The Olathe Mirror
The last date of publication for the Olathe Mirror was December 31, 1959, but the founding date of the weekly newspaper is a matter for dispute. The paper gave the first year as 1861 until the 1880s, but for the last seven decades of the paper’s life, the first year of publication was reported to be 1857. The confusion over the paper’s date of establishment is a part of the early history of Johnson County and the story of how Olathe became the county seat.
Johnson County was organized in 1855, and territorial Governor James W. Denver designated the city of Gum Springs (now Shawnee) as the county seat. The new county government occasionally needed official notices and other pieces of county business printed. No local newspaper had been established, but a local man with a printing press was enlisted to print the county’s notices. The notices included pieces of news as well.
Meanwhile, the city of Olathe was laid out and began to grow at a considerable rate. In June 1858, a vote took place to decide whether the county seat should be moved to Olathe. The results showed that voters were in favor of moving the county seat. However, 1700 votes had been recorded in Oxford Township, a community with only 17 eligible voters. Nevertheless, county officers moved from Gum springs to Olathe.
Governor Denver declared the election invalid and ordered the officers back to Gum springs. Soon after, another vote was taken, and Olathe was again chosen for county seat. This time the vote stood, and in the fall 1859, Olathe became the permanent county seat.
When the county officers moved to Olathe, the printing press used in Gum Springs was also moved. The local Democratic paper, the Olathe Herald, acquired the press and took over the county’s printing. Two years later John Francis started a Republican weekly, the Olathe Mirror. The two papers co-existed until September 6, 1862, when, during Quantrill’s raid, both the Herald and the Mirror buildings were sacked. Although most of the printing equipment was destroyed, the old press from Gum Springs survived. The owner of the Herald decided not to continue publication of the paper and sold the press to the Mirror. Production began again on the old press, and the Olathe Mirror survived.
In the 1880s, the newspaper began to place its date of origin in 1857—the first year that the old press was used in Gum Springs to print county business and news. It was customary for newspapers which purchased older papers to change the date of establishment to the earlier date, but in this case, the change was based on the longevity of the Gum Springs press and that first nameless sheet of county notices and news.
The Olathe Mirror was published every Thursday as the “Official Paper of the County” through 1959. On January 1, 1960, the Olathe Mirror merged with the Johnson County Democrat, another weekly paper. The result was the Olathe News, the first daily newspaper printed in Johnson County.
--ALBUM vol. 10, no. 1 (winter 1997)