Sunday Mercury (New York)

{{short description|Weekly newspaper in New York City}}

{{Infobox newspaper

| name = Sunday Mercury

| logo =

| image = 225px

| caption =

| type = Weekly newspaper (1839–1893)
Daily (1893–1896)

| format = broadsheet

| foundation = 1839

| ceased publication = 1896

| price =

| owners =

| political position =

| publisher =

| editor =

| staff =

| circulation = 145,000 (1861)

| headquarters = Manhattan

| ISSN =

| oclc = 9588307

| website =

}}

The Sunday Mercury (1839–1896) (sometimes referred to as the New York Sunday Mercury) was a weekly Sunday newspaper published in New York City that grew to become the highest-circulation weekly newspaper (at least by its own claims) in the United States at its peak. It was known for publishing and popularizing the work of many notable 19th-century writers, including Charles Farrar Browne and Robert Henry Newell, and was the first Eastern paper to publish Mark Twain.Caron, James E. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Hu3bFSfG3cAC&q=sunday+mercury&pg=PA166nepage Mark Twain: unsanctified newspaper reporter], p.166 (2008)({{ISBN|978-0826218025}}) It was also the first newspaper to provide regular coverage of baseball, and was popular for the extensive war correspondence from soldiers it published during the Civil War.

History

=Early years=

Before 1825 no American newspapers published editions on Sunday, out of respect to the Sabbath, religious day of rest. Over time, however, this created a niche for new weekly newspapers published on Sunday to flourish.File:Lorenzo Dow.jpg (1777–1834), the inspiration for the comic "Short Patent Sermons" written by Elbridge G. Paige under the name "Dow Jr." in the Mercury]]

The Mercury originated as the Sunday Morning Visiter, and was first published on May 12, 1839. By 1840, it changed its name to the Sunday Mercury.Hudson, Frederic. [https://books.google.com/books?id=V5NZAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22sunday+mercury%22+1839&pg=PA339 Journalism in the United States, from 1690–1872], pp. 339–40 (1873) It initially gained some notice for its theatrical coverage and so-called "machine poetry" (a 19th century euphemism for slavishly following the "rules" of poetry without any inspiration).Lee, Alfred McClung. [https://books.google.com/books?id=FYM119rjXwwC&pg=PA392 The Daily Newspaper In America], p.392 (1937) By the fall of 1842 the paper had a circulation of 3,000, ranking it third among New York's growing Sunday papers, trailing the New York Herald{{'}}s Sunday edition and The Atlas. By the summer of 1844, the Herald took note of the growth of the Sunday papers, calling them "partly literary, partly gossiping, partly silly, partly smart, partly stupid, partly namby-pamby."

Elbridge Gerry Paige (1813–1859) and Samuel Nichols (1809?–1854) were the two key editors of the Mercury in its early years,[https://books.google.com/books?id=zuIOAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22sunday+mercury%22+paige&pg=PA175 Library of universal knowledge, Volume XI], p.175 (1881) and Augustus Krauth joined them as a one-third owner in 1842.(22 January 1842) [https://books.google.com/books?id=-_zmAAAAMAAJ&dq=krauth+%22sunday+mercury%22&pg=PA101 Our Weekly Gossip], Brother Jonathan, p.101

File:Sunday Mercury 1849.jpgPaige had success with his Short Patent Sermons published in the paper (from its outset) under the pseudonym "Dow Junior" (a reference to famous eccentric preacher Lorenzo Dow who died in 1834),Paige, Elbridge Gerry. [https://books.google.com/books?id=8BEZAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22daily+mercury%22+hall&pg=PA3 Short Patent Sermons by 'Dow Jr.'] (1845) which literary magazines such as The Knickerbocker lauded for their odd and original wit.[https://books.google.com/books?id=i-MGAQAAIAAJ&dq=%22short+patent+sermons%22&pg=PA449 Lorenzo Dow's Successor], The Knickerbocker (November 1840, pp.449–51)Bryant, John. [https://books.google.com/books?id=rQYvj90flnwC&pg=PA126 Melville and repose: the rhetoric of humor in the American Renaissance], p.127 (1993)({{ISBN|978-0195077827}}) Paige left the paper in 1849 and went to California, where he continued to publish Dow Jr. sermons in The Golden Era,[https://books.google.com/books?id=KgYgAQAAIAAJ&dq=%22short+patent+sermons%22+paige&pg=PA234 Gossip with readers and correspondents], The Knickerbocker (February 1860, pp.234–35) but ultimately was unsuccessful there and is said to have died in extreme poverty in 1859.

