On July 16, 1818, subscribers to the Harford County newspaper the Bond of Union were confronted by this hue and cry, issued by editor William Coale. It sounds very much like the last word in a long-standing feud:
"A fellow who has been in my employ for some time ... having absconded in a rather singular manner, early on Monday morning last, I deem it a duty I owe to my brother Printers, as well as the community at large, thus to expose him to public view."
The assistant is accused of theft and of disarranging the type. Other travails included unpaid subscriptions and other financial difficulties, but the Bond of Union, first published in Havre de Grace in 1818, managed to continue until 1828, when it came into competition with the newer Independent Citizen and was taken over.
Earlier in the century, the county's first newspaper, the Abingdon Patriot and Harford County Gazette, which operated from September 1805 to April 1807, suffered similar difficulties and from the indifference of its citizens, which was bitterly castigated by the editor.
The arrival of the Independent Citizen, however, coincided with the beginning of an era of intense political activity, and thus more interest in newspapers. Between 1800 and 1900, some 32 Harford County newspapers came and went.
[Source: "Harford County Newspapers of the 19th Century," in Harford County Historical Bulletin. Number 50, Fall 1991. Research: Harford County Public Library]