The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1885-10-29
Old Newspapers.

lue IftuWftO IuTmci udNiuB stdtcu
that the first newspaper ever published
west of Cincinnati was the Vincennes
Sun in 1906, the next the Missouri
Gazette, of st. Louis, in 1908, after
ward merged into the present Repub-
ica,1, and the third the Illinois Ga
sette, at Kankakee, ILL.,, G. +. Clark
son, In the Des Moines Register,
comments as follows: There are two
slight errors in the foregoing para
graph from the Indiana Farmer, and
they may as well be corrected while
men are living who can do it. The Vim
cennes Sun was commenced by Elihu
Stout, in 1904. And the Missouri Ga
zette, the first paper published at st.
Louis, Louisiana (now Missouri,
was started July II, 1908. In the year
1900 Congress divided the Northwest
Territory and established the Territory
of Indiana, including all of what is now
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wis
consin, and the seat of government was
established at Vincennes, and Gen.
VIM. II. Harrison was appointed Gov
ernor and Superintendent of Indian
Affairs. At that time there were about
5000 white inhabitants in all that vast
Territory. and the Indian title was ex-
tinguished to but q small part of the
Territory. But Gen. Harrison went to
Vincennes, and soon found it necessary
to have O man with few printing ma
terials to print the various documents
he found necessary in the administra-
ion of the Territory. About 1903 he
induced young man by the name of
Stout to go there and occupy one cor
ner of the blockhouse with press and
type, not with the idea of printing
newspaper, but of job printing. The
writer has talked with General Har-
rison and also Mr.. Stout about the
first printing and the commencement
tof the first paper in the Northwest
Territory. Some time in the latter
part of the year 1904 Mr.. Stout, prob
ably being out of employment, pub
lished the first number of the Vincen-
mes Sun. 1t was small concern, and
was published enthusiastically for the
next nine years. during which time the
inhabitants there were in constant
dread of their lives from hostile
Indians, constantly stirred up by
British agents and the turbu-
lence of Tecumseh and the Prophet.
Most of the time, except when the sol
diers were in camp there, the inhabit-
ants had to keep their block-houses
constantly barricaded, SO q very limited
edition of the Sun could have been cir
culated if printed. But it was so ir-
regular in its publication that the I,edi-
ana Farmer would be safe in saying it
was started in 1906. or even in 1910, or
really not until after the battle of Tip
pecanoe, in 1913.
But the writer has pretty clear evil
dence of the date of the commence
ment of the Missouri Gazette, as he
has before him as he writes, No. B,
dated July 26, 1908, and, as it was a
weekly, would make the date of COM
mencement July II, 1908, by Joseph
Charless.
1t was the impression of Mr.. Stout
that he published paper at Vincennes
before one was started in Cincinnati.
But it mnst have been but short time
before, if at all. We have before us a
copy of the Liberty Hall, published at
Cincinnati, June 3, 1916, and it is a
weekly paper, and this is No. 80 of the
twelfth volume, which makes it at that
time eleven years and thirty-five weeks
old, which would fix the date of its
commencement about December, 1905.
Probably there may be older men, or
older records, that may correct these
dates. But history requires their being
put upon record correctly now.