Nichols was born in Hampstead, England around 1809 and after coming to New York City was eventually installed as the editor of the New Times, an organ of the "Conservatives" political party.(20 September 1854) [https://www.nytimes.com/1854/09/20/archives/an-editor-killeddeath-of-mr-samnel-nicholis.html An Editor Killed – Death of Mr. Samuel Nicholls], The New York Times, retrieved November 1, 2010 After that venture failed, he joined the Sunday Mercury and grew it with Paige. His work focused on the theater. Nichols stayed with the paper until his death in September 1854, when he was run over after unsuccessfully trying to board a Third Avenue Railway car.

Krauth, the other one-third owner of the paper, died in November 1857.(7 November 1857). [http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/32628150?q=%22augustus+h.+krauth%22&c=book Unknown title], Sunday Mercury

=Growth, baseball, and war=

File:William Cauldwell 1880s.jpg

In 1850, William Cauldwell (1824–1907)(3 December 1907) [http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1907-12-03/ed-1/seq-8/;words=WILLIAM+William+CAULDWELL+Cauldwell Ex-Senator William Cauldwell], New York Tribune, retrieved November 2, 2010(3 December 1907) [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9905E7DF113EE033A25750C0A9649D946697D6CF&scp=7&sq=%22sunday+mercury%22&st=p Ex-Senator Cauldwell Dead Former Owner of The Mercury and The Successful American], The New York Times, retrieved November 1, 2010 purchased Paige's one-third ownership stakeScharf, J. Thomas. [https://archive.org/stream/historywestches00schagoog/historywestches00schagoog_djvu.txt History of Westchester County, New York] (1886) in the paper for $1,200.Styple, William B. [https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Fighting-Civil-War-Correspondence/dp/1883926130#reader_1883926130 Writing & Fighting the Civil War: Soldier Correspondence to the New York Sunday Mercury], pp. 9–11 (2000) ({{ISBN|978-1883926137}}) Cauldwell had gotten into the newspaper field by doing typesetting work, and worked at the New York Sunday Atlas from 1841 to 1849.Cauldwell, William (26 January 1901) [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50B14F73F5911738DDDAF0A94D9405B818CF1D3 Walt Whitman as a Young Man], The New York Times, retrieved November 8, 2010 (letter to editor from Cauldwell which notes he met Walt Whitman while doing typesetting at the Atlas) Cauldwell expanded the paper and increased its coverage of literature, city news, and sports. Sylvester Southworth and Horace P. Whitney (1834 – August 24, 1884)[https://books.google.com/books?id=9GkUAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22new+york+sunday+mercury%22+whitney&pg=RA3-PA56 Mortuary Record, 1884 in Star Almanac], p. 95 (1885) soon joined as additional editors, and the paper began to prosper.

