of
Muscatine County Iowa
1911
| History of Muscatine County Iowa 1911 | |
Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Volume I, 1911, pages 394-397
EDITOR OF THE JOURNAL FIFTY YEARS. John Mahin, veteran editor, for years one of the best known and most prominent citizens of the state, a man who was universally respected even by those who opposed him consistently and often bitterly in the activities apparently nearest his heart, resides today in Evanston, Illinois. There Mr. Mahin and his wife, than whom few women in Muscatine. have been more prominent, have their home but a few blocks from that of their eldest son, John Lee Mahin, whose exceptional success in the advertising world is well known.
John Mahin is a sturdy man and though the years have left their traces--active, busy, even strenuous years that they have been--his appearance and his activities give the lie to the biographer, who must, because the figures are so written, declare him seventy-seven years of age, December 8, 1910.
BORN IN NOBLESVILLE, INDIANA. Mr. Mahin was born at Noblesville, Indiana, December 8, 1833. His father's ancestry came from the north of Ireland to Rhode Island before the Revolutionary war, drifting from there to Kentucky, sometime in the eighteenth century, and early in the nineteenth century crossed the Ohio river to Ross county, Ohio, and a little later emigrated to Hamilton county, Indiana. His mother's ancestry was Pennsylvania German. On account of business reverses his father left Noblesville when Mr. Mahin was four years of age, to try his fortunes in the west. For about two years the family had the experiences of pioneer life in Effingham county, Illinois, most of the time on a farm. Then in a mover's wagon they turned their faces toward Iowa, crossing the Mississippi river in Captain Phillip's steam ferry at Bloomington in the fall of 1843. The winter was spent in Bloomington and the following summer on the farm of Dr. Fitch, fifteen miles above Muscatine on the Mississippi river.
The time spent in Bloomington was a very interesting experience for young Mahin. Here he saw the many steamboats which plied the Mississippi in those days. Some of these boats were elaborately fitted up. One boat Mr. Mahin recalls, the Osprey, a big side wheeler, was decorated with great paintings covering the wheel house on both sides. It was the Osprey which carried a large excursion to Rock Island, July 4, 1844, to the big celebration which was made memorable because while it was in progress Colonel George Davenport was murdered at his home on Rock Island, where he had remained alone, while his fanlily was attending the Independence day observances. Colonel George Davenport was the most important figure in this section at that time and his murder was a great sensation. Three men were hung for the crime at Rock Island, a year later. It is interesting to note at this juncture that Mr. Mahin's first news story, which he wrote for the Muscatine Journal when the paper was conducted by Noah M. McCormick, was an account of the sensational murder of Benjamin Nye by Mr. McCoy, ex-sheriff of Cedar county.
In the fall of 1844 Mr. Mahin's father moved to Cedar county, locating near Rochester, where he resided until 1847, when he returned to Muscatine. It was during his residence in Cedar county that John Mahin saw the first copy of the paper with which he was in after years to become so closely identified.
LEARNS PRINTING TRADE. Under the tuition of Stout and Israel Mr. Mahin learned the trade and the profession which he made his life work. His first duties consisted of making fires, inking the press, carrying the weekly issue to the town subscribers and making himself generally useful after the custom of printing shop apprentices since time immemorial. Soon he learned to set type and was well on his way to learning his trade. It is likely that the influences of his earliest association with a printing office had much to do with his after life. From Stout he learned to fight for the principles he considered right, no matter what the cost. Stout was an abolitionist and despite threats, despite the unpopularity of such a course in those early times in Mississippi river towns, openly and boldly denounced slavery. From Israel, it may be, he first learned the evils of intemperance, seeing them exemplified in the life of a man whom he admired and respected. Israel he recalls died as the result of an intemperate life and beyond a doubt this fact made a great impression upon him.
Stout and Israel could not survive the financial difficulties which most editors in those early days were compelled to face and about a year after Mr. Mahin entered the office they gave up the fight.
Under the regimes of F. A. C. Foreman, who came to Bloomington from New Boston, to take over the Herald plant, and of Noah M. McCormick, who bought the plant six months after Foreman had been compelled to suspend publication and changed the name of the paper to the Muscatine Journal, young Mahin remained as an employe of the office. Under McCormick he was allowed, in addition to his services as a printer, to write both editorial comment and accounts of local news happenings.
