Abilene Weekly Reflector (Abilene, Kan.)
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
1,813 issues from 1888 to 1922, published in Abilene, Kansas, digitised for Chronicling America.
The Abilene Reflector, founded in the latter half of 1883, was an eight-page newspaper published every Thursday. Abilene is the county seat for Dickinson County, and by the early 1880s it had shed its rough cowtown image of the late 1860s to become a thriving commercial center with a rapidly growing population. By 1884 the town boasted a new public water system, an opera house seating nearly 1,000 persons, a telephone exchange, several banks, and three newspapers, including the Reflector. In March 1888, the Reflector became the official paper of Dickinson County, seizing the title from the Abilene Gazette. The Reflector retained this status throughout its tenure. In its own words, the paper was “conducted in the interest of the Democratic party, believing the party in its wisdom in the choice of candidates, from county offices to national, is greater than personal feeling or prejudice.”
The founding editors of the Reflector were brothers Berzelius L. Strother and Sidonia K. Strother. In June 1885, S.K. Strother left to join the Kansas City Times. Henry Litts took over his half of ownership and assumed full editorial responsibilities in March 1887 when B.L. Strother retired from the newspaper for health reasons.
On February 23, 1888, the Reflector was purchased by the Reflector Publishing Company consisting of John J. Cooper as president and Richard Waring as business manager. With them, the Reflector began a new Republican Party affiliation. Henry Litts left the paper…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Abilene, Kansas, United States
- Language
- English
- Collection
- Chronicling America
- Licence or status
- None stated by the archive
- Rights
- The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety.
- Credit
- Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities
- Who can read it
- Teens profiles and older (placed by Invisible Network from what the archive says; archives give no ratings)
- Archive
- Library of Congress