John Fenno (Aug. 12, 1751 (
O.S.) – Sept. 14, 1798
[.]) was a
Federalist Party
The Federalist Party was a Conservatism in the United States, conservative political party which was the first political party in the United States. As such, under Alexander Hamilton, it dominated the national government from 1789 to 1801.
De ...
editor among
early American publishers and major figure in the
history of American newspapers
The history of American newspapers begins in the early 18th century with the publication of the first Thirteen Colonies, colonial newspapers. American newspapers began as modest affairs—a sideline for printers. They became a political force ...
. His ''
Gazette of the United States
The ''Gazette of the United States'' was an early American newspaper, first issued semiweekly in New York on April 15, 1789, but moving the next year to Philadelphia when the nation's capital moved there the next year. It was friendly to the F ...
'' played a major role in shaping the beginnings of
party politics
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or pol ...
in the United States in the 1790s.
Early life
Fenno was born in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, the son of Ephraim Fenno, a leather dresser and alehouse keeper, and Mary Chapman. His ancestors had inhabited
since the early 1600s. He attended the Old South Writing School, a free public school.
[.]
Career
In 1769, Fenno became a teacher at his
alma mater.
Having experienced
the events
''Derren Brown: The Events'' is a Channel 4 television series featuring the illusionist Derren Brown. Filmed in front of a live studio audience, this series is made up of four one-hour specials, during which Brown attempted what he had describe ...
leading up to the
American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...
in Boston, he abandoned his teaching career to join the rebel military.
[.] He served as an
orderly
In healthcare, an orderly (also known as a ward assistant, nurse assistant or healthcare assistant) is a hospital attendant whose job consists of assisting medical and nursing staff with various nursing and medical interventions. The highest ro ...
to General
Artemas Ward
Artemas Ward (November 26, 1727 – October 28, 1800) was an American major general in the American Revolutionary War and a Congressman from Massachusetts. He was considered an effective political leader, President John Adams describing him as ...
.
[.]
Failure of an import business led to a move to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, which at that time was the nation's capital. Having previously written for the ''
Massachusetts Centinel'',
[.] Fenno on April 11, 1789 in New York City published the first issue of the ''Gazette of the United States'' to support
Federalist Party
The Federalist Party was a Conservatism in the United States, conservative political party which was the first political party in the United States. As such, under Alexander Hamilton, it dominated the national government from 1789 to 1801.
De ...
positions. Fenno moved it to
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
when the national capital moved there in 1790.
As opposing factions, centered on
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first United States secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795.
Born out of wedlock in Charlest ...
and
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...
, developed within President
Washington's administration, political newspapers such as the ''Gazette'' 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 as
John Adams
John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Befor ...
. 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, the ''Aurora'' edited by
Benjamin F. Bache and the ''
National Gazette
The ''National Gazette'' was a Democratic-Republican partisan newspaper that was first published on October 31, 1791. It was edited and published semiweekly by poet and printer Philip Freneau until October 23, 1793.
The ''National Gazette'' was ...
'' edited by
Philip Freneau, to promote the newly formed
Democratic-Republican Party
The Democratic-Republican Party, known at the time as the Republican Party and also referred to as the Jeffersonian Republican Party among other names, was an American political party founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the early ...
. As a highly visible Federalist spokesman, Fenno was engaged in verbal disputes that once led to fisticuffs with Bache. The tone of the ''Gazette 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 from
yellow fever
Yellow fever is a viral disease of typically short duration. In most cases, symptoms include fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, muscle pains – particularly in the back – and headaches. Symptoms typically improve within five days. In ...
, his son, John Ward Fenno, carried on with the paper until it was sold in 1800.
Personal life
On May 8, 1777, he wed Mary Curtis, of
Roxbury, Massachusetts
Roxbury () is a Neighborhoods in Boston, neighborhood within the City of Boston, Massachusetts.
Roxbury is a Municipal annexation in the United States, dissolved municipality and one of 23 official neighborhoods of Boston used by the city for n ...
, and the couple had thirteen children, including:
* John Ward Fenno
* Harriet Fenno (d. 1808), who married
John Rodman and they had a daughter
* Maria Fenno (1781–1823), who married New York Attorney General
Josiah Ogden Hoffman on August 7, 1802. Their son was
Charles Fenno Hoffman (1806–1884).
* Mary Eliza Fenno (d. 1817), who married
Gulian C. Verplanck in 1811. They had two sons before her death in 1817 in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, where she was buried at the
Père Lachaise Cemetery.
Fenno, along with his wife and a newborn daughter, died in Philadelphia during the
yellow fever
Yellow fever is a viral disease of typically short duration. In most cases, symptoms include fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, muscle pains – particularly in the back – and headaches. Symptoms typically improve within five days. In ...
epidemic of 1798.
See also
*
First Party System
Other colonial printers:
*
Jane Aitken
Jane Aitken (July 11, 1764 – August 29, 1832) was an early American printer, publisher, bookbinder, and bookseller. She was born in Scotland and her family immigrated to America with several Scottish families in 1771. She ran a print shop a ...
*
Cornelia Smith Bradford
Cornelia Smith Bradford (died August 1755) was a printer and newspaper editor located in Philadelphia. She is one of only eleven American women known to have supported themselves as printers before the American Revolution.
Life and career
Born C ...
*
Isaac Collins (printer)
Isaac Collins (February 16, 1746 March 21, 1817) was a Quaker and an early American printer, publisher, bookseller and merchant. He published the ''New Jersey Gazette'' and ''New Jersey Almanac.'' He was associated with several other colonial ...
*
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...
*
William Goddard (publisher)
*
David Hall (publisher)
David Hall (1714 – December 24, 1772) was a British printer who immigrated from Scotland to America and became an early American printer, publisher and business partner with Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia. He eventually took over Franklin's ...
*
John Holt (publisher)
John Holt (1721—1784) was a colonial American newspaper publisher, printer, postmaster, and mayor of Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. He was involved with publishing the ''Connecticut Gazette'', the ''New York Gazette'', and the ''New- ...
*
William Hunter (publisher)
William Hunter (died August 14, 1761) was a colonial American newspaper publisher, book publisher, and official government printer for the colony of Virginia. He was a journeyman apprentice for Virginia's first government public printer, Wil ...
*
William Parks (publisher)
William Parks (May 23, 1699 – April 1, 1750) was an 18th-century printer and journalist in England and Colonial America. He was the first printer in Maryland authorized as the official printer for the colonial government. He published the firs ...
*
Alexander Purdie (publisher)
*
Joseph Royle (publisher)
Joseph Royle (1732 – January 26, 1766) was an English-born American newspaper publisher and printer who lived in the British colony of Virginia. He was a journeyman who apprenticed under Virginia's printer of public record, William Hunte ...
*
Elizabeth Timothy
Elizabeth Timothy or Elisabet Timothee ( 1700 – April 1757) was a colonial American printer and newspaper publisher in the colony of South Carolina. Timothy was a French Huguenot Dutch immigrant that came to colonial America with her family ...
Citations
Bibliography
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Primary sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Fenno, John
1751 births
1798 deaths
Deaths from yellow fever
18th-century American newspaper publishers (people)
Infectious disease deaths in Pennsylvania
American male journalists
Journalists from Massachusetts
People from Boston