Erie's History and Memorabilia

In 1888, nine union printers found themselves out of work because their unions had decreed a strike. Not content to await the outcome of the strike, as most union printers were then doing, they looked around for something to do that would pay expenses until something better turned up. This resulted in their determination to start a new newspaper. They were all but out of money so it became necessary that they do all of the work of collecting the news, editing and proof reading, as well as securing advertising patrons themselves. They eventually managed, in some way or the other, to secure sufficient funds for their enterprise and found a back room in a basement, which they could finance, and from there they launched a new evening paper on April 12, 1888. Working out of a basement office, located at West 9th and State Streets, some of the original members of the project soon became discouraged and left the newspaper, but John J. Mead and Jacob F. Liebel clung to it throu...

The newspapers of the county in the 19th century were twenty-seven in number, of which eighteen were published in Erie, as follows: Dailies — Dispatch, Observer, Herald, Leuchtthurm . Weeklies — Dispatch, Observer, Herald, Sunday Gazette, Weekly Gazette, Leuchtthurm, Sunday Graphic, Weekly Graphic, Advertiser, Sonntagsgast, Lake Shore Visitor, Zuschauer, and Jornal de Noticias . Monthly — Star of Liberty . Of these, the Leuchtthurm , Zuschauer and Sonntagsgast were printed in German, and the Jornal de Noticias in Portuguese. Early Newspapers The earliest newspaper printed in the county was the Mirror , started in Erie by George Wyeth in 1808, to advocate Federal Constitutional-Republican principles, whatever that may have meant. It was ten by sixteen inches in size, and the subscription price was $2 per year. The editor was not firm enough to refuse contributions from irresponsible writers, and in consequence of the publication of one of an offensive character foun...