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Chronicling America
National Endowment for the Humanities

Newspaper The Daily Telegraph (Monroe, La.) 1870-1886

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About The Daily Telegraph (Monroe, La.) 1870-1886

On September 18, 1865, George William McCranie (1838-1895), a former Confederate army captain, published the first issue of the Weekly Telegraph in Monroe, Louisiana. Located along the Ouachita River in the fertile farm country of northeast Louisiana, Monroe (the seat of Ouachita Parish) was then in a period of growth following its connection to Vicksburg, Mississippi, a key cotton port, by rail in 1855, and then to Shreveport and areas farther west in 1860. Cotton and timber formed the basis of the local economy.

McCranie expanded the Weekly Telegraph from two pages to four in December 1865 and changed its title to the Ouachita Telegraph. Publication of an additional four-page daily version, the Daily Telegraph, commenced in 1870. As Democratic newspapers, the Ouachita Telegraph and Daily Telegraph opposed Radical Republican rule and the empowerment of black voters in Louisiana. In the months leading up to the presidential election of 1868, McCranie published a series of original cartoons in the Ouachita Telegraph ridiculing presidential candidate Ulysses S. Grant, Republican officeholders, and their supporters, especially African Americans. He frequently spoke out against the most prominent Republican newspaper in north Louisiana, William Jasper Blackburn’s Homer Iliad. In July 1868, McCranie announced that he would publish a Democratic campaign paper, the Bastrop Saxon, in neighboring Morehouse Parish. He then briefly turned over editorship of the Ouachita Telegraph to Samuel D. McEnery (1837-1910), a Catholic and future governor of Louisiana, while McCranie assisted with the Democratic campaign. McCranie was also on close terms with and often published articles about S. D. McEnery’s brother John McEnery, a controversial Reconstruction-era politician.

Although the Ouachita Telegraph and Daily Telegraph were primarily concerned with politics, other topics reported included immigration to north Louisiana and Texas, the cotton trade, railroads, bridge construction, river improvements, and the growth of local schools and academies. McCranie viewed the temperance movement with skepticism, but he faithfully reported developments in this field, both local and national. The Ouachita Telegraph contained many articles related to former Confederate soldiers and political leaders. It also reported at some length on the so-called Exodus of 1879, in which large numbers of African Americans left Louisiana in search of a better life in Kansas. Coverage of religious issues related mostly to the Baptist church, though McCranie occasionally reported the activities of other denominations, including Monroe’s small Jewish community, some members of which advertised heavily in his newspapers. 

McCranie served as the first president of the Louisiana Press Association when it was founded in 1880. In July 1886, Charles Henry Trousdale (1858-1921) succeeded McCranie as editor of the Ouachita Telegraph and terminated publication of the Daily Telegraph. Trousdale expanded the paper’s fiction and “society” sections and began publishing more articles on agricultural and household topics. In matters of politics, Trousdale largely maintained McCranie’s racist views. The last issue of the Ouachita Telegraph was published on December 28, 1889, after which it was consolidated with the Monroe Bulletin to form the Telegraph-Bulletin.

Provided By: Louisiana State University; Baton Rouge, LA

About this Newspaper

Title

  • The Daily Telegraph (Monroe, La.) 1870-1886

Dates of Publication

  • 1870-1886

Created / Published

  • Monroe, La. : G.W. McCranie, 1870-1886.

Headings

  • -  Monroe (La.)--Newspapers
  • -  Ouachita Parish (La.)--Newspapers
  • -  Louisiana--Monroe
  • -  Louisiana--Ouachita Parish
  • -  United States--Louisiana--Ouachita--Monroe

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Daily (except Sun.)
  • -  Vol. 1, no. 1 (Dec. 13, 1870)-v. 1, no. 205 (July 5, 1886).
  • -  Three issues are called "Vol. 1, no. 1": Dec. 13, 1870, Oct. 2, 1883, and Oct. 27, 1885.
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format as part of the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn88064499

OCLC Number

  • 18114477

ISSN Number

  • 2163-6621

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

The Daily Telegraph Monroe, La. -1886. (Monroe, LA), Jan. 1 1870. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn88064499/.

APA citation style:

(1870, January 1) The Daily Telegraph Monroe, La. -1886. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn88064499/.

MLA citation style:

The Daily Telegraph Monroe, La. -1886. (Monroe, LA) 1 Jan. 1870. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, aj.sunback.homes/item/sn88064499/.