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Emma E. Snyder was two years out of high school and setting type in the office of the Charleston IL Courier when Sumner Rose, pioneer bicycle tourist and publisher, met her. (Mattoon Gazette; January 13, 1882) A good type-setter is hard to find (even if she's learned the trade at a Democrat paper), so they married in July, 1883.

The couple moved to Indianapolis a year later. Sumner continued publishing "Will Roses's Paper" (aka "Toothpick"). They had their first son in August, Charles Victor. Sumner became involved in politics and the local prohibition movement. After the Paper folded he tried a series of others: a one-cent rag called the Southside Morning Star (1885), and then the Coatsville Mail (1889), the Amo Reporter (1889), and the Filmore Star (1889). Then, either hunting success in a niche market, or more likely, out of a growing sense of conviction, he started the Princeton, IN Prohibition Era (1889), the Greensburg, IN Argument (1892), and in 1894 the Hoosier Blade, also from Greensburg. He had come to see both the Democrat and Republican parties as corrupt and called on reformers of all stripes to join forces. Along the way, two more children arrived: Glen Willard (March, 1890), and Archibald (1892, who died in 1894).

It's interesting that Roses settled in Greensburg, IN. If Sumner was looking for subscribers, he picked a receptive population--the middle of the "Reform Belt" crossing the northeastern US. Greensburg later became home to Julius A. Wayland and his Coming Nation, the country's most popular reformers' newspaper.

Wayland was a small-town IN newspaper editor in the 1880's, who moved to Pueblo, CO and became a successful job-printer, and made a fortune in land speculation on the side. He moved back to IN and Greensburg in Feb., 1893 and established Coming Nation, an eclectic weekly newspaper combining radical populist and socialist ideas. It was hugely successful. In early 1894 Wayland decided to use his 60,000+ subscriber-base to promote the establishment of a cooperative colony where his progressive ideas could be put into action. Publishing the newspaper was to be one of the colony's principle businesses along with farming and other small enterprises.

In May, 1894 Wayland dispatched Rousseau Hess, the newspaper's bookkeeper/business manager, on a tour of the South to look for a site for the proposed colony; Sumner Rose accompanied him. (Greensburg IN New Era; May 23, 1894) Like Wayland, Rose had decided to start a utopian community, free from the corruption that marked capitalism at the time. He had organized a company, the National Cooperative Industrial Co., in early 1894 to buy 10,000 acres of land in the south and own it in-common for 150 or so families who would move there, farm and engage in light manufacturing. Like Wayland, Rose hoped his newspaper, "Hoosier Blade," (soon to be renamed "The Grander Age") with an advertised circulation of 10,000, would help provide a stable financial footing.

Rousseau settled on a rocky patch in Tennessee City, TN, and there Wayland established his so-called "Ruskin Colony." It soon failed, however, torn by dissension, as most of the utopian communities were.

Sumner extended his search into the Gulf Coast-states and settled on a 1,000 acre site near Handsboro, MS, about 5 miles west of Biloxi. The first recruits arrived just before Thanksgiving and included families from Colorado, Illinois and Iowa (a Mr. Piper, though this may be C. A Piper of Indiana, Rose's future brother-in-law). (Biloxi Herald; November 24, 1894) He named their community, "Co-Opolis," but it also came to be known as the "Grander Age Colony," from its flagship newspaper.

The first (Jan. 1895) issue of The Grander Age was upbeat. The colony had overcome some initial organizing difficulties and survived the coldest MS winter in ten years. They saw a few early dropouts but Co-Opolis grew overall, both from within and without, as the editor proudly reported the birth of twin girls around Christmas-time. (Greensburg Standard; February 1, 1895) Sadly, they died just a few days apart in early February. (Greensburg New Era; February 20, 1895) With Rose acting as unofficial mayor, the colonists built six homes, a few stores, a print shop for the paper; they planted and started some light manufacturing works (e.g. brickyard, lumber yard, boat building, fishing).

Another daughter, Wilfreda Mary, was born at Co-Opolis in March, 1897, but the hoped for expansion of the colony never materialized and the population never topped 100. Profits from their business ventures were equally scarce. Rose waged a constant battle with creditors demanding payment for the colony's mounting bills. In 1897 Rose wrote to E. B. Gaston, a leader in the Fairhope Single Tax Colony on nearby Mobile Bay, revealing a reorganization was imminent, "to discourage deadbeats." (August 25, 1897) In December Rose disclosed his plans to leave Co-Opolis in the spring, "The experiences here have been so painful that I feel that any other spot in the world would be a more happy one for myself and family. There can be no worse hell than that we have passed through here, and I have lost much of my old respect for those whom I had heretofore thought genuine reformers. . . the majority have been as hard to get along with as the most devilish of devils. (letter to E. B. Gaston; December 27, 1897) Sumner left the colony in the summer of 1898 and took a "one-horse" traveling salesman's job to pay the bills. Emma took the children home to Illinois seeking emotional recovery for herself and a school for the boys. (letter to E. B. Gaston; August 13, 1898) In a final letter from the colony (September 25, 1898) Rose reported he had lost everything and told Gaston to expect to see a cynic, "with a big C" when he visited.

