The Iowa Patriot Archive

The Iowa Patriot of Burlington was established June 6, 1839, by James G. Edwards. Edwards had moved to Burlington from Fort Madison, Iowa, where he had previously published Iowa's first Whig newspaper, the short-lived Fort Madison Patriot. Edwards found greater success in the quickly growing town of Burlington, serving as the editor of what would become Iowa's longest running newspaper.

The Iowa Patriot was one of the earliest newspapers established in Iowa Territory and the second in Burlington, the territorial capital. It published extensive reports on the territorial council and legislative proceedings until the territorial capital was moved to Iowa City in 1841. Early issues also depict the experiences of Iowa pioneers in columns called, "Reminiscences of the Early Settlement of Burlington I.T." and "Sketches of Iowa." After only three months as the Iowa Patriot, Edwards changed the paper's title to the Hawk-Eye and Iowa Patriot in September 1839. Publication was suspended for 12 weeks in 1843, from March until May. The paper resumed publication again on June 1, with the title shortened to the Hawk-Eye. The title changed again two years later, becoming the Burlington Hawk-Eye in mid-1845.

Edwards' strong support of the Whig party was a guiding force of the paper. In his editorial in the first issue, he identifies the Iowa Patriot as "the only Whig paper in the Territory." He goes on to write, "We have not started it so much with the intention of making converts to the Whig cause, as to correct the misrepresentations so lavishly heaped upon the members of the party." This put him in direct opposition to another local newspaper editor, James Clarke, of the strongly Democratic Iowa Territorial Gazette and Burlington Advertiser, and their feud played out in the editorial columns of their respective publications.

Colonel Fitz Henry Warren was hired as an associate editor of the Hawk-Eye in December 1844, and James M. Broadwell purchased an interest in the paper in July of the following year, joining Edwards as a co-publisher. Edwards retired from the paper in June 1851 and was succeeded by John Pierson. The Hawk-Eye changed to a tri-weekly publication schedule and was renamed the Burlington Tri-Weekly Hawk-Eye in 1852. Clark Dunham and John L. Brown succeeded Pierson as owner in 1854. They also purchased the Burlington Telegraph in 1855 and consolidated the two papers into the Weekly Hawk-Eye and Telegraph. Brown retired in March 1856, and Dunham continued on as the sole editor and publisher, changing the title to the Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye in 1857.

Dunham continued the Hawk-Eye's opposition to the Democrats, and the paper became strongly Republican after the dissolution of the Whig party. The editorial columns voiced opposition to slavery and support for the Union cause in the Civil War. In 1874, the Hawk-Eye Publishing Company was formed to take over the operation of the paper, which continues to publish today as the Hawk Eye.