First Weekly Newspaper
Albuquerque’s first weekly paper debuted in the autumn of 1853 and had the very long name of El Amigo del Pais y la Voz del Pueblo (or, “The Friend of the Country and the Voice of the Town”).
Little is known about the appearance or content of this paper. Its existence was noted in the August 20th 1853 issue of the Santa Fe Weekly Gazette. It is believed that the editor and publisher was a recent Texas transplant, Colonel Richard H. Weightman, with rumors that he was assisted by another Texan, Spruce M. Baird. Weightman had arrived in New Mexico in 1846 as a captain with the Missouri Light Artillery. After his discharge in 1849, he set up a law practice in Santa Fe and also served as the New Mexico Territorial delegate to Congress from 1851-1852.
The Santa Fe Weekly Gazette reported the demise of the fledgling pape on December 10, 1853, only a few months after it began. It appears that there was little love lost for the Albuquerque paper as the two newspapers were in competition and their editors were bitter political rivals.
[Thanks to “Albuquerque Remembered” by Howard Bryan; chapter 4; pages 55-57]
Little is known about the appearance or content of this paper. Its existence was noted in the August 20th 1853 issue of the Santa Fe Weekly Gazette. It is believed that the editor and publisher was a recent Texas transplant, Colonel Richard H. Weightman, with rumors that he was assisted by another Texan, Spruce M. Baird. Weightman had arrived in New Mexico in 1846 as a captain with the Missouri Light Artillery. After his discharge in 1849, he set up a law practice in Santa Fe and also served as the New Mexico Territorial delegate to Congress from 1851-1852.
The Santa Fe Weekly Gazette reported the demise of the fledgling pape on December 10, 1853, only a few months after it began. It appears that there was little love lost for the Albuquerque paper as the two newspapers were in competition and their editors were bitter political rivals.
[Thanks to “Albuquerque Remembered” by Howard Bryan; chapter 4; pages 55-57]