In Oct. 1902, Rose left his Biloxi music business to take a position on the staff of "The Appeal to Reason," Julius Wayland's KS newspaper. (Biloxi Herald; October 7, 1902) Emma stayed behind, with plans to join him at the end of the the school term, but Sumner resigned his position and returned to the healthier air of Biloxi in Feb. 1903. (Biloxi Herald; February 25, 1903)

For a awhile in 1903 Rose resumed printing The Grander Age. Rose eschewed Socialist theory and offered his own brand of folksy maxims and humanist philosophy that hearken back to the Will Rose we know from Toothpick days. When the newspaper folded he sold his press to the Biloxi Herald and went to work for them. His letters appeared regularly in the newspaper and were always interesting, logical and as brief as possible.

In 1910 Rose ran for Alderman of Biloxi's First Ward, and was elected with almost 60% of the vote leading a campaign against a city law that forced the poor to work on the roads for 6 days, 10 hours/day if they couldn't come up with $3 cash for street taxes. He refused to pay and was jailed for 6 months. He appealed his case all the way up to the Supreme Court. He later ran for Mayor, but was defeated. As a candidate for Governor on the Socialist ticket in 1912 he pulled in 12,000 votes. He also ran unsuccessfully for the U. S. Senate.

The Roses relocated to Atlanta in 1932. Emma died there in 1938. She was buried in Biloxi. Sumner then moved to Houston to live with his son Charles, and died there of heart attack October 30, 1947. He's buried next to Emma. See them at Find A Grave memorial # 41791339. ... See MoreSee Less

6 days ago  ·  

Sumner William Rose was born in Columbus, OH March 13, 1858. His father, William E. Rose, was an attorney. Sumner was the youngest of four children. The eldest, Erasmus Granville, was born in Greenville, OH (1845); Henrietta E. in Virginia (1848); Fidelia (Delia) in Ohio (1855).

Erasmus became a lawyer like his father, married and settled in Kansas, IL in 1875 where he served as the City Attorney and Township Clerk, and built a private practice specializing in collections. Sumner joined him there after graduating H.S., and the 1880 US Census records him living in the E. G. Rose household with sister #2, Delia. The whereabouts of Sumner's father and mother (Eliza), and their dates of death are unknown.

April 15, 1878 the Sun rose in the village of Kansas, IL and Rose, barely 20 years-old, published his first newspaper, the Weekly Republican-Sun. Sumner had deep roots in the newspaper business through his extended family back in OH, and a future biographer will undoubtedly uncover previous tabloid experience. Quoting Rose: "A telegram per postal card, from Indianapolis informs us that our cousin, Wellington Rose, will probably be here to-day. He is also, "wun ov them newspaper fellers," being a traveling correspondent of the Cincinnati Times-Star, and is one of the best cousins we've got." (Weekly Republican-Sun; December 24, 1880).

The Sun's front page bore the tagline, "Onward and Upward," expressing Rose's goals for his fledgling (pop. <1,200) community. As the only newspaper in Kansas, IL Rose saw his duty clear: nonstop boosting, often on generous terms of credit. Collections were an on-going challenge, and nary an issue went by that he didn't address the issue more than once, usually in his own special style, i.e. with wit and humor.

The Kansas Sun flourished, with the town, and after two years Rose invested in a new press, expanding the format to a 5-column quarto that featured a new logo and tagline: "Independent in All Things--Neutral in Nothing." The sentiment was mostly aspirational-- this young man had many rows to hoe before he discovered his socialist core. The paper was newsy, witty and unfailingly family-oriented. It was the Rose way, and readers would rediscover it in succeeding newspapers like his famous "Toothpick."

"Many of our young men are engaged in a desperate struggle to raise a crop of bristles on their upper lip or on either side of their countenance. It is haired work." (Weekly Republican-Sun; February 6, 1879)

"The reason our paper is out late today is because we didn't print it earlier. We would have printed it earlier if we hadn't printed it so late." (Weekly Republican-Sun; October 8, 1880)

Linking Sumner W. Rose, the Biloxi, MS newsman, alderman, Socialist and gubernatorial candidate, to S. Will Rose the pioneer bicycle tourist and Will S. Rose the publisher has long been a challenge for historians, given his predilection for changing names. He offers this explanation in the Sun:

"This week our readers will find the initials at the head of our paper reversed, but then its all the same "feller" that runs the paper. A little over a year ago when we were young and giddy, we thought Will S. would sound prettier than S. Will, so we turned the front part of our name around; but now that we are getting old, such foolishness is getting away from our head, and we are getting to put our initials in their proper way for good, and be plain S. Wilyum, as of yore." (Weekly Republican-Sun; October 15, 1880)

Rose started a new newspaper in Danville, IL in April, 1882 called the "Lightning Express," perhaps not entirely coincidentally the name of a local RR train. He faced stiff competition however, and it didn't last long. In December he relocated to nearby Ashmore and started his famous "Rose's Toothpick."

