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Newspaper Danbury Times (Danbury, Conn.) 1837-1870

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About Danbury Times (Danbury, Conn.) 1837-1870

“Published on Main Street, Two Doors North of the Bank”

The Danbury Times was a weekly paper established by Edward Butler Osborne and published from 1837 to 1870. For the duration of its run, the Danbury Times cost $2 for an annual subscription.

Though the paper did not claim a Christian affiliation, issues often began with allegorical stories about Christian morality, essays on philosophy, or long poems, followed by subsequent pages covering local, state, and national news. Articles on popular science, jokes, and human-interest stories were also common features on the front page. The Times covered Danbury through the early years of its famous hatting industry (which earned Danbury the title “Hat City”), into the early years of the Connecticut labor movement as those hatters, many of them immigrants, sought better working conditions.

Advertisements were wide-ranging, among them dry goods and millinery, local professionals for hire including doctors and lawyers, and trade-specific products for hatters, e.g. wool hat bodies and kettles for steaming hats. Advertisements and schedules for the Danbury and Norwalk Railroad followed its opening in 1852. Other notable content included coverage of the Mexican American War and the Civil War, with letters from the front lines published in full.

The first reservoir constructed in Danbury for the purpose of supplying the hatting industry with water was the Kohanza Reservoir, which froze and consequently burst on January 31, 1869. Coverage of the disaster and the accompanying destruction of property can be found in the Times, including names of those who died and where they had been found. The story was told in the paper’s usual poetic voice, “In a moment they knew not of, God’s hand was laid upon them, and from the midst of life and happiness, they were called into eternity.”

Edward B. Osborne began his newspaper career at age 13 in Northampton, Massachusetts as an apprentice at the Northampton Gazette. From 1834 to 1835, he was foreman of the Salem Landmark, published at the time by Rev. George Cheever. Osborne then co-published Quincy Patriot with John Adams Green in 1837 while John Quincy Adams, a famous Quincy local, was fighting the gag rule in Congress, which prevented the reception and consideration of antislavery petitions. Osborne established the Danbury Times in the same year. The last issue published under “Edward B. Osborne Publisher” was June 26, 1850. Remaining issues under this title list “H. & L. Osborne, Publishers” and “H. & L. Osborne, Editors and Proprietors.” On August 31, 1865, the Times changed hands again, to Bailey & Donovan. It was renamed the Danbury News in 1870, a title which ran from 1870 until 1933.

After his retirement from the newspaper business, Osborne went into politics, serving as a member of the New York State Assembly from 1884 to 1885 and in 1891, then as a New York State senator for the fifteenth district from 1892-93. He died at his home in Albany, New York on July 20, 1893.

Provided By: Connecticut State Library, Hartford, CT

About this Newspaper

Title

  • Danbury Times (Danbury, Conn.) 1837-1870

Dates of Publication

  • 1837-1870

Created / Published

  • Danbury, Conn. : Edward B. Osborne

Headings

  • -  Danbury (Conn.)--Newspapers
  • -  Connecticut--Danbury
  • -  United States--Connecticut--Fairfield--Danbury

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Vol. 1, no. 1 (July 5, 1837)-v.36, no. 40 (Mar. 10, 1870).
  • -  Issues for Mar. 1, 1866-Mar. 10, 1870 also called whole no. 1647-whole no. 1846.
  • -  Contains numbering inconsistencies.
  • -  Available on microfilm from Readex Microprint Corp and from Connecticut State Library, Hartford, Conn.
  • -  Jeffersonian (Danbury, Conn.) (DLC)sn 82016397 (OCoLC)9310721
  • -  Danbury news (DLC)sn 82016289 (OCoLC)9308179

Medium

  • volumes

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn84022465

OCLC Number

  • 10419197

Preceding Titles

Succeeding Titles

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Danbury Times Danbury, Conn. -1870. (Danbury, CT), Jan. 1 1837. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn84022465/.

APA citation style:

(1837, January 1) Danbury Times Danbury, Conn. -1870. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn84022465/.

MLA citation style:

Danbury Times Danbury, Conn. -1870. (Danbury, CT) 1 Jan. 1837. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn84022465/.