In 1826, at age 15, Horace Greeley was made a printer's apprentice to Amos Bliss, editor of the Northern Spectator, a newspaper in East Poultney, Vermont. There, he learned the mechanics of a printer's job, and acquired a reputation as the town encyclopedia, reading his way through the local library. When the paper closed in 1830, Greeley went west to join his family, living near Erie, at Wayne Township. He remained there only briefly, going from town to town seeking newspaper employment, and was hired by the Erie Gazette. Although ambitious for greater things, he remained until 1831 to help support his father. While at Erie, Greeley became a Universalist, breaking from his Congregationalist upbringing.
Horace Greeley lived for a short time on the west side of Fourth and State streets in a building that still stands. There is a small metal plaque out in front of the building that notes his residence.
If the legendary editor incubated some of his journalistic skills in Erie, the experience did not make him overly fond of the place, and he once said – in his typically bombastic way – “Erie is the shabbiest and most broken-down looking large town, I, an individual not wholly untraveled, ever saw in a free state…” Nor did he apparently feel much loyalty to the city when he openly supported a boycott of all Erie hospitality facilities by travelers during the notorious Railroad War of 1853-54, which took place in Erie County.
The most prominent name associated with the history of Wayne Township is that of Zaccheus Greeley, the father of Horace. Zaccheus Greeley commenced life as a farmer on a small scale in Vermont. Becoming embarrassed, his farm was sold by the Sheriff, and he worked for a time as a laborer in New Hampshire.
In the year 1825, having saved a small sum of money, Zaccheus Greeley started to search out a home in the wilds of Pennsylvania, making his way to Wayne Township, near the New York line, where his brothers, Benjamin and Leonard, had gone some two years before. He there purchased 200 acres of land, to which he afterward added 150 acres more. Returning to New Hampshire, he brought his family on in 1826, the party consisting, besides Mr. and Mrs. Greeley, of Barnes, their oldest son, and their three daughters, Esther, Arminda and Marguerite.
Horace Greeley, who had apprenticed himself in a printing office at Poultney, Vermont, did not accompany the family, although pressed hard to do so. During the ensuing four years, Horace Greeley visited them twice in their wilderness home, walking most of the way, and remaining about a month each time.
In 1830, Horace Greeley returned again, and after remaining home awhile, found employment for a short period at Jamestown, and in the Gazette office at Erie. Some time during the summer of 1831 Greeley left Erie, called to see his parents in Wayne Township for a few days, and then started on foot for New York, where he arrived on the 17th of August, with exactly $10 in his pocket. Years after, when he had made a reputation through the New Yorker, he again paid a visit to the township, remaining for a brief period only. It was during this stay that he wrote one of his best poems, "The Faded Stars," beneath the trees near the home of his parents.
Zaccheus Greeley and Mary, his wife, both lived the balance of their years on the farm in Wayne and were buried near by. Mrs. Greeley's death occurred about 1854. The father died in 1867, at the age of eighty-seven. Horace Greeley was born on the 3d of February, 1811, in Amherst, Vermont, and died in Pleasantville, New York, November 29, 1872. Esther, his sister, married Orester Cleveland, long a partner in the New York Tribune. Barnes remained on the homestead farm. Arminda was wedded to her cousin Lovell, and Marguerite united herself to a writing master named Bush, from whom she parted.
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