THE BANNER

 

The first attempt at starting a printing-office and publishing a newspaper in Rock Island was by Henry C. McGrew, in 1839. The office was in the second story of a two-story wooden building, on what is now Sixteenth Street , formerly Buffalo . The Rock Island Banner and Stephenson Gazette was the name of the paper. It was a five-column folio, devoted to news, arts, sciences, literature, agriculture, etc., and neutral in politics. The Banner suspended publication in the fall of 1841. Mr. McGrew deserved well of the community, and ought to have succeeded ; but the times were unfavorable for a neutral or even an independent paper. The remarkable political excitement during the Presidential campaign of 1840 aroused bitter prejudices on both sides, and he joined with the Democratic party.

In the first issue of the Rock Island Banner, in an article describing Stephenson (Rock Island), the editor said: " Four years ago there was but one house in the place. It now contains about 175 neatly built houses, and 600 inhabitants, 7 stores, 3 taverns, 3 groceries, 2 saddle and harness shops, 2 cabinet shops, 1 cooper shop, 1tinning shop, 1 watch maker, 1 pottery, 3 physicians and 4 lawyers, and a beautiful courthouse two stories high and about 50 feet square."

 

 

Historic Rock Island

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