Hall County, Nebraska - Chapter 22: The Press of Hall County, 1920

Chapter 22: The Press of Hall County

First Paper, The Banner - Peatte Valley Independent - -The Daily Independent - Grand Island Weekly Times - The Democrat - Grand Island Anzeiger and Herald - Central Nebraska Republican - The Free Press - Up to Date Ideas - The Volante - Miscellaneous Publications - Wood River, Doniphan and Cairo Papers told. But what is either to a sharpened Faber? Paste-pot and scissors have a mighty hold And save a sight of heavy mental labor - But if you want a power - sturdy, bold - Archimedes' hand-spike, or Damocles' sabre - Give us a Washington, a Taylor or a Hoe And spondulicks enough to make the critter

To the Mormons is accorded the honor of establishing the first newspaper in Hall County. The beginning of the press followed much closer upon the first settlement than the beginnings of even the organized churches and schools. In the spring of 1858 the Mormons had a number of farms operating on Wood River and in that little community the first newspaper in Hall or adjoining counties was established by them. It was named the Banner, was owned by one Peck and edited by Joe E. Johnson. It was published under several different names, during its Nebraska residence, among them being the Huntsman's Echo. In the spring of 1863 it was moved away with the Mormons and when taken to Salt Lake, was rechristened The Mountain Bugle. The Banner was the evangelist of this Mormon tribe, sending out their teachings and doctrines, so it was of little use to the colonies of German Christians, or even the Catholic community coming into that section of the country. For the larger fraction of a decade these German colonists were compelled

In 1869 an enterprise was established at North Platte which eventually became the first permanent paper of Hall County, The Independent. This paper was established as the Platte Valley Independent, and issued on January 1, 1869 by Mrs. M. T. G. Eberhart and Seth P. Mobley. In their salutations they claimed for the new journal just what its name indicated.

As it was the only paper of the whole western and north and south central sections of the state, west of Fremont, its pages were filled with advertisement and the news columns quite replete. On June H, of that year, a bitter attack on J. P. Marston was made.

This brought forth an action for libel, and threatened a sale of the Independent to Barton & Park on June 25, but the withdrawal of suit and the dismissal of Marston as foreman of the Union Pacific shops averted that course. Mr. Mobley remained at North Platte as editor for some time, and issued the paper as the Advertiser. In the meantime headquarters were removed to Grand Island, with Mrs. Eberhart as resident editor. On July 2, 1870, Mrs. Eberhart as editress issued the first number of the Platte Valley Independent at Grand Island. She was a virile writer and became generally known over the state. The tone of the new paper was decidedly Republican when political affairs were under discussion, and the news columns were well filled. This journal was the advertising medium for all of this section of the state, and gained a foothold which it has since maintained. Later Mr. Mobley became associated in the business and publication of the paper in Grand Island and the association ripened into closer relations, Mrs. Eberhart and Mr. Mobley being married on December 9, 1871.

Mr. Mobley had been editor of the Fort Kearny Herald in 1865, before he had undertaken the enterprise that developed into the I ede pendent. Mrs. Mobley was born in Limerick City, Ireland, and came to the United States with her parents in 1849, attended St.

Mary's convent at South Bend, Indiana, in 1852, after her father's death, taught school at Peoria, in 1864, removed to Omaha in 1867 and went to North Platte in 1869 where she taught school until she became connected with the new Independent. Both Mr. and Mrs. Mobley were very prominent in the Grange movement. Her Fourth of July addresses and lectures on statesmen and agriculture received some attention.

It will appear at sun-up each morning, and in order that there may be no fears in regard to the permanency of its financial basis, we make both subscriptions and advertising rates payable weekly.

After the Mobleys had conducted the Independent during the dozen years preceding, in 1883 they made a sale to J. A. McMurphy of Plattsmouth, who had a week or so later sold to Fred Hedde. J. W. Liveringhouse was another proprietor who owned the paper during the time the Mobleys sold it, and Fred Hedde eventually took charge.

Early in 1883 a company of liberal men, who were dissatisfied with the political control of the railroad monopoly and who desired a medium by which they might express more independent views, formed an enterprise that undertook the publication of what they termed The Anti-Monopolist These gentlemen were William Anyan, Fred Hedde, W. H. Thompson, and J. R. Thompson, afterwards district judge, Ed Hooper, Geo. Cornelius. This company did not exist very long and Fred Hedde in the course of 1883 acquired the whole establishment. When he purchased the Independent, and on July 18, 1884, became editor and owner, he united these two weeklies, retaining the name of The Independent and adopting the tendency of the anti-monopolist, a tendency peculiarly his own.

