The Bellevue Independent

The Bellevue Gazette received a copy of The Bellevue Independent in late October 1890. The four page Saturday edition of The Bellevue Independent was dated March 29, 1862. Although it was not known exactly when the paper was established, the fledgling paper was Volume I, Number 45.

O.B. Chapman, founder and editor, proclaimed part of the newspaper's credo beneath the nameplate. The message "devoted to politics, literature, agriculture, commerce, and the general news of the day" was inscribed in capital letters above a ruffled banner.

The newspaper format of 146 years ago was different than today. The most prominent front page story began in the top left column, filling the column and jumping to the top of the second column. All stories moved vertically filling the seven columns of the page in this layout format. Headlines were confined to one column, often consisting of a clause in capital letters.

The lead story of the issue was a fiction piece of a love affair between a captured infantry lieutenant and a young woman who helped him overcome injuries he suffered in battle.

The balance of the front page was dominated by war news, chiefly an account of the Civil War battle of Pea Ridge. In order to start a story at the top of the page, fillers were sometimes used to fill out a column, "Ladies, let your hair, teeth, and complexion be false if necessary but not your hoods be, false, falsehoods are inexcusable," the newspaper reads.

Another filler reads, "The chameleon slays his victims with his tongue. He must be the lawyer of the reptile family."

War accounts dominate the second page. The writer in his story included a report of the work of the Bellevue Soldier Aid Society. The society met each week in Sumner's Hall, the second floor of the former Ace Hardware, 111 East Main St. The report showed the income received from a concert given by the Stultz family at $17.75, a donation by the I.O.O.F. $10, Literary Society $10, surplus funds from previous six months $15, money donated by members of the aid society $37.10, from the Kansas fund $7, ladies reception at their room (Sumner's Hall) $17.48, reception given in Sumner's Hall in way of masquerade party and tableau $106, and reception in way of a festival $107.70.

The society received many donations of articles in the form of hospital clothing and material in making bandages $191.21. The society mailed one box of hospital stores to each of the followings locations -- St. Louis, Western Virginia, Leavenworth, Kentucky, sanitary camp at Cincinnati, the 55th Ohio Volunteer Infantry at Grafton, Va. at a cost of $790.

The Ladies Aid Society raised $115 on March 22, 1862, holding a festival in Sumner's Hall with music furnished by the Bellevue Union Band.

Chapman wrote, "The society was in advance of modern societies, as it gave the newspaperman $7 for his publication (advertising) in its behalf, and which he did not feel it was his duty to reject."

The third page of the Independent is filled largely with patent medicine and cure-all ads. One alleged phenomenal cure-all was offered for six cents. Respondents answering the ad submitted by a Bowery doctor in New York would receive the combined cure-all for pimples, epilepsy, sexual incapacity, dizziness and headaches.

Local advertisements were included for Lord's dental room; Henry Flagler and Barney York, produce dealers; J.W. Goodson, a Bellevue doctor; a carriage shop operated by John Cady, located opposite to the Tremont House; and a drug store operated by W.D. Dimick. A church directory posted times for church services beneath the train schedule of the Toledo and Cleveland Railroad which passed through Bellevue.

A farm produce table listed eggs at 10 cents per dozen, live chickens at five cents per pound and smoked hams at eight cents per pound.

The back page of the seven column paper includes one column of war news and six columns of advertising. Advertising for local doctors, lawyers and patent medicine are the most frequent. Other ads call attention to new goods at local hardware and millinery stores.

The Bellevue Gazette and the Huron, Seneca, Erie and Sandusky Advertiser, which folded in 1852, preceded the Independent as Bellevue's first newspaper. It was edited by G.W. Hopkins from the Howard House on Monroe St., but only lasted four months.

In August 1867, E.P. Brown founded another paper call The Bellevue Gazette which changed hands several times before C.R. Callaghan assumed control.

------

Bellevue Historian Bill Oddo writes a weekly column for The Bellevue Gazette.