Hannah Bunce Watson
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| Publisher of the HARTFORD COURANT, one of the first women publishers in America.
The year was 1777, George Washington was not yet President and Jonathan Trumbull was Governor of Connecticut. A fledgling nation was emerging, and its patriots needed to know what was going on in the world. Boston papers had been shut down by the British and in New York only Tory papers were being published. THE HARTFORD COURANT, then the oldest and largest in the country (8,000 circulation), was the only paper that could keep them informed.
It was in December of that year that the young owner/publisher, Ebenezer Watson, took sick and died of smallpox. His widow, Hannah, already burdened with the care of five children, all under the age of 7, was catapulted into a job for which she was ill equipped. In desperation, she admitted to partnership George Goodwin who, at age 20, was already a 12-year veteran of the COURANT. Within a month a second disaster struck, a fire at the mill which provided the COURANT's printing paper as well as writing paper used by the state. In a joint statement, Hannah Watson and George Goodwin announced the imminent demise of the COURANT, its last issue to be on February 3, 1778 . Then in a last-ditch effort, Hannah and Sarah Ledyard, co-owners of the mill, appealed to the Connecticut Assembly for help. Within hours, the Assembly authorized the establishment of a state-wide lottery to rescue the paper. The lottery was a success and the mill rebuilt. The HARTFORD COURANT never missed an issue, to this day, a proud boast. | |||||||||||
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