Samuel Bowles III (February 9, 1826 – January 16, 1878) was an American journalist and newspaper publisher. His father established the Springfield Weekly Republican newspaper in 1824. For the first year, he was a general helper who did mechanical jobs, ran errands, and wrote articles on local topics.

After receiving offers for various jobs and newspaper partnerships, in early 1857 Bowles entered into a partnership to publish a new daily paper out of Boston Massachusetts, the Boston Traveller. This project lacked the credibility of other offers, but "was to be Republican, independent, and progressive".

The long-running success of Bowles's newspaper was attributed not only to its content and local relevancy, but also to its "lively, concise, and professionally written style".

As his health declined in later years, Bowles turned over the operation of the newspaper to a team of men. In contrast to Frederick Douglas and William Lloyd Garrison, Bowles believed freed slaves needed protection from potential exploitation from their former masters. However, he was against universal suffrage, wanting to limit voting to those who were literate. In 1875, Phelps filed a libel suit against the Republican, asking for $200,000 in damages. Thus, Bowles considered the editorial to be as important as the news to the Republican. These were published in the Republican and were also edited into a nationally bestselling book, Across the Continent: A Summer 's Journey to the Rocky Mountains, the Mormons, and the Pacific States with Speaker Colfax (1865). This resulted in "permanent family estrangement".

References

  • Richard Hooker, The Story of an Independent Newspaper New York, The Macmillan Company (1924) )
  • John J. Scanlon, The Passing of the Springfield Republican (1950)
  • Samuel Bowles Papers (MS 94). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.
  • George S Merriam. The Life and Times of Samuel Bowles, 2 volumes. (1885).
  • Bowles-Hoar Family Papers at the Amherst College Archives & Special Collections