Cauldwell and the Mercury are credited as being the first newspaper to regularly cover the sport of baseball as news, starting in 1853 with a report on a game between the Knickerbockers and the Gothams. (For some time, this 1853 report was thought to be first game ever reported on by the press, but later 20th century scholarship has located an 1845 report in the Herald.)Zoss, Joel & Bowman, John. [https://books.google.com/books?id=8zp59VpYuyIC&q=New+York+Knickerbockers+baseball+1853&pg=RA1-PA1887 Diamonds in the Rough: The Untold History of Baseball], p. 59 (2004)({{ISBN|978-0803299207}}) (discussing different claims to who was "first" to cover baseball, noting that 1853 Mercury reports had been thought to be first in past baseball scholarship)Mack, Connie (26 April 1950). [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=N7MyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=4OsFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4028,2911605&dq=new-york-sunday-mercury&hl=en Lauds Press' Help To Sport], The Miami News, retrieved November 1, 2010Martinez, Jose (25 October 2000). [http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/ny_local/2000/10/25/2000-10-25_went_to_bat_for_baseball_new.html Went to bat for baseball: Newspaperman behind game accounts]{{Dead link|date=December 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, Daily News (New York), retrieved November 1, 2010.(13 October 1957) [https://www.nytimes.com/1957/10/13/archives/new-york-end-of-an-era.html End of an era], The New York Times, retrieved November 1, 2010(1 July 1905) [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ftgUAAAAIBAJ&sjid=r7kDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6767,4452217&dq=sunday-mercury+baseball&hl=en Henry Chadwick: The Father of Baseball], The Spokesman-Review, retrieved November 1, 2010 (citing Henry Chadwick as reporting that the Mercury was the first paper covering baseball, with Cauldwell regularly reporting on games played in New York City) The paper was the first to use the phrase "national pastime" to describe the new sport in America in December 1856.Tygiel, Jules. Past Time: Baseball as History, p. 3 (Oxford University Press, 2000)(Paperback, 2001, {{ISBN|978-0-19-514604-2}}) In 1858, Cauldwell hired rising star Henrick Chadwick, later dubbed the "father of baseball", to cover the sport for the paper.Spink, Alfred Henry. [https://books.google.com/books?id=TV-t-HQE3uoC&dq=%22sunday+mercury%22+baseball+cauldwell&pg=PA356 The national game], p. 356 (1911)

By early 1861, the Mercury{{-'}}s circulation was 145,000, but the advent of the American Civil War cut off about 90,000 of them located in the seceded southern and more isolated western United States. Cauldwell hit upon an idea for expanding their war coverage with little expense. In April 1861, the paper made an announcement inviting soldiers to send in their reports about the war, and over 3,000 were published during the course of the war as a weekly feature.Goode, Stephen (26 March 2001) [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_12_17/ai_72274550/?tag=content;col1 Styple Delivers News From Civil war Front], Insight on the News, retrieved November 2, 2010 The soldiers would receive a free copy of the paper for their contributions. In 2000, Civil War historian William B. Styple compiled 500 of the soldiers' letters in a book, Writing and Fighting the Civil War: Soldier Correspondence to the New York Sunday Mercury.

In 1873, Rowell's American Newspaper Directory stated that with a circulation of 45,000, "the circulation of the Sunday Mercury exceeds that of any other Sunday or daily newspaper in America without exception, and more than triples the combined issues of all the other Sunday journals published in New York."[https://books.google.com/books?id=NSsiAQAAIAAJ&dq=%22new+york+sunday+mercury%22+whitney&pg=PA153 Rowell's American Newspaper Directory], p. 153 (1873)

Southworth retired from the paper before the end of the war, and Whitney departed around 1876 due to poor health, leaving Cauldwell solely in charge. In addition to running the paper Cauldwell also held political office, serving in the New York State Senate from 1868 to 1879, and also serving as The Bronx county supervisor.Reilly, Brendan (18 March 2009). [http://www.27east.com/news/article.cfm/Noyac/200168/Noyac-house-nominated-to-historic-registers/start/2 Noyac house nominated to historic registers], Southampton Press, retrieved November 8, 2010 (noting Cauldwell's political positions; article focuses on proposal to place his summer home in Noyack, New York built in 1892 on the national and New York registers of historical places)

