Scripps (Family : 1818-1924 : U.S.)

The Scripps Family Papers relate to Chicago Tribune editor John Locke Scripps (1818-1866), his wife Mary E. Scripps (1825-1866), and his daughter Grace Scripps Dyche (1863-1924). The collection documents the editor's early life in Chicago, his influence on the city's journalistic institutions, and Civil War-era politics. One of the oldest and most influential families of American journalism, the Scripps occupied a unique place in nineteenth-century America. John L. Scripps's cousin, James, founded the Detroit Evening News along with his sister, Ellen Browning Scripps (1836-1932), a frequent correspondent with Mary E. Scripps in this collection. Both James and Ellen became leading philanthropists in Detroit and La Jolla, California, where Ellen retired in 1896. Their younger brother Edward Wyllis [E.W.] Scripps also became a media giant with controlling interests in a variety of newspapers including the Cincinnati Post.  

The bulk of the material in this collection concerns John Locke Scripps. Mr. Scripps was born in Jackson County, Missouri, in 1818, but his parents moved to Rushville, Illinois, soon after. He attended McKendrie College in Lebanon, Illinois, and graduated in 1847. He moved to Chicago and began practicing law that same year. But in 1848 Scripps purchased a one-third interest in the recently established Chicago Tribune and became its principal editor and writer. He also compiled the first statistical review of Chicago markets and conducted research vital to the formation of the Chicago-Galena railroad. 

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