A brief history of Peoria - University Library

26...PE0RIA
THE DAILY PRESS OF PEORIA
Forty years ago Peoria was noted for the brilliancy of its bar
and the force and enterprise of its press. The newspaper history of
the city begins with March 10, 1834, when Abram Buxton issued the
first copy of the Illinois Champion. Buxton was a clever man and
had been a partner of George D. Prentice, who afterwards rose to
fame as the editor of the Louisville Journal, so that the press of
Peoria was blessed with an excellent sire. The Champion rapidly
achieved a state-wide reputation which did not begin to fade until
Buxton was seized with consumption and sank into the grave. The
Champion outlived him three years and was at the end of that time
displaced by the Peoria Register and Northwestern Gazette. The
latter part of this lengthy title was subsequently dropped and the
sheet became knDwn as the Peoria Register. It espoused the candidacy
of Henry Clay for the presidency in 1844 and achieved a wide
reputation. The first daily paper in Peoria, was published in
the following year, and like the first weekly published here, was
called the Champion. The plant and ofifice of this sheet was de-
stroyed by fire, in which the publisher and editor lost their lives.
The Peoria Democratic Press was established in Febcuary, 1840,
and with various changes of ownership it lived until 1857. The
Peoria American was started July, 1845, and was the first paper in
the state to place the name of " Rough and Ready " at the head of
its editorial columns. The first number of the Peoria Daily Register
was issued on June 23, 1848, but it lived only three months. In
1850 the Peoria Republican was founded and in a short time achieved
a moit satisfactory success. The Peoria Transcript, now the oldest
paper in the city, was established in November, 1855, bj' N. C. Nason
and had but an indifferent career until the late Enoch Emery
mounted its editorial tripod in 1860. Emery was a trenchant writer,
and for twenty years the Transcript was a power in Central Illinois
politics. Since then it has seen various vicissitudes but is now on a
sounder financial basis than it ever was.
In 1865, W. T. Dowdall came to Peoria and established the Peoria
National Democrat which, after a precarious existence, departed this
life eight years ago, leaving the second city in the state without a
Democratic paper. The field, however, was so inviting that it did
not long lie follow. A little over seven years ago the Herald Pub
lishing Company was organized and at once gave Peoria the best
Democratic daily it ever had, which in a short time, in the way of ad-
vertising patronage and circulation worked its way to the head of
the newspaper business in this city and now ranks among the most
enterprising and successful newspapers in the state. Other English
dailies in Peoria are the Times and the Journal, both afternoon
sheets. The Peoria Journal started as a daily in the fall of 1877,
having been run as a weekly for about two years. It was printed in
small quarters on Hamilton street below Adams for about seven
years, when the office was moved into the Opera House building, its
present home. The Journal is an eight paged, eight column quarto,
the typesetting being done by six Mergenthaler machines owned by
the paper, and the press-work is done by two large perfecting presses.
The owner is now getting ready to discard the present mode of
stereotyping and introduce a new process machine, the first to be put