Learn lots more about Franklinville by following these links !

Introduction
Early History
Death Records 1860-1894

Pioneers
Early Settlers
Joseph McClure
Pardon T Jewell
Marvin Older
Delos E Lyon
Curtis Brothers
Searl and Storrs
Doctors
William McNall

Park Square and Fairs
The Story
The Trial
The Wedding
Franklinville Fair
Bands

Postal History
Introduction
Post Office
Postmasters

Hotels and Inns
Globe Hotel
Hotel Lester
Bard Hotel
Brown Eagle Hotel

Businesses and Industry
Bartholomew's Pharmacy
West Park Square Drug Store
Quality Bakery
Cutlery Industry
Mercantile
Dairy Industry
Firehouse Liquors
Blount Plow

Churches and Buildings
Baptist
Other Churches
Presbyterian
Methodist Episcopal
Amusement Hall
The Miners Cabin

In the Public Trust
Newspapers
Chronicle-Journal
Fire Department
Mt Prospect Cemetery
Public Works
Railroads

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The Franklinville Centennial publication states that "The Weekly
Pioneer was started by H. A. Williams in November 1865."

This source further informs us that this first newspaper, about which very little
is known, was published on the second floor of a building on the
southwest corner of the intersection of South Main Street with Elm
Street.

Today this is the location of Bartholomew's Pharmacy.
In the early years, following the establishment of the first
newspaper about which we have just spoken, there were other newpapers
published. If you are more than casually interested in the history of
newspapers in Franklinville your attention is directed to page 25 of the
Franklinville Centennial publication. This illustrates a veritable
family tree of newspapers. For our purposes here, however, we are going
to trace only the history of the paper that dominated the scene for
many, many years.

A man named Francis Perley established the next newspaper in
September of 1875. He named it the Weekly Argus. His choice of this
name is in itself interesting. Argus is straight out of Greek
mythology, being a giant with a hundred eyes, ordered by Hera to watch
Io. After he was killed by Hermes, his eyes were put into the tail of
the peacock. Mr. Webster's New World Dictionary offers us the following
as its first brief definition: "any alert watchman". One gets the
feeling Mr. Perley intended to keep an eye on things.

He published this for fourteen years, until 1889, then sold it to
his son Charles A. Perley, who changed the name to The Chronicle.
Francis Perley, having recently purchased the Waverly, N. Y. Advocate,
then moved his family to that community.

Charles A. Perley would publish The Chronicle for the next 22
years. During most of those years the newspaper was housed in the light
colored brick building which he had built for that purpose, where the
east side of Park Square mergesinto Pine Street. Known as the Perley
Building, this building still stands at that location.

Young Charles Perley had early shown an aptitude for printing and,
although he did regularly attend school, he kept up an industrious
apprenticeship in his father's newspaper. At the age of 16 he took
charge of the Journal, a second paper started by his father at Hamburg,
N. Y. He later went to New York as a foreman in the printing firm of
Rogers & Sherwood. He served also as foreman for a short time at the
Deposit, N. Y. Courier.

Mr. Perley was thus well prepared when in 1889 he bought of his
father the Franklinville Argus, and changed its name to The Chronicle.
Eventually there would be another name change when, in 1910, Charles
Perley purchased a local competing paper, the Journal, which had been in
business since 1888; having merged the papers, he henceforth conducted
the paper under the name of The Chronicle-Journal.

When Charles Perley printed the last edition of The
Chronicle-Journal to be published under his ownership, his final
editorial was a retrospective of his family's original arrival in
Franklinville. I was fortunate enough to find this clipping in the
Blount Library. It is quoted below because it gives a rather good
insight into what Franklinville was like in 1875.

Visit the Chronicle Journal link for more information on the Chronicle Journal.