Bloomington Pantagraph

City: Bloomington

County: McLean

State: Illinois

The Pantagraph succeeded the Intelligencer in 1853 when editor Charles P. Merriman bought out his partner Jesse W. Fell and changed the name of the newspaper. In addition to a weekly version, Merriman printed a daily edition beginning in June of 1854, then a tri-weekly edition that lasted until October 1855. The paper continued as just a weekly until 1857, after which point it was produced in both a weekly and a daily edition. Merriman partnered briefly with Jacob Morris in 1855, then sold the paper to William E. Foote who continued publishing the paper with Edward J. Lewis as editor until 1860. From 1861 to 1866 it was published by Carpenter, Steele, & Briggs and it continued publication after Abraham Lincoln’s lifetime. The Pantagraph was a Whig newspaper until the advent of the Republican Party, at which point it became a Republican newspaper.

The History of McLean County, Illinois (Chicago: Wm. Le Baron, Jr., 1879), 293-94; Newton Bateman and Paul Selby, eds., Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of McLean County, ed. by Ezra M. Prince and John H. Burnham (Chicago: Munsell, 1908), 2:865; Franklin William Scott, Newspapers and Periodicals of Illinois, 1814-1879, vol. 6 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1910), 28.