Top of page

Notice
Special holiday hours in effect, December 2025 through January 2026. More information.
Chronicling America
National Endowment for the Humanities

Newspaper Wisconsin Herald, and Grant County Advertiser (Lancaster, Wis.) 1844-1845 Grant County advertiser / Wisconsin herald

View All Front Pages

About Wisconsin Herald, and Grant County Advertiser (Lancaster, Wis.) 1844-1845

The Grant County Herald is said to be the oldest still operating newspaper in Wisconsin. It was founded in 1843 by L. O. Shrader and Charles Mallett with the intent “to enlighten the Farmer, Miner and Mechanic.” The publishing office was located in Lancaster, the county seat of Grant County, the most south-western part of the state bordering Iowa across the Mississippi River, as well as Illinois to the south. The area’s easily accessible lead resources first attracted settlers as early as 1828. Later, the land was primarily used for farming.

Shrader retired from the business shortly after he started it and was superseded by H. A. Wiltse. In October 1843, J. D. Spalding became the sole proprietor who was joined and soon superseded by James Madison Goodhue in 1845. Goodhue, an attorney from Lancaster who had previously been a contributor to the Herald under the pen name “G.” Goodhue, would later start The Minnesota Pioneer, the first newspaper published in the Minnesota Territory.

Architecturally, Lancaster prides itself on  the octagonal glass and copper-clad dome of its courthouse, which was designed by Armand D. Koch a significant Wisconsin Architect. When it was built, a drawing of the building was featured on the front page of the February 9, 1902 issue of Herald. As its title suggests, however, the newspaper did not only cover news from the town but the entire county. Among other small towns, Grant County was home to Pleasant Ridge, a community of African American farmers founded in 1850 by Charles Shepard, a formerly enslaved man from Virginia. In 1873, Pleasant Ridge opened one of the first integrated schools in the nation.

Throughout the many years of publication, the newspaper’s title changed four times: Wisconsin Herald, and Grant County Advertiser (1844-1845), Wisconsin Herald (1846-1848), Grant County Herald (1850-1968), and finally Grant County Herald Independent (1968-current). Politically, it started out non-partisan but became more Whig-leaning under Goodhue. Editor Joseph Carmen Cover, who was a member of the Liberty Party and later the Republican Party and ran the Herald between 1851 and 1877, utilized the publication in support of the abolitionist movement. As antislavery sentiment grew in the Northwest, his abolitionism became more acceptable, even in the predominantly Democratic lead-mining area, and the newspaper’s circulation increased. In the 1860s, he became the recognized Republican leader of Grant County. In 1869, the Herald was taken over by his son, John, and Cover accepted an appointment as U.S. consul at Fayal, Azores (1870-1872).

Provided By: Wisconsin Historical Society

About this Newspaper

Title

  • Wisconsin Herald, and Grant County Advertiser (Lancaster, Wis.) 1844-1845

Other Title

  • Grant County advertiser
  • Wisconsin herald

Dates of Publication

  • 1844-1845

Created / Published

  • Lancaster, Wis. : J.D. Spalding, 1844-1845.

Headings

  • -  United States--Wisconsin--Grant--Lancaster

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Vol. 2, no. 31 (Oct. 12, 1844)-v. 3, no. 42 (Dec. 27, 1845).
  • -  Publisher varies.
  • -  Wisconsin herald (DLC)sn 87082162 (OCoLC)15116002

Medium

  • volumes

Call Number/Physical Location

  • AN

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn87082161

OCLC Number

  • 15115956

ISSN Number

  • 2837-3294

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:

Wisconsin Herald, and Grant County Advertiser Lancaster, Wis. -1845. (Lancaster, WI), Jan. 1 1844. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn87082161/.

APA citation style:

(1844, January 1) Wisconsin Herald, and Grant County Advertiser Lancaster, Wis. -1845. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn87082161/.

MLA citation style:

Wisconsin Herald, and Grant County Advertiser Lancaster, Wis. -1845. (Lancaster, WI) 1 Jan. 1844. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn87082161/.