The Greensburg Herald
Wednesday Morning, July 20, 1864. Volume IX - No. 26 Whole No. 442.
"The Herald; A family newspaper devoted to local intelligence, literature, science, morality, politics, and general miscellany; edited and published every Wednesday, at Greensburg, Westmoreland County, PA by D.W. Shryock.
David W. Shryock, Esq., of Greensburg, a native of
Westmoreland County, and was born in 1816.
Shryock, being the oldest of four brothers and three
sisters, like all in the days of his childhood born upon farms, was put down to
hard work from boyhood. At the age of twenty-one years he struck out for
himself in the world, and spent most of three years as a member of an engineer
corps in the service of the State of Indiana, and which was engaged making
preliminary surveys and locating lines which have since been utilized by
corporations in building some of the railroads in that State.
At the age of twenty-seven years he married a Miss Dickie,
daughter of a worthy farmer in the county, and to gratify the wishes of his
parents he took up his residence at the old homestead, where he conducted the
farming operations for several years. In the fall of 1850 he purchased the
office of the Westmoreland intelligencer, a weekly newspaper, published at
Greensburg, and the organ of the old Whig party in the county. He moved to
town, and on the 8th of November, 1850, the first issue under his editorial
conduct of that paper appeared. The construction of the Pennsylvania Railroad
through the county was then in progress. The heavy work in the vicinity of
Greensburg brought there a large increase of population, which gave a new
impetus to its growth and enterprise, making dwellings and suitable business
houses scarce. For several years Mr. Shryock, like all other new-comers,
labored under inconveniences from this source, but in 1855 he purchased a lot
on Main Street, adjoining the Methodist Episcopal Church, from which a previous
owner had removed all the antiquated buildings. On this he erected that year
the large two-storied brick now there, and which he designed for his dwelling
and printing-office mainly, but had in it also a law-office and storeroom to
rent.
Shryock subsequently changed the name of his paper to that
of the Greensburg Herald, and from the time he entered upon his editorial
career up till 1870, twenty years, his was the only organ in the county to
antagonize the old Democratic party, which up to 1860 was in the majority from one
to two thousand votes. Some of the gubernatorial and Presidential campaigns
between 1850 and 1870 were very heated, and sometimes bitter and personal.
During that period there were times very trying to those at the head of public
journals, who realized the responsibilities of the position, and felt the
necessity of moulding a right public sentiment on all the questions before the
country. The editorial columns of the old Herald bear ample testimony to Mr.
Shryock’s faithfulness in the position he occupied, as well as fearlessness in
the advocacy of the doctrines of the party with which he affiliated, and his
true loyalty to his country during the four years of civil war. He seems to
have had the confidence and respect of his party in an unusually high degree.
He was made one of the delegates for the Twenty-first District to the National
Republican Convention of 1860, where he voted for the nomination of Mr.
Lincoln, after casting his first ballot for Mr. Cameron under instructions from
the State Convention.
In August, 1862, after the passage by Congress of the first internal revenue act, Shryock was commissioned by the President assessor of internal revenue for the Twenty-first District of Pennsylvania, then embracing the counties of Fayette, Westmoreland, and Indiana.
Inventory Number: DOC 193