32 Commercial St. Suite 2, Honesdale, PA 18431
The Wayne Independent
Founded in 1878
During the 1870’s, Wayne County Commissioners started a project to build a new courthouse – the present one on Court Street, Honesdale. A number of Wayne Countians felt the project was too elaborate and when the matter was offered on the ballot in a referendum, they turned it down by a 3-to-1 margin. But a new board of Commissioners continued the project and proposed to raise taxes to pay for the building. The people who opposed the courthouse felt that they needed an editorial voice and so went about arranging for a new – a third newspaper to be published at Honesdale. At that time, there were two newspapers here: The Wayne County Herald – a strong Democratic newspaper, and most county officeholders were Democratic – and The Honesdale Citizen (which later became the Wayne County Citizen) Republican newspaper. The courthouse project opponents got in touch with Benjamin Franklin Haines, owner-editor of the Hancock (N.Y.) Herald. Haines was born in Orange County, N.Y., and had been owner of the Hancock newspaper since 1874. A total of 900 Wayne County subscribers were rounded up and a crew worked nearly all night to print 3,000 copies of that first four-page issue of The Wayne Independent on Thursday, Feb. 7, 1878. The first home of the newspaper was in second floor rooms of the J.M. Bauman Building (157 Front Street – now 827 Main street, the Male building). It was a seven-column newspaper although one year later it changed to an eight-column newspaper. In March, 1879, the office moved to the Watts building, nearly opposite the Honesdale National Bank and next door to the Durland, Torrey and Co. boot and shoe manufactory. For a time, the offices were in a building erected by A.M. Miller for a hotel to the rear of the present City Hall.
Mr. Haines had a financial partner, M. Beardsley, but he sold his share of the business to Haines in January 1881. In September 1882, the offices were moved to the Chas. Peterson and B.B. Smith building at 833 Main Street (now known as the Eagles Building). It remained there until proprietor Haines built his own building at 742-44 Main Street. It was occupied in 1892. More details to follow at the former location of the Wayne Independent. Write the first name of the Owner/Editor of The Hancock Herald in space # 15 on your scavenger hunt entry.
Continue to follow 8th St. to Church St. visit the former Zenas H. Russell home on the corner, now the editorial office of Highlights for Children, a worldwide publication that started in Honesdale in 1946 and click on the button below for next page.