=Ill-fated expansion and collapse=

By the early 1890s, competition with the New York daily papers had increased. The paper responded by introducing a one cent daily newspaper dubbed the Daily Mercury, billed as a Democratic paper, in January 1893.Rogers, Jason. [https://books.google.com/books?id=PyendzI0lwgC&dq=mercury+%22morning+telegraph%22&pg=PA80 Newspaper building], p.78-80 (1918)(16 January 1893). [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=2B5YAAAAIBAJ&sjid=TkUNAAAAIBAJ&pg=3992,510840&dq=daily-mercury+tammany&hl=en A New Metropolitan Daily (short)], Free Press (Easton, Pennsylvania), retrieved November 5, 2010(17 January 1893). [https://web.archive.org/web/20121104103645/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/432331222.html?dids=432331222:432331222&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Jan+17,+1893&author=&pub=Chicago+Tribune&desc=NEWS+NOTES+OF+THE+METROPOLIS.&pqatl=google New Notes of the Metropolis], Chicago Tribune, retrieved November 5, 2010King, Moses. [https://books.google.com/books?id=MEEAAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22daily+mercury%22+1893&pg=PA626 Kings handbook of New York City], p.626 (1893)(noting 1893 founding and one cent price) The new venture was quickly losing money, however. Cauldwell apparently began to borrow funds from the estate of millionaire Jason Rogers, of which he was a co-trustee with his son-in-law Thomas Rogers, to try to keep the paper afloat.(12 May 1898) [http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024441/1898-05-12/ed-1/seq-2/ A Heavy Fine: Thomas Rogers Goes To Jail in Default], The Evening Times (Washington, D.C.), retrieved November 2, 2010 Some sources reported that it was Jason Rogers' and Cauldwell's mutual grandson (also named Jason Rogers) who convinced Cauldwell to expand the paper in the first place. The younger Rogers, for his part, later blamed the failure of the paper on a decision by the "boss" to launch the daily edition as a morning paper, upsetting carefully laid plans and a large number of advance subscriptions for a paper based on afternoon publication. (Rogers later went on to transform the Commercial Advertiser into The New York Globe, and helped found the Audit Bureau of Circulations in North America.(27 April 1932) [https://www.nytimes.com/1932/04/27/archives/jason-rogers-dead-former-publisher-once-head-of-new-york-globe-he.html Jason Rogers Dead; Former Publisher], The New York Times, retrieved November 8, 2010)

Image:Richard Croker - Bain portrait2.jpg, who influenced the Mercury after consolidation with his Daily America in 1894]]In May 1893, Richard Croker, a leader of New York City's Tammany Hall political machine, jumped into the newspaper field and created The Daily America devoted to politics to trumpet Tammany's views (though it also covered sports; Croker was a big horse racing enthusiast).(14 May 1893) [https://www.nytimes.com/1893/05/14/archives/devoted-to-sports-and-politics.html?sq=%2522daily%2520america%2522&scp=39&st=cse Devoted to Sports and Politics], The New York Times, retrieved November 2, 2010 The other Democratic papers in the city balked at the new competition, however, and Croker turned over the paper to the Mercury by the end of the year.(28 November 1893) [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=r80gAAAAIBAJ&sjid=vGoFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5802,5415519&dq=daily-america+richard-croker&hl=en Personal and political], Lewiston Evening Journal, retrieved November 2, 2010 In January 1894, The New York Times reported that the two papers had "consolidated" (and that some of "the gentlemen" involved in the America would retain an interest) and would henceforth be published as The Daily America on weekdays with the Sunday Mercury below in small type, and reversed on Sundays.(11 January 1894) [https://www.nytimes.com/1894/01/11/archives/three-to-be-unseated-one-senator-and-two-assemblymen-to-yield-their.html Two Newspapers Consolidated], The New York Times, retrieved November 1, 2010

In August 1894, Cauldwell, now almost 70, gave up editorial control with his grandson Jason Rogers stepping in as publisher, and James F. Graham taking on the editorial duties.(1 August 1894) [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0613FC3E5515738DDDA80894D0405B8485F0D3 The Mercury Under A New Manager], The New York Times, retrieved November 1, 2010 The paper also dropped the Daily America title, although it remained a Democratic paper.

The paper continued to lose money (reportedly about $2000 a week),Douglas, George H. [https://books.google.com/books?id=rR5-Z0GI_5wC&dq=20ochs%20mercury&pg=PA120 The Golden Age of the newspaper], p.120 (Greenwood 1999) ({{ISBN|978-0313310775}}) and in March 1895 Cauldwell sold out to William Noble in a somewhat unusual exchange, where he received a hotel called the Hotel Empire (a project which Noble had bought out of foreclosure in 1893 and completed) in exchange for the paper.(20 March 1895) [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1895/03/20/105978288.pdf "In the Real Estate Field ... Exchange of the Hotel Empire"], The New York Times, retrieved November 4, 2010(10 November 1897) [http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024441/1897-11-10/ed-1/seq-3/ Accused by Sisters-In-Law], The Evening Times (Washington, D.C.), retrieved November 2, 2010

