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Whig newspaper · The Fort Wayne Times, later Dawson’s Times
On the record
Founded: 1840, with existence by 29 August 1840 proven. The Fort Wayne City and Business Directory for 1860–61, published at Dawson’s own Times office, states the Weekly was "established A. D. 1840, as the organ of the Whig Party". ACGSI holds a surviving issue dated 29 August 1840 — a contemporaneous primary record proving the paper existed by that date. CONFLICT — founding year: Bredemeier’s 1966 Quest Club history says the Whig paper was "established in 1841 by George W. Wood". That date cannot stand alongside a surviving August 1840 issue; the 1841 claim is flagged here rather than silently discarded.
Founders: George W. Wood, Fort Wayne’s first mayor (elected 1840, resigned July 1841), named as founder in the Bredemeier account and the Wood biography; the 1860 directory does not name Wood as founder in the passages in hand.
What it did: a Whig newspaper, later described as an "Independent Whig Journal". Under John W. Dawson it was staunchly opposed to the Kansas-Nebraska Act and antislavery, while also strongly opposed to abolitionism — a distinction this entry preserves. Its office in 1860 was on the west side of Calhoun Street between Main and Berry.
Course: Fort Wayne Times (1840); Times & People’s Press, 1844–1848; Dawson sole Editor from September 1853 and sole Proprietor in June 1854 (1860 directory). CONFLICT — daily start: the 1860 directory says the Fort Wayne Daily Times commenced 16 July 1855; Bredemeier says 16 July 1854 — same day and month, different year, flagged unresolved. Dawson’s Daily Times and Union, 1861–1863; Fort Wayne Daily Times and Sentinel, 1865–1866 (Library of Congress data).
Fate: the Times as a separate title ends in 1866. Its lineage continues only through the Sentinel: Democrat 1866–1873, then Sentinel again, with the first Fort Wayne News-Sentinel issued 1 January 1918.
Find them on this page
- § 05 — business
Sources: Fort Wayne City and Business Directory for 1860–61 — https://ldsgenealogy.com/IN/Fort-Wayne-Indiana-city-directory-1860-61.htm ; Surviving Fort Wayne Times issue, 29 August 1840, via ACGSI — https://www.acgsi.org/newspapers/fort.wayne.times.1840.08.29.pdf ; ACGSI newspapers page — https://www.acgsi.org/genweb/county/newspapers-of-allen-county-indiana.html ; Castaldi, Fort Wayne Magazine (2015) — https://www.fortwayne.com/alongtheheritagetrail/starting-the-presses/ ; Bredemeier, Waynedale News — https://waynedalenews.com/2008/02/colorful-journalism489/ and https://waynedalenews.com/2008/03/colorful-journalism479/ ; Indiana Magazine of History — https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/imh/article/download/11869/17446/0 ; Library of Congress directory data — https://roadsidethoughts.com/in/fort-wayne-xx-allen-localpapers.htm ; Hoosier State Chronicles — https://blog.newspapers.library.in.gov/tag/newspaper-history/ ; George W. Wood biography — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Wood . Sources as cited in the profile.