The story of the Sun, New York: 1833-1928 / by Frank M. O'Brien ; with an introduction by Edward Page Mitchell ...

CHAPTER VI
MOSES Y. BEACH'S ERA OF HUSTLE
The "Sun" Uses Albany Steamboats, Horse Expresses,
Trotting Teams, Pigeons, and the Telegraph to Get
News.-Poe's Famous Balloon Hoax and the Case
of Mary Rogers.
THE second owner of the Sun, Moses Yale Beach,
was, like Ben Day, a Yankee. He was born in the
old Connecticut town of Wallingford on January 7, 1800.
He had a little education in the common schools, but
showed more Interest in mechanics than In books. When
he was fourteen he was bound out to a cabinetmaker In
Hartford. His skill was so fine that he saw the needlessness of serving the customary seven years, and his industry so great that he was able, by doing extra work in odd
times, to get together enough money to buy his freedom
from his master. He set up a cabinet shop of his own at
Northampton, Massachusetts.
When Beach was twenty, he made the acquaintance of
Miss Nancy Day, of Springfield, the sister of Benjamin
H. Day, founder of the Sun. He and Miss Day were married in 1821, and as the business at Northampton was not
prospering, they settled down in Springfield.
The young man was a good cabinetmaker, but his mind
ran to inventions rather than to chests and highboys.
Steamboat navigation had not yet attained a commercial
success, but Beach was a close student of the advance
made by Robert Fulton and Henry Bell. First, however,
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