The East Village in Poultney, which is now the smaller of our two villages, was, until within a few years, the larger of the two. So long as geography made a business center, so long the east village was ahead in business importance; but after the railroad, which runs through the west part of the town, was built, the west village gradually gained on the east, and the slate business springing up in the west part of the town, the latter has come to be much the larger village. By 1820, this village had become a place of considerable business, and was, in fact, among the leading villages of this section of the State, and continued to be such for some years thereafter. . . . In the year 1822, a newspaper was started in Poultney (east village) by Sanford Smith and John R. Shute, called the Poultney Gazette. The exact date of the first issue of this paper we are unable to give, though we can come near to it. The name of the paper was afterwards changed to that of Northern Spectator, the first number of which was issued the first week in January, 1825. One hundred and fourteen numbers of the Gazette had been previously issued, and if issued weekly and continuously, without interruption, the publication of the Gazette was commenced in November, 1822. Not having been able to procure any files of the Gazette, this is the nearest that we can come to accuracy as to the time when the publication was commenced-the recollection of the old people puts it in the Fall of 1822. In the Gazette was a department called the "Missionary Herald," occupying one page, and devoted to the cause of missions. Ethan Smith was the editor of this department. Messrs. Smith and Shute were young men, and both practical printers. Mr. Smith was a son of the Rev. Ethan Smith, at the time pastor of the Congregational Church in Poultney. The young man had first learned the printer's trade—then had studied Theology—and then with his partner (Shute) started the Gazette. Of the antecedents of Mr. Shute, we have been able to learn but little.

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The publication of the Gazette was commenced in a part of the building now owned by Stephen Scott; but the office was removed in the Spring of 1823 , into a new building erected by Stephen W. Dana, for the purpose of a printing office, other offices and work shops. It was a two- story building; the upper story was occupied by the printing office, the lower story, about the same time, was occupied by Moses G. Noyes, as a law office, and by Paul M. Ross and Olcott Sherman, as a harness shop. The printing office remained in this building as long as the paper was published. The building was afterwards put into a dwelling-house, and is now occupied by Zebediah Dewey; it stands next south of what is known as the "Bailey Block," on the street running from the Eagle Tavern to the covered bridge.

Both the Gazette and Spectator were good papers, and compared well with other country papers at the time. The Spectator was a sheet of four pages fifteen inches by twenty-two inches in size, as large, and we think a little larger, than the Rutland Herald was at that time. In the character of its reading matter, it was a better model than the average country paper of this time, though the public could not be made to believe it. The editorials were well written, and the selections evidently made with judgment, care and good taste. There was an absence of any attempt at witticism, or the sensational, and the editors did not deem it important to gather such items as the whitewashing of kitchens and fences, or the nailing down a loose shingle.

Horace Greeley learned the printer's trade in the office of the Northern Spectator. Horace was born in New Hampshire, and in 1811, when about ten years old, his father moved to West Haven, in this county. As Horace grew older, he became anxious to learn the printer's trade, and in the spring of 1826, having seen an advertisement in the Spectator, signifying that an apprentice was wanted at that office, he went to Poultney on foot and alone.

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The last issue of the Northern Spectator was gotten off at 11 o'clock one June morning, in 1830; and in the afternoon, at 1 o'clock, Horace Greeley, with a stick and small bundle resting on his shoulder, and an overcoat on his arm, which Mr. Hosford had given him (the first he ever had, and probably lasted until he obtained his white one), bid adieu to friends in Poultney, and started on foot for his father's, who then lived in Pennsylvania, five hundred miles away.

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The suspension of the printing office in East Poultney, in June, 1830, was not caused by any diminution of the general business of that community, for this was on the increase rather than otherwise, during the seven and a half years in which the office was run. The Northern Spectator but shared the fate of many newspapers-especially country papers.