USA > Minnesota > Polk County > Compendium of history and biography of Polk County, Minnesota > Part 14
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Crookston is fortunate in having a big supply of water power (electrical). This is derived from the Red Lake River at two points, one station situated within the city limits and the other about four miles to the east. Cheap electrical power, excellent railroad facilities, and plenty of labor at reasonable wages make Crookston a desirable location for manufactur- ing industries.
CROOKSTON CITY SCHOOLS.
One of the chief problems to solve in any commun- ity is the provision of adequate educational facilities for its young people. Crookston believes that every ehild within its borders is entitled to a school environ- ment which is condueive to its highest development, mentally, morally, and physically. One will be con- vineed of this faet by a visit to the new $150,000 Central High School, with its equipment for all de- partments of secondary education, which are in the hands of well trained and experienced instructors, and also note that another $150,000 is invested in five
grade buildings located in various sections of the city, which care for the pupils below the seventh grades.
The upper grades are organized on the junior- senior high school plan, which is now being followed in all the leading schools. Beginning with the seventh grade, three courses are offered-academic, industrial, and commercial, which afford the boy or girl an opportunity to select what will be of the greatest value to him or her, if it be not possible to complete the high school course. Other advantages are that promotion is made by subject instead of by grade, thus bridging over the gap between the eighth grade and the high school, which previously was the means of preventing many from continuing their work in the higher grades. In the Crookston sehools last year only eleven per cent did not enter the senior high school from the eighth grade.
The Senior High School is directed by a principal who has sixteen assistants. Complete courses are offered in the following: Academie subjects, teacher training, commercial, industrial, art, and public speaking. Specialists in musie and drawing super- vise these subjects throughout the entire system.
The following statistics will be of interest as indi- cating the extensiveness of our school system: Total enrollment is as follows: Senior High School, 300; Junior High School, 250; grades below the sixth, 850. Fifty persons are on the faculty, whose annual salaries amount to $35,000. Adding to this money paid for janitor and offiee help, the total salary schedule for the year amounts to nearly $45,000. School property is valued as follows: Grounds, $35,- 000; buildings, $300,000; furnishings, $10,000; equipment, $5,200, or a total of $350,000.
OTHER SCHOOLS.
In addition to the public schools, Crookston has also the Cathedral School, providing various grade work and full high-school courses. The high-school enrollment is forty and the grades one hundred sixty. The school is under the superintendence of the Bishop and directed by a principal who has eight assistants of the Sisters of St. Benedict, of Duluth.
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The Cathedral School building is a fine structure, erceted and equipped at a cost of $75,000.00, and con- tains club rooms and gymnasium and an auditorium with a seating capacity of seven hundred.
Another institution of education is the St. Joseph Academy, under the direction of the Sisters of St. Joseph. The courses provide, including high school work, grade and kindergarten, the attendance in each being twenty-five, one hundred and forty, and thirty- five respectively. This school is housed in a beautiful structure, located on Houston Avenue, and creeted and equipped at a cost of approximately one hundred thousand dollars.
Other Crookston educational institutions include the Crookston College, providing commercial courses, shorthand, typewriting, and preparatory work; also automobile, gas and steam engineering. The faculty consists of the president and five assistants; the enroll- ment is about two hundred and fifty. The Crookston College property and equipment are valued at forty thousand dollars.
A branch of the University of Minnesota, the North- west School of Agriculture, is located at Crookston. Elsewhere in this volume a special chapter is given to this institution.
CHURCHES.
The religious field of Crookston has not been neglected. Nearly every denomination is represented and the city has fourteen splendid church edifices, two Catholic, one Episcopal, and eleven other Protestant churches, divided as follows, one Congregational, seven Lutheran, two Methodists, and one Presbyterian. There is also a Christian Science society.
LODGES.
