History of Lee County, Illinois - Bushnell Historical Society

HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY 59
roll of that war, dying at the advanced age of ninety-six. His
parents, Alanson B. and Philomela (Flower) Shaw, weie natives
of Bradford county, Pennsylvania, and died when their son Benjamin
was a yoimg lad. His brother, Alonzo Shaw, removed
westward to Tipton, Iowa, and in 1841 returned to the east for
Ms father's family, then living at Towanda, Pennsylvania, so that
Benjamin F. Shaw spent a portion of his youth upon the frontier
region, where the work of civilization and j^rogress seemed
scarcely begun. He was not yet fourteen years of age when he
began carrying the mail in a section of country adjoining Tipton—a
section which was tlien a wilderness infested with Indians
and robbers. The following year—1845—he went to Rock Island,
where he began learning the printer's trade, which lie followed
continuously for about fourteen years. Within that time, or in
1851, he removed to Dixon. The first paper published in that city
was the Dixon Telegraph and Lee County Hei'ald, established on
the 1st of May, 1851. JMi'. Shaw secured employment in the office
and on the 21st of January, 1852, he became manager of the paper.
On the 30th of April, 1854, he purchased the Telegraph and at a
later period the Transcript, consolidating the two papers under the
former name. Various changes occurred in newspaper ownership
in Dixon, but through a long period Mr. Shaw remained
owner and editor of the Telegraph. In 1859, however, attracted
by the discovery of gold at Pike's Peak, he went to Colorado. He
did not meet with the success he anticipated in the mines there
and returned to Illinois. He remained for but four months in
Colorado and while there had to resort to his trade and set type
on the Rocky Mountain News. In April, I860, he purchased the
Amboy (111.) Times, of which he remained editor until January
6, 1870. In 1871 Mr. Shaw again became sole proprietor of
the Telegraph and remained at its head imtil his death. In
November, 1883, he extended the scope of his business by the
establishment of a daily which he called the Evening Telegraph
and which has proved one of the most successful papers of the
state outside of Chicago. In 1868 he was Washing-ton correspond-
ent for the Chicago Evening Journal, but through the greater part
of his life his energies wei'e concentrated on the publication of the
Telegraph in his weekly and daily editions, and as the years
passed on its circulation and its advertising patronage increased.
Improvements were added to the plant in keeping with modern
newspaper publication and the office was splendidly equipped