The following items are from a period article which appears in the records of the Ingham County Pioneer Society:

"The first paper published in Mason, or in the county, was the Ingham Telegraph (neutral), by M. A. Childs. The first number appeared in April, 1842. At that day it was usless to attempt to keep up the publication of newspapers in the new counties of the State unless they had the advantage of publishing the tax-lists. At the election in this county in 1842, Jason B. Packard, Esq., then late of Jackson, was elected county treasurer. There was a deliquent tax-list to be published in January following, which Mr. Packard absolutely refused to publish in the Telegraph, but made arrangements with G. W. Randy and R. S. Cheney, of Jackson, to establish a Democratic paper in Mason, and publish the tax-list; consequently Mr. Childs moved his establishment to De Witt, Clinton Co.

"In due time the Jackson firm sent material to Mason and commenced the publication of a paper. The tax-list was put in form at Jackson and brought to Mason, and a boy did all the work of the establishment. After about ten months this lad committed an act rendered him odius to the community, and he returned to Jackson. Then appeared one James H. Wells to do the work on said paper. About the same time the name of Mr. Cheney was withdrawn as one of its proprietors, and probably the name of Mr. Wells appeared as editor and publisher. The last number of the sheet appeared just before the election in 1844.

" At the session of the Legislature in 1844 the control of publishing the tax-lists was given to county treasurers, each in his own county.

" At the election in 1844, that able man and staunch Whig, the late George Matthews, Esq., universally esteemed for his noble traits of character and many good deeds, was elected treasurer of this county. The election of Mr. Matthews, it was believed, offered a good opportunity for the establishment of a Whig paper in the county. J. H. Child and H. P. Stillman purchased of Mr. Raney the printing material in Mason, and in December, 1844, commenced the publication of the Ingham Herald. In January following they entered into a contract with the county treasurer to do the tax advertising of the county. At that time the influence of the Democratic press of the State was all-powerful. In several counties Whig treasurers had been elected, and some of the 'spoils' were liable to go to the enemy. So the Democratic Legislature, on or about the 21st of March, 1845, passed an act restoring to the auditor-general the entire countrol of the tax advertising.

"Story* & Cheney, of the Jackson Patriot, immediately packed printing materials for publishing a paper, and started the same for Eaton County, under the charge of ______ ______, now of Lansing. They found the field already occupied by a party of Marshall. Then 'twas right-about-face. They made up from the columns of the Patriot forms for a newspaper, christened it The Ingham Democrat, and took said forms to the village of Leslie and the office of Hon. Henry Fiske, then judge of Probate of the county, and formerly president of the wildcat bank of Kensington, and there with a brush painted off a few copies of the Democrat. Judge Fiske made affidavit that the paper was printed in Ingham County, and with that affidavit and a copy of said paper, they posted off to Detroit and placed them in the hands of the auditor-general, and that officer, on the 1st day of April, designed the Ingham Democrat to do the tax advertising of this county for that year.

* Wilbur F. Storey, now of the Chicago Times.

"Almost the first intimation the people of Mason had that another paper was about to be published in the county was a rumor that a jaded span of horses with a wagon freighted with printing materials was coming towards town, through the mud and mire, on the old Columbia road. After being dragged throught the swamps and sloughs of Eaton County and part ot those of Ingham in search of a tax-list, the material found a resting-place in the village of Mason.

"For several weeks no one appeared to take charge of the Ingham Democrat. Some time in May, Mr. Child, of the Herald, entered into articles of agreement with Storey & Cheney to publish the Democrat in their name until the conclusion of the advertising, and to purchase the establishment. About one-third of the purchase price was paid down. Whatever amount was realized from publishing the list was to be placed to the credit of Mr. Cheney. After the list was placed in form, ready for publication, Storey & Cheney replevined and removed the materials. Again appeared the obnoxious youth before referred to as employed by another Jackson firm to print the paper in Mason, and who had suddenly disappeared from the village.

"These proceedings erased a good deal of ill feelings and excitement. But a few days passed, when one night most of the materials were removed from the Democrat office, no one knew whither. After a series of years some of them were found secreted in several places about town. The proprietors of the Democrat sent on other material and concluded the advertising. Soon after Mr. Stillman withdrew from the Herald, and, with the assistance of Judge Danforth and Dr. McRobert, purchased the Democrat office and continued the publication of the paper until October, 1847. The name of E. B. Danforth and Minos McRobert appeared as proprietors.

"Mr. Child continued the publication of the Herald for a year or more after the withdrawal of Mr. Stillman."

