The Marion Star: Difference between revisions

 

Line 35: Line 35:

Harding increased the length of the ”Star” from four pages to an average of fourteen, with a comic strip and extra pages on Saturdays.{{sfn|Cuneo|1922|pages=13, 58}} The paper’s circulation increased from 1,000 to 15,000,{{sfn|Cuneo|1922|pages=54, 58}} it began to publish six days each week instead of semiweekly and its finances improved; while Harding was a senator, a man offered in jest to buy the newspaper from him for $200,000.{{sfn|Cuneo|1922|pages=57-58}}<ref name=”jarvis”>{{Cite web |last=Jarvis |first=John |title=Warren G. Harding: A newspaperman who became the president |url=https://www.marionstar.com/story/local/2014/06/27/warren-g-harding-a-newspaperman-who-became-the-president/11561313/ |access-date=2025-12-01 |website=The Marion Star |language=en-US}}</ref> Harding married Florence Kling (who thus became [[Florence Harding]]) in 1891; she was not involved in the editing or publication of the ”Star” but she occasionally managed the staff.{{sfn|Downes|1970|p=18}}

Harding increased the length of the ”Star” from four pages to an average of fourteen, with a comic strip and extra pages on Saturdays.{{sfn|Cuneo|1922|pages=13, 58}} The paper’s circulation increased from 1,000 to 15,000,{{sfn|Cuneo|1922|pages=54, 58}} it began to publish six days each week instead of semiweekly and its finances improved; while Harding was a senator, a man offered in jest to buy the newspaper from him for $200,000.{{sfn|Cuneo|1922|pages=57-58}}<ref name=”jarvis”>{{Cite web |last=Jarvis |first=John |title=Warren G. Harding: A newspaperman who became the president |url=https://www.marionstar.com/story/local/2014/06/27/warren-g-harding-a-newspaperman-who-became-the-president/11561313/ |access-date=2025-12-01 |website=The Marion Star |language=en-US}}</ref> Harding married Florence Kling (who thus became [[Florence Harding]]) in 1891; she was not involved in the editing or publication of the ”Star” but she occasionally managed the staff.{{sfn|Downes|1970|p=18}}

The ”Star” encouraged industrialists to make improvements to the city of Marion, including through the development of new railroads; it sponsored the Black Diamond railroad, which was to send coal to Marion from [[Coshocton County]] mines. The Black Diamond railroad was never completed.{{sfn|Downes|1970|pp=19-20}} In 1890 Harding wrote in the ”Star” that promoting Marion, which was not legally a city, to the status of a city would permit its municipial government to pave the streets properly, because only a city council could handle the expenses to do so. On April 7 of that year the majority of Marion citizens voted to make Marion a city. But after Harding wrote an editorial on April 9 insulting wealthy people who did not want the pavement, the project was delayed by several years.{{sfn|Downes|1970|pp=23-24}}

The ”Star” encouraged industrialists to make improvements to the city of Marion, including through the development of new railroads; it the Black Diamond railroad, which was to send coal to Marion from [[Coshocton County]] mines. The Black Diamond railroad was never completed.{{sfn|Downes|1970|pp=19-20}} In 1890 Harding wrote in the ”Star” that promoting Marion, which was not legally a city, to the status of a city would permit its municipial government to pave the streets properly, because only a city council could handle the expenses to do so. On April 7 of that year the majority of Marion citizens voted to make Marion a city. But after Harding wrote an editorial on April 9 insulting wealthy people who did not want the pavement, the project was delayed by several years.{{sfn|Downes|1970|pp=23-24}}

Some weeks after [[1920 United States presidential election|Harding was elected president in 1920]] he realised that his duties would prevent him from editing and writing for the ”Star” in the capacity he used to; thus, he relinquished his position as editor during a meeting with shareholders. The last column he wrote for the ”Star” celebrated the centennial of Marion’s founding.{{sfn|Cuneo|1922|p=149}}

Some weeks after [[1920 United States presidential election|Harding was elected president in 1920]] he realised that his duties would prevent him from editing and writing for the ”Star” in the capacity he used to; thus, he relinquished his position as editor during a meeting with shareholders. The last column he wrote for the ”Star” celebrated the centennial of Marion’s founding.{{sfn|Cuneo|1922|p=149}}

Newspaper in Marion, Ohio

The Marion Star (formerly known as The Marion Daily Star) is a newspaper in Marion, Ohio. The paper is owned by the Gannett Newspaper organization. It was founded in 1877 by Sam Hume and, in its early years, was so unprofitable that it became insolvent in 1884. After the business was put up for auction at a sheriff’s sale, it was purchased by Warren G. Harding, future president of the United States of America. Harding made the newspaper successful and owned it until he sold the business in 1923, two months before his death.

