July 20, 2026
Introduction: In this article – to help celebrate America 250 – Katie Rebecca Merkley continues her series about our Founding Fathers, featuring Thomas Jefferson. Katie specializes in U.S. research for family history, enjoys writing and researching, and is developing curricula for teaching children genealogy. She has a website: krgarnergenealogy.com
Newspapers were our ancestors’ social media, and reading them can show us what life was like for them. Our Revolutionary War-era ancestors would have seen mentions of the Founding Fathers in their newspapers. In celebration of our nation’s 250th birthday, I sought out some of these newspapers. This installment is on Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826).
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was a member of the Virginia delegation to the Second Continental Congress and was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration was adopted unanimously by the Second Continental Congress on 4 July 1776. This marks the birth of the United States of America.
Later, after Thomas Jefferson became the young nation’s third president (1801-1809), the U.S. purchased a large chunk of land from Napoleon’s France, known as the Louisiana Purchase, on 30 April 1803. This greatly expanded the United States and included the modern states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, and parts of Minnesota, Texas, and New Mexico.
The United States and France had been in negotiations, the Senate consented, and Jefferson ratified these negotiations. The concluding treaty involved France ceding land to the United States in exchange for money.
Jefferson’s message to Congress about the Louisiana Purchase was published in the newspaper. In it, Jefferson refers to the new Louisiana Territory as “this country” and discusses the need to establish a government there.
Six years later, someone wrote a tribute to Thomas Jefferson that was not only published in a newspaper but also went viral the old-fashioned way. The newspaper article below was from Troy, New York, but the heading indicates that it was copied from Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.
The tribute is a poem consisting of several stanzas in varying sizes. It opens with “Talents he had” and talks about Thomas Jefferson’s skills. The next stanza refers to him leading a youthful nation. The third stanza denounces revilers. The fourth stanza expands on Jefferson’s greatness. “And pluck a laurel forth from every grove,” is a metaphor for excelling in multiple fields. Later, the poem says, “There is glory for the living great!” The poet clearly thought highly of Thomas Jefferson.
An act that Jefferson got passed during his presidency established that mail to him would be delivered free of postage during and after his presidency. Before the mid-1800s, postage was paid by the recipient rather than the sender. This meant that someone receiving a lot of mail would have to pay a high postage bill.
After Thomas Jefferson retired from the presidency, he established the University of Virginia. A report of this school was published in the newspaper, indicating the number of scholars in each field of study. Majors offered back then were Ancient Languages, Modern Languages, Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, Natural History, Anatomy & Medicine, and Moral Philosophy. The university had 234 scholars that year. The school is still in existence and has a much larger selection of majors and many more students.
Thomas Jefferson was one of the last signers of the Declaration of Independence to die. Newspapers published on the 50th anniversary of its signing announced that Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Charles Carroll were the last living signers. Ironically, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died that day.
Thomas Jefferson had a long, productive life and did a lot for our nation, especially writing the Declaration of Independence and serving as president for eight years. As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence, let us remember that.
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Note on the header image: America’s 250th Anniversary. Credit: https://depositphotos.com/home.html
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