Chicago Times

Not to be confused with The Times (Chicago), Chicago Daily Times, or Chicago Sun-Times.

The Chicago Times was a newspaper in Chicago from 1854 to 1895, when it merged with the Chicago Herald,^[1] to become the Chicago Times-Herald. The Times-Herald effectively disappeared in 1901 when it merged with the Chicago Record to become the Chicago Record-Herald.

Chicago Times

Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Broadsheet
Owner(s)	James W. Sheahan (1854–1861) Wilbur F. Storey (1861–1884) James W. Scott (1895) H. H. Kohlsaat (1895–1901)
Founder(s)	James W. Sheahan
Founded	1854; 170 years ago (1854)
Ceased publication	1901; merged with the Chicago Record to form the Chicago Record-Herald
City	Chicago, Illinois
Country	United States
Media of the United States List of newspapers

The Times was founded in 1854^[1] by James W. Sheahan, Daniel Cameron, and Isaac Cook^[2] with the support of Democrat and attorney Stephen A. Douglas, and was identified as a pro-slavery newspaper.^[3] In 1861, after the paper was purchased by Democratic journalist Wilbur F. Storey, the Times began espousing the Copperhead point of view, supporting Southern Democrats and denouncing the policies of Abraham Lincoln. During the Civil War, General Ambrose Burnside, head of the Department of the Ohio, suppressed the paper in 1863 because of its hostility to the Union cause, but Lincoln lifted the ban when he received word of it.

Storey and Joseph Medill, editor of the Republican-leaning Chicago Tribune, maintained a strong rivalry for some time. In 1888, the newspaper saw the brief addition of Finley Peter Dunne to its staff. Dunne was a columnist whose Mr. Dooley satires won him national recognition. After just one year, Dunne left the Times to work for the rival Chicago Tribune.

In 1895, the Times became the Chicago Times-Herald after a merger with the Chicago Herald,^[4] a newspaper founded in 1881 by James W. Scott. After Scott's sudden death in the weeks following the merger, H. H. Kohlsaat took over the new paper. He changed its direction from a "democratic" publication to an "independent republican" one. It supported "sound money" policies (against free silver) in the 1896 election.^[5]

Kohlsaat bought the Chicago Record from Chicago Daily News publisher Victor F. Lawson in 1901 and merged it with the Times-Herald to form the Chicago Record-Herald. Frank B. Noyes acquired an interest in the new newspaper at the time and served as publisher, with Kohlsaat as editor.^[6]

See also

• Chicago Record-Herald

References

1. "Module 1 Chapter 2. From Town to City". History of Chicago from Trading Post to Metropolis. External Studies Program, University College, Roosevelt University. Archived from the original on 2009-03-16. Retrieved 2011-07-23.
2. "Demise of Isaac Cook". hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu. House Divided (Dickinson College) (originally published in the Chicago Tribune on June 25, 1886). June 25, 1886. Retrieved 13 March 2023.
3. Sandburg, Carl (1959). The Fiery Trial. New York: Dell. p. 90. ASIN B000DEMVIC. F77.
4. About The Chicago times-herald. (Chicago, Ill.) 1895-1901, chroniclingamerica, Retrieved 24 April 2013
5. Blanchard, Rufus (1900). Discovery and Conquests of the North-west, with the History of Chicago, volume 2. pp. 243–244.
6. "The Chicago Record sold" (PDF). New York Times. March 27, 1901. Retrieved June 18, 2013.

Further reading

• Sanger, Donald Bridgman. "The Chicago Times and the Civil War." Mississippi Valley Historical Review 17, no. 4 (1931): 557–580.
• Patricia B. Swan and James B. Swan. "James W. Sheahan: Stephen A. Douglas Supporter and Partisan Chicago Journalist." Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society (2012) 105#2-3 pp 133–166 in JSTOR
• Walsh, Justin E. "To Print the News and Raise Hell: Wilbur F. Storey's Chicago Times." Journalism Quarterly 40, no. 4 (1963): 497–510.