The Wealth and Biography of the Wealthy Citizens of the City of New York: Being an Alphabetical (Classic Reprint)
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WlAL llIY CITIZIBNS THE CITY OF NEW YORK. Entered nccornlng tc A ct of 0-Ânurcs.1n the year one thousand oluht hnndrsd and Myhmr, HY IOHEH H. DICAUII, in the olcrkÂs offlco ofthe Dlstrlct Uourt of the Uulhd Btstesjor the Southern Dlatrlct of New York. A heel, John II, ----- 250,000 In ptrtnershlp wlth Gsrrlt and Dunscomh. ccnstltntlng the drm ofdohn II. A bout et Oo., lrou merchants. The buslness of thts house has been greatly increased wlthln a few years. A braham, Jacob, ...... 100,000 A dams, John, 300,000 A ddams, Charles, 200,000 Formerly anlnlluentlsl merchant, but now retired on his fortune. A ddison, Thomas, -200,000 Orlglnally of tho llrm of Wllmarth and A ddison, ever pointed nencll makers. They manufactured the ever-polntsd penella which were lnvenuod ln Englnnd by l.,M crdnn, who hold the patent rllht lor thelnventlcn, dated lay. 1816. After soparatlnu from this partnership he earrled on a rllooellflll. trnds for many years, became wsalt ty, and is now retired from buslcesa A drlance, I saac, 200,000 A lawyer, unda large real estate owner ln the upper part of the elty. A drlance, Jno., -- -. -300,000 Hardware merchant, ln which huslncss he has made the hulk of his fortune. From very llmlted beginnings, he has by perseverance reached his present posltlon, and become possessed of an lncependsnt fortune. A ldrich, Herman D., 150,000 Prodnco and comtnlsslon broker. Came orlqtrally from England, but settled runny years auo ln this country. llero by psrssverlng lndustry he has realised a hsndsotno fortune. I le has of late years speculated largely ln real ostom, which new constitutes the bulk of his property. Ono of the tlrtn of lc Ourdy, Aldrich Ct Spencer. stench, rm H., 150,000 Mr. Aldrich was horn and reared under the strict mental, moral and rellllions dlsclpllno of old Oonnectlcut. I le worked hard for hls father, according to tho old Now England
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)
Moses Sperry Beach was an American owner and editor of the New York Sun (1852-1868).
Background
Moses Beach was born on October 5, 1822, at Springfield, Massachussets, the second of the eight children of Moses Yale Beach and his wife, Nancy Day. He was born, at a time when his father, then only twenty-two years old, was at work on a variety of inventions.
Education
When Moses Beach was twelve years old, his father began his connection with the New York Sun, and the boy was well taught by him the craft of the composing and pressrooms.
Career
In 1845 Moses Sperry Beach became joint owner, with George Roberts, of the Boston Daily Times but in a few months he returned to New York and, on October 2, 1845, with his brother, Alfred Ely Beach, entered the new firm of Moses Y. Beach & Sons, owners of the Sun. In December 1848 the elder Beach retired, leaving the property to the sons. On April 6, 1852, Alfred Ely Beach withdrew from the Sun, and Moses Sperry Beach, then only thirty years old, became sole proprietor of the newspaper. His administration was characterized by the same enterprise and liberality that marked his father's. The Sun supported Buchanan in 1856, but was not pro-slavery. It denounced the Dred Scott decision and declared that John Brown belonged in a madhouse rather than on the gallows. Early in 1860, swayed perhaps by his chief editorial writer, John Vance, Beach supported Douglas against Lincoln, although the Sun had advised the Democratic party to nominate Sam Houston for president.
Before the election, however, Beach turned over the Sun (August 6, 1860) to a group of men, headed by the wealthy Archibald M. Morrison, whose intent was to transform this popular daily into a semi-religious newspaper. The price was $100, 000 for good will, with a rental to be paid for the building and machinery, Beach retaining all physical ownership. As the new control not only urged the Union generals not to attack on Sunday but refused to accept advertisements on the day of rest, the enterprise failed. On January 1, 1862, Beach announced: "Once more I write myself Editor and sole proprietor of the New York Sun. My day dream of rural enjoyment is broken. " He set out energetically to recoup the paper's loss of popularity and advertising income. He was able to lower expenses by adopting the stereotyping process and by reducing the number of columns from seven to five. The Sun had sold for one cent a copy since its foundation in 1833, but the Civil War sent the price of newsprint to twenty-four cents a pound and Beach in 1863 announced with regret, mixed with humor, that thereafter the price of the paper would be "one cent in gold, or two cents in currency. " The price remained two cents thereafter for fifty-three years.
Beach never pretended to give to the Sun's public a news service such as Bennett offered in the Herald, profound editorial articles such as Greeley printed in the Tribune, or the thorough political news that marked the Times under Raymond. The Sun was a working man's newspaper and Beach catered to his readers by offering five or six columns of condensed news, one column of editorial, one of jokes and miscellany, one or two of fiction, and nine or ten of advertising. Fiction was one of his specialities and he bought liberally from the authors of the best-sellers of the time, Mary Jane Holmes, Horatio Alger, Jr. , H. Warren Trowbridge, and Ann S. Stephens.
On the physical side of newspaper production Beach made important contributions, inheriting as he did his father's talent for mechanics. He invented a device for feeding paper to presses from a roll, thus doing away with the use of flat sheets; apparatus for wetting the paper before printing and for cutting after printing; and he is credited with being the first to print both sides of the sheet at once. His desire for "rural enjoyment" was so deep-seated that in January 1868, when he was only forty-five years old, he sold the Sun to a syndicate headed by Charles A. Dana, retaining a small portion of the stock. The price was $175, 000. With this and the accumulated profits of previous years he was able to find the leisure he wished. In 1873 he made an extended tour through Norway, Sweden, and Russia. The rest of his life was passed at his large estate at Peekskill, New York, where he died at the age of seventy.
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Personality
Beach was a man of dignity, possessor of a pleasing manner and an even temper that reflected itself in his strong, handsome face. He passed almost unruffled through a stormy period of American journalism, perhaps because he was more deeply interested in publishing than in politics. The kindness of his nature is reflected in an incident set down by Mark Twain in The Innocents Abroad. Beach was one of the tourists on the immortal voyage of the steamer Quaker City in 1867. At Jaffa the Americans were hailed by forty destitute New Englanders - men, women, and children - who had been lured to Palestine by "Prophet" Adams. They begged to be taken at least as far as Alexandria, Egypt - anywhere to get away from Adams and his misguided colony. On reaching Alexandria, Beach inquired how much it would cost to send the penniless forty back to Maine by way of Liverpool and, on learning that $1, 500 would cover the expense, paid it out of his own pocket - "an unselfish act of benevolence, " as Mark Twain called it. Beach, who was a warm admirer and friend of Henry Ward Beecher, brought back from that voyage an olive tree from the Mount of Olives. The wood was made into a pulpit-stand for Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, and still is there.
Connections
In 1845, Moses Beach was married to Chloe Buckingham of Waterbury, Connecticut.