In the beginning of the year 1884 he established The Grand Island Dally Independent, the first issue of which appeared in January, 1884, and which has lived through all these years of struggle, varying adversity and prosperity, until it greets the year 1919, thirtyfive years later with daily telegraphic service for over 7,000 subscribers and purchasers.

The first editor of the Anti-Monopolist had been P. Ingalls, and he was followed by Mr. Liveringhouse, heretofore mentioned as also editor of the Independent for a short time. Mr. Hedde continued in charge of the Independent as the responsible editor continuously from July, 1884 with the exception of fifteen months from December 1, 1895, to the last of Februai-y, 1897, during which time the paper was leased to Messrs. W. M. Geddes,. fomier mayor of the city and A. F. Buechler,' until March 1, 1897.

Ceorce H. Thu State Central

Early in 1900 Mr Hedde indicated to his associate that he desired to sell the plant, clear up the small indebtedness on his business building, and be ready to meet the grim reaper whose coming the sturdy old pioneer - a pioneer both with reference to the physical community and with reference to the daily newspaper field - in fact welcomed, welcomed with the stoicism of a clear conscience and the realization that he had already run a course of four score years and had done the best he could. Because of lack of means on the part of his associate Mr. Hedde's expressed wish that the latter should take over possession of the paper could not be fully met ; but the latter set about to organize a company of active young newspaper workers who, with him had been engaged in the newspaper and printing field in Grand Island, and of four of these, two, namely Mr. Fulton, secretary-treasurer of the company and its business manager, and Mr. Baldwin, vice-president and in charge of all mechanical equipment, still cooperate and, together with the newer acquisitions, have played a material part in the subsequent success of the company. At the time of the organization, however, it was necessary to secure the investment of other capital. This was undertaken with some concern at the time. ' even though the amount needed was, compared with values of today, small, for no newspaper venture, thus or similarly organized in the past, had ever paid back any of the principal, to say nothing of interest on the investment. Mr. Buechler was confident, however, his confidence being based on his experience in the establishment and his plans for future developments, that he could safely guarantee an earning of ten per-cent and when C. F. Bentley, then cashier of the First National bank, showed his confidence by a subscription of $500 to the stock, and W. H. Harrison, postmaster at the time, did likewise, no great difficulty was encountered. Among others who assisted in the organization were A. W. Buchheit, John Alexander, and Henry Rief. The promises as to earnings were kept and no stock was ever sold at less than $107.50. Every stockholder has since been repaid that sum or a larger one for his investment, or has been offered the same. Shortly after the new firm had attained possession and was in going form Mr. Fralick had an opportunity to take up the advertising work for S. N. Wolbach, for which he had a special aptitude, and he disposed of his stock.

Sickness compelled Gus E. Neumann to retire from active work, though the latter always retained his financial interest. A. D. Boehm later purchased part of the interest disposed of by Mr. Fralick. For nineteen years this cooperative enterprise has been conducted without change in its leading officers, namely A. F. Buechler, president, F. G. Baldwin, vice-president, and J. R. Fulton, secretary. During this period it has completely changed its equipment with the exception of a few old desks kept rather as momentos than for use, has purchased a site, erected and equipped a new building and grown in circulation from a total of 1,100 daily and semi-weekly combined to over 7,000. In the same period the population of the city has about doubled. Its present stockholders are A. F. Buechler, J. R. Fulton, F. G. Baldwin, Adolph Bochm, Gus E. Neumann. R. R. Horth and Henry Rief. The paper is a member of the Associated Press, has the full day leased wire service of the Chicago-San Francisco Circuit and is generally accredited by the press circles as covering its field with a generous and enterprising service.

In the meantime, Mr. Mobley had remained with the Independent as business manager of the paper until about 1891, when he was appointed World's Fair commissioner. At that time A. F. Buechler, who had a few months previously been associated as solicitor and reporter for the Daily Times, came to the Independent as bookkeeper and reporter. When Mr. Mobley left for Chicago late in 1892 Mr. Buechler advanced in the business management and took charge of the local news. In 1895 Geddes & Buechler leased the paper and continued its publication until 1897, when Mr. Hedde desired to "get back into the harness," retaining Mr. Buechler as a silent partner. Mr. Hedde's declining years began to tell more emphatically upon his health,- however, and he was frequently compelled, for weeks at a time, to lay down the pen which he had so ably, independently and fearlessly wielded for so many years.