We'll finish the Rose bio tomorrow and end this post with some quotes from the Toothpick. We haven't located any surviving issues but it's cited in papers all across the country:

"The musical instrument called a lyre was first played upon by a scrub politician." (Madison LA Times; March 24, 1884)

"Is a mule-y cow a hard kicker? A long-continued story--"I will pay that little bill next week!" "The softening softness softer grew" --A rotten pumpkin in a frog pond. " (Ann Arbor MI Courier; April 2, 1884)

"Some people wonder why others do not make money. It is often because they do not have the cents to begin with. " (True IL Republican; April 23, 1884)

"Quite a wide difference exists between a mail train and a female train." (Hickman KY Courier; May 2, 1884)

The theatrical "star" of the present day too often beams only with the brightness of a second rate tallow candle." (Phillipsburg KS Herald; May 22, 1884)

"FIRST, we growl about the cold weather; then about the hot weather; then about the dry weather; then because the corn don't grow; then because it grows too fast; and then because we have nothing to growl about at all." (St. Clairsville OH Belmont Chronicle; August 14, 1884)

"The young man who is in love has a fullness of heart only equalled by the emptiness of his pocket book." (Laramie WY Daily Boomerang; August 15, 1885)

"When a Delaware street belle tells you she loves you more than she does a dish of ice-cream, young man, you can rest assured you possess her heart and affections in all their entirety." (St. Paul MN Daily Globe; September 12, 1885)

"Why do men always speak of their wives as their "better halves?" Simply because they "half" to." (St. Paul MN Daily Globe; September 12, 1885)

How dear to my heart are the scenes of my childhood when fond recollections present them to me.
The blind mule, the rail fence, the tough tangled cord-wood, and the green apple dumpling that grew on the tree.
How oft I have chewed on that old apple dumpling, and swallowed in bits, in my wild childish glee;
that old apple dumpling, that cast iron dumpling, that grew on the tree.
How it floored me and writhed me with green-apple colic, and dumped me about in keen agonee,
that green apple dumpling that grew on a tree. (Idaho City Semi-weekly World; February 5, 1886)

""Where do the swallows go when they fly away to?" asked a sad-eyed poet. We really don't know, but suppose they go down some other fellow's throat." (Indianapolis Indiana State Sentinel; February 9, 1887)

"The man who makes long prayers has little to complain of. He has a very kneesy time of it." (Indianapolis Indiana State Sentinel; February 16, 1887)

"The difference between a hog and a man is, the hog knows when he's got enough." (Lockport NY Daily Journal; March 18, 1887) [this last one neatly foreshadows his growing cynicism about the 2-party system and his turn to Socialism] ... See MoreSee Less

7 days ago  ·  

A week later and Rose reported he was just 135 miles closer to his goal. (Cairo IL Bulletin; September 28, 1882) Rose had learned a whole new set of lessons about cycling cross-country in the West. The wind blew here, "as nowhere else," constantly in his face. He was toppled more than once by gusts that pushed him into ruts and pitched him over his handlebars. One of the falls ripped the tire half off his big wheel; another left him with a badly bruised knee, his only injury on the trip. There were no road signs, and even long-time residents had little or no knowledge of the roads 25 miles from home. More than once he was misdirected and sent wheeling down the wrong road. Towns got smaller as he pedaled west, and further apart; there were fewer farms to stop at and ask directions. The nights got colder and darker and "lonesomer."

When Rose reached Central City, NE on Friday, September 22 he was ready for a rest. He stayed until the 25th, sewing some much needed patches on his cycling suit and darning socks. He composed his weekly newspaper correspondence and nursed his knee. He promised readers tales of Indians and cowboys in his next missive.

Rose reached Cheyenne late on September 29, having travelled the last 50 miles or so by train. Reporters described him as lean and healthy, stronger apparently than he looked and as brown as one of the genuine cowboys Rose had come West to see. Laramie was just a day or 50 miles ahead, but summers are short and autumns even shorter here. Reporters expressed their doubts that Rose would be able to continue his trip owing to the rapid approach of winter. (Cheyenne Daily Leader; October 1, 1882) Their predictions were confirmed three days later when Rose boarded the train to head home.

Rose returned to Danville by rail, along the same route he had followed all month, stopping frequently to renew acquaintances with the friends he had made along the way. The Cheyenne reporter predicted Rose would inspire many more wheelmen to undertake the adventure in the coming season. (Cheyenne Daily Leader; October 4, 1882) This long-forgotten young bicycle pioneer went on to have a long and amazing life in politics and as a social reformer. He moved to Indiana and later settled in Mississippi, but the newspapers he founded were widely circulated and gave him a national voice. That story tomorrow. ... See MoreSee Less

1 week ago  ·