Joseph Charless

Joseph Charless was born as Joseph Charles on July 16, 1772, in County Westmeath, Leinster, Ireland. He was of Welsh descent.[1]

As a young man he took part in the Irish Rebellion of 1795 and as a consequence he was forced to flee the country for France. He migrated to America, arriving in New York City in 1796.[1]

A printer by trade, he found employment in Philadelphia with Mathew Carey, another Irish refugee. In 1798, he married a widow, Sarah McCloud, and they had four children, Edward, John, Joseph, and Ann.[1]

The family moved to Lexington, Kentucky, in 1800, where Charless was hired as a printer. In partnership with Francis Peniston, he began a newspaper, the Independent Gazetteer, on March 29, 1803. He formed a partnership with Robert Kay on August 16, 1803, but he withdrew from the link on September 27. He continued as a printer, publisher, and bookseller in Lexington until 1807, then moved with his family to Louisville, Kentucky, where he established the Louisville Gazette.[1]

He continued the Louisville Gazette while at the same time moving to St. Louis, Missouri, where he founded the Missouri Gazette, the first issue of which appeared on July 12, 1808, with 174 subscribers. It was on foolscap sheets, measuring about 8-1/4 x 12-1/2 inches, in three columns. He sold the Louisville newspaper in July 1809 and disposed of the Missouri Gazette in 1820.[1][2][3]

Charless died on July 28, 1834, at age 62. In religion, he was a Presbyterian.[1]

Confrontations

A story that was printed in several newspapers in 1933 said that "For articles that appeared in his newspaper, whether he was the author of them or not, he was sometimes attacked on the streets of St. Louis. Once a prominent man spit in his face and threatened him with a pistol. Another time Charless was shot at, but unharmed, by a hidden enemy as he walked in his garden."[2][3]

It was said that "one of the most important incidents in the . . . history of Missouri journalism took place" in the St. Louis newspaper office on February 6 1814, when five men, one of them armed with a sword, confronted Charless, demanding to know who had written an article signed "Q," which had criticized the military qualifications of U.S. General Benjamin Howard. Refused, the men left, but later "The direct result of the encounter was the founding in May 1815 of Missouri's second newspaper, the Western Journal, by Charless's enemies.[2][3]

References
  1. C. Frank Dunn, "Blue Grass and Horse Feathers," The Lexington (Kentucky) Herald, March 31, 1935, image 25 and 26
  2. "Missouri History Not Found in Textbooks," The Current Local, Van Buren, Missouri, February 9, 1933, image 1
  3. Floyd C. Shoemaker, "Missouri's Second Newspaper," The Palmyra (Missouri) Spectator, July 5, 1933, image 7
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