Top of page

Chronicling America
National Endowment for the Humanities

Newspaper The Buchanan County Guardian (Independence, Buchanan County, Iowa) 1858-1864 Buchanan guardian

View All Front Pages

About The Buchanan County Guardian (Independence, Buchanan County, Iowa) 1858-1864

The Quasqueton Guardian was the second newspaper in Buchanan County, established by Jacob Rich and George C. Jordan in December 1856. Rich served as editor, declaring in the first issue, “The paper will be devoted to the interests of the Republican Party, the town and county, and will contain all matters of local and general importance or interest.” The Guardian represented a political contrast with Buchanan County’s first newspaper, a Democratic publication called the Independence Civilian, established a year earlier.

Rich and Jordan moved the paper to Independence in 1858 and changed the title to the Buchanan County Guardian, motivated by better business prospects in the county seat. A typical issue of the Guardian included local and state news, poetry and serial fiction, market reports, political news, and advertisements for local businesses. However, after the attack on Fort Sumter and the start of the Civil War, Rich announced in his editorial on April 23, 1861, “We devote our paper, to the exclusion of everything else, to the details of the War news.” The following week’s issue included a “call for the formation of a company of volunteers” to join the Union army.

Jordan was among those to answer this call and served as a lieutenant in Company E of the 5th Iowa Volunteer Infantry. He died of illness in late March 1862. The April 1, 1862 issue of the Guardian devoted many columns to testimonials honoring his life, military service, and patriotic spirit. Rich wrote that Jordan “died as he always wanted to die, with the harness of the faithful soldier on his back, and the booming of the deep-mouthed cannon, and the crash of shells sounding in his ear.”

After his death, Jordan’s widow retained his interest in the Guardian until she and Rich sold the business to S.B. Goodenow in May 1864. Goodenow changed the title to the Guardian of Independence and published the paper for two years, before selling to J.L. Loomis in 1866. Loomis consolidated the Guardian with the Buchanan County Bulletin, which he had established the previous year, to form the Buchanan County Bulletin and Guardian. In 1869, Loomis sold the paper to William Toman, who changed its title back to the Buchanan County Bulletin.

The Bulletin merged with the Buchanan County Journal in 1891, and it became the Bulletin-Journal. The title changed again in 1973 to the Independence Bulletin-Journal, and the paper continues to publish today under this name.

Provided By: State Historical Society of Iowa

About this Newspaper

Title

  • The Buchanan County Guardian (Independence, Buchanan County, Iowa) 1858-1864

Other Title

  • Buchanan guardian

Dates of Publication

  • 1858-1864

Created / Published

  • Independence, Buchanan County, Iowa : Rich & Jordan, 1858-1864.

Headings

  • -  Buchanan County (Iowa)--Newspapers
  • -  Iowa--Buchanan County
  • -  United States--Iowa--Buchanan--Independence

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Vol. 2, no. 22 (Aug. 5, 1858)-v. 8, no. 10 (May 31, 1864).
  • -  "County" appears above title ornament, .
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format from the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  Guardian of Independence (DLC)sn 87058349 (OCoLC)15992086

Medium

  • 7 v. : ill. ; 60 cm.

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn87058348

OCLC Number

  • 15992035

ISSN Number

  • 2578-286x

Preceding Titles

Succeeding Titles

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:

The Buchanan County Guardian Independence, Buchanan County, Iowa -1864. (Independence, IA), Jan. 1 1858. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn87058348/.

APA citation style:

(1858, January 1) The Buchanan County Guardian Independence, Buchanan County, Iowa -1864. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn87058348/.

MLA citation style:

The Buchanan County Guardian Independence, Buchanan County, Iowa -1864. (Independence, IA) 1 Jan. 1858. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn87058348/.