Alfred Sanders

ALFRED SANDERS, pioneer journalist, was a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, having been born in that city on the 13th of May, 1819. Like his brother, Addison H., he received his education in the printing office and at Cincinnati College. In 1841 he came to Davenport, Iowa, where in August he established the Davenport Gazette, a weekly Whig newspaper. It was from the first a model typographical journal and gave particular attention to the local interests of the new city and Territory. The young man was but twenty-two years of age and possessed all of the enthusiasm and ability to "work and wait," that characterized the youthful adventurers who hesitated not to leave the comforts of civilization, to help found a new State. For twenty-one years Alfred Sanders worked in his chosen field with undeviating faith in a brilliant future for his journal, his city, and State. The "old Davenport Gazette" was, under his administration, among the most potential forces in helping to lay a sure foundation for the upbuilding of one of the most beautiful and substantial cities of Iowa and no paper in its day contributed more largely toward the material development of all that is most desirable by good citizens, in the growth of a State. Alfred Sanders never sought office and held steadfastly to the career of journalism which he had chosen in youth; was an active member of the Christian Church and died at the early age of forty-six, on the 25th of April, 1865.

SOURCE: Benjamin F. Gue, History of Iowa, Volume IV: Iowa Biography, p. 231-2