The Brooklyn Daily Eagle was a newspaper created in 1841. It was founded by Henry Cruse Murphy and Isaac Van Anden. It was originally called the Brooklyn Eagle and Kings County Democrat. The very first issue was released on October 26, 1841. What first started off as a morning paper later on became the most popular afternoon news release. The very first issue was released on October 26, 1841.

Within less than a year of the Brooklyn Daily Eagles first publication, one of the newspapers founders, Henry Cruse Murphy, becomes the elected mayor of Brooklyn, NY.

In 1846, Walt Whitman becomes an editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Here are two of his poems that he wrote for the newspaper.

The Play-Ground.

When painfully athwart my brain
Dark thoughts come crowding on,
And, sick of wordly hollowness,
My heart feels sad or lone—

Then out upon the green I walk,
Just ere the close of day,
And swift I ween the sight I view
Clears all my gloom away.

For there I see young children—
The cheeriest things on earth—
I see them play—I hear their tones
Of loud and reckless mirth.

And many a clear and flute-like laugh
Comes ringing through the air;
And many a roguish, flashing eye,
And rich red cheeks, are there.

O, lovely, happy children!
I am with you in my soul;
I shout—I strike the ball with you—
With you I race and roll.—

Methinks white-winged angels,
Floating unseen the while,
Hover around this village green,
And pleasantly they smile.

O, angels! guard these children!
Keep grief and guilt away;
From earthly harm—from evil thoughts—
O, shield them night and day!

Ode.

—BY WALTER WHITMAN.

TO BE SUNG ON FORT GREENE; 4th of July, 1846.

Tune: “Star Spangled Banner.”

1.

O, God of Columbia! O, Shield of the Free!
More grateful to you than the fanes of old story,
Must the blood-bedewed soil, the red battle-ground, be
Where our fore-fathers championed America’s glory!
Then how priceless the worth of the sanctified earth,
We are standing on now. Lo! the slope of its girth
Where the Martyrs were buried: Nor prayers, tears, or stones,
Marked their crumbled-in coffins, their white, holy bones!

2.

Say! sons of Long-Island! in legend or song,
Keep ye aught of its record, that day dark and cheerless—
That cruel of days—when, hope weak, the foe strong,
Was seen the Serene One—still faithful, still fearless,
Defending the worth, of the sanctified earth
We are standing on now, &c.

3.

Ah, yes! be the answer. In memory still
We have placed in our hearts, and embalmed there forever!
The battle, the prison-ships, martyrs, and hill,
—O, may it be preserved till those hearts death shall sever;
For how priceless the worth, &c.

4.

And shall not the years, as they sweep o’er and oer,
Shall they not, even here, bring the children of ages—
To exult as their fathers exulted before,
In the freedom achieved by their ancestral sages?
And the prayer rise to heaven, with pure gratitude given
And the sky by the thunder of cannon be riven?
Yea! yea! let the echo responsively roll
The echo that starts from the patriot’s soul!

Walt Whitman only remained a Brooklyn Daily Eagle employee for two years. In 1848, he lost his job as editor because of his political views. Whitman decided to side & work with a more radical Democratic party, called the “Barnburners’. In doing so he went against one of the Brooklyn Eagle founders, Isaac Van Anden, who belonged to the opposing party, the “Hunkers’.  The newspaper did continue on without him, reshaping Brooklyn as a town and city.

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle office was originally located on 30 Fulton Street, between Elizabeth Street and Hicks Street. In 1892, the office moved to a new location in a building across the street from Borough Hall, the home of the Brooklyn Theater before it was destroyed for the Brooklyn Eagle’s new residence.

[Insert Tearing Down Article Image]

On January 29, 1955, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle published its last newspaper edition. Having faced a strike by The Newspaper Guild, they had no choice but to shutdown in March of 1955. Today, thanks to the Brooklyn Public Library, one can easily access The Brooklyn Daily Eagle articles, documenting Brooklyn’s history, right online.