Illinois Gazette

City: Lacon

County: Marshall

State: Illinois

The Illinois Gazette was the first newspaper published in Marshall County, Illinois. Allen N. Ford edited and published the paper, the first number appearing on December 13, 1837 under the title the Lacon Herald. Sometime after March 18, 1840, Ford changed the name to the Illinois Gazette. The paper was non-partisan from 1837 to 1840, but with the name change it espoused Whig Party principles. After the demise of the Whig Party, Ford transformed the paper into a Republican organ. Ford continued to publish the paper until 1866.

John Spencer Burt and W. E. Hawthorne, Past and Present of Marshall and Putnam Counties Illinois (Chicago: Pioneer, 1907), 28; 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), 216-17.