From a program celebrating the opening of the Leader Building in 1913, "In 1847 an anti-slavery Whig paper which had been published for about a year in Olmsted Falls, now, as then, a small village, was moved to Cleveland and changed from a weekly to a daily, retaining the name of "True.

The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History notes, "Cowles was as outspoken a nativist as he was a Republican, heading the Cleveland chapter of the anti-Catholic Order of the American Union, and carrying on an editorial war with Manly Tello, editor of the Catholic Universe.

Cowles' March 5, 1890 New York Times obituary claims, "In the Winder [sic] of 1854-5 the germ of the Republican Party was formed in the Leader editorial rooms as a meeting was held there which resulted in the first Republican Convention, which was held at Pittsburg.

Cowles kept the paper technologically up to date, importing Cleveland's first perfecting press in 1877 and pioneering the use of electrotype plates in Ohio.

Charles Otis began a consolidation of local newspapers with the Cleveland World in 1904, and the Leader in 1905.