News reports from mid-1895 reported that "silver men", whose support in the East had been limited, had now purchased the paper to be their house organ.(27 April 1895) [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=o78gAAAAIBAJ&sjid=iWoFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4784,4833852&dq=new-york-mercury+1895&hl=en Few Liners], Lewiston Saturday Journal, retrieved November 3, 2010(2 May 1895)[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=PxMnAAAAIBAJ&sjid=2wIGAAAAIBAJ&pg=5334,4021770&dq=new-york-mercury+1895&hl=en Silver Organ for New York], Clinton Morning Age, retrieved November 3, 2010[http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86091038/1895-05-09/ed-1/seq-1/ Two More Free Coinage Papers], Evening Dispatch (Provo, Utah), retrieved November 3, 2010 (reporting that Senators Stewart and Bryan had tried to buy the paper, but rebuffed the $250,000 asking price, and negotiations have been renewed with John P. Miller and Major Thomas B. Kirby involved, trying to induce a contribution of funds from Marcus Daly of Montana)(28 May 1895) [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=dNNBAAAAIBAJ&sjid=eLgMAAAAIBAJ&pg=4369,3523136&dq=daily-mercury+silver&hl=en Free Silver Men Have An Organ], Baltimore American, retrieved November 3, 2010 (reporting that the Mercury will start advocating for free silver "tomorrow", with Major Kirby as its new editor, and claimed to be a "production" of Congressman William A. Jones of Virginia) Although the paper did advocate in support of free silver in 1895, it appears the anticipated sale to "silver men" fell apart, as Noble had to file for bankruptcy in 1899 due to his Mercury debts.[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1899/03/09/105967914.pdf William Noble a Bankrupt ... His Failure Attributed to a Newspaper Venture], The New York Times, retrieved November 3, 2010[https://books.google.com/books?id=b-s7AAAAIAAJ&dq=%22new+york+mercury%22+cauldwell&pg=PA956 La Follette v. Noble] (Superior Court of New York City 1895) (providing details of the arrangements between Cauldwell, Noble, and the "silver men")

Image:Sunday Mercury Park Row NYC circa 1894.jpg, circa 1894]]During this same period (early–mid-1895), Adolph Ochs, then-editor of the Chattanooga Times (and future longtime owner / publisher of The New York Times) was invited to become editor and half-owner of the Mercury in its "free silver" campaign.Duffus, Robert L. (19 September 1926) [https://www.nytimes.com/1926/09/19/archives/18511926-the-story-of-the-times-in-the-annals-of-the-seventyfive.html 1851–1926: The Story of the Times], The New York Times, retrieved November 3, 2010 Ochs turned the offer down, in part because of his own support for the gold standard. The paper was then offered to Ochs for outright sale, but that also did not come to fruition when it turned out that the Mercury could not assure that its rights to press association copy would transfer to a new owner.Davis, Elmer Holmes. [https://books.google.com/books?id=z0gOAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22new+york+mercury%22+silver&pg=PA178 History of the New York Times, 1851–1921] (1921)Tifft, Susan E. & Jones, Alex S. The Trust: The Private and Powerful Family Behind The New York Times (2000)({{ISBN|9780316836319}}) Ochs remained on the lookout for a New York paper, however, and by August 1896, he purchased the then also-struggling New York Times, founded in 1851 by Henry Raymond and several others.

The Mercury ceased publishing altogether under that name around late 1896. Some older sources state the paper failed in 1895, but it was still being published well into 1896, though it was certainly on its last legs. On September 20, 1896, the New York Times reported that the office of the Mercury "was still closed last night"(20 September 1896) [https://www.nytimes.com/1896/09/20/archives/will-of-ab-darling-the-deceased-hotel-man-makes-nu-merous-bequests.html City and Vicinity], The New York Times (noting that the office of the Mercury "was still closed last night"), retrieved November 2, 2010 and the Chicago Tribune printed on September 28 that the "free silver sentiment in New York was not even warm enough to prevent the fail of the New York Mercury."(28 September 1896) [https://web.archive.org/web/20121104102734/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/428760711.html?dids=428760711:428760711&FMT=CITE&FMTS=CITE:AI&type=historic&date=Sep+28,+1896&author=&pub=Chicago+Tribune&desc=Other+4+--+No+Title&pqatl=google Other news items] Chicago Tribune, retrieved November 5, 2010

When Cauldwell died in 1907, the New York Tribune called him "the father of Sunday journalism."