The Grand Island Weekly Times

The Grand Island Weekly Times was established July 16, 1873, by Charles P. R. Williams as a Republican journal. During the fall of 1873, this publication was issued as the Daily Evening Times. Vol. 1., No. 1, was issued on October 4, 1873, and the daily issue was continued during the heat of the fall campaign. During this campaign many sharp exchanges occurred between the two papers. In its first number the Daily Times quoted from the Independent of September 28, 1872, as follows:

When a man receives a nomination by fair means, then we consider, that, unless he is a very bad man, it is our duty to support the regular nominee, but when it is known that the nomination of a man has been brought about by unfair means, then we consider it not only our right, but our duty to refuse to support the nomination, thus setting forth an inducement for the use of anything but honorable means in the future. It has got to be a prevailing feeling that if a candidate receives the nomination by means fair or foul, his party must support him. According to our ideas of right, this course is entirely wrong, and all parties should be taught that unless their nomination is brought about in a proper way, it amounts to nothing.

That's our doctrine exactly, Mr. Independent. The nominations at the so-called Republican Convention, September 20th, were brought about by unfair means, and consequently we refused to support the nominees, and "Do so even at the risk of being called a 'bolter,' or even an 'ass' by the gentlemanly editor of the Independent, who does not want to know the facts in the case."

We actually managed to find one Independent in 1872, in which there was nothing abusive concerning Mr. O. A. Abbott, and that was the week when both its editors were both absent at the State Fair. Strange!

In January, 1882, the Semi-Weekly Times was issued, and a few months later the office became the property of W. H. Michael, and after his term of ownership, Mr. Liveringhouse acquired an interest in the Times. Messrs. Ryner and Rice then became owners, and in a short time Mr. Ryner became sole proprietor. He in time sold to C. W. Stidger, who sold in September, 1888, to Bion Cole, formerly of the Des Moines Mail and Times, and W. H. ScariY, of the Newspaper Union of Des Moines.

The Democrat

Next following the Independent and Times, of those papers which survived for any length of time came the old Grand Island Democrat. This journal was founded in 1875 as the Hall County Democrat by George W. Treffern, from whom the office passed to Lee and thence to W. H. Weeks, under whom that publication ceased. Later on The Democrat, appeared again under the editorship of Ed J. Hall. In 1898, the paper that bore that title was being published by the Democrat Publishing Company, revived in 1896, and edited by J. F. Ritchhart, an editor who had formerly been in South Omaha. At that time the Democrat was the representative of Jeffersonian and Jacksonian principles, but also acting as the organ for the democratic-populist fusion forces.

Hall and Jacques edited and published the paper for some time, when Mr. Jacques removed to the south. They were succeeded by J. F. Ritchhart, of South Omaha. Monroe Taylor then succeeded for a time in the editing of the journal and was followed by the Messrs. Adams & Risley. After the death of ^Mr. Adams, Mr. Risley sold the paper to Robert Evans, and the latter finally sold the publishing part of the business to I. M. Augustine, then publisher of The Free Press, the Democrat thus becoming merged and eventually entirely submerged.

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and Charles Boehl. Henry Gam had been a settler at Grand Island in 1866 and taught school in the village until 1879. In 1883 Mr. Boehl sold his interest to Garn.

In May, 1888, Ed J. Hall took charge of The Grand Island Herald (American) for Henry Garn, who had charge of the two Heralds. In January, 1889, Mr. Gam sold the Grand Island Herald to Mr. Hall, and in July, 1889, he sold the German Herold to Mr. G. M. Hein. The office of the American Herald was then moved to the Bartenbach Opera house and its publication continued there.

Its circulation in 1890 was about 800. Mr. Hall, its editor, had then been in Nebraska newspaper field for about eighteen years, fifteen of which he had spent with the Saunders County Times.

Weltblat, a German weekly newspaper, was controlled by Mr. Hein. It was established by him January 1, 1889, and was one of ihe few Plattdeutsch (commonly known as Low- German) magazines published in the world then, and had a circulation of about 1,100 copies.

During the time that Mr. Hein had the German Herold, he merged it with the Anceiger, a journal which he had established a number of years previous, and thus formed the Anseiger-Herold.

During the year 1918, upon the demand of the County Council of Defense, though no charge of disloyalty was made against it, this journal changed its name to Herald, and became an English publication.

The Cbntral Nebraska Republican

After Mr. Mobley terminated his services as superintendent of the Nebraska building at the World's Fair, he returned to Hall County and later went to Wood River and bought a weekly paper, the IVood River Gazette, but sold it again after a short time. He then returned to Grand Island and started a paper that attempted to be a second republican paper in Grand Island, known as the Central Nebraska Republican. For about three years paper continued as a weekly paper only, and then was extended as a daily paper under the same name. This continued to exist until it was purchased, about 1898, by N. Fodrea and son, who, approximately a year later, sold it to I. M. Augustine, then publisher of the Grand Island Free Press (weekly) who continued the publication until 1902, when its subscription list was sold to the old, but newly reorganized competitor, The Independent.

