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Samuel Bowles

Samuel Bowles was one of 19th century America's great newspaper editors: controversial, opinionated, and passionately involved in politics. At the age of 18, he took the successful weekly newspaper, the Republican, founded by his father, Samuel Bowles Sr. in 1824, and made the radical step of launching a daily newspaper in an era when the only dailies were located in cities such as Boston and New York. The newspaper became a model of journalistic excellence, intended by Samuel to enhance the political, moral, literary and religious life of the community and beyond, and became one of the half dozen most influential newspapers in the United States.

At the time of Samuel's birth, in February 1826, Springfield was a small town, with only 5,764 residents. On March 27, 1844 when the first issue of the new paper was printed, it carried the announcement that this was an experiment, and would be given six months to a year to succeed. Subscriptions to the paper were sold at $4 a year, and advertisers were charged $20 a year for "one square daily."  Farm products were accepted in lieu of cash and given to a local store for credit.

The city of Springfield expanded, largely through the presence of the U.S. Armory, and the Republican under this dynamic editor, grew in reputation and interest, so that during the Civil War, the newspaper had acquired over 18,000 subscribers, several thousand of them outside New England. Bowles urged the union of anti-slavery groups into a single national party, praised insurrectionist and former Springfield resident John Brown, and strongly supported Abraham Lincoln. Samuel was also one of the founders of the Republican party in New England, and used the newspaper to advocate its principles. Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune considered the Republican "the best and ablest country journal ever published on this continent."

Samuel pushed himself so hard that his health suffered. He was several times advised to go abroad for his health, and sent long letters back home to his newspaper, letters which were later collected into two books, Across the Continent and The Switzerland of America.

Samuel was never strong, and died of a stroke at the age of 51. On his deathbed, he said, "I may die but the Republican will live,"  a testament to his tenacity and dedication to journalism. Bowles' son Samuel, the third generation to edit the Republican, continued the high quality of the now-famous newspaper. We are proud to induct Samuel Bowles into the Western Massachusetts Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame.