THE PITTSBURGH GAZETTE

Printed by John Scull, corner of Market and Front Streets. The Gazette was published every Saturday morning at three dollars per annum. Later in the year the Gazette was published on Tuesdays and Fridays.

"On the 1st of August, 1816, John Scull, the veteran editor, relinquished the publication of the Pittsburg Gazette. He was succeeded by Morgan Neville in the editorship of that journal, and his son, John I. Scull, became associated with Mr. Neville." Wilson's History of Pittsburg.

"'The Pittsburgh Gazette' under the original proprietor, Mr. John Scull, was the first establishment of the kind, west of the mountains. On its first appearance, it was viewed as a meteor of the moment, whose existence would terminate with the second or third number; and the idea of deriving a subsistence from its publication, was classed among the chimeras of a too sanguine temper. Our country was then a 'howling wilderness,' and the Ohio, whose fair bosom is now covered with the 'white sails of commerce,' was then disturbed only by the yell of the savage, who lay ambushed on its bank, or glided over its surface, in his solitary canoe. But these obstacles, though disheartening, were not sufficient to destroy the enterprize of the Editor. He had turned his back on civilization and comforts of his native place; he had deliberately subjected himself to the inconveniences of emigration, and his was not the ardour to be damped at the outset…. He became a citizen of Pittsburgh, when it was little more than an Indian village; his interests grew with its growth; he saw it rise into a manufacturing town; he has heard it emphatically called the 'Birmingham of America;' and finally, he has the triumphant satisfaction, of beholding in his own days, the village of the desert, changed into the city of the west. He has succeeded even beyond his expectations; he has run his moderate, unostentatious course. The patronage he has received, was sufficient for his desires; his editorial life here ends; with feelings acutely sensible of the favors he has received, he now relinquishes to his son and successor the 'Pittsburgh Gazette,' unstained by corruption, and free from venality, but ever firm, he trusts, in supporting our palladium, the freedom of the Press." Gazette, Aug. 9, 1816.

THE COMMONWEALTH

Printed every Tuesday morning by C. Colerick for S. Douglas & Co. in Diamond Alley, between Market and Wood Streets.

THE PITTSBURGH MERCURY

"'The Pittsburgh Mercury,' is published every Saturday, at the new brick building, in Liberty-street, at the head of Wood-street, opposite the Octagon Church; where the subscribers, advertising customers, and other friends of the establishment, are respectfully invited to call." Mercury, Oct. 19, 1816.

"The kind of news material found in the columns of papers of those days is entirely different from the style of material found today. Local news is rarely ever given in the papers of an early day. As a rule the subscriber read but one paper and local news could be handed around by gossip from one neighbor to another, and what the subscriber demanded in his paper was foreign news that he could gain in no other way. The founding of new enterprises, marriages, or deaths of prominent citizens, etc. found no place in the pioneer newspaper. European news necessarily nearly two months old, long articles on the management of public affairs, controversies carried on from week to week between rival exponents on different theories, essays on morality and amateur poetry, fill up the columns of nearly all the early newspapers of Western Pennsylvania…. Their value to those who would learn of early local history is found chiefly in the advertisements and from these … one may gather some important information concerning Pittsburg's early days." Boucher's Century and a half of Pittsburg.