The Grand Island Free Press was a profitable venture as long as it remained purely a weekly, with progressive democratic or populist leanings. But the venture into the daily field, as the successor of the Central Nebraska Republican, about ten years previously, had not been profitable, disinterested newspaper' men generally ascribing it to the fact that the field had once been occupied by one daily newspaper and was too small for two. After disposing of the daily business Mr. Augustine, by this time joined in business by his elder son, E. W., continued the weekly publication and, in the course of a few years, purchased the plant of the Anseiger-Herold, continuing both publications.

In 1913 a number of Grand Island citizens, including W. H. Thompson, F. W. Ashton, B. H. Paine, and other leading democratic spirits, placed financial support behind the effort of D. A. Geil, then of St. Paul, to establish a democratic daily. The Free Press and Anseiger-Herold combined plant, incorporated at the time for $10,000, was purchased. Additional capital was added to establish a daily and new machinery was obtained and an elaborate news service for a morning daily was secured. Even the established journal, in a greeting to its competitor, expressed the belief that it might find the field sufficiently resourceful for a second daily newspaper venture. But despite the fact that there was nothing in the nature of any newspaper "war," the effort was unsuccessful from the financial standpoint, and the paper had a short lease of life. Men interested in the former German weekly, the Anzeiger-Hcrold, formed a separate organization, purchased that part of the business before the venture was abandoned, and, by means of a stock company established it in a business place of its own. It was prospering and had begun to pay dividends when the war and its vicissitudes for all papers in that language came on, and at a meeting of the stockholders it was decided to change the paper to the English. Thus was born the Grand Island Herald which is doing a successful weekly publishing business.

the; free press The Free Press was established about 1893, when Augustine Brothers moved the Doniphan Bagle plant to this city and changed the name. I. M. Augustine later purchased the interest of his brother George and published an independent weekly with democratic leanings.

Up-To-Date Ideas

Under that title The Up-to-Date Publishing Company issued a journal under the editorship of Penn P. Fodrea. This was a journal devoted to the interests of advertisers and contained many good things for business men who spent money in advertising whether on a large or small scale. Mr. Fodrea after leaving Grand Island located in Omaha, and became one of the leading advertising men there.

The Volante

This publication is a monthly that has been issued by the students of the Grand Island Baptist College. It is a sixteen page paper, the usual periodical size, very ably edited in every department and printed on fine quality of book paper.

Miscellaneous Publications

about 1897-98 by Henry Garn, as a German paper. It was an eight page, six column weekly advocating republican principles. Later it was published by Brandt and Neumann, succeeded by the latter individually, and was merged with and discontinued by the Independent in 1900.

The Orchard and Vineyard was issued in 1871 from the Independent office, but B. L. Easley, a nurseryman, was interested with Mr. Mobley in the promotion of that agricultural journal. It continued publication for about one year.

The Mirror was a temperance journal, also called The Rechahite, founded at Grand Island in August, 1874, by J. I. Wylie and Miss M. V. Huston. In October of that year. Miss May Van Pelt took the place of Miss Huston. This Mr. Wylie who was a painter by trade had not long continued in the newspaper work when he was cowhided by Mrs. Mobley for an editorial assault upon her as a newspaper woman. This chastisement was inflicted upon Wylie in the Grange hall.

The Workman believes our tariff system, our land system, our financial system and our ballot system to be wrong, some in part and some in whole. The Workman will labor for commercial freedom, the single tax on land values, the Australian ballot system, and honest money. The Workman believes that the late confederation of the Farmers' Alliance and Knights of Labor to be a grand step in the cause of human happiness, and shall sustain, to the best of our ability, this union of action, which will be for good government.

Wood River

The Wood River Interests has been published by O. M. Quackenbush since 1894. Continuously and successfully under the management of Mr. Quackenbush until very recently.

there by C. C. Johns, succeeded by Mr. Maltman, until removed to Kenesaw about the year 1905. Mr. Quackenbush, in 1919 sold his Interest plant back to Mr. Maltman, who, under the name of The Sunbeam is publishing a fine enterprising weekly.

The Doniphan Index was established April 1, 1888, by Charles Kelsey, who in 1879 came to Hastings, and worked at the case there until his removal to Doniphan.

The Doniphan Enterprise, under the ownership of J. W. Beirbomer, is at present published as a live local weekly and is apparently enjoying a good patronage.