Fayette Observer

City: Vandalia

County: Fayette

State: Illinois

The Fayette Observer, founded in 1855 by Tevis Greathouse, began as a Democratic newspaper. In 1859, the paper was sold to Robert H. Sturgess and Montgomery Hickman and continued to lean Democratic. However, upon the nomination of Abraham Lincoln for President in 1860, the Observer became Republican. Sturgess and Hickman discontinued the paper at the outbreak of the American Civil War when both men enlisted in the military.

History of Fayette County (Philadelphia: Brink, McDonough, 1878), 40; Newton Bateman and Paul Selby, eds., Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Fayette County, ed. by Robert W. Ross and John J. Bullington (Chicago: Munsell, 1910), 2:814-85.