The Marion Daily Pebble was founded in 1877 by Sam Hume, a street doctor in Marion, Ohio. It changed its name at some point thereafter to The Marion Daily Star while under the ownership of Hume’s sons Willis and Harry. The Marion Daily Star frequently was passed from owner to owner and, despite its name, usually sent out only twice a week. The newspaper’s editorials and features were at first highly comedic, but because readers quickly lost interest in the comedy, the business began to struggle financially. It was described once as a “hell-box full of pied type and a broken-down press”.

When it became insolvent in 1884 the newspaper business was offered at a sheriff’s sale. Warren G. Harding‘s father, George Tryon Harding, bought it with real estate instead of cash, paid off its debts and gave his son ownership of the newspaper; Warren, however, lost his proprietorship shortly thereafter when it was ruled in court that the real estate George had traded was invalid.

In 1884, a nineteen-year-old Warren Harding, along with Johnny Sickel and compositor Jack Warwick, repurchased The Marion Daily Star for either $300 or $450 (Harding’s account varied). It is not clear whose money bought the newspaper. George may have paid for it, or Warren, Sickel and Warwick may have pooled their money.^[9] Within weeks after the purchase, Harding became sole owner, with Sickel exiting out of frustration with the available equipment and Warwick leaving to work for a bigger city paper.^[9] Harding named the business with which he published the Star the Star Publishing Company. He furnished the headquarters with new printing presses and a telegraph, and hired reporters so that he could spend his time requesting advertisements and writing editorials instead of doing the reporting himself.

Harding began editing at the newspaper immediately after he acquired it.^[9] He was responsible for writing, proofreading, typesetting and printing the newspaper, and for managing and promoting it as a business. Harding believed that classified advertisements were an important aspect to a newspaper’s financial success and ability to beat competition. His preferred method of convincing people to pay to put advertisements in the Star was to meet with them personally and explain the advantages of advertising in a newspaper.

Harding increased the length of the Star from four pages to an average of fourteen, with a comic strip and extra pages on Saturdays. The paper’s circulation increased from 1,000 to 15,000, it began to publish six days each week instead of semiweekly and its finances improved; while Harding was a senator, a man offered in jest to buy the newspaper from him for $200,000.^[17] Harding married Florence Kling (who thus became Florence Harding) in 1891; she was not involved in the editing or publication of the Star but she occasionally managed the staff.

The Star encouraged industrialists to make improvements to the city of Marion, including through the development of new railroads; it supported the Black Diamond railroad, which was to send coal to Marion from Coshocton County mines. The Black Diamond railroad was never completed. In 1890 Harding wrote in the Star that promoting Marion, which was not legally a city, to the status of a city would permit its municipial government to pave the streets properly, because only a city council could handle the expenses to do so. On April 7 of that year the majority of Marion citizens voted to make Marion a city. But after Harding wrote an editorial on April 9 insulting wealthy people who did not want the pavement, the project was delayed by several years.

Some weeks after Harding was elected president in 1920 he realised that his duties would prevent him from editing and writing for the Star in the capacity he used to; thus, he relinquished his position as editor during a meeting with shareholders. The last column he wrote for the Star celebrated the centennial of Marion’s founding.

Harding retained ownership of the paper until June of 1923 when he sold the business to Louis H. Brush and Roy D. Moore, proprietors of the Brush-Moore Newspapers company, for $480,000.^[21][22] He planned to remain an associate editor after the sale but died unexpectedly on August 2, 1923.^[17] In 1935, Brush-Moore Newspapers lost a case in which they wished to deduct a $13,300 yearly salary, which Harding would have received from The Marion Star had he lived to retire from the presidency, from their income tax; it was ruled that the salary would remain taxable.^[22]

Thomson Newspapers acquired Brush-Moore Newspapers in 1967, whereupon The Marion Star became part of the Thomson Newspaper chain, which already possessed 23 newspapers in the United States and 12 in Canada.^[23]

In June of 2000, the Gannett Company purchased Thomson’s Central Ohio group of eight newspapers (including the Star), plus 13 other Thomson papers.^[24] Under Gannett, editorial, business offices, and retail advertising are maintained in Marion, while printing and classified advertising operations have been moved to a regional press house in Mansfield, Ohio.

The Marion Ohio Public Library and The Ohio Historical Society maintain microfilm libraries of newspaper for public research; the paper is also accessible for a monthly subscription fee through Ancestry.com and NewspaperArchives.com.

In April 2024 The Marion Star switched from carrier to postal delivery.^[25]

Harding refrained from letting his Republican political views affect the Star because he thought that a political slant would ruin its profits. The Star was fairly neutral politically, and during the 1885 and 1887 gubernatorial elections of Ohio it did not support or denounce any candidate, nor did it opine about any political issue.

In the 1880s during the temperance movement the Star repeated Harding’s belief that, if the government wanted people to stop drinking alcohol, it would be more effective to tax people for alcohol than to ban it altogether. It supported the Dow Law, an act created in 1886 by Ohio governor Joseph B. Foraker that taxed alcohol vendors a yearly $100.