In September of 1814, Lewis H. Redfield published the first issue of the “Onondaga Register” in his Onondaga Valley print shop. The newspaper was an exponent of Jeffersonian Democracy, and reached what was then a large circulation by supplying news of the War of 1812. After the war ended in 1815, a popular topic of discussion in The Register’s columns was the projected canal from the Hudson River to Lake Erie. However, the canal would be constructed through the village of Syracuse and not Onondaga Valley as the paper advocated. As a result of the Erie Canal, Syracuse became the center of business in the area. In 1829 Mr. Redfield transferred his newspaper there, where it was consolidated with the Syracuse Gazette (begun by John Durnford in 1823) under the name “The Onondaga Register and Syracuse Gazette.”