Gustavus Adolphus Neumann was born on May 20, 1807, in

Görlitz Görlitz (; ; ; ; ; Lusatian dialects, East Lusatian: , , ) is a town in the Germany, German state of Saxony. It is on the river Lusatian Neisse and is the largest town in Upper Lusatia, the second-largest town in the region of Lusatia after ...

on the Neisse River, Saxony. Neumann has been labeled "one of the ablest German-American editors" of his time. His editorials dealt with, among other topics, the Americanization of the immigrant, and expressed strong and clear ideas on the subject.

Biography

He immigrated to the United States in 1834, entering the U.S. via the Port of Baltimore in October of that year. In November he went to New York City to fill the position of founding editor of the ''

New Yorker Staats-Zeitung The ''New Yorker Staats-Zeitung'' (), nicknamed ''The Staats'', is a German language, German-language newspaper in the United States. Its publisher claims it to be the leading German-language weekly newspaper in the country. In the late 19th ce ...

''. The first issue was published about a month later, on Christmas Eve, 1834. He obtained sole ownership of the newspaper within a few years, possibly as early as 1837. That year he served as a delegate to a nationwide convention of German immigrants (held in Pittsburg) that considered the problems of adjusting to life in America. As owner and editor of the ''New Yorker Staats-Zeitung'', he built the paper from a weekly - printed on a manually operated Washington Hand Press - to a tri-weekly, and set the stage for daily publication. Although he sold ownership and publishing rights in 1845, just before the conversion to a daily, he continued as editor until 1853. The German-language paper eventually (in the 1870s) reached an audience comparable to New York City's English-language papers such as the

New-York Tribune The ''New-York Tribune'' (from 1914: ''New York Tribune'') was an American newspaper founded in 1841 by editor Horace Greeley. It bore the moniker ''New-York Daily Tribune'' from 1842 to 1866 before returning to its original name. From the 1840s ...

and the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

. He entered government service in 1854, and from then until 1866 filled various positions in the New York Custom House. During this period, he purchased a farm in the hamlet of Swamp Mills, Town of Tusten, Sullivan County, New York, to which he moved in 1866. Through his efforts, a fourth-class post office was established at Swamp Mills in 1873. Neumann was appointed postmaster, and set up the office in a portion of his house at the intersection of the Neumann-McHugh Road and the Mt. Hope-Lumberland Turnpike.Now known as Neweiden Road (TR26) and Mile Hill Road (TR25), respectively. He served as postmaster until he died on December 11, 1886, at Swamp Mills. His body was interred in the cemetery of the Ten Mile River Baptist Church, a historic building that was included in the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Neumann, Gustavus Adolphus 1807 births 1886 deaths Publishers (people) of German-language newspapers in the United States 19th-century American newspaper publishers (people) Emigrants from the Kingdom of Saxony to the United States 19th-century American journalists American male journalists 19th-century American male writers