The Vermont Republican and Journal

The “Vermont Republican and Journal” was a little different from todays "Valley News". The ads  were on the front page, not in the back. Articles didn't have bylines, so the reader didn't know who wrote them. Most articles were about events in Washington, DC, and other events of national interest. There weren't many articles about things that were happening locally.

 

In April of 1811, during Simeon's apprenticeship at the Vermont Republican, an article of local interest was written by a Dr Trask. He was writing about an epidemic of spotted fever. Dr. Trask had treated 180 patients from the Windsor area for “spotted fever” and only three had died, a toddler, an elderly patient, and a teenager who was already sickly. He describes spotted fever as starting with severe limb pain and spasms, and developing with a high fever and a rash. He would bleed the patients, and have their caretakers make them sweat by putting hot water bottles or hot bricks with them under the blankets in their beds, while wiping their faces with cold cloths. He also prescribed an emetic to induce vomiting, powders of calomel, opium, camphor, and tea of Virginia snakeroot.

Calomel also induces vomiting and was a favorite medicine with doctors in the early 1800's. They stopped using it when they realized that it was very close to mercury in its chemical makeup and could change into metalic mercury in direct sunlight. Calomel is also called mercurous chloride and made patients hair and teeth fall out when given in large doses. Opium is today's heroin, and was given to patients as a pain killer and sedative. Camphor was made from the bark of a camphor tree. It was rubbed on patient's chests to help with respiratory congestion and applied topically to rashes to reduce itching. It is still used today in Vicks Vaporub. Virginia Snakeroot was given to these patients to bring down the fever and alleviate the sore throat.

The disease that Dr Trask called “spotted fever” was typhus, which was epidemic throughout New England during this era. Typhus is spread by bites from fleas or lice that picked the disease up from their rat or mouse host. Typhus was responsible for some of the infamous plagues of Europe during the Middle Ages. Some strains of typhus were deadly and other outbreaks just caused people to become really sick with miserable symptoms. You were more likely to recover if you were healthy before you got sick and if you were well nourished with a nutritious diet. The treatments Dr. Trask prescribed were probably not that helpful. Probably the most helpful was the opium, and the colomel and bleeding were actually harmful.

Dr Trask was one of the two doctors in Windsor in the early 1800's. He owned one of the biggest houses on State Street. He was one of the incorporators of the Vermont Medical Society and was the first doctor to the Windsor State Prison.

Simeon wrote the editorials and signed them “The Pioneer”. Some things never change – several of Simeon's editorials were essays against tobacco use and alcohol consumption. The same paper that announced the opening of the new high school had an editorial warning young people to stay away from liquor. The rest of the articles didn't have a byline, so the reader doesn't know who wrote them. It's hard to believe that with everything else Simeon did, he wrote all of the articles in his paper. We know that there were newspaper reporters from Vermont in Washington, DC, because when Simeon went to Washington, he spent some time seeing the sights with a newpaperman from Vermont as his tour guide.

Most of the paper consisted of step by step proceedings of what was happening in the debates in Congress, including transcripts of every speech and debate. This is really dry stuff, that people obviously read, because “The Journal” had a significant readership. We talk about people from that day as being not as well informed as we are, but when you look at what was in the paper, there was much more true information about what was happening nationally than what we have now. The transcripts went on for page after page.

There were plenty of letters to the editor and most of them addressed national issues. Letters to the editor could go on for a couple of pages – and the print was small. I had always wondered what Simeon thought about the brewing conflict over slavery. As you read through some issues of "The Journal", you do see some articles and letters to the editor in favor of the establishment of Liberia. Liberia is an African country that was established by American people. It wasn't established by the American government, but by private American interests who donated to the cause. The biggest of these was the American Colonization Society, headquartered in Washington, DC. Liberia wasn't founded to be a haven for freed slaves, but for black people that were already living in American as freedmen.

On the surface, this looks like a noble cause, and in some way it was. However, the theory behind the founding of Liberia was that free black people could not function as full citizens in the United States, so they should be sent to their own colony where they could be citizens in a “lesser” country than America. In regards to black people, this seems to be the policy “The Journal” leaned toward. We already know that Simeon and his paper were firmly Republican, and Thomas Jefferson was one of the first proponents of the creation of an African colony for American Negroes.

To see microfilmed copies of old Vermont newspapers, go to the Vermont Library Association.  It's in the same building in Montpelier as the Vermont History Museum.  When I went there, I went into the Vermont History Museum and asked for directions to the Vermont Library Association.  The girl at the desk told me it was in Barre, at the museum in Barre.  I went back to Barre, only to have them tell me it was in Montpelier.  Don't make the same mistake I did.  The door you go in to go to the Library Association is on the right side of the building.