Nearly all of the important secret societies, lodges, etc., are well represented in Crookston, among which are, Ancient, Free, and Accepted Masons, Royal Arch Masons, Knights Templar, Order of Eastern Star, Odd Fellows, Rebceca Lodge, Knights of Columbus, Ancient Order United Workmen, Degree of Honor,
Elks, Catholic Order of Foresters, Ladies of the Catholic Order of Foresters, Royal Arcanum, Modern Woodmen of America, Royal Neighbors of America, Knights and Ladies of the Maccabees, Modern Samari- tans, Moose, Modern Brotherhood of America, the Equitable Fraternal Union, Fraternal Order of Eagles, Independent Order of Foresters, Brotherhood of American Yeomen, Sons of Norway, Independent Scandinavian Workmen's Association, Sons of Her- mann, United Commercial Travelers, and Women's Christian Temperance Union. Among other associa- tions are numbered the Crookston Commercial Club, Germania Hall Association, Crookston Rod & Gun Club, Tennis Club, Citizens' Band of Crookston, Mer- chants' Association, Crookston Automobile Club, Vi- king Chorus, Red River Valley Medical Association, and the Northwestern Minnesota Agricultural As- sociation.
NORTIIWESTERN AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION.
The grounds of the Northwestern Minnesota Agri- cultural Association consisting of sixty-eight acres are located one half mile north of the city. The annual fairs are put on in July, and draw exhibits and patronage from all of northwestern Minnesota, parts of North and South Dakota and Wisconsin. Partieu- lar attention has been given to the matter of exhibits and the institution has become a farmer's affair in the broadest sense. Good amusement features have also been provided and the excellent manner in which the yearly fairs and expositions have been handled has made the enterprise very beneficial and popular with the people.
HOSPITALS.
Three high elass hospitals are located at Crookston, namely : The Bethesda Hospital, the St. Vincent Hos- pital, and the Polk and Norman County Tubercular Sanitarium. These hospitals are strictly modern and up-to-date. The Bethesda and St. Vincent are each equipped to handle about thirty-five patients and the Sanitarium thirty patients. The Bethesda Hospital is
Hg murphy
THE CROOKSTON DAM Built by W. J. Murphy in 1914
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operated under the direction of the Bethesda Hospital Association, and the investment in building, ground and fixtures is approximately $25,000. The St. Vin- cent Hospital is under the direction of the Benedictine Sisters' Benevolent Association and the buildings,
grounds and equipment are valued at approximately $50,000. The Sanitarium is a Polk and Norman County institution and their property is valued at about $70,000.
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CHAPTER X. THE NEWSPAPERS OF POLK COUNTY. BY W. E. MCKENZIE, CROOKSTON TIMES.
NEWSPAPER CONDITIONS PAST AND PRESENT-LAND NOTICES PAID THE PIONEER PRINTERS-E. M. WALSH AND THE CROOKSTON PLAINDEALER-FIRST PAPER WAS THE POLK COUNTY JOURNAL-BROWN AND HIS "BROADAXE''- THE TRAGIC TALE OF THE NORTHERN TIER-THE CROOKSTON CHRONICLE-THE FISHER BULLETIN-THE PAPERS OF 1882-RED LAKE FALLS DEMOCRAT AND THE CROOKSTON TIMES FIRST DEMOCRATIC PAPERS-THE M'INTOSH TIMES-CROOKSTON TRIBUNE- THE VESTESHEIMEN-THE PEOPLE'S PRESS-OTHER POLK COUNTY PAPERS ALIVE AND DEAD.
The history of Polk County newspapers is largely within the period of the personal experience and ob- servation of the writer. It is the period of the great- est evolution of the newspaper and publishing busi- ness of any similar lapse of time in the history of the world-the period of the perfecting press, and the linotype machine, of the big penny paper, and the rural free delivery, which has put the daily news- paper into the hands of the farmers and people liv- ing in outlying country villages all over the United States. It is a period coincident with the period of accomplishment in all lines of human endeavor in all elimes and countries.
To go back to the early history of Polk County newspaperdom-not the earliest history by a few years-is to go back to my boyhood, and, with the aid of a halting memory, to recapture, so far as possible from the dim storehouse of things, half forgotten, the ineidents connected with the propitious birth, the illustrious or inglorious eareer, and in many cases the untimely death, of Polk County newspapers.
Thirty years ago Polk County supported twenty- one newspapers. To-day there are but nine in the county, and twelve in the territory composing Polk County at that time, but now divided into the coun-
ties of Polk, Red Lake, and part of Pennington. The falling off in the number of papers is due to two main causes-the establishment of rural mail routes, and the loss of patronage derived from the publication of final proof and contest notiees on Government Land.
LAND NOTICES PAID TIIE PIONEER PRINTERS.
