A Newspaperman in the Family

I have been researching other branches of the family and found a newspaperman.  I also have information on the Hartwick Reporter for historians. 

In April 1915 Charles S. Hitchcock and his brother A. D. Hitchcock started the Hartwick Reporter in Hartwick, N.Y.  A. D. Hitchcock died in 1918, leaving his brother to carry on with the newspaper.  Five years later Charles sold the paper to Edward E. Carpenter, editor of the Morris Chronicle, in October 1920.  Hitchcock planned to retire 1 January 1921.  However, the paper must have reverted back to him at some point because in the summer of 1925 he sold the Hartwick Reporter to Loren A. Mann of Susquehanna, PA, who was taking over the week of 4 September 1925.  It was further noted in the newspaper article that “Mr. Hitchcock retires on account of the condition of his health which has not been good of late but expects to devote his spare time to the interests of the paper,”  sounding like he intended to stay involved with the paper.  A year later Mann installed a new typing machine in the printing office.

It appears the Hartwick newspaper reverted back to Charles Hitchcock once again.  On 22 April 1930 he passed away.  His obituary referred to Hitchcock as the editor of the Hartwick Reporter, explaining that he "had continued with his work in the office until December 24, when he was taken ill and confined to his bed most of the time."  On 13 June 1930 The Otsego Farmer announced that newspaper employee Frank E. Boyce, who went to work at the paper in September 1929, had bought it.

Frank E. Boyce was born 3 May 1869 in Housatonic, Mass., to William F. Boyes and Rachel A. Winchell.  He attended high school in Oneonta, N.Y., and learned to be a printer in the office of the Oneonta Herald.  Boyce pursued his trade in the surrounding area.  After his daughter Ethel graduated from high school in Sidney, N.Y., in 1922, “she became associated with her father in his work as editor of the Hartwick Reporter.  Boyce died 4 December 1941. After his death, she continued to publish the paper as long as health permitted.”  That was less than a year, for on 20 November 1942 The Otsego Farmer announced that Mrs. Grace E. Boyce was discontinuing the paper.  She and her stepdaughter moved back to Oneonta where Ethel died from a heart ailment on 11 Mar 1943.