USA > Minnesota > Otter Tail County > History of Otter Tail County, Minnesota: Its People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I > Part 36
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76
Digitized by Google
332
OTTER TAIL COUNTY, MINNESOTA.
days. Wednesdays and Fridays via Brandon; eastern mail via Osakias, every Thursday ; Rush Lake mail came on Friday, and White Earth mail on Thurs- day of each week. The Advocate and the Record had the field to them- selves until 1873, although it is unodubtedly true that the Record had disap- peared from Otter Tail City before that time.
The second paper established in the county seat was the Fergus Falls Journal, which made its initial appearance in 1873 with Adoniram Judson Underwood as owner and editor. This paper has continued under this name down to the present time and with but one change of management. Underwood retired from the paper in the middle of the eighties and Elmer E. Adams, who came to the Journal from the Telegram in the spring of 1885, became the editor. The plant of the Journal was later taken over by the present Fergus Printing and Publishing Company. During its career of forty-three years the Journal has seen more nearly two dozen papers come and go in Fergus Falls with several of these it has been connected in some way. Mention of these papers will be made in connection with their separate accounts to follow.
Between 1873 and 1880 the Journal and Advocate, the two rival papers of Fergus Falls, were the only newspapers in the county seat. The Perham News ( 1874) and Perham Independent ( 1877) are the only other papers in the county noted during this period. The Advocate was sold by its owner. O. S. King, to J. S. Brocklehurst about the middle of the seventies, and the latter operated it until 1881. At that times Charles J. Sawbridge, who had learned the printer's trade in Alexandria, bought the Advocate and tried to improve its waning fortunes by rechristening it the Independent. But its change of name did not enhance its prosperity and before the end of that year Sawbridge sold a half interest in the paper to Rev. Peter Claire, a Methodist minister. The following year Claire became the sole owner of the paper, but it was doomed to failure. In the spring of 1883 it was suspended, and its owner, Claire, bought an interest in the Telegram of which he became the business manager. The Independent office seems to have been taken over by Brocklehurst in 1883 after Claire went to the Tele- gram and used by him to run a small job printery.
A number of papers were born in the eighties and practically all of them were the outgrowth of political campaigns. Some time in 1880 John Schroeder. a well educated Norwegian and at that time clerk of the district court, started the first Norwegian paper in the county. It bore the name of the Normanna Banner, