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John Fenno

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

American newspaper publisher

John Fenno (Aug. 12, 1751 (O.S.) – Sept. 14, 1798^[1]) was aFederalist Party editor amongearly American publishers and major figure in thehistory of American newspapers. HisGazette of the United States played a major role in shaping the beginnings ofparty politics in the United States in the 1790s.

Early life

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Fenno was born inBoston, the son of Ephraim Fenno, a leather dresser and alehouse keeper, and Mary Chapman. His ancestors had inhabitedMassachusetts since the early 1600s. He attended the Old South Writing School, a free public school.^[2]

Career

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In 1769, Fenno became a teacher at hisalma mater.^[2] Having experiencedthe events leading up to theAmerican Revolution in Boston, he abandoned his teaching career to join the rebel military.^[3] He served as anorderly to GeneralArtemas Ward.^[4]

Failure of an import business led to a move toNew York City, which at that time was the nation's capital. Having previously written for theMassachusetts Centinel,^[5] Fenno on April 11, 1789 in New York City published the first issue of theGazette of the United States to supportFederalist Party positions. Fenno moved it toPhiladelphia when the national capital moved there in 1790.

As opposing factions, centered onAlexander Hamilton andThomas Jefferson, developed within PresidentWashington's administration, political newspapers such as theGazette became increasingly important. Fenno's little three-column folio, printed on a sheet seventeen by twenty-one inches, became the semi-official government newspaper, with a share of the government's printing and with contributions from prominent Federalists such asJohn Adams. Hamilton was especially active, writing articles under various pseudonyms and rescuing the editor from bankruptcy in 1793 by raising $2,000 to pay off creditors.

Jefferson and his colleagues, angry at Fenno's attempt "to make way for a king, lords, and Commons" set up rival newspapers, theAurora edited byBenjamin F. Bache and theNational Gazette edited byPhilip Freneau, to promote the newly formedDemocratic-Republican Party. As a highly visible Federalist spokesman, Fenno was engaged in verbal disputes that once led to fisticuffs with Bache. The tone of theGazette of the United States was somewhat above the average of its contemporaries, and the Federalists were well served through its columns, although the circulation never exceeded 1,400. Copies circulated to major cities where other Federalist newspapers freely copied the news and editorials.

After his death in 1798 fromyellow fever, his son, John Ward Fenno, carried on with the paper until it was sold in 1800.

Personal life

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On May 8, 1777, he wed Mary Curtis, ofRoxbury, Massachusetts, and the couple had thirteen children, including:

John Ward Fenno
Harriet Fenno (d. 1808), who marriedJohn Rodman and they had a daughter
Maria Fenno (1781–1823), who married New York Attorney GeneralJosiah Ogden Hoffman on August 7, 1802. Their son wasCharles Fenno Hoffman (1806–1884).
Mary Eliza Fenno (d. 1817), who marriedGulian C. Verplanck in 1811. They had two sons before her death in 1817 inParis, where she was buried at thePère Lachaise Cemetery.

Fenno, along with his wife and a newborn daughter, died in Philadelphia during theyellow fever epidemic of 1798.

Citations

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^McCormick 1931, p. 325.
^^a ^bDaniel 2009, p. 25.
^Daniel 2009, pp. 25–26.
^Daniel 2009, p. 26.
^Daniel 2009, p. 19.

Bibliography

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Further information: Bibliography of early American publishers and printers

Burns, Eric (2006).Infamous Scribblers: The Founding Fathers and the Rowdy Beginnings of American Journalism. PublicAffairs.ISBN 978-1-58648-334-0.
Daniel, Marcus Leonard (2009). "John Fenno and the Constitution of a National Character".Scandal and Civility: Journalism and the Birth of American Democracy. Oxford University Press. pp. 19–61.ISBN 978-0-19-517212-6.
Humphrey, Carol Sue (1996). Startt, James D.; Sloan, Wm. David (eds.).The Press of the Young Republic. The History of American Journalism. Vol. 2. Greenwood Press.ISBN 978-0-313-28406-9.
Knudson, Jerry W. (2006).Jefferson and the Press: Crucible of Liberty. University of South Carolina Press.ISBN 978-1-57003-607-1.
McCormick, Thomas Denton (1931). "Fenno, John". In Johnson, Allen; Malone, Dumas (eds.).Dictionary Of American Biography. Vol. 6. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 325.
Mott, Frank Luther (1950) [1941].American Journalism: A History of Newspapers in the United States through 250 Years, 1690–1940 (revised ed.). The Macmillan Company.
Pasley, Jeffrey L. (2000). Shields, David S. (ed.). "The Two National 'Gazettes': Newspapers and the Embodiment of American Political Parties".Early American Literature.35 (1). University of North Carolina Press:51–86.JSTOR 25057179.

Primary sources

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Cox, Rob S. (ed.).Fenno-Hoffman Family Papers – notes. University of Michigan.
Fenno, John; Fenno, John Ward (1979). Hench, John B. (ed.)."Letters of John Fenno and John Ward Fenno, 1779–1800"(PDF).Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society. Part I: 1779–1799.89 (2):299–368.
Fenno, John; Fenno, John Ward (1979). Hench, John B. (ed.)."Letters of John Fenno and John Ward Fenno, 1779–1800"(PDF).Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society. Part II: 1792–1800.90 (2):163–234.