William Fahnestock Ridenbaugh (February 19, 1821-October 18, 1874) was a newspaper publisher who started the St. Joseph Gazette

St. Joseph Gazette

The St. Joseph Gazette was a newspaper in St. Joseph, Missouri from 1845 until June 30, 1988, when its morning position was taken over by its sister paper, the St...

 in St. Joseph, Missouri.

Ridenbaugh was born in Bedford, Pennsylvania

Bedford, Pennsylvania

Bedford is a borough in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, west of the State Capital, Harrisburg. It is the county seat of Bedford County. Bedford was established in the mid-18th century. Population counts follow: 1890, 2,242; 1900, 2,167; 1910, 2,385. The population was 3,141 at the 2000...

. In 1843 he moved to Missouri and started the Gazette in 1845. This was two years after St. Joseph had been established. The paper would chronicle early settlement of the Old West along the Oregon Trail

Oregon Trail

The Oregon Trail is a historic east-west wagon route that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon and locations in between.After 1840 steam-powered riverboats and steamboats traversing up and down the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri rivers sped settlement and development in the flat...

 and California Trail

California Trail

The California Trail was an emigrant trail of about across the western half of the North American continent from Missouri River towns to what is now the state of California...

. He maintained it as a Democratic newspaper and he sold the newspaper and became Buchanan County, Missouri

Buchanan County, Missouri

Buchanan County is a county located in the U.S. state of Missouri. As of 2010, the population was 89,201. Its county seat is Saint Joseph. When originally formed in 1838, the county was named Roberts County, after settler Hiram Roberts; it was renamed in 1839 for James Buchanan, then a U.S....

 Circuit Court Clerk. During the Bleeding Kansas

Bleeding Kansas

Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas or the Border War, was a series of violent events, involving anti-slavery Free-Staters and pro-slavery "Border Ruffian" elements, that took place in the Kansas Territory and the western frontier towns of the U.S. state of Missouri roughly between 1854 and 1858...

 struggles in the late 1850s he was among the Missouri residents who bought land in Kansas

Kansas

Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...

 (in his case across the Missouri River

Missouri River

The Missouri River flows through the central United States, and is a tributary of the Mississippi River. It is the longest river in North America and drains the third largest area, though only the thirteenth largest by discharge. The Missouri's watershed encompasses most of the American Great...

 in Doniphan County, Kansas

Doniphan County, Kansas

Doniphan County is a county located in Northeast Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the county population was 7,945. Its county seat is Troy and its most populous city is Wathena. The county along with Buchanan, Andrew, and DeKalb counties in Missouri is included in...

 in an attempt to also vote there with regards to whether Kansas should enter the state as a slave state

Slave state

In the United States of America prior to the American Civil War, a slave state was a U.S. state in which slavery was legal, whereas a free state was one in which slavery was either prohibited from its entry into the Union or eliminated over time...

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After the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 he reacquired the Gazette and published it until his death. He is buried in Mount Mora Cemetery

Mount Mora Cemetery

Mount Mora Cemetery is the oldest public cemetery in St. Joseph, Missouri. Among those who are buried in the cemetery are three governors, a U.S. senator, soldiers from both sides in the American Civil War and riders of the Pony Express....

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