Rebirth as the ''Morning Telegraph''

File:Leander Richardson 001.jpg

By end of 1896, the operations of the Mercury were taken over and redubbed the New York Morning Telegraph, focusing on sporting (especially horse racing) and theatrical news much as the Mercury had been doing at that point.(27 September 1899) [https://books.google.com/books?id=O_E1AAAAMAAJ&dq=mercury+%22morning+telegraph%22&pg=RA3-PA64 Massage Advertising], Printers' Ink, p. 16, retrieved November 5, 2010 (article noting that Morning Telegraph was at that point the only paper to allow "massage advertisements", and also noting that the Mercury changed to the Telegraph name but did not change that policy) According to one account published in 1940, the name change came about when Tammany Hall gave $10,000 to writer Blakely Hall, "to run it with the understanding that he was not to get a nickel more. Hall threw out the Mercury title, called the 'new' sheet the Morning Telegraph, hired Leander Richardson (1856–1918) as managing editor, and put it out as a daily sporting and theatrical newspaper."Gilbert, Douglas. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Jpo5AAAAIAAJ&q=%22morning+telegraph%22+%22E.R.+thomas%22 American vaudeville, its life and times], p.154 (1940)

The Telegraph went on to become a successful paper and was published until shut down during a strike in 1972. The Telegraph considered itself a continuation of the Mercury, though along the way it somehow backdated its claimed date of founding from 1839 to 1833.(9 March 1956)[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=9YEhAAAAIBAJ&sjid=posFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4118,5044799&dq=morning-telegraph+1833&hl=en Noted Newsman Is Guest At Whitehall Hotel], The Palm Beach Post, retrieved November 3, 2010

Noted contributors and legacy

Image:Orpheus C Kerr Robert Newell 1864.jpg, aka Orpheus C. Kerr, circa 1864, whose humorous writings first drew national attention in the Sunday Mercury]]

Aside from the Short Patent Sermons which brought acclaim to Paige's "Dow Jr." pseudonym in the 1840s, the Mercury went on to publish the work of many leading 19th-century writers, and was at times the first to introduce them to New York and national audiences, including Mark Twain, Josh Billings, Charles Farrar Browne (Artemus Ward), Robert Henry Newell (Orpheus C. Kerr),[https://books.google.com/books?id=LyJqIfNPSgcC&dq=Orpheus+C.+Kerr+%22sunday+mercury%22&pg=PA817 The Continuum Encyclopedia of American Literature], p.817–18 (2003) ({{ISBN|0826415172}}) Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Charles Godfrey Leland, David Ross Locke (Petroleum V. Nasby),(2 August 1896). [http://eagle.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/Repository/getFiles.asp?Style=OliveXLib:LowLevelEntityToSaveGifMSIE_BEAGLE&Type=text/html&Locale=english-skin-custom&Path=BEG/1896/08/02&ChunkNum=-1&ID=Ar01901 Old New York Weeklies] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110612104457/http://eagle.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/Repository/getFiles.asp?Style=OliveXLib%3ALowLevelEntityToSaveGifMSIE_BEAGLE&Type=text%2Fhtml&Locale=english-skin-custom&Path=BEG%2F1896%2F08%2F02&ChunkNum=-1&ID=Ar01901 |date=2011-06-12 }}, Brooklyn Eagle, retrieved November 5, 2010 Ned Buntline, and Mortimer Thomson (Doesticks).Cook, James W. (ed.) The Colossal P. T. Barnum Reader, p.10–11 (2005) ({{ISBN|978-0252072956}}) Though most of those names are not familiar today, all became well-known popular writers of the time.

