This newspaper was founded in 1854 by editor James W. Sheahan with the backing of Stephen Douglas, the powerful U.S. Senator from Illinois and one of the leaders of the Democratic Party. In 1861, the Times —which was the leading rival of the pro-Republican Chicago Tribune —gained an energetic new Democratic editor when Wilbur F. Storey came to Chicago from Detroit. In 1863, Storey's hostility to the Lincoln administration inspired Union general Ambrose Burnside to suppress the paper; this ban was lifted immediately by Lincoln himself. By the end of the 1860s, the Times had a Sunday circulation of about 35,000, making it one of the leading papers in the Midwest. Before Storey died in 1884, the paper helped Carter H. Harrison, a Democrat, to begin a long term of service as Chicago's mayor. After 1895, when the Times merged with another Chicago daily, the Herald, it disappeared as an independent entity. (A new and distinct Chicago Times, founded in 1929 by Samuel E. Thomason as the city's first tabloid, became part of the Chicago Sun-Times in 1947.)

This entry is part of the Encyclopedia's Dictionary of Leading Chicago Businesses (1820-2000) that was prepared by Mark R. Wilson, with additional contributions from Stephen R. Porter and Janice L. Reiff.