Program

NYS Historic

Subject

Industry & Commerce, People

Location

63 Park St, Warsaw, NY 14569, USA

Lat/Long

42.744155, -78.129989

Grant Recipient

Warsaw Historical Society and The Gates House Museum

Levi A. Cass (1863-1949) was a Warsaw newspaper publisher with a long career starting in 1900 when he acquired his first paper in Wyoming County, the Western New Yorker. Cass was born in Ohio in 1863, and was a graduate of Wooster College in Wooster, Ohio, and the College of Music of the University of Cincinnati. After a failed newspaper venture in Ohio, he moved to Warsaw in 1900 when he took control of the Western New Yorker paper.

In 1924, Cass was joined by his son L. Aldrich Cass in the newspaper business. By 1928, he had acquired eight Wyoming County newspapers, for which he served as publisher and editor. Six of the eight papers were printed on presses in the village of Warsaw. All eight of the papers were owned and controlled by Cass under the name the Wyoming County Combination of Newspapers. In addition to the Western New Yorker, Cass’s Wyoming County Combination of Newspapers included the Wyoming County Times, Wyoming County Gazette, the Silver Springs Signal, the Wyoming Reporter, the Sheldon Democrat, the Bliss Tidings, and the Attica Advocate.

During his career, Cass advocated for local improvements including paved streets, improved water works, better schools and parks, and the Warsaw Hospital, which opened in 1911, and the Warsaw Public Library which was established in 1905.

Cass lived in his Park Street home from 1910 until his death on June 24, 1949. After his death, his son continued to operate the Wyoming County Combination of Newspapers until selling the business in 1967 to Sanders Publications.