Mark Twain's first writing published in the East appeared in the Mercury in 1864 (prior to his success in 1865 with The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County), and a number of additional pieces were published in 1867.[http://www.twainquotes.com/mercury/mercuryindex.html Mark Twain in the New York Sunday Mercury], twainquotes.com, retrieved November 5, 2010

Newell, who wrote under the name "Orpheus C. Kerr" (a play on "office seeker"), served for a time as the literary editor of the Mercury, until around 1862. His satirical weekly columns started in Mercury and gained national fame,(13 July 1901) [https://www.nytimes.com/1901/07/13/archives/robert-h-newell-dead-he-achieved-fame-as-a-humorist-as-orpheus-c.html Robert H. Newell Dead], The New York Times, retrieved November 5, 2010(20 July 1901). Derby, George. [https://www.nytimes.com/1901/07/20/archives/his-recent-death-in-brooklyn-and-the-true-facts-in-his-career.html Orpheus C. Kerr: His Recent Death in Brooklyn and the True Facts in his Career], The New York Times, retrieved November 5, 2010 so much so that President Abraham Lincoln once remarked of Kerr's writings that "anyone who has not read them is a heathen."Thomas, Benjamin P. "Lincoln’s Humor: An Analysis," 3 Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association (1981)

Celebrated actress Adah Isaacs Menken contributed a series of poems to the Mercury in 1860–61, as well as a piece praising Walt Whitman and Leaves of Grass in 1860 as "centuries ahead of his contemporaries".Sentilles, Renée M. [https://books.google.com/books?id=NmGBqAEC2C8C&q=mercury&pg=PA148 Performing Menken: Adah Isaacs Menken and the birth of American celebrity] (2003) ({{ISBN|978-0521820707}})Haralson, Eric L. [https://books.google.com/books?id=IKped0j8PXwC&dq=menken&pg=PA294 Encyclopedia of American poetry: The nineteenth century], 194–96 (1998) ({{ISBN|978-1579580087}})Alcaro, Marion Walker. [https://books.google.com/books?id=fj1MtTq2PmoC&dq=alcaro+menken&pg=PA129 Walt Whitman's Mrs. G: a biography of Anne Gilchrist], p.129-30 (1991)({{ISBN|978-0838633816}})

Starting in the mid-1870s, John W. Overall (1822–1899) served as literary editor of the paper (until at least 1890). A Southerner, Overall is best known for his pre-Civil War writing supporting the South.Herringshaw, Thomas William (ed.) [https://books.google.com/books?id=QQ5aAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22sunday+mercury%22+%22literary+editor%22&pg=PA711 Local and national poets of America], pp. 711–12 (1890) (biographical sketch and poetry samples of John W. Overall, noting that he has been literary editor of the paper for "over fourteen years")(21 May 1899). [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60614FD3E5811738DDDA80A94DD405B8985F0D3 Death list a day], retrieved November 19, 2010M'Caleb, Thomas. [https://books.google.com/books?id=F11sseKNM7wC&dq=%22john+w.+overall%22&pg=PA514 The Louisiana book: selections from the literature of the state], p.514 (1894)Davidson, James Wood. [https://books.google.com/books?id=RMdZAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22john+w.+overall%22&pg=PA403 The living writers of the South], p.403-07 (1869)

Historian James W. Cook, in a 2005 compilation of writings by P. T. Barnum (of circus fame, who also appeared in the Mercury), notes that in the mid-1860s, the Mercury was "ubiquitous, with a masthead claim of the largest weekly circulation in America", yet today publications such as the Mercury, which contained few illustrations, are difficult to locate in library collections.

Chronology of editors and publishers

  • Editors:
  • 1855: Krauth, Cauldwell & Southworth
  • 1858–61: Cauldwell, Southworth & Whitney
  • 1867: Cauldwell & Whitney
  • 1876: William Cauldwell
  • 1894: James F. Graham
  • Publishers:
  • 1839: E.G. Paige & J.H. Wilson
  • 1839–40: Paige, Wilson & Nichols
  • 1840–41: Paige & Nichols
  • 1842–48: Paige, Nichols & Krauth
  • 1854–55: Krauth & Cauldwell
  • 1855: Krauth, Cauldwell & Southworth
  • 1858–61: Cauldwell, Southworth & Whitney
  • 1862–70: Cauldwell & Whitney
  • 1876: William Cauldwell[http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030554/ About this Newspaper: Sunday Mercury], Chronicling America website, retrieved November 2, 2010.
  • 1894: Jason Rogers, grandson of Cauldwell

References