Diary of a Georgetowner

CHAPTER 11: Georgetown’s Early Newspapers

Edited by David Roffman

August 2008

Photo: An Example of an old newspaper: Columbian Centinel, Boston Wedesday, August 22, 1798

July 1, 1795. Today I had word from my cousin in Baltimore that his wife has been safely delivered of a son, their third, two days ago. I was glad to hear so speedily. Since the first of the year when the regular mail service was initiated, we have found it to be most reliable. Lat New Years Day the gentleman who has the contract to carry the mail between Baltimore and Alexandria - I believe he is the proprietor of the Indian Queen in Baltimore - made the run himself, and over a glass of ale at Suter’s tavern promised us the speediest and most efficient service it was in his power to provide. He has been as good as his word. Often the mails are here in twelve hours’ time if they come straight through; sometimes it takes twenty-four hours if they make an overnight stop at Montgomery Court House.

I see the possibility of even better service once the Federal government is in operation across the creek. Already there has been a post office set up there.

My cousin promised to name this son for me. We shall see if he remembers his promise.

July 27, 1795. The ship Maryland, out of Georgetown, has arrived here with only a part of her return cargo. She was stopped by a British cruiser and taken to Bermuda where her cargo was condemned as French property and part of it seized. I have all t his from General Lingan, Collector of the Port, who cafes at these high-handed actions. General Lingan suffered a chest wound by bayonet in the late war and was a prisoner in 1776 on the “hell ship” Jersey. He has no love for the British.

September 6, 1795. Walking along Bridge Street this morning I chanced to look down an alley and saw a most unsightly heap of oyster shells, bottles, and decaying food. Has the ordinance recently passed to prevent just such undisciplined collections of garbage so soon fallen into disrespect? If so, it must be enforced more strictly. A fine of thirty shilling, which the law demands, cannot be inconsiderable even for the most prosperous tavern keeper.

I have noticed similar flouting of the ordinance against galloping one’s horse down such busy thoroughfares as the High Street (Wisconsin Avenue). If we are to maintain our position as a commercial and cultural center and take on new responsibilities with the capital city so close at hand, we must learn to conduct ourselves in a more civilized manner.

December 15,1795. Word has come to me of the death of a gentleman whom I once had the pleasure to meet and converse with most agreeably and whom I had lost sight of in recent years. Charles Frederick Fierer, erstwhile publisher of our first newspaper, The Times and the Patowmack Packet, has died in Dumfries where he was engaged in another not too profitable publishing venture. I had known that he was badly in debt when he gave up the Packet about four years ago, but it seems that illness and suffering caused by his war injuries used up the last of his resources of money and energy. The Virginia Gazette and Agricultural Repository, which he published in Dumfries lasted only two years, according to his obituary, and it was thought that he died penniless. But by making a careful disposition of his possessions in his will he managed to pay off all his creditors within a few months of his death - the mark of an honorable but unfortunate man.

In one undertaking he was successful; he was founder and charter Master of the first Masonic Lodge in Georgetown, designated Lodge No. 9 of Maryland when it was granted a charter by the Grand Lodge of Maryland in 1789.

The lifetime of newspapers appears to be short. WE have had four in four years, two of which have since gone out of business. Now we have the Columbian Chronicle and, since last May, the Impartial Observer and Washington Advertiser which has been published weekly and occasionally semi-weekly by Thomas Wilson. But both I hear are in financial difficulties, and I know not how long we shall have the benefit of their service to the community. However, there always seems to be some enterprising and public-spirited journalist to provide us with news and gossip about our neighbors and our country.

(To Be Continued)