Illinois State Chronicle

City: Decatur

County: Macon

State: Illinois

The Illinois State Chronicle was a newspaper founded in 1855 by Charles H. Wingate and William J. Usrey. Wingate and Usrey established the paper in response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act and its effective repeal of the Missouri Compromise. The purpose of the paper was to unite former Whigs, Know-Nothings, anti-slavery Democrats, and other opponents of the Kansas-Nebraska Act on one common platform. Wingate and Usrey issued the first edition on February 3, 1855. Wingate and Usrey continued their partnership until June 1855, when Wingate retired and Usrey became the sole editor and publisher. Usrey continued to edit and publish the paper until August 1861, when he enlisted in the Thirty-Fifth Regiment of Illinois Volunteers. The firm of Hamsher & Mosser published the paper until August 1862, when it suspended publication and closed the paper’s offices. In October 1863, Usrey and his partner J. N. Underwood revived the paper, resuming publication in April 1864. Underwood retired in July 1864, and in July 1865, Usrey merged the Chronicle with the Gazette to form the Gazette and Chronicle.

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), 157; History of Macon County, Illinois (Philadelphia: Brink, McDonough, 1880), 66-67.