In the early history of Polk County newspapers the final proof and contest notiees were the chief, and in some cases practically the entire, support upon which the pioneer publisher leaned. Wherever there was a postoffice, and considerable quantities of Gov- ernment land being proved up, there the intrepid edi- tor, with a hig ease of nonpareil type for setting land notices, and a eigarbox full of long primer for setting the two or three inches of news and the editorial, pitehed his tent, and began to aeenmulate a fortune.
Three dollars for final proof notices and five dol- lars for contest notices was the rate allowed by the Government. The notices had to be published in the paper nearest the land, so as to make no slashing of rates or dividing up with "the attorney in the case," which has taken many thousands of dollars in money which belonged to the newspapers and distributed the sum among the "poor and needy" in the legal pro- fession.
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Some of the papers in those days carried as high as two or three pages of land notiees, set in solid nonpareil, and their incomes from this souree ran as high as $150 or $200 a week. No wonder those early publishers were optimists of the most virulent type ! No wonder they were boosters of the brightest luster ! No wonder the publisher at Red Lake Falls saw in his town, of one store and two saloons, a "Seeond Minneapolis," and the editor at St. Hilaire, with two stores, three saloons, and a blacksmith shop, went his rival one better, and christened his town the "Second Chieago," and in leaded long primer proved it, too, to his own satisfaction at least.
But their dreams of future greatness, colored by the roseateshne of their present prosperity, were not to be for long. The country was rapidly settled. The publie land passed from the Government to the pioneer farmer, and the fat pickings from final proof notiees began to dwindle, until now the publisher of a Polk County paper would not recognize a land no- tice, if he tripped over it. The rural mail carrier was the next shadow to be east across the sunlit path of the early Polk County publisher. He pushed out daily into the highways and byways, where the local weekly had reigned supreme, and brought with him the daily papers of the neighboring towns and the big cities, and, with cireulation decreasing and income diminishing, the life of the pioneer publisher began to be east along hard lines. The big eity papers, es- pecially the weekly editions, competed with the loeal journals to the latter's great disadvantage. Many a Polk County man, disgracefully deficient in public spirit and local patriotism, cut off his home paper and subseribed for a city sheet instead.
Some branched into other, and more profitable fields, others folded their tents and sought new pas- tures, and others hung on and on, and went down with their eolors flying. Of the twenty-one papers that flourished in Polk County thirty years ago, but four are in existenee today, and of the publishers of thirty years ago the writer of this article is the only one who survives in the business.
E. M. WALSH AND THE CROOKSTON PLAINDEALER.
E. M. Walsh was Polk County's first editor and publisher. In 1874 he established the Crookston Plaindealer. It was printed at Grand Forks in the office of the Grand Forks Plaindealer, which was es- tablished and then being conducted by his brother, George Walsh. The Crookston Plaindealer was con- dueted as a side issue to Mr. Walsh's other activities. He was postmaster, storekeeper, real estate dealer, land loeator, and a few other things in those days, and when John MeLean, now long sinee dead, but then in the hey-day of his youth, came up from Audu- bon to praetiee law and establish the Polk County Journal, Mr. Walsh gladly transferred the literary, social, and political burden to his shoulders, and the Plaindealer ceased to exist.
POLK COUNTY JOURNAL FIRST PAPER PRINTED IN THE COUNTY.
The Journal, like the Plaindealer, was at that time a branch or offshot of another publication. It was the offspring of the Audubon Journal, published by Harvey E. Cooke, and was printed in Audubon for several months after it was established here. But about that time Crookston began to assume the airs of a civilized community. Settlers were coming in, the trees had been chopped out of the ground on Main Street, and one or two other stores had been estab- lished ; the Pioneer Hotel had been erected, the tin horn gambler, the tent saloon, and the dance hall were established institutions. The Crookston offspring of the Journal soon reached a stature, where it over- topped its parent. It looked as if Crookston was to be "some town," and Mr. Cooke wisely decided to leave Andubon to rot in ignorance and folly, and to move his plant to Crookston. The Audubon Journal was accordingly discontinued, and in 1878 the Polk County Journal, the first paper to be published and printed in the County, was born.
