The Howard Union Archive

The Fayette Boon’s Lick Times was published on a weekly basis from 1840 to 1848 to serve the town of Fayette and the county of Howard in Central Missouri. Each Saturday, the four-page paper was published with a quotation on the masthead by Thomas Jefferson: “Error ceases to be dangerous, when reason is left free to combat it.” The paper was Whig in its politics and highly supportive of William Henry Harrison’s election in 1841. Early in the publication, the editor was Cyril C. Cady, but after September 12, 1840, the publishers are listed as James R. Benson and Clark H. Green. Printed in Fayette until 1848, it was the last Whig paper to be published in town.

In 1848, the paper moved from Fayette to Glasgow, Missouri, where it became known as the Glasgow Weekly Times and ran until the start of the Civil War in 1861. Clark H. Green and Paul Shirley began publishing the paper, but in January of 1849, Green was the sole editor and proprietor. Until 1861, the Thomas Jefferson quotation appeared on the masthead just as it had done on the Boon’s Lick Times. However, in 1861, the masthead was changed to read: “Devoted to political, agricultural and general intelligence.” The paper was popular but ran into hardship when war broke out. The final issue states that publication of the full-sized newspaper would be suspended due to “a general depression in business, the impossibility of making collections, and the fact that but little is doing of which money can be realized.” Green had plans to continue publishing in a small sheet format which would include legal notices and advertisements alongside a brief summary of important state news, but there is no record of any of these sheets being published.

After the Civil War ended, the newspaper business picked back up in Glasgow. Francis M. Taylor began printing the Howard Union on a weekly basis. The paper supported state and national organizations who were working to “wipe out the last traces of the rebellion, restore the union of the States, and secure the return once more of peace and prosperity to the people.” Published every Thursday, the Howard Union was a four-page paper, and like the preceding titles, Taylor chose to print Thomas Jefferson’s words on the masthead.

Taylor stopped publishing in 1866, and James B. Thompson began printing the Glasgow Weekly Times, which ran from 1866 to 1869. The paper was politically conservative and promised to support “the overthrow of the red-handed dynasty that is trampling upon the rights of the people of this State, and the repeal of that nameless abomination, miscalled the Constitution.” On August 24, 1866, James B. Thompson sold the paper to his brother, William A. Thompson. The available collection of this paper is small, with only four issues: three in 1866 and one in 1869, beginning with the announcement that William Thompson had become the proprietor.