Geneseo Republic

City: Geneseo

County: Henry

State: Illinois

The Geneseo Republic began publication in Geneseo in 1856 under the editorship of Isaac S. Hyatt. Hyatt declared bankruptcy two years later and the paper passed through the hands of several editors in short succession, with James M. Allan and Orrin A. Turner taking the helm as assignees for a brief period early in 1858, Merritt Munson editing the paper during the latter portion of that year, and the firm of George H. Lewis & Company purchasing the newspaper in December 1858. A member of that firm, George A. Hobbs, bought out the partnership in 1862 or 1863. In 1863 the newspaper was consolidated with the Union Advocate and continued publication as The Geneseo Republic. The newspaper had the reputation of advocating Republican politics, although during the brief 1858 editorship of Munson, a Democrat, it was ostensibly neutral politically.

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), 188; Portrait and Biographical Album of Henry County (Chicago: Biographical, 1885), 324, 746; The History of Henry County, Illinois, Its Tax-Payers and Voters (Chicago: H. F. Kett, 1877), 514; Geneseo Republic and Henry County News (IL), 10 March 1858, 1:1.