The Brunswicker, a pro-slavery newspaper out of Brunswick, Missouri, reported on the mob violence against Park's newspaper. The paper published this article on April 21, 1855 declaring George S. Park and his partner traitors and that they "should be dealt with as such." 

George Shepard Park was born in Vermont on October 28, 1811. He then went to teach school in Ohio for a year before journeying to Illinois. There, in 1827, he and his father bought some land near Magnolia, Illinois. He was a student at University of Illinois in Jacksonville, but he left after his junior year. He began wandering again, eventually joining the Texans in the Texas Revolution (1835—1836). 

The first town he founded was Parkville, Missouri in 1840. He also founded the town's newspaper The Industrial Luminary. Interestingly, though he was not an abolitionist (he had slaves of his own), he believed in Kansas’ right to self-determination and spoke of these beliefs in his paper. This helped lead to his founding of Polistra in 1854. 

The Kansas City Journal, upon Park's death, wrote of an incident that occurred in 1855. A pro-slavery mob attacked his newspaper building while Park was away in Manhattan, with the intention of killing Park. Though Park returned to town shortly after the mob violence, he quickly and quietly fled Parkville in fear for his life. He did not return until 1864.

He eventually left Parkville as well, donating his property to establish Park College in 1875. He went back to Magnolia, Illinois, where he died in June 1890 at the age of 78. After his death, he was returned to and buried in Parkville’s Walnut Grove Cemetery.