True Republican

City: Sycamore

County: De Kalb

State: Illinois

Campbell W. Waite established the weekly anti-slavery newspaper True Republican in Sycamore, Illinois, in 1857 to counterbalance the local proslavery Democratic Republican Sentinel. In March 1858, Waite sold the paper to James H. Beveridge, Caleb M. Brown, and Daniel B. James while he remained the editor. The Republican had the honor of creating the first separate printing of Abraham Lincoln's "House Divided" speech from the 1858 Illinois Republican Convention. By 1860, the paper was edited by Daniel Dustin. The True Republican absorbed the DeKalb County Sentinel in 1861, and was renamed the Republican and Sentinel. In 1863, Henry L. Boies became editor and owner of the newspaper, writing for it until his death in 1887.

Nancy M. Beasley, The Underground Railroad in DeKalb County, Illinois (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2013), 8, 156, 157; Henry L. Boies, History of DeKalb County, Illinois (Chicago: O. P. Bassett, 1868), 422; Phyllis Kelley and the Joiner History Room Staff, Images of America: Sycamore (Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2007), 101; 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), 331.