La Grange Intelligencer

The La Grange Intelligencer, a Fayette County weekly newspaper, began publication about January 25, 1844, with James Langley and William P. Bradburn as editor and publisher. The four-column, four-page paper carried the motto "Westward! the Star of empire takes its way." The yearly subscription rate was $6.50; political card insertions cost $4.00 and the announcements of candidates, $10. A typical issue had exchange articles on the first page, editorials on the second, and personal items on the third; the fourth page was devoted to advertisements and court notices. William B. McClellan was publisher by August 1845. Smallwood S. B. Fields, who became editor about May 30, 1844, announced that he planned to devote a part of each issue to information on "Politics, Science, Agriculture, Religion, Foreign Affairs, Miscellaneous Items, and Domestic Matters" but kept the right to "animadvert freely" on government practice. In policy the paper was against Sam Houston and for Edward Burleson for president in 1844; Fields engaged in an editorial war with Thomas Johnson of the National Vindicator. In the September 12, 1845, issue, Fields asked for the friends of the paper to support it with "corn, fodder, potatoes, meat, lumber, cattle, or anything from a dozen eggs to a stick of firewood" to keep it from closing. Evidently his appeal was in vain, for the final issue was published on September 19, 1846.