MEDILL, Joseph, journalist, born in New Brunswick, Canada, 6 April, 1823. His father removed in 1832 to Stark county, Ohio, where the son worked on a farm, subsequently studied law, and practised at Massillon. He founded a Free-soil paper at Coshocton in 1849, established "The Leader," a Whig journal, at Cleveland in 1852, and in 1854 was one of the organizers of the Republican party in Ohio. Soon afterward he went to Chicago, and with two partners bought, in May, 1855, the "Tribune," with which he has since been identified. He was a member of the Illinois constitutional convention in 1870, and the author of a minority representation clause. In 1.871 he was a member of the United States civil service commission, and was elected mayor of Chicago. He spent a year in Europe in 1873-'4, and on his return purchased a controlling interest in the "Tribune," of which he became and continues editor-in-chief.