Topeka, The Kansas Freeman, on July 4, 1855; at Le Compton, The New Era, on September 26, 1855; at Prairie City, The Freeman's Champion, on June 25, 1857; at Sumner, The Sumner Gazette, on September 12, 1857. At Lawrence, settled for the most part by Free-Soilers from Massachusetts, four papers, every one of which had its office destroyed by Border Ruffians, were established during these fateful years. Of these papers the most important was The Herald of Freedom, the first issue of which, though dated at Wakarusa, Kansas, October 21, 1854, was printed in Pennsylvania: the second was published at Lawrence on January 6, 1855. Second was The Kansas Free State, begun in January, 1855. On May 21, 1856, when Border Ruffians attacked Lawrence, they dumped the press, type, books, papers, etc., of The Free State into the street and did practi- cally the same thing for The Herald of Freedom, but in addition set the building on fire. This act of the Border Ruffians stirred up the press of the North so that a subscription for money with which to purchase new types and press for the owners of The Herald was started by the Chicago press, headed by The Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Journal, and The Staats-Zeitung. Horace Greeley, of The New York Tribune, also helped to raise money for the enterprise.
In the next period Lawrence had a practical repetition of this act of violence. The Kansas Tribune, which had been started at Lawrence on January 5, 1855, in removing to Topeka in Novem- ber of that year, escaped the violence of the Border Ruffians. The Tribune, however, again returned to Lawrence on January 1, 1863. After the offices of The Herald of Freedom and The Kansas Free State had been mobbed, and their printing-plants destroyed, their place was taken by The Lawrence Republican, established on May 28, 1857. Both The Tribune and The Republican suffered a like fate on August 21, 1863, when their offices were destroyed, and the papers suspended. The Tribune was revived in Novem- ber, 1863, and The Republican in February, 1868, but these re- vivals belong to another period.
