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Newspaper Jeffersonian Republican (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1840-1853

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About Jeffersonian Republican (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1840-1853

Stroudsburg lies in the foothills of the Pocono Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania, at the confluence of three creeks that powered the mills of settler Jacob Stroud in the 1770s. Stroudsburg was laid out in 1810 and became the Monroe County seat in 1837. Its 19th-century economy thrived on lumbering, spring water in locally made bottles, and vacationers from New York and Philadelphia arriving by stagecoach and railroad.

The Jeffersonian Republican and the Jeffersonian newspapers of Stroudsburg are interesting not because of their content (local advertising but little news, much fiction, state and national political pieces, and reprinted items from far-flung newspapers), but because of their origin and, especially, their durable editor/ publisher, Theodore Schoch. Alfred Mathews’ History of Wayne, Pike and Monroe Counties, Pennsylvania (1886) relates how Cornelius W. DeWitt, Whig Party leader in adjoining Pike County, organized fellow Whigs to start a newspaper. Richard Nugent, a transplanted Nova Scotian working on a Wayne County newspaper, was recruited to launch the Jeffersonian Republican in Milford on January 15, 1840. The weekly newspaper alternated between Milford and Stroudsburg until Theodore Schoch took over on February 24, 1841, when it settled permanently in Stroudsburg. 

The Jeffersonian Republican was an act of faith as well as a newspaper, a Whig voice crying in a wilderness of Democrats. Northampton, Carbon, Monroe, Wayne, and Lehigh counties were known as the “Tenth Legion of Pennsylvania,” with Democrats outvoting Whigs ten to one. In Monroe, the odds were slightly better–five Democrats for every Whig–yet Schoch rallied enough votes for Benjamin Harrison to win the county and give traction to his presidential campaign. Schoch was born a Northampton County farm boy in 1814 but apprenticed with an Easton newspaper at age six, beginning a newspaper career spanning seven decades. When the Whigs dissolved, Schoch became a Republican and was the first Monroe County Republican to be appointed an associate judge.

The transition from the Jeffersonian Republican to the Jeffersonian on May 5, 1853, was seamless (the paper maintained consecutive numbering) and unexplained (Schoch rarely editorialized about anything). Except for a new typeface for the nameplate, the newspaper was remarkably consistent in appearance over time, primarily because Schoch never stopped using the Smith hand press acquired secondhand in 1847 to replace the newspaper’s original Ramage hand press. In a widely published interview with the old editor in July 1897, Schoch said that “One might scour the country from ocean to ocean today and not find another Smith press in use.” However, Schoch continued to set his own metal type (some dating to 1840) and pulled the Smith’s lever for every issue, never missing a deadline in his tenure.

When a Republican congressman was elected from Monroe in fall 1896, Schoch commented, “If I should live to be a hundred, I couldn’t have more glory to think of than this.” He didn’t make it that far, dying at age 86 on January 21, 1900, about a month short of 59 years of service. Schoch’s obituary in the Philadelphia Inquirer speculated that he was the oldest active editor in the country in continuous service with the same newspaper. The Jeffersonian remained in operation until 1911.

          

Provided By: Penn State University Libraries; University Park, PA

About this Newspaper

Title

  • Jeffersonian Republican (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1840-1853

Dates of Publication

  • 1840-1853

Created / Published

  • Stroudsburg, Pa. : Richard Nugent, 1840-1853.

Headings

  • -  Stroudsburg (Pa.)--Newspapers
  • -  Pennsylvania--Stroudsburg
  • -  United States--Pennsylvania--Monroe--Stroudsburg
  • -  United States--Pennsylvania--Monroe--East Stroudsburg
  • -  United States--Pennsylvania--Pike--Milford

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Vol. 1, no. 1 (Jan. 15, 1840)-v. 13, no. 27 (Apr. 28, 1853).
  • -  Publishers: Theodore Schoch & Thomas L. Kollock, <1843>; Theodore Schoch & F.E. Spering, 1843-<1844>; Theodore Schoch, <1850>.
  • -  Published simultaneously in Milford.
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format as part of the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  Jeffersonian (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 2166-5583 (DLC)sn 84026399 (OCoLC)10470613

Medium

  • 13 volumes : illustrations (chiefly advertisements) ; 56 cm

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn86053954

OCLC Number

  • 14877011

ISSN Number

  • 2166-5567

Succeeding Titles

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

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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:

Jeffersonian Republican Stroudsburg, Pa. -1853. (Stroudsburg, PA), Jan. 1 1840. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn86053954/.

APA citation style:

(1840, January 1) Jeffersonian Republican Stroudsburg, Pa. -1853. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn86053954/.

MLA citation style:

Jeffersonian Republican Stroudsburg, Pa. -1853. (Stroudsburg, PA) 1 Jan. 1840. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn86053954/.