Item Detail
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12053
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0
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0
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English
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The Frontier Guardian, A Study of Conflicting Loyalties, 1849-1852
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Ames, Iowa
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Iowa State University
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Master's thesis
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"On February 7, 1849, Orson Hyde published the first issue of the
Frontier Guardian with these words in the prospectus. "Being located
on the extreme frontier, the Guardian will be able to give the
earliest reliable information from our settlement in California, and
in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake." Clearly, editor Hyde intended
for the paper to be the official beacon for the Mormons, but citizen Hyde understood well the power of the printed word in uniting and promoting a community.
The Frontier Guardian was not only a Mormon newspaper, but a
booster paper, Whig paper, and the avenue through which Kanesville
became one of the primary outfitting towns of the frontier. These
competing forces form the basis of this study of a newspaper which
would have been noteworthy if only because of its Mormon origins. But
the Frontier Guardian and Orson Hyde took on larger significance
because of Kanesville's location as the jump-off point for an army of gold-seekers and those determined to follow the advice of another
famous editor who advised "Go west, young man, go west." Hyde and his
paper are also noteworthy because Hyde got caught between two of the
most compelling forces in the lives of frontier editors. On the one
hand, Hyde felt a certain obligation to join the throngs moving west,
but the other hand held the influence, and determination necessary to
boost the community of Kanesvi1le to greatness. This thesis traces
these influences from Hyde's arrival in 1848 until his reluctant
departure for Utah in 1852. It is a study of a newspaper, a man, and
the many forces brought to life by the westward movement that changed
forever an area on the Missouri banks called Kanesville." [Author]