The portrait of Thomas Denny Webb that looks down on visitors to the John Stark Edwards House shows a thoughtful, formally dressed, Connecticut-born gentleman with a slightly upturned mouth, as if he is holding back a smile.

Webb, who traveled to Warren in 1807 to build a new life for himself, purchased the John Stark Edwards House in 1813 after Edwards died. He left a lasting legacy here, both in the home and in the community, until he died in 1865.

A lawyer by trade, Webb was most well known as Warren’s first newspaperman. In fact, the current Tribune Chronicle is a descendent of Webb’s first paper, titled The Trump of Fame, first published in 1812.

But Webb had not intended to call his paper The Trump of Fame originally.

“Webb intended to call his startup newspaper The Voice of the Wilderness, but while bringing his printing press to our area lost some of the typeface needed for the press. The lost type included the letters ‘v’ and ‘w,’ making it impossible to form the words ‘voice’ and ‘wilderness,'” joked Tribune Chronicle editor Brenda Linert.

Why he chose the name The Trump of Fame is lost to history, but it was under that title the newspaper hit its stride. The paper was the first to publish the account of Commodore Perry’s victory at the Battle of Lake Erie.

“The newspaper published for many years under the Trump of Fame name, and under some successor names, as a weekly newspaper until 1883, when it became a daily newspaper renamed the Warren Daily Chronicle,” Linert said.

In the meantime, a competing newspaper, The Warren Tribune, had begun publication in 1876. This paper was known for starting the career of newspaper magnate Zell Hart Deming. She started at the paper as the society editor, which was not uncommon for women at the time. However, Deming’s drive and gumption drew her toward positions of leadership.

“She had demonstrated such competence and business acumen that within a year, she was elected secretary and treasurer of the newspaper and was given an opportunity to purchase stock in the company. Within four years, she had acquired majority ownership of the company’s stock,” Linert said.

After Deming acquired the majority of the stock, she named herself as publisher.

“This was a remarkable move because at that time the field was so dominated by men,” Linert explained. “She became so successful at running her newspaper that she eventually became the first woman to serve as a member of the Associated Press.”

By 1924, Deming was able to purchase the competing newspaper, the Warren Daily Chronicle, and merge the two papers to form the Warren Tribune Chronicle. She relocated the Chronicle’s operations to the building on Franklin Street in downtown Warren, where the Tribune Chronicle newspaper still operates today.

Some may not know that Deming was also an avid supporter of local artists. She sponsored Warren painter Carl Schmitt to study in New York City, and also provided funds to her nephew, Hart Crane, who made a mark in the world of poetry as a contemporary of T.S. Elliot. His poem “The Bridge” was written in direct response to Elliot’s now canonized “The Wasteland.”

But Deming’s legacy did not stop with her. Her daughter, Helen Hart Hurlbert, took ownership of the paper after her mother’s death, and Helen’s daughter, Zell Draz, came to own the paper to continue a three-generation newspaper dynasty. Helen Hart Hurlbert became one of the most well-known women in the Warren community, endearingly called “boss lady” by her employees and even starting her own radio station, WHHH.