For over a quarter of a century Mr. Cooke was the guiding star in the Journal's destiny, and never was there an issue of that paper that was not made in-
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teresting to a large family of readers while he was its editor and publisher. He was a ready and entertain- ing writer, possessed a great fund of dry humor, com- bined with much common sense ; he knew, better per- haps than any other man who had ever occupied an editorial chair in this County, how to shape his edi- torial expressions, and present the news most effect- ively. He was not as good a business manager as he was an editor, and while the Journal prospered fairly well, it did not make any big fortune for its owner. Mr. Cooke died in the harness in 1900, and Mrs. Cooke took charge of the Journal for a few months, when it was sold to N. S. Gordon. He began, shortly after his purchase, the publication of a daily edition, which was continued with many ups and downs, and under varions managements, until 1910, when it was finally discontinued and the plant was purchased and the paper merged with the Times.
BROWN AND HIS BROADAXE.
The next paper to embark upon the treacherons sea of Polk County journalism was the Broadaxe. "Broadaxe Brown" is the only name which the editor was ever known by. He was an itinerant printer of the tramp variety. The motto of the Broadaxe was "Hew to the line, let the chips fall where they may." The line was rather a crooked one in Brown's ease; but the chips were plentiful, and many was the good eitizen who was banged in the neck with one of them. The Broadaxe, under those circumstances, had a short and exciting career. It was started one bright, sun- lit day in the spring of 1880; but before the frosts had nipped the foliage in the fall the Broadaxe had ceased to hew. In the last issue, which was printed on butcher's straw wrapping paper, Brown-in delight- fully frank, if not overly elegant, language-expressed his opinion of the town, and of a lot of the leading citizens, and he then quietly disappeared. He left in the night, a proceeding which showed his com- prehensive conception of the axiom that "discretion is the better part of valor." There were many look- ing for Broadaxe Brown the next day-those with
bills to collect, as well as those with grievances to avenge ; but Broadaxe Brown has been but a troubled memory from that day to this. There are people still living here who do not like the name of Brown.
THIE TRAGIC TALE OF THE "NORTHERN TIER."
Captain Arnold was the next soldier of fortune to tilt a lance against the windmill of early day journal- ism. His paper was the Northern Tier, named for the four counties of large proportions, though limited population, that constituted the territory along the northern boundary of the State. The Northern Tier was started at the same time the Broadaxe was cut- ting the deepest gashes into the characters of leading citizens. Its life was also fleeting. Captain Arnold was a man of distinguished military appearance, and brilliant attainments. Ile was a good mixer, but a poor financier. The local columns of the paper were crowded with personal "jollies" for Tom, Diek, and Harry. Every citizen was mentioned by his or her Christian name, and they were all smilingly present when the roll was called in the local items each week. There was no room left for advertising, and the ghost failed to walk after the first few weeks-and then the Northern Tier's light went out.
A year or two later (in the year of 1883 to be exaet), Captain Arnold came back. He had found a financier in the person of H. W. MeCall. McCall was also a capitalist, in a limited way, but made no claims to being a newspaper man. Arnold and MeCall had also gathered together a number of brilliant young fellows, whom they had indneed to cast their lot with them and gather riches and renown in the revival of the Northern Tier and its publication as a daily.
There was Billy Stark, a live wire reporter; J. A. McNair, an up-to-date advertising manager; an Eng- lishman of studious mien, and Coekney accent whose name I have forgotten, who was to be eity editor, and Albert Kaiser and E. U. Hauser, who were just print- ers. But the craft was too heavy-too many officers on the bridge, and too few seamen before the mast. When the waves of financial disaster began to roll
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over its decks Captain Arnold was the first to be tossed overboard. He drifted to St. Paul, and from there to the Soldiers Home, where he remained until he died. The others hung on a month or two longer. Then came the crash.
A fact worthy of mention in connection with the passing of the Northern Tier is, that the only two men whose whereabouts are known are the two who acted as deck hands on the wreck-Albert Kaiser and E. U. Hauser. The former is the wealthy president of the First National Bank of Bagley, and the latter is a millionaire member of the firm of the Grant Smith Company, one of the largest firms of railroad con- tractors in the United States.
THE CROOKSTON CIIRONICLE.
Previous to the revival of the Northern Tier, or in 1881, W. R. Dunn, a young newspaper man in search of a location, drifted in this direction. He found Crookston a thriving town of over 1,000 people, the county seat of a county big enough, and rich enough in natural resources, to support a nation. Brother Crooke, with his Journal, was fighting the battle for education and reform all alone. Mr. Dunn was not deaf, or near sighted. He heard the call of duty and rushed forward and dug himself in with the Crooks- ton Chronicle.
