Editing Chicago Times

{{Short description|American newspaper (1854–1895)}}
{{Distinguish|The Times (Chicago)|Chicago Daily Times|Chicago Sun-Times}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2025}}

{{Infobox newspaper
| name                = Chicago Times
| image               = 
| caption             = 
| type                = [[Daily newspaper]]
| format              = [[Broadsheet]]
| motto               = 
| founders            = James W. Sheahan
| foundation          = {{start date and age|1854}}
| ceased publication  = 1901; merged with the ''Chicago Record'' to form the ''[[Chicago Record-Herald]]''
| price           = 
| owners              = James W. Sheahan (1854–1861)<br />[[Wilbur F. Storey]] (1861–1884)<br />[[James W. Scott]] (1895)<br />[[H. H. Kohlsaat]] (1895–1901)
| editor              =
| circulation         =
| headquarters        = 
| ISSN                =
| website             =
| publishing_city      = [[Chicago, Illinois]]
| publishing_country   = United States
}}
The '''''Chicago Times''''' was a [[newspaper]] in [[Chicago]] from 1854 to 1895, when it merged with the ''Chicago Herald'',<ref name="ru"/> 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]]''.

The ''Times'' was founded in 1854<ref name="ru">{{cite book|chapter-url=http://www.roosevelt.edu/chicagohistory/mod1-chap2.htm |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090316062709/http://www.roosevelt.edu/chicagohistory/mod1-chap2.htm |archivedate=2009-03-16  |title=History of Chicago from Trading Post to Metropolis |publisher=External Studies Program, University College, Roosevelt University |chapter=Module 1 Chapter 2. From Town to City|accessdate=2011-07-23}}</ref> by James W. Sheahan, Daniel Cameron, and [[Isaac Cook]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Demise of Isaac Cook |url=https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/27013 |website=hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu |publisher=House Divided (Dickinson College) (originally published in the Chicago Tribune on June 25, 1886) |access-date=13 March 2023 |date=June 25, 1886}}</ref> with the support of [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]] and attorney [[Stephen A. Douglas]], and was identified as a pro-slavery newspaper.<ref>{{cite book| first1 = Carl | last1 = Sandburg | authorlink=Carl Sandburg |title=The Fiery Trial |location=New York | publisher = Dell |page=90| year = 1959 | id=F77 | asin = B000DEMVIC }}</ref> In 1861, after the paper was purchased by Democratic journalist [[Wilbur F. Storey]], the ''Times'' began espousing the [[Copperheads (politics)|Copperhead]] point of view, supporting [[History of the United States Democratic Party#Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Gilded Age: 1854–1896|Southern Democrats]] and denouncing the policies of [[Abraham Lincoln]]. During the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], General [[Ambrose Burnside]], head of the [[Department of the Ohio]], [[Censorship|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|Mr.&nbsp;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'',<ref name="chron2">[http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045738/ About The Chicago times-herald. (Chicago, Ill.) 1895-1901], chroniclingamerica, Retrieved 24 April 2013</ref> 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 U.S. presidential election|1896 election]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Discovery and Conquests of the North-west, with the History of Chicago, volume 2|last=Blanchard|first=Rufus|year=1900|pages=243–244|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9pItAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA243}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Chicago Record sold|work=New York Times|date=March 27, 1901|accessdate=June 18, 2013|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1901/03/27/118462897.pdf}}</ref>

==See also==
*''[[Chicago Record-Herald]]''

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*Sanger, Donald Bridgman. "[[doi:10.2307/1916392|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 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/jillistathistsoc.105.2-3.0133 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.

[[Category:Defunct newspapers published in Chicago]]
[[Category:1854 establishments in Illinois]]
[[Category:Newspapers published in Illinois]]


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