It is a curious fact that these type Avere destroyed on the very spot
of ground from Avhich they Avere taken 25 years before, the old Clarion
office having some ten years since Been supplanted by an elegant substantial
stone block."
The early volumes of the Sandusky Clarion are an interesting study.
There was, of course, no telegraph, but the remarkable thing in this and
all Erie County papers down to about 1870 is the scarcity of local news.
The paper Avas made up mostly of short stories, political editorials and
advertisements. The lack of newspaper enterprise is shown by the fact
that there being no file of the Sandusky Clarion for the year 1840 acces-
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