WellsvilleDaily.com
Title
Wellsville Daily Reporter: Serving Allegany County, NY
Description
In 1880 James Garfield defeated Winfield Hancock for the U.S. presidency, Sarah Bernhardt made her stage debut, and the small western New York town of Wellsville was experiencing the beginning of boom times ased on the discovery of oil in the area the year before. It was also the year that the first daily newspaper in Allegany County was started by Enos W. Barnes. Barnes has come to the area five years earlier from Bath, New York to manage a weekly paper, the Allegany County Reporter, and by 1880 was feeling the need for another forum. On November 1, 1880, in the first issue of his newspaper, Barnes boldly declared that the Wellsvile Daily Reporter "makes its bow to the public of Wellsville, the chief business center of Allegany County, demands and is entitled to the recognition of a daily newspaper. That is will be regarded with favor and generally sustained, we have no doubt."
The first issue was small in size, 8 by 11 inches, with four pages of three columns each. The price was 25 cents per month. It was printed on a hand-operated job press. The original location of business was on Main Street, not far from its present site. The building still stands and in recent years has housed a sporting good business and a print shop.
In less than a year, confident of the future of his new enterprise, Barnes erected the building which, with later additions, is still the home to the newspaper. The size of the paper's pages has in created to a standard size and is printed on a newer cylinder press, though this too was operated and the type set by hand.
Logos
