Young Proprietors Dominate Clare County Publishing in the late 1800s

By ANGELA KELLOGG-HENRY

Cleaver Managing Editor

This spectacular cabinet card photo is in the collection of the Clare County Historical Society. With no AI or photoshop, just a love of his local newspaper and the skill of a local photographer this photo was created. Unfortunately, the photo is not labeled. My best guess as to who this gentleman may be is Marvin Eaton.

The photographer Eugene DeVogt operated his business in Clare from 1884 to 1911. Eaton began publishing the Clare News-Argus as early as 1883 before beginning the Clare Democrat in December of 1884. Though not yet 20, he had a bit of experience having worked briefly for the Saginaw Daily Herald. The age of the man in the photo seems consistent with the dates DeVogt operated that we could assume Eaton is the only man who would have his photo taken with the newspaper as the backdrop.

Eaton was born in Genesse County but came to Clare with his mother and attended school. Despite his young age he served as clerk of the Village of Clare for several terms in the mid-1880’s while publishing the News-Argus and the Clare Democrat. Eaton was also active in local matters in 1891 when Clare lobbied the state to become an incorporated city.

I was able to contact a great grandchild of Eaton’s on Ancestry.com. Unfortunately, they had no photo of Eaton to try to match photographs for a positive identification. They were pleased to have more information about Eaton and his newspaper publishing in Clare County. His great granddaughter said her grandmother told her that Catherine, Eaton’s wife, was a proofreader, presumably at his paper. At the time of Eaton’s death  in 1919 Catherine is mentioned as working at the Farthorn Publishing company in Chicago.

In January of 1885, the Saginaw Weekly Courier ran a small item of interest that addressed the young ages of Clare County newspaper editors.

“A.R. Canfield, editor of the Harrison Standard, is 17 years of age, M.D. Eaton of the Clare News-Argus, is 20, W.J. Coon of the Clare Press, is about 21 and D. Lee Sandford, of the Harrison Cleaver, is 26. They are not as old as some editors, but it doesn’t pay to run up against them just the same.”

In 1891, the Clare Democrat and Press ran an item about another business that Eaton was involved in.

“Geo E. Dawson and M.D. Eaton have purchased, this week, Will J. Kelly’s cigar factory, the tools, tobacco on hand and all his interests therein. The factory will be moved over Dawson’s saloon, and the business increased as rapidly as possible. The new firm contemplate employing from three to five hands, or even more if the sale of the cigars will permit. Mr. Kelly has engaged to manufacture cigars for the new firm.”

Eaton later acquired the Clare Press and published as the Clare Democrat and Press with the first issue in August of 1889. In 1894, the Clare Sentinel, with two years of publishing under their belt purchased the Clare Democrat Press and merged them to form the Clare Sentinel and Democrat Press. It’s interesting to note the first mast of this issue states it was established in 1878. The Clare Press was established that year and since newspapers of Clare had been combined two times over the Sentinel kept that established date its entire publishing history.

After selling, Eaton moved to Winona, Minnesota, a Mississippi River town and published a morning daily called the Democratic Daily. In the late 1890s he moved on to Dixon, Illinois and worked in a print shop and for the Telegraph. In 1905, he went to work in Chicago for the Rand McNally Publishing Co.

In the 1900 census Marvin and Catherine list their occupations as “compositors”. A compositor arranges type for printing or keys text into a composing machine such as a linotype.

In poor health Eaton moved back to Clare in 1910 and the 1910 census lists his occupation as printer in a job office. He died from a stroke on January 23, 1919, and the Clare Sentinel carried his obituary in their January 30, 1919, issue.

He is buried in the Cherry Grove Cemetery in Clare but there is no headstone to mark his grave.

Unfortunately, no copies of the Clare News-Argus are known to have survived, but many copies of other early Clare County newspapers are digitized at the Clarke Library at Central Michigan University at https://digmichnews.cmich.edu/