Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 58, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 March 1899 — JOSEPH MEDILL DEAD. [ARTICLE]

JOSEPH MEDILL DEAD.

Veteran Chicago Newspaper Maa Bapirea in San Antonio. Joseph Medill, for almost half a century editor of the Chicago Tribune and former Mayor of Chicago, died at his winter home in San Antonio, Texas, Thursday. The great journalist was 76 years old, and the cause of death is assigned simply as old age, with its attendant weaknesses. Mr. Medill decided last fall that he could not risk the severely cold weather in Chicago and went to San Antonio. The deaths of his wife and his favorite daughter, Josie, were shocks from which, it ia believed, Mr. Medill never recovered and he had been growing perceptibly weaker for the last three years. Joseph Medill was born in St. John, N. 8., April 6, 1823. His parents, who were of Scotch-Irish descent, moved to Stark County, Ohio, In 183 L establishing themselves upon a small farm near Massillon. Joseph helped his father with the work and made his pocket money by getting up clubs of subscribers for the New York Weekly Tribune. In the winter and spring for several years he taught school. The law had great attractions for the young man and in 1846 he was admitted to the bar in New Philadelphia, Ohio. Mr. Medill did not engage long in the practice of law. Becoming interested in politics and having a natural bent for writing he determined to enter journalism. In 1849 he bought the Coshocton Whig, which he renamed the Republican. It was a free-soil whig paper. In the winter of 1854-55 Mr. Medill sold his Ohio paper and, going to Chicago in May, bought a large interest in the Chicago Tribune, a paper which was then almost bankrupt. It was placed on a paying basis by the new owners. In 1874 Mr. Medill secured full control of the paper and through it made a fortune.