Background
He was born on December 27, 1832 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, where his father was a successful carpenter and builder. He was the eldest of five children of Joseph and Catherine (Miskey) Singerly.
He was born on December 27, 1832 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, where his father was a successful carpenter and builder. He was the eldest of five children of Joseph and Catherine (Miskey) Singerly.
He graduated from high school in 1850.
After studies he secured a job with a produce commission house on the water front. After ten years in this school of long hours and hard work, he became associated with his father in the development of street railways, especially in Germantown, Pennsylvania. In 1870 he removed to Chicago to engage again in the commission business, but he was soon recalled.
In 1877 he purchased the Public Record, buying it very cheaply at a time when its circulation had ebbed to 5, 200. In 1879 he changed the name to Philadelphia Record, cut the price in half. In 1882 he launched a Sunday edition. He went roughshod after the theft of bodies by the coroner's underlings, exposed bogus medical colleges, laid bare registration frauds, assailed corruption in office.
Warring against excessive coal prices, he organized a direct sales scheme in 1881 that undercut the established rate by seventy-five cents a ton and saved hard-pressed householders thousands of dollars. In 1882 he moved the Philadelphia Record into a new building that was among the first in which incandescent electric lighting was used. The circulation of the paper grew rapidly from the start and rose to nearly 200, 000 during his lifetime. To assure the necessary supply of paper, he ran his own paper mill at Elkton, Pennsylvania.
He was soon the recognized Democratic leader of Pennsylvania. He championed Cleveland in each of his presidential campaigns, espoused tariff reform when that doctrine was particularly unpopular in Pennsylvania, and helped to secure the election of Robert Emory Pattison, the only Democrat chosen governor in Pennsylvania after the Civil War until 1934.
In 1894 he himself was nominated for governor but was not elected; otherwise he refused office except honorary appointment to the Fairmount Park Commission. In 1896 he withdrew his support from Bryan and gave it to John McAuley Palmer and Simon Bolivar Buckner. His boundless energy found many other outlets.
In 1878 he inherited his father's shares in the Germantown Passenger Railway, appraised at $750, 000, which he subsequently sold for $1, 500, 000. In addition to the paper mill, he owned a gleaner and binder factory at Norristown and knitting mills in Philadelphia, at one time the largest producer of "jerseys" in the land, and had a model stock farm, which was his suburban home.
After the destruction by fire of the Temple Theatre he erected a building on its site for the Chestnut Street National Bank and its savings fund affiliate, which he had organized under the presidency of ExGovernor Pattison and of which he became president in 1891. The disastrous collapse of these banks in the aftermath of the 1893-96 depression gave his brilliant career a tragic ending. Struggling to meet his obligations, he arranged to divert the earnings of his Record holdings equitably to his creditors.
He died suddenly in Philadelphia from an aneurism ascribed to "tobacco heart. "
Purchased the small Public Record newspaper, William Miskey Singerly renamed it as Philadelphia Record, and made it the pioneer morning daily in the state sold at one cent and giving complete news, it had the biggest circulation, over 160, 000. He improved paper and typography, introduced display headlines, added new departments, and enlarged the Saturday issue. He was also involved in real estate development, overseeing the building of over 1, 000 new homes.
Of imposing appearance, with the air of one born to command, Singerly was reckless of consistency and fearless of consequences, the embodiment of enterprise and open-handedness.
He was twice married, first on June 4, 1854, to Pamelia Anna Jones of Philadelphia and second on August 12, 1872, to Mary Ryan of Chicago, both of whom died. He was survived by one of his two daughters.
