''The Cleveland Leader'' was a

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as poli ...

published in

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

from 1854 to 1917.

History

The ''Cleveland Leader'' was created in 1854 by Edwin Cowles, who merged a variety of

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the political movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved individuals around the world. The first country to fully outlaw slavery was Kingdom of France, France in 1315, but it was later used ...

, pre-Republican Party titles under the ''Leader''. From a program celebrating the opening of the

Leader Building The Leader Building is a 15-story high-rise building located at the southwest corner of Superior Avenue and East 6th Street in Downtown Cleveland, adjacent to the Cleveland Arcade and across the street from the Cleveland Public Library. Histor ...

in 1913, "In 1847 an anti-slavery Whig paper which had been published for about a year in Olmsted Falls, now, as then, a small village, was moved to Cleveland and changed from a weekly to a daily, retaining the name of "True. Democrat." That event is commonly reckoned the beginning of the ''Cleveland Leader''..." The ''Leader's'' initial editorial bias was reflective of the antebellum period in Ohio; pro-Union, anti-slavery, but also according to several sources, virulently anti-Catholic. ''The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History'' notes, "Cowles was as outspoken a nativist as he was a Republican, heading the Cleveland chapter of the anti-Catholic Order of the American Union, and carrying on an editorial war with Manly Tello, editor of the ''Catholic Universe''." The ''Leader'' was explicitly political from its founding. Cowles' March 5, 1890 ''New York Times'' obituary claims, "In the Winder of 1854-5 the germ of the Republican Party was formed in the ''Leader'' editorial rooms as a meeting was held there which resulted in the first Republican Convention, which was held at Pittsburg. Col. R. C. Parsons,

Joseph Medill Joseph Medill (April 6, 1823 – March 16, 1899) was a Canadian-American newspaper editor, publisher, and Republican Party (United States), Republican Party politician. He was co-owner and managing editor of the ''Chicago Tribune'', and he was M ...

, John C. Vaughn, Judge R. P. Spaulding, and J. F. Keeler, were at the meeting, which resulted in the consolidation of the

Know-Nothing The American Party, known as the Native American Party before 1855 and colloquially referred to as the Know Nothings, or the Know Nothing Party, was an Old Stock nativist political movement in the United States in the 1850s. Members of the m ...

, Whig, and

Free Soil The Free Soil Party, also called the Free Democratic Party or the Free Democracy, was a political party in the United States from 1848 to 1854, when it merged into the Republican Party. The party was focused on opposing the expansion of slav ...

Parties into the Republican Party." The ''Leader'' quickly became the most influential newspaper in Ohio. "By 1875 its circulation of 13,000 was double that of the ''Herald'' and 5 times that of the ''

Plain Dealer ''The Plain Dealer'' is the major newspaper of Cleveland, Ohio; it is a major national newspaper. In the fall of 2019, it ranked 23rd in U.S. newspaper circulation, a significant drop since March 2013, when its circulation ranked 17th daily a ...

''. Cowles kept the paper technologically up to date, importing Cleveland's first perfecting press in 1877 and pioneering the use of electrotype plates in Ohio." After Cowles' death in 1890, the ''Leader'' began a swift decline, as competition from the ''Plain Dealer'' and other newspapers took advantage of the huge void left by Cowles personal control. Many examples of the ''Leader's'' poster art from the period immediately after Cowles' death in the 1890s are included in a collection at the New York Public Library as some of the finest examples of late Victorian American poster art. Despite the marketing efforts, the ''Leader'' continued its decline. Charles Otis began a consolidation of local newspapers with the ''Cleveland World'' in 1904, and the ''Leader'' in 1905. Through Otis, ownership of the ''Leader'' passed through various hands in the famous Hanna family, via Marcus Hanna's son-in-law Medill McCormick, married to

Ruth Hanna McCormick Ruth McCormick (née Hanna, also known as Ruth Hanna McCormick Simms; March 27, 1880 – December 31, 1944), was an American politician, activist, and publisher. She served one term in the United States House of Representatives, winning an at-l ...

, then to Daniel R. Hanna, Marcus Hanna's son. By 1917, the ''Leader'' had been sold to the ''Plain Dealer'', just four years after moving into the Leader Building in 1913.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cleveland Leader Defunct newspapers published in Cleveland Newspapers established in 1854 1854 establishments in Ohio Mass media companies disestablished in 1917 1917 disestablishments in Ohio