b. Elmira, New York, 1833
d. Brooklyn, New York, 1896

He worked as an apprentice printer on the Corning (N.Y.) Journal and later established the Corning Sun. In 1857 he moved to Wisconsin, settling in Horicon where he edited the Horicon Argus, gained the sobriquet of "Brick," and dabbled in politics. He then served briefly as city editor of the Milwaukee Daily News and tried an unsuccessful newspaper venture in the East. Returning to Wisconsin in 1860, he acquired an interest in the La Crosse Union and Democrat, but his pro-Douglas and bitterly anti-Buchanan sentiments soon led to conflicts with his associates. In Nov., 1860, he founded the La Crosse Democrat. During the Civil War, Pomeroy gained national notoriety for his vicious anti-Lincoln editorials and pronouncements. Although Pomeroy's vivid and vindictive journalism gave the Democrat a large circulation during the early years of the war, his Copperheadism forced it into virtual failure by 1865. In the postwar years circulation again soared and by 1868 it reached about 90,000. Although retaining ownership of the Democrat until 1872, Pomeroy left Wisconsin in 1868 and moved to New York where he edited the New York Democrat for "Boss Tweed" (1868-1870). He also established his own weekly, Pomeroy's Democrat. After quarreling with Tweed and charging him with corruption, Pomeroy moved to Chicago where he continued to issue Pomeroy's Democrat and was active in the Greenback movement. Although not actively engaged in the editorial work, he was publisher of the short-lived La Crosse Daily Democrat (1879-1880), but soon moved to Colorado where he published the Denver Great West and organized the Atlantic-Pacific Railway Tunnel Co. In 1890 he returned to New York to promote his tunnel company and to publish Advance Thought (a monthly magazine). He was the author of several books, including Sense (1868), Condensed History of the War . . (1868), Our Saturday Nights (1870), and his memoirs, journey of Life: Reminiscences and Recollections (1890). Dict. Amer. Biog.; Wis. Mag. Hist., 35; M. M. Pomeroy, journey of Life (New York, 1890); WPA MS.

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