That the Ingham Democrat was emphatically a county paper is shown by its advertisements, which came from all parts of the county. A copy of the paper, dated Dec. 18, 1846, being number 31 of volume 2, has been consulted, and among the advertisements it was found to contain were the following:

"Amos E. Steele, Notary Public for Ingham County. Office at the Western Hotel, Mason, Mich., where he will at all times be ready to attend to conveyancing, taking acknowledgments of deeds, and all other business in his line."
"N. Dow Tunnicliff, Attorney and Counselor at Law; office in the Register's office, north side of the Public Square, Mason, Mich."
Edward Crafts, Indian Botanic Physician and Surgeon; office at his residence, one mile south of the village of Mason. All calls in his profession promptly attended to."

Others were those of Silas Beebe, merchant, at Stockbridge; Joseph Woodhouse and V. H. Powell, notaries public, at Leslie; Amaziah Winchell, notary public, town of Ingham; Stockbridge House, by O. Williams, at Stockbridge; Mason Branch, master in chauncery and justice of the peace, at Stockbridge; John C. Obear, tailor, at Mason; Minos McRobert and John W. Phelps, physicians and surgeons, at Mason; H. D. Post & Co., dealers in shingles, at Mason, etc. Several estrays were advertised, and Abijah L. Clark, of Bunker Hill, offered for sale a pair of horses and a harness. A. E. Steele, at the Western Hotel, wanted 100 pounds of live geese feathers. Alfred H. Keyes, of Wheatfield, gave notice that he had given his son, Harrison M. Keyes, his time, and Myron Abbott, of Ingham, warned all persons against harboring or trusting his wife, Mary, on his account, she having left his "bed and board without any just cause or provocation." W. Horton, of Mason, advertised a stock of groceries for sale cheap. J. P. Cowles had a farm to let at the village of Jefferson, in the township of Alaiedon. Two shooting-matches were advertised for New Year's day (Jan. 1, 1847), one by C. W. Shafer and O. Converse, and the other by N. Dow Tunnicliff.

The coldest day from December 20th to 28th, as shown by a "weather-table," was Monday, the 21st, when at six o'clock in the morning the mercury stood 8° above zero. The warmest was the Sunday following, when it rose to 50° above at the same hour, 57° at noon, and fell to 44° at six in the evening.

Notice was given that Inghan County Musical Association would meet at the court-house in Mason on the second Tuesday in January, and the annual meeting of the Lyccum was to be held on the first Satruday in January, whence it will be seen that a taste for musical and literary culture was thus early developed.

The marriage of Jerome E. Branch and Miss Livena Wood, of Stockbridge, on the 23rd instant, was noticed. A portion of the President's annual message was given, which treated largely of the Mexican war. By the arrival of the "Cambria" at Boston, news "fifteen days later from Europe" was received. The usual amount of advertising for patent medicines appeared, and the virtues of "Beekman's Pulmonic Syrup and Vegetable Essential Pills," and "Wistar's Balsam of Wild Cherr," were lauded in column puffs, all of which the publishers were doubtless glad to print.

The terms of the paper were: "One dallar and fifty cents per annum, in advance; twenty-five cents will be added to this amount if not paid within six month, and fifty cents if not paid during the year. All kinds of produce will be received in payment at the highest price, and town and county orders taken at par." The advertising rates compared favorably with those of the present. In size the paper was twenty by twenty-eight inches, being a five-column folio.

This paper finally passed out of existence, and it was a considerable number of years before another Democratic paper was started in Mason. At length, however, on the 2d of June, 1876, the present Ingham County Democrat was established by J. V. Johnson, now of the Charlotte Leader. It was published by him until Oct. 1, 1877, when it was purchased by D. P. Whitmore, the present proprietor. The paper was started as a six-column quarto, but was reduced to a five-column quarto, which is its present size. Its circulation, Sept. 1, 1880, was 1224.

The Ingham County News was established in 1858 by D. B. Herrington, and in size was about a seven-column folio, aferwards increased to an eight-column folio, and now a six-column quarto. Mr. Herrington was its proprietor until about 1866, and was succeeded by K. Kittredge, now of the Eaton Rapids Journal. In 1875, Mr. Kittredge sold to W. F. Cornell, who conducted it about one year, and sold out to Otis, Fuller & Co. Mr. Fuller became sole proprietor in 1877, and built up the paper to its present excellent condition. In the summer of 1880 it was sold to V. J. Tefft, the present proprietor. It is Republican in politics, and has a circulation of about 1700.

K. Kittredge, former publisher of the News, at one time published a literary magazine. D. B. Herrington issued from his office at different times the Western Odd-Fellow and the Baptist Tidings. The place has at present but the two papers, the News and the Democrat, both of which are ably conducted and very creditable sheets.

Taken from:
"History of Ingham and Eaton Counties Michigan, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Their Prominent Men and Pioneers", by Samuel W. Durant.
Published by D. W. Ensign & Co., 1880.
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