Nathaniel Paschall (1802–1866) was an American journalist, the editor of the ''

Missouri Republican The ''Missouri Republican'' was a newspaper founded in 1808 and headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Its predecessor was the ''Morning Gazette''. It later changed its name to ''St. Louis Republic''. After supporting the Whig Party, the paper bec ...

.''

Personal life

Paschall was born April 4, 1802, in

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Tennessee, Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Di ...

. He was schooled in

Ste. Genevieve, Missouri Ste. Genevieve (french: Sainte-Geneviève ) is a city in Ste. Genevieve Township and is the county seat of Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri, United States. The population was 4,999 at the 2020 census. Founded in 1735 by French Canadian colonist ...

.''Annals of St. Louis in its territorial days, from 1804 to 1821,'' page 275
/ref> He and Martha Eliza Stevens Edgar were married on November 27, 1832, in Sangamon, Illinois. In 1850, living with them were Paschal family members Eugenia, age 16; Ada, 14; Cara, 12; Mary, 9; Henry G., 6; George M., 3; and Lizzie C., a baby. His wife predeceased him in 1859. He died in St. Louis on December 12, 1866, at the age of 64. The Hotel Paschall was named in his honor the next year.

Professional and political life

Nathaniel Paschall was apprenticed as a "bound boy" early in 1814, when he was not quite twelve, to

Joseph Charless Joseph Charless (1772–1834), born Joseph Charles, was an Irish immigrant to the United States, where he became known as a printer, publisher and editor, founding three newspapers in Kentucky and Missouri in the early 1800s. After working in Phil ...

of the ''Missouri Gazette'' to learn the trade of printing. When his apprenticeship expired in 1823, he continued to work with Edward Charless, the son of the paper's founder and its new owner. In 1828, he was admitted as a full partner in the business. In 1837 Charless and Paschall sold the enterprise to "Messsrs. Chambers, Harris and George Knapp." In 1840 they founded a new paper called ''New-Era.'' Paschall was elected clerk of the Court of Common Pleas of St. Louis County in 1842. He was appointed associate editor of the ''Missouri Republican'' on January 1, 1844, and when editor A.B. Chambers died in 1854, Paschall succeeded him. In 1855, he went into partnership with brothers George and John Knapp in the firm George Knapp & Co., which continued publication of the ''Republican'' until around 1893. In 1860, Paschall, as editor of ''The Republican,'' successfully placed strong pressure on

Claiborne Jackson Claiborne Fox Jackson (April 4, 1806 – December 6, 1862) was an American politician of the Democratic Party in Missouri. He was elected as the 15th Governor of Missouri, serving from January 3, 1861, until July 31, 1861, when he was forc ...

and

Thomas C. Reynolds Thomas Caute Reynolds (October 11, 1821 – March 30, 1887) was the Confederate governor of Missouri from 1862 to 1865, succeeding upon the death of Claiborne F. Jackson after serving as lieutenant governor in exile. In 1864 he returned to the ...

to declare their support for Stephen Douglas's candidacy for the Presidency of the United States. On January 12, 1861, Paschall met at the East Front of the U.S. Courthouse with

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...

Hamilton R. Gamble Hamilton Rowan Gamble (November 29, 1798 – January 31, 1864) was an American jurist and politician who served as the Chief Justice of the Missouri Supreme Court at the time of the Dred Scott Decision, Dred Scott case in 1852. Although his coll ...

, banker

James E. Yeatman James Erwin Yeatman (August 27, 1818 – 1901) was a bank founder and philanthropist in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri. He was the founder and president of the Western Sanitary Commission and Washington University in St. Louis. Yeatman was born ...

fur trader The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the mos ...

Frank Blair, and businessman Robert Campbell, with others, to urge the federal government to refrain from coercion against the states that had already taken steps to secede from the United States. He adopted a Conditional Union stand in the months leading up to the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

.Louis S. Gerteis, ''Civil War St. Louis,'' pages 67, 81–82, and 102] Of Paschall, veteran St. Louis newspaperman William Hyde (journalist), William Hyde (who succeeded him as editor), recalled in 1896:

Mr. Paschall had had only what may be styled a newspaper education and equipment, graduating from the printer's case and imbibing the great fund of information contained in what went upon his galleys or columns of type.

But he was a thinker. When he wrote he knew before he began what he was going to write about . . . and wrote it in as few and terse words as possible. In personal demeanor as gentle as a girl, in courage he was as brave as a lion. Anybody could know where he stood on any question.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paschall, Nathaniel 19th-century American newspaper editors 1802 births 1866 deaths Editors of Missouri newspapers Journalists from Tennessee Writers from Knoxville, Tennessee American male journalists