On March 7, 1823, Harvey Gregg and Douglas Maguire published the first issue of the Western Censor & Emigrants' Guide, a year after the city's first newspaper, the Indianapolis Gazette, was established.
Douglass and Maquire published the Western Censor until renaming it as the Indiana Journal on January 11, 1825, and expanded and enlarged the publication.
Purchased in 1845 by John D. Defrees, and operated by him for nearly a decade, the paper was the first in Indianapolis to install a steam driven printing press.
During the Civil War, Sulgrove published strong pro-Union columns supporting the policies of President Abraham Lincoln and of Indiana governor Oliver P. Morton.
[2][4] The paper featured regular columns from famous writers and figures including James Whitcomb Riley, Benjamin Harrison, and Eugene V. Debs.