A young lawyer purchased the Cortland "County Whig," a weekly newspaper, during the presidential contest between Harrison and Van Buren.

The evidence

• “At the age of seventeen he entered upon a course of study at the Cortland village academy, which he pursued until he was nineteen years of age, when he commenced the study of law in the office of Horatio Ballard, a prominent lawyer practicing at Cortland. In 1840, feeling a deep interest in the exciting presidential contest between General Harrison and Martin Van Buren, then engrossing the attention of the people of this country, he purchased the Cortland "County Whig," a weekly newspaper, which he continued to edit for the five following years, conducting it with energy and ability in advocating the measures and principles of the whig party, but at the same time continuing the study of the law, as he was fully determined to make the practice of that profession the main business of his life.”

  1908-brown-rock-county/32-courts-and-legal-profession.md, Vol. 2, PDF p. 225 / book p. 728

  Brown, William Fiske, editor. Rock County, Wisconsin: A New History of Its Cities, Villages, Towns, Citizens and Varied Interests, from the Earliest Times, Up to Date. Chicago: C. F. Cooper & Co., 1908. 2 vols. archive.org/details/rockcountywiscon01brow, archive.org/details/rockcountywiscon02brow.

  Grade A: Found on a page of one of our sources