Lebbeus Zevely was a
Democratic member of the
Missouri General Assembly for Osage County during the
American Civil War. Zevely opposed the new constitution, with one source reporting that Zevely declared he was "unterrified" in fighting the new constitution, and the
UD reporting that he said "You know, people in Osage County don't lie, and my county was split [between supporters of the
Union and supporters of the Confederacy], and at least half my people will be disenfranchised because they won't lie and take the oath", with another member of the assembly then declaring that Zevely was an "unterrified Democrat". After Lebbeus Zevely died in 1873, the paper was published by his widow, then his daughter Mollie Zevely, then his nephew James William Zevely, and then his brother-in-law Fleming Stratton. In 1900, Lebbeus' son
Eli Marcellus Zevely, who had been six when his father died, bought half of the paper, buying the other half in 1910. After his death in 1939, the paper was published by his widow Ida Zevely. Their son William Lebbeus Zevely took over the paper in 1942; Under the Zevelys, the paper was a very partisan pro-Democratic paper, even for strongly Democratic Missouri; the paper's editorials were sometimes reprinted
minutes from
state party meetings. However, Osage County was strongly
Republican, which led one of the paper's editors to quit and open up business in, friendlier, strongly Democratic
Monroe County, Missouri. For a time, the paper's motto was a quote from
Thomas Jefferson: "A jealous care of the right to election by the people", though it was retired by 1955. and required assistance for many tasks. He sold the paper to try and convince Norman Troesser to continue working on it. Zevely continued to work at the paper after selling it In 1979, the Troessers sold the paper to
WNBC-TV anchorman
Jack Cafferty,
Columbia Daily Tribune reporter Donald Keough, and Osage County prosecutor and former
KMMJ radio director Bradley Lockenvitz. In May 1980, Lockenvitz bought out the other owners; he said he did so because he wanted to "keep the paper in the hands of a Democrat". Lockenvitz said that he put lots of money into the paper to repay its debts and that his legal career prevented him from taking an active role in its daily operation. planning to insert them around elections, and regretted that a deal to give him a commentary section had not been reached. James D. Evans, President of
Lindenwood University (where Sinquefield made the claim), criticized Voss' column as derogatory and did not criticize Sinquefield. Sinquefield's remarks were widely ridiculed and he apologized for "my reference to a quote from Ralph Voss of the
Unterrified Democrat." In 2018, the Vosses sold the paper to Warden Publishing, which had owned the nearby
Gasconade County Republican since 1963. ==References==