Springfield Republic

City: Springfield

County: Clark

State: Ohio

In 1839, the Springfield, Ohio Pioneer, under the editorship of John M. Gallagher and Ichabod B. Halsey, changed its name to the Republic. The Republic was the most prominent Whig newspaper in Clark County, Ohio. After several changes of ownership, the newspaper was purchased in 1853 by the partnership of Wick, Frey & Mayn, and George H. Frey became the paper’s editor. A year later, Frey bought out his partners and took over ownership of the paper. His father, Samuel C. Frey, joined him as an assistant editor in 1858. Both Freys were Republicans and George H. Frey in particular advocated Republicanism in the paper. In about 1862, William T. Coggeshall purchased the newspaper. He sold it three years later to George W. Hastings and Clifton M. Nichols, and the newspaper continued as the Republic after Abraham Lincoln’s death.

The History of Clark County, Ohio (Chicago: W. H. Beers, 1881), 561, 562, 564, 565, 828, 839, 892; Portrait and Biographical Album of Green and Clark Counties, Ohio (Chicago: Chapman Bros., 1890), 897; A Biographical Record of Clark County Ohio (New York and Chicago: S. J. Clarke, 1902), 65, 94-95; Samuel C. Frey to Abraham Lincoln; The Plymouth Republican (IN), 23 January 1879, 3:2; William D. Andrews, “William T. Coggeshall: ‘Booster’ of Western Literature,” Ohio History 81 (September 1972), 212.