The Springfield Herald (Springfield, Baca County, Colo.)
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
1,098 issues from 1897 to 1919, published in Springfield, Colorado, digitised for Chronicling America.
Begun in 1887, by George E. Hosmer, the Springfield Herald was a four-page Democratic publication. Hosmer quickly sold the paper to Charles F. Mechler in 1888, and later went on to serve as the state printing commissioner, president of the Colorado State Editorial Association, and Colorado’s customs collector. On March 10, 1888, the Bent County Register reported, “An aggrieved reader held Charlie Mechler, editor of the Springfield Herald up with a gun. Charlie has been in the business a long time and expects such slight interruptions to business occasionally.” Later the same year, Mechler sold the paper to Arthur J. Henbest, described in the November 24, 1888 issue of the Bent County Register as a “red-hot Republican.” Under Henbest, the Herald reached a circulation of around 680 readers in the agricultural boomtown of Springfield, Colorado as well as in the other towns of Baca County.
By 1890, severe drought in the southeastern corner of Colorado brought about an exodus from Baca County, reducing the population of Springfield from nearly 500 to just 90 people. Publishers Patrick Byrnes and J.A. Love took over the Herald, with James E. Church acting as editor. The Lamar Register noted on March 7, 1891 that the paper had evidently been overtaken by an “office scullion” in the absence of the regular editor and published a “disreputable sheet.” The Register further asserted that while the Herald “has been one of the brightest and most readable country weeklies in the State,”…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Springfield, Colorado, 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