Illinois newspaper directory. History of the Illinois press association

Illinois Newspaper Directory and Historyfollowed. There is a record of his service as a captain of Rangers in 1832 and as a captainof the First Dragoons in 183 3. He resigned from the army after four years of service.During the latter years of his life he lived in Shelbyville, Illinois. He died in 1844 survivedby his widow and one son, Thomas Duncan, who was later to become a general in theregular army. In Duncan we see a pioneer of exceptional ability and education, and of afamily notable in the records of the State, who left his impress upon the early life of theState and upon the story of the press in Illinois. He was an editor rather than a printerand he was, during the time he devoted to journalism, the editor of three newspapers andof many other publications.Henry L. EddyHenry L. Eddy, pioneer editor and lawyer, started the Shawnee Chief, second paperin the state, in the same year that Illinois was admitted as a State of the Union, 1818.In that early newspaper enterprise he was associated with Singleton H. Kimmel, a graduateof the composing room and an able journalist. Kimmel severed his connection with thepaper in 1820 and Eddy took James Hall, later the founder of the first magazine in theState, as partner. Under Eddy and Kimmel the Chief was lively and vigorous; underEddy and Hall it was the best edited paper within several hundred miles. Eddy paralleledhis career as a journalist with work in the legal profession and he came to be known asone of the best informed lawyers in the State. In his later years he was recognized as themost thoroughly read member of the bar. His services in journalism and law led tovarious public offices and he became in turn a member of the Second General Assembly,a presidential elector, circuit attorney, quartermaster general of Illinois militia, and judgeof the third circuit. He died at the age of 5 1 while serving for a second time in theGeneral Assembly. Eddy's connection with journalism covered the period from 1818to 1826. The press on which the paper was printed was the property of Eddy and hadbeen brought by him to Shawneetown. He arrived by boat, according to generally creditedaccounts, on his way down the Ohio river to another location. The residents of Shawneetownprevailed on him to stop there and establish a paper. "As the scow containing hispress was stuck on a bar" he decided to accept and thus cast his lot first with Shawneetownrather than some other settlement. His paper is credited with being the first in southernIllinois. Eddy's eight years as publisher and editor of the Shawnee Chief were importantand the paper was, until it fell into other hands, a creditable piece of work. Eddy contributedto publications other than his own and had a reputation as a writer that outlastedhis years as an active editor-publisher. His career before his arrival at Shawneetownis of interest. He was born in Pittsrield, Vermont, in 1798 of Puritan stock, followersof Roger Williams. His father, Nathan Eddy, was in the defense of Benningtonduring the Revolutionary War. Henry lived in New York State as a boy and attendeda boy's school in Buffalo. He enlisted at sixteen and was wounded at the battle of BlackRock while serving in a New York regiment during the War of 1812. He made his wayto Pittsburgh later and found employment in a printing office. While there he attendednight school and did considerable reading in English and French. Fnially he entereda law office and began reading law. An interest in Illinois' efforts to enter the Union asa free state brought about his eventful voyage down the Ohio river to Shawneetown.Hooper WarrenHooper Warren, founder and first editor of the third paper in Illinois, publishedthe first edition of the Edwardsville Spectator in 1819. It was the first paper in Madisoncounty as well as the third in the State. Associated with Warren in the enterprise wasGeorge Churchill, another early Illinois journalist-printer. The latter's connection with