[2] Having experienced the events leading up to the American Revolution in Boston, he abandoned his teaching career to join the rebel military.
Having previously written for the Massachusetts Centinel,[5] Fenno on April 11, 1789 in New York City published the first issue of the Gazette of the United States to support Federalist Party positions.
As opposing factions, centered on Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, developed within President Washington's administration, political newspapers such as the Gazette became increasingly important.
As a highly visible Federalist spokesman, Fenno was engaged in verbal disputes that once led to fisticuffs with Bache.
On May 8, 1777, he wed Mary Curtis, of Roxbury, Massachusetts, and the couple had thirteen children, including: Fenno, along with his wife and a newborn daughter, died in Philadelphia during the yellow fever epidemic of 1798.