Page:History of Warren County.djvu/289

 which this paper soon attained; and the evanescence of the same from the rapid falling off from this encouraging number until the enterprise was pronounced a failure. In August, 1848, while its prosperity was most flattering, the issue was made weekly. On the 29th of November, 1849, T. J. Strong purchased the entire interest and led it through its feeble career to the close, in May, 1853. In 1845—46—47, an annual, or occasional paper, called The Token, was published by the pupils of the Glens Falls Academy.

Zabina Ellis reappears in January, 185 i, as the purchaser of the Clarion. InstalHng his brother-in-law, William Rogers, in the editorial department, and changing the name of the paper to the Glens Falls Free Press, Ellis consecrated the regenerated sheet to the interests of the Whig party. At the end of the year Rogers, who had conducted the editorial work with signal ability, was superseded by Ellis himself. In 1854 the paper wheeled into the ranks of the new Know Nothing party, and remained its champion while the party remained a palpable fact.

The next effort at attaining newspaper fame in Warren county was made in 1859 by John A. Bentley, a young lawyer, who hired the press and type of the Glens Falls Free Press, and with Edwin Pike for publisher, issued No. i, Vol. I, of a politico-religious paper called the Free Press. Four numbers of this paper were published, and Zabina Ellis resumed the management.

The Free Press establishment burned in the great fire of 1864. Mr. Ellis, having enlisted in the Twenty-second Regiment and been transferred to the Seventy-sixth, he was not at the time of the fire acting as its editor. The paper was never resuscitated.

On January 1st, 1847, the Warrensburgh Annual was first published at Saratoga Springs, under the editorial management of William B. Farlin. B. C. Butler, the founder of the Warren County Agricultural Society, was the leading spirit of this new enterprise, but Dudley Farlin was the responsible editor. It was short-lived.

Returning to the Republican, we find that in May, 1853, William Tinsley and his two sons, William T, and James H. Tinsley, purchased the effects of the oflSce, and took possession in the following July. The paper was then a six column sheet, but in September was enlarged by the addition of a column to a page, and a proportionate increase in length. The interest of James H. Tinsley was bought in April, 1855, and the firm name changed from William Tinsley & Sons to William Tinsley & Son. In the succeeding March the. establishment was sold out to Hillman A. Hall and Meredith B. Little for $1,100, who continued the publication under the firm style of Hall & Little. During the next two years the proprietorship passed from Hall & Little to Harris & Hall, Little's interest being purchased by H. M. Harris. Next it became Harris & Little, Hall's interest passing to the latter, and finally, Mr. Harris became the sole editor and proprietor. He has ever since retained his interest and