The Carroll County Republican was a newspaper in Mount Carroll during Shimer's early Seminary period, from 1852 to 1859. The surviving issues are preserved on microfilm by the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, Illinois.
During the first years of the Seminary, from 1853 to 1855, the Republican was owned by H.G. Grattan, who became a member of the Board of Trustees of the Seminary and published numerous glowing accounts of the school. Grattan sold the paper to D.H. Wheeler in 1855; Wheeler served or had served for a time as a teacher of elocution at the Seminary, but also took a lead role together with Calvin Gray in instigating the crisis of 1857. It then passed through various hands, including John L. Hostetter's, before being bought by Shimer and Gregory in 1859. After a very brief and unsuccessful attempt at continued publication by Seminary faculty Silvernail and Seminary student Ladd, the presses were moved to the Seminary and used to print the school's first newspaper, the Seminary Bell.
Profiled in[]
- Newspapers and periodicals of Illinois, 1814-1879
Republican, 1852-1859(?): Established by J. P. Emmert, who sold to H. G. Grattan, 1853-1855; D. H. Wheeler, 1855-1857; D. B. Emmert; J. L. Hostetter and E. C. Cochran. It was consolidated under Cochran and English, with the Intelligencer, but they were soon separated. It was last owned by Mrs. Skinner and Miss Gregory, and edited by Silvernail and Ladd.
- The History of Carroll County, Illinois:
In 1852, J. P. Emmert started the Mount Carroll Republican. Emmert sold out to H. G. Grattan, in the Winter of 1853. Grattan was a good newspaper man and gave the peopie a most excellent news journal. To his sagacity the people are indebted for the inauguration of many of their early enterprises and their prosperity. In 1855, Grattan sold the Republican establishment to D. H. Wheeler, and is now a successful and prosperous farmer in Alamakee County, Iowa. Wheeler continued the paper until 1857, when he sold out to D. B. Emmert. Emmert in turn sold to Dr. J. L. Hostetter, and emigrated to Kansas [where he again embarked in the newspaper business—his first venture in that line after arriving there being the Auburn Docket. Subsequently, he became editor of the Fort Scott Monitor, and a member of the Kansas Legislature, and in 1869-70-71 was Receiver of the United States Land Office, at Humboldt]. Dr. Hostetter sold an interest in the Republican office to Dr. E. C. Cochran. In the meantime, George English had started the Home Intelligencer, and soon after Hostetter and Cochran became associated as partners in the Republican, an arrangement was made by which that paper and the Intelligencer were consolidated. Dr. Hostetter retired from the business, and was succeeded by Messrs. English & Cochran, who named the consolidated papers the Republican and Intelligencer. This arrangement did not last long, the partnership was dissolved. English renewed the publication of the Intelligencer, and Dr. Hostetter returned to the Republican. Mrs. Shimer and Miss Gregory bought the office of the Republican from Dr. Hostetter, and one of their teachers, named Silvernail, and a printer student, named Ladd, edited the paper a while, when it ceased to exist.
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