An Account of Oakland County / edited by Lillian Drake Avery.

HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY

63

plant to Detroit, changed the name of the Chronicle to the Democratic
Free Press, and thus was born what is today a paper of over 100,000
copies daily and represents an investment of from $1,500,000 to
$2,000,000.
"Pontiac was without a paper after the sale of the Chronicle until
December, 1834, when E. G. Van Buren established the Oakland
Patriot, a democratic publication. Van Buren found this field unprofitable and made his way to Centreville, and afterwards to White
Pigeon, where he accepted the Whig faith.
"Following the Patriot came the Oakland Whig, under the ownership of A. G. Sparhawk, a partisan who detested neutrals and who with
his energy and dash succeeded in making it rather uncomfortable for
the Democrats who were without a mouthpiece. On February, 1836,!Sparhawk changed the name of his publication to the Pontiac Courier.
Among the items of that year was one relating to the organization of
the Oakland county anti-slavery society with Deacon Elijah J. Fish
in the chair and John P. LeRoy as secretary. During 1837 Professor
Cowles of Oberlin University lectured in Pontiac against slavery. The
editor of the Democratic Balance, which had been established the
previous year by Nicholas Gantt, as a Democratic organ, tried to break
up the meeting and prevent the professor from finishing his remarks.
George W. Wisner and A. G. Sparhawk, the Whig editor, enlisted the
sympathy of a majority of the audience and free speech was established for the remainder of the evening. Sparhawk sold his interests to Fletcher & Company who assumed the ownership of the
Courier. * * *
"J. Dowd Coleman succeeded Fletcher & Company in the ownership of the Courier, the name being changed to the Jeffersonian. Coleman sold the paper in 1840 to W. M. Thompson, who restored its
former name, the Courier, continuing its publication until November,
1842, when William Sherwood succeeded to the ownership, afterwards
removing the plant to Corunna, where the paper appeared as the
Shiawassee Democrat and Clinton Express. Soon afterwards the
paper was re-established at Flint.
"The Pontiac Advertiser and Democratic Balance was first issued
in the summer of 1836, following the suspension of the Patriot, the
publisher being Nicholas S. Gantt. It was staunchly Democratic and
spoke in words of fire and brimstone. This paper was suspended in
1837.
"The Pontiac Herald made its appearance in 1838 by W. S. Stevens,
this publication also being of the Democratic faith. Stevens sold his
interests to Benjamin Irish, who continued the issue until the plant
was sold and removed to Flint. A. W. Hovey edited the Herald a
part of the time while Irish owned it.
"During the year 1840 the Pontiac Reformer was established by
Samuel Cudgel, a name which thoroughly fitted the business of waging
reform. A fire laid waste the plant and the building of this promising
publication and it sank into a dreamless sleep from which it awoke
no more.