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I I J j ERASTUS JACKSON publisher 18531883 NEWMARKET Management of The Era was a family affair for over years Two generations of the Jackson family guided the destiny of the newspaper and printing firm and through it exerted a profound in fluence on their com munity The Jacksons Erastus the father and Lyman the son were never content to treat their office as ah ivory tower from which they could hurl editorial thunderbolts with both feet running for elective office and using their columns to espouse platforms campaigning for legislative candidates both In person and in and joining and acting any number of civic groups Erastus Jackson and a partner bought the struggling oneyear old Era In 1853 and bought sole control a year later He was born in Merriekville Grenville County in August and he said later his They and their parents gave him all the newspaper jumped into advantages of education the life of the community obtainable in those early times but went on to point out since teachers boarded around those advantages were ex ceedingly limited At his father apprenticed him to a printer and three years later he followed his employer to Toronto In he joined the Advertiser and in returned to Toronto to join the staff of Hon William Mc- Dougalls Toronto North American His first to years as a Newmarket publisher were a hard struggle to make two ends meet he said later but by the the business was THE SERVING YORK SINCE flourishing it occupied a new building on Main St and Erastus was into politics He held a town council seat for many years served as reeve of the village it then had no mayor from 1871 to and again from to After incorporation as a town he continued as reeve and was elected to two terms as mayor and and also served a term as Warden of York County He was secretary and treasurer of the North York Agricultural Society for over years and is credited with the pur chase of the Newmarket Fairgrounds now Fairgrounds Park and the erection of the buildings there which made the annual fair one of the best in the province He was an active executive member of the local Reform Party executive and as a Liberal took a prominent part in nearly all the conventions of the party as a supporter of George Brown from until after Confederation During the Sandf administration of Old Mrs Baylys private Canada Mr Jackson was school the public school appointed coroner and under Robert Alexander issuer of marriage and the village grammar licenses posts he held school As a young man until he entered his fathers s Instate KSg library for many years and served on the In- turned provincial board For many years he lacrosse and was a member of the town band for about years and its secretary He was librarian at the Mechanics Institute for years and then for more served on its board was on the executive board of the Canadian Press Association and was both its secretary and president Lyman George Jackson was educated in Newmarket He attended son and devoted himself to politics community organizations and recording the history of the town As a young man Lyman Jackson took an active interest in high school board for some years A staunch abstainer he brought The Era out on the side of temperance and during the Ontario Plebiscite was secretary of the county dry organization Both were active in the Methodist church and its works in the community 3 DAY- JANUARY Ar NEWMARKET Newmarket was incorporated almost years ago and to celebrate the awn fathers decided to throw the biggest parry town had ever seen ratepayer in the municipality then a of about was Invited to sit down at at the old Mechanics Hall on came- on New Years Day Davison for the mammoth was followed by a series of the bis I fin I TT memories of the early days in Newmarket and of his success in the present Incorporation day had started at midnight when church school and fire bells all over town rang in the new year rang for two hours In the morning the town was found to be gaily decorated with bunting and evergreen bows and flags fluttered from every one of the numerous Most of the towns population favored the change from village to town status The Era had reported when public meetings were being held to discuss the need for the change However even the venerable Erastus Jackson longtime editor of the newspaper and for many years a member of village council could not provide many reasons why the change was needed The change in status wont cost any more and wlU give ratepayers a better representation through a bigger coundlMie reported rather lamely In fact the major opposition seemed to come from outside the community editor of the Aurora Banner was a vociferous opponent of town status for Newmarket and apparently fumed and foamed about it f ofover a year in his editorial columns Jackson just as ardent a supporter of incorporation and never a newspaperman to let a slight slip by unanswered retaliated with his heaviest editorial artillery fact if neighboring newspaper editors waged writing wars like this one today the courts would be filled with libel and slander actions Heres an example of Mr Jacksons pyrotechnics Something must have gone wrong with poor Horaces digestion Horace was the offending Banner editor and Mr Jackson reeve of Newmarket at the time His ravings about the presumption of Newmarket aspiring to of a town gives unmistakeable evidence of one of two things either his Thanksgiving Dinner was too much for his stomach or he displays an amount of pitiful jealously all creditable to his head and heart And then a memory of the past combined with a painfully realizing sense of the estimation of his own worth by the community in which he lives nearly upset his equilibrium Wonder and amazement seized his imagination and jealousy completely unmanned him Alter saying something which he no doubt fancied peculiarly smart in regard to Newmarfcet he added Wonder If they will have the GovernorGeneral up to assist in the inauguration if they do perhaps will get to wearing his white kids and enter the Governors carriage before the Governor as he did on a previous occasion Well now this may all be stranger things than this have transpired but it isnt everybody who can wear white kid gloves and be invited by a Governor- General to step Into carriage and ride with him At any rate we have a sort of im pression that it will be a long time before Horace win boast of enjoying the confidence of his neighbor to such an extent as will entitle him to be recognized by any GovernorGeneral let his kids be never so whit when be does it will be time enough for him to of others who have already that extinction tHr action favoring the corporation of Newmarket as a town arose at a public meeting people and the council carried out their wishes were perhaps wrong In not asking Horace about matter before doing so but it Is too late now We hope however he will survive the shock to his