The Chronicle was a good newspaper, as newspapers went in those days-newsy, well edited, clean and able. Mr. Dunn was a lovable, upstanding, kindly man, an able writer, honest and straightforward in his convictions, and in his business methods. The Chronicle prospered, and in a short time became the leading paper in Northern Minnesota. Owing to the ill health of the editor the Chronicle was sold in 1884 to J. G. McGrew, and Mr. Dunn went to Washington, D. C., where he secured a government appointment in the census department, which he held until his death a couple of years later.
Mr. McGrew, who succeeded Mr. Dunn, was a law- yer. He had been practicing in Crookston for sev- eral years previous, and continued to practice for a
year after making the purchase. The writer was then put in charge of the Chronicle until Mr. MeGrew closed up his legal practice, and assumed personal control. Mr. McGrew was not a success as a news- paper man. He was a profound and able editorial writer ; but not a good news gatherer or business man- ager. He soon realized this, and turned the paper over to a nephew, who was even more proficient in his inability to make ends meet in a financial way. W. H. Palmer and his son, Harry Palmer, were the next to try to rejuvenate the paper. They tried it as a daily ; but it would not go somehow, and in a month or two they discontinued it for good-with numerous creditors bewailing its loss.
In the meantime the County was filling up rapidly with new settlers. Towns were springing up, and what perhaps was the nearest approach to a boom ever known in this section was on.
THIE FISHER BULLETIN.
In 1882 the Fisher Bulletin was started, by A. Dewey. He was a product of the celebrated Kindred- Nelson Congressional fight inaugurated that year. A politician, a political writer, stump speaker, and a man of recognized ability, but of questionable finan- cial strength, he existed for a time on the returns from the plethoric Kindred coffers and then drifted back to a place on the staff of a Metropolitan paper from which he had emanated. He was succeeded by C. C. Knappen, and he by a son of Erin, named Shaugh- nessy, who conducted the last wake over the remains of the Bulletin. Fisher has not had a paper since.
TIIE PAPERS ESTABLISHED IN 1882.
The Red Lake Falls Gazette, the St. Hilaire Spec- tator, the East Grand Forks Courier, and the Fertile Journal were all started during the year 1882, and all are still in existence. The Red Lake Falls Courier, and the Fertile Journal, if my memory serves me, were founded by Fred Puhler, long since dead. The East Grand Forks Courier was started and conducted for many years by F. J. Duffy, who, by combining it with other business interests, made a fortune upon which
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he is now living. The writer was responsible for the St. Hilaire Spectator.
THE THIRTEEN TOWNS.
In the year 1883 Albert Kaiser went to Fosston, and founded the well known journal ealled the Thir- teen Towns. He possessed the rare combination of a good newspaper man and a good business man. In a year or two he had saved enough money to go into the banking business at Fosston, and sold the Thir- teen Towns to W. A. Foss, who is still condueting it successfully.
FIRST DEMOCRATIC PAPERS-RED LAKE FALLS DEMOCRAT AND THE CROOKSTON TIMES.
The same year F. J. Rothpletz, a Southern fire- eating Demoerat, started the Red Lake Falls Demo- erat, but the surroundings were not congenial to one of his fiery temperament. The Chronicle was then started on its downward journey to oblivion, and he came to Crookston, and engaged the distinguished services of the writer to help launch a Democratie paper, which was named the Times.
This was in the summer of 1885. Things went swimmingly until the icy blasts of winter began to howl upon us. Then Mr. Rothpletz began to pine for his sunny Southern elime, and I nursed a lusty ambi- tion to be the sole owner, and publisher of the Times. Mr. Rothpletz went to Tennessee, I went to work, and I also went into debt. In 1887 the Daily Times was launched. Both Daily and Weekly are still pub- lished at the old stand. Subscription prices on appli- eation.
THE M'INTOSH TIMES.
In the year 1886 there was a demand for a paper at MeIntosh, and I joined with C. F. Lommen in es- tablishing the MeIntosh Times. After a year or two Mr. Lomman became obsessed with the idea that he was healthy and wealthy enough to monopolize the whole business, and I, in turn was magnanimous enough to let him-after I had gotten a good price
for my interest. He conducted the paper sueeess- fully for ten or twelve years when he, aided and abetted by a frugal wife, and a growing family of boys, had gained sufficient intelligence and filthy luere to own and stoek a dairy farm, which he is now conducting with ability and profit. Since then the MeIntosh Times has passed through various hands; but, though aneient, is not yet extinet.
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