Wabasha Weekly Herald (Wasbasha, Minn) October 5, 1871, Page 4, Column 5

Reads Locals
The funeral of W.C. McMaster on Monday, was largely attended. The funeral services were conducted by Rev. Mr. Hazelet, assisted by Rev. Mr. Dada, of Lake City.

IN MEMORIAM
McMaster -- At Read's Landing, Minn., Friday evening, Sept. 20th, 1871, William C. McMaster, aged seventy years.

One by one the early settlers of our county are dropping away, and as they pass from among us, it is fitting that we who remain should recount their virtues and be guided by their good example.
Mr. McMaster was born in County Down, Ireland, in June 1801. Of his early life, we know little. In the fall of 1848, he, with his family, emigrated to the United States, and settled at Pittsburgh, Pa., where he remained until April, 1857, when he removed to Read's Landing, where he resided until his death. Mr. McMaster's character may be summed up in a few words -- he was a christian gentleman in the highest and best sense, unyielding as a rock in all things whenever principle was concerned, stern in condemnation of all sin and crime, he was yet as warm and tender in his feelings as a child. Always calm and trustful no matter how sorely tried by affliction; never repining at his lot in life; always ready to lend a helping hand to all who were in trouble, for all the years he has lived at Reads Father McMaster was respected, trusted and loved by all who knew him. For many years he had been a consistent and active member of the Presbyterian Church, and with all the tenacity of the Scotch-Irish character clung to the principles and observances of that church.
His disease was Congestive Chills and Fever, and from the first he was assured that his time had come to die, but death had no terrors for him. For many years he had been living ready to meet the summons of "The Reaper," so calmly, peacefully and willingly he bade farewell to the loved ones who gathered around his bed to hear the last words of the husband and father, and as the shadows of night fell around, he said good night to earth and fell asleep to wake in the eternal morning of the heavenly home.

Dec 1933 issue of MN History Magazine, pages 86-89
N O T E S AND D O C U M E N TS
THE FRONTIER PRESS: TWO COMMUNICATIONS
THE WABASHA COUNTY HERALD-STANDARD
There Is a previous chapter that affects the present Wabasha
County Herald-Standard, mentioned in the very interesting
article on the " Frontier Press of Minnesota " in the
December, 1933, issue of MINNESOTA HISTORY, that may
be of interest — so here is the story.
When William C. McMaster, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
arrived at Read's Landing on the steamer "Cremona"
on April 19, 1857, with his family, It included two
sons, Joseph and William J., aged respectively twenty-nine
and nineteen. Among their effects was a complete printing
outfit — newspaper and job — brought for the express purpose
of establishing a newspaper at Read's Landing. Joseph
was a full-fledged printer, having learned the trade in
Ireland, and William was well versed in the craft for his
years.
The outfit was set up at once and the initial number of a
paper which bore the name Waumadee Herald was issued
under the date of May 9, 1857. We have been told that
this particular name was used, chiefly, to assist certain
people in their effort to have the name of Read's Landing
changed to Waumadee. The paper, however, was not
printed until the morning of Tuesday, May 12, 1857.
That afternoon Joseph McMaster and a younger brother,
Thomas, accompanied by two other men, went out on the
Mississippi in a sailboat which capsized and the two brothers were drowned.
This put an end to the paper, so far as the McMasters
were concerned, as William lacked the age and experience
to carry on. Some two months or so later, N. E. Stevens
came In from some point in Wisconsin and purchased the
outfit. Just when this happened Is not known, but in February, 1879, the writer saw In a reading room at Read's
Landing a copy of volume 1, number 2, of the Waumadee
Herald which bore the date of August 15, 1857, and reported
the fact In the local news of the place published in
Lake City, by William J. McMaster. How long Stevens
continued the paper as the Waumadee Herald is unknown.
D. S. B. Johnston in his "Minnesota Journalism In the
Territorial Period," in Minnesota Historical Collections,
vol. 10, gives an account of the Waumadee Herald and
the Wabashaw County Herald. He erroneously says that
Thomas McMaster was one of the proprietors of the Waumadee
Herald. Thomas was neither a newspaper man nor
a printer. Johnston figures backward from the earliest
known copy of the Wabashaw County Herald in existence—
volume 2, number 22, dated January 29, 1859, now In the
files of the Minnesota Historical Society — and on the supposition that the paper was issued each week, finds that the date of volume 1, number 1, of the Herald should have been September 5, 1857.
This Is a reasonable conclusion based on continuous
weekly publication and would suggest that Stevens may
have published the Waumadee Herald on August 22 and
29 before changing the name to Wabashaw County Herald.
There is no evidence, however, as to the number of issues
brought out between August 15, 1857, and January
29, 1859. Nor is there any evidence that when Stevens
changed the name of the paper, volume 1, number 1, was
applied to that issue. In fact we consider that it was more
than a fifty-fifty proposition that he continued the Waumadee Herald volume and numbers when he changed the
name, since there was no change in ownership or policy.
In any event the present Wabasha County Herald-Standard
had its beginning in the Waumadee Herald dated May 9,
1857. Stevens told the writer a number of years ago that
he changed the name to give the paper a better standing In
the county and that he moved the paper from Read's Landing
to Wabasha in 1860. For some time before that, the
date line of the paper carried the names of both places.
There are two copies of the original McMaster paper
In existence. One, which was In the pocket of Thomas,
whose body was not recovered for nearly six weeks after the
drowning, is In the possession of the writer, and the other is owned by the Minnesota Historical Society.
William J. McMaster continued in the newspaper business
and was employed on various newspapers, including
Lute A. Taylor's Prescott [Wisconsin] Journal and the St.
Paul Press, until 1865, when with T. H. Perkins he purchased
the Lake City Times and changed the name to Lake
City Leader. McMaster was editor of the Leader most
of the time until March, 1880, when failing health compelled
his retirement. He died on June 10, 1880.
You may wonder how the writer happens to know so
much of this ancient history. He came to Read's Landing
In 1867 and ten years later it was his great good fortune
to secure for a companion for over fifty years Clara M.,
the youngest member of the William C. McMaster family.
One thing that always stood out in her childhood recollections was her first view of Read's Landing from the shoulder of her father on the deck of the " Cremona." Lake
Pepin was late In opening in 1857 and there was a long line
of steamers tied up at the little town waiting for the ice to go out of Lake Pepin so that they might get through to St. Paul. Some accounts say there were thirty-three boats,
others say twenty-seven, but there were plenty to leave a
lasting impression on the child's mind. Her most cherished
possessions were the copy of the Waumadee Herald found
on the body of her brother and a picture of the members of
the first Minnesota editorial convention in 1867, in the organization of which another brother took a prominent part.
FRED A. BILL
ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA