Top of page

Newspaper Rapides Gazette (Alexandria, La.) 1869-187?

View All Front Pages

About Rapides Gazette (Alexandria, La.) 1869-187?

The Rapides Gazette was founded in 1869 in Alexandria, the seat of Rapides Parish, a cotton- and timber-producing parish in central Louisiana. Its founder, George Wescott Southwick (ca. 1814-1870), lived in Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas before settling in Alexandria at the outbreak of the Civil War, throughout which he remained a “Union man.” Published under the motto “Let Us Have Peace,” the Rapides Gazette was initially a Radical Republican organ. Its second editor, T. G. Compton (1814-1874), appears to have held more moderate views. A Maryland native, Compton came to Alexandria in 1839 to work as a pharmacist. He described himself in a “salutatory” editorial as a “life-long Whig of the old line” and a “conservative [i.e., moderate] Republican” who was “bitterly opposed to secession as long as opposition could be shown.” Indeed, in the late 1850s, Compton had served as assistant editor of Charles Boyce’s Red River American, an anti-secessionist newspaper.

As the official journal of the state of Louisiana, the Rapides Gazette documents the political turmoil of the 1870s. It is a valuable source of information on Reconstruction-era governors, senators, and other officeholders, including Henry Clay Warmoth, William Pitt Kellogg, P. B. S. Pinchback, and James Madison Wells. The paper also documents race relations in Louisiana. In the election of 1872, it endorsed Republican Ulysses S. Grant for president, but also reported on the activities of supporters of Liberal Republican Party candidate Horace Greeley.

Miscellaneous news from around the state was printed in a column titled “Pelican Feathers” (a reference to the Louisiana state bird). Other notable topics reported include the Catholic Church, the construction and maintenance of levees, and the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning & Military Academy (now Louisiana State University), which was located at Pineville, near Alexandria from 1860 to 1869. The Rapides Gazette was the official journal of Rapides, Grant, and Vernon Parishes and carried the minutes of the Rapides Parish police jury (the equivalent of a county council in other states).

Publication continued until at least 1878, when the paper was edited by Hugh A. Wetmore.

Provided By: Louisiana State University; Baton Rouge, LA

About this Newspaper

Title

  • Rapides Gazette (Alexandria, La.) 1869-187?

Dates of Publication

  • 1869-187?

Created / Published

  • Alexandria, La. : C.B. Stewart

Headings

  • -  Alexandria (La.)--Newspapers
  • -  Rapides Parish (La.)--Newspapers
  • -  Louisiana--Alexandria
  • -  Louisiana--Rapides Parish
  • -  United States--Louisiana--Rapides--Alexandria

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Began in 1869?
  • -  "Official journal of the State and Parish."
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format as part of the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  Description based on: Vol. 3, no. 37 (Dec. 23, 1871).

Medium

  • v.

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn86090827

OCLC Number

  • 15242616

ISSN Number

  • 2166-7837

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

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. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

The NEH awardee responsible for producing each digital object is presented in the Chronicling America page display, below the page image – e.g. Image produced by the Library of Congress. For more information on current NDNP awardees, see https://www.loc.gov/ndnp/listawardees.html.

For more information on Library of Congress policies and disclaimers regarding rights and reproductions, see https://www.loc.gov/homepage/legal.html

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Rapides Gazette Alexandria, La. -187?. (Alexandria, LA), Jan. 1 1869. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn86090827/.

APA citation style:

(1869, January 1) Rapides Gazette Alexandria, La. -187?. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn86090827/.

MLA citation style:

Rapides Gazette Alexandria, La. -187?. (Alexandria, LA) 1 Jan. 1869. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn86090827/.