Lawson A. Parks

Christine Bahr
St. Ambrose School, Godfrey

Lawson A. Parks was the founder of the Alton Telegraph. He was born April 15, 1813, in Charlotte, North Carolina, and grew up there. In 1832 he learned the printing trade in Charlotte and moved with his father's family to St. Louis, where he had some connection with Elijah P. Lovejoy. Parks moved to Alton in 1836, where he began the publication of the Telegraph.

Although Parks was born and raised in a slave state, he looked upon slavery as a moral wrong and had courage to live up to his convictions. He was first a Whig, but then a Republican. During the Civil War he rendered many services to the Union cause, both through his paper and the rostrum. Parks would speak at any time and was a great writer. He was a very religious man. He was an elder in the Alton Presbyterian Church, and was licensed to practice as a minister in it.

The birthplace of the Telegraph was across the street from what after one hundred years is the present home of the newspaper. Richard M. Treadway and Parks rented space at the Lyceum Hall at what is now the northeast corner of Broadway and Alby Streets.

Parks worked with Treadway, who was the senior editor. Treadway was thirty-one, nine years older than Parks. Treadway was from a prestigious family. The partners started the paper because they both had great hopes for the town of Alton. Alton was four to five years old, and had started to show great growth in 1832. Alton used the paper for advertising, which made the Telegraph successful. After Treadway left in 1837, John Bailhache came to the paper, and Parks departed angrily because he disliked him. In 1838 Parks started the Altonian newspaper with Edward Breath, but it was suspended after the third issue. Bailhache announced his retirement on July 26, 1854. Bailhache was later killed in an accident.

Parks returned that year. He had many bad experiences. For example, his entire crew had to enlist for service in the Union Army during the Civil War. Next, he announced the temporary suspension of the Daily Telegraph. Parks, Crossman, and Beem revived the newspaper. Parks carried on a loan through the suspension and the war. In 1862 he was looking for a partner. Thomas S. Pinckard came into the business in 1864, but not as a partner. Next, Charles Holden came to the newspaper and was later Pinckard's partner. In 1867, Wilbur T. Norton joined them. He was a brilliant, young college graduate home from war service.

Lawson Parks died in 1875 at the age of sixty-two. He died of pneumonia contracted while attending church services.

Lawson Parks was a very powerful and fearless man. He took pride in his work and loved working at the Telegraph. Everyone said he had a nose for news and loved the smell of printer's ink. He was the strength of the paper for all of the thirty-nine years he worked there.-[From: W. T. Norton, Centennial History of Madison County, Illinois and Its People; Charlotte Stetson, Alton; "Down the Century" The Telegraph, Jan. 15, 1936.]

ILLINOIS HISTORY/APRIL 1997 59