TILT WITH A PIONEER EDITOR. "In the elections of 1849," said Mr. Mahin, "the democrats had been victorious in their local contests. The editor of their organ, H. D. LaCossitt, had assisted in the jollification over that event by ladeling out whiskey from a bucket to a number of young men and boys. I saw the incident and wrote a communication for the Journal, in which I roundly denounced the proceedings, signing my communication 'Adolescens' (I was spending my spare time in the office studying Latin and had learned that adolescens meant 'young man'). LaCossit in the next issue of his paper vehemently denied the accusation and rather grandiloquently declared that the person who said that he had seen himself and Sheriff Henry Reece giving out whiskey was a liar. I followed this up with another communication, in which I reaffirmed the statement as to LaCossitt but pointed out that in the first article no reference had been made to Reece, that so far as I knew he was neither concerned in the matter nor had his name been connected with it by anyone, and stated that LaCossitt's dragging the sheriff into the case seemed to indicate that he was too cowardly to face the music himself. This second communication brought about a visit from LaCossitt, accompanied by Reece, to the Journal office. The editor of the democratic paper demanded of my employer, Mr. McCormick, the name of the author of the two articles. Much to my surprise, Mr. McCormick winced before the two men and pointed tremblingly at me as I stood by the press. LaCossitt looked at me, turned toward McCormick and with much dignity said, 'Sir, I would have you know that I have no quarrel with boys,' and then stalked from the room. In the next issue of his paper he made a similar statement in an article intended to reflect sarcastically on Editor McCormick."
A CONSISTENT AND FEARLESS FOE. Throughout his editorial service, Mr. Mahin was a consistent and a fearless foe of the liquor traffic. He carried his opposition to such lengths that he made some bitter enemies for himself. But neither the enmity of his foes nor the advice of well meaning friends ever turned him from the pathway which he had chosen, because he believed it right. In the darkest hour of his life in Muscatine, his home, together with those of two other prominent residents, was blown up, following the bitterest part of the struggle in Muscatine during the days of the old prohibitory law of Iowa. On the night of May 10, 1903, his home was wrecked and he and his wife and children, together with the maid employed in the house, escaped with their lives only as if by miracle. Not even this dastardly deed served to cool his ardor for the cause in which he had enlisted not for a single battle or campaign, but until the fight was ended. While Mr. Mahin is no longer engaged in editorial labor and therefore no longer has the opportunity to daily set his lance at rest and charge upon his ancient foe, there are no signs that he has changed in his opinions or that his loyalty to the white banner of temperance has grown less warm. Mr. Mahin, in part perhaps by reason of the intenseness of his convictions and uncompromising character of his support of those convictions through the columns of his paper, won for himself a wide reputation as an editor and as an able writer.
John Mahin's retirement from the editorial chair in 1903 marked the passing from active newspaper life of Iowa's veteran editor. That retirement is too recent to make necessary any discussion of the commanding position which he held among the editors of the state. By his evident sincerity and his absolute integrity, as well as by his sturdy fearlessness and his recognized ability, he won the respect of all.
In May, 1859, Mr. Mahin was married to Miss Anna Herr, of this city, who died in 1861, leaving no family. In September, 1864, he married Miss Anna Lee, of Johnson county, Iowa. Their first born, Ella, died at the age of four and a half years, in 1870. Two sons and two daughters are now living. John Lee Mahin, their elder son, is a resident of Evanston, Illinois. In 1895 he married Miss Julia Graham Snitzler, and three children have been born to them, two daughters, Margaret and Marian, and one son, Master John Lee Mahm, Jr. Mabel, the elder daughter, is the wife of Louis Jamme of Chicago, Illinois. The younger daughter, Florence, is the wife of J. Warren Alford, of East Orange, New Jersey. They have two children, Charles and Charlotte. The second son, Harold J. Mahin, is employed in a responsible position by 0. J. Gude & Company of New York, the widely known outdoor advertising firm. His home is in New Rochelle, New York. His wife was Miss Nelle Boone, of New York. They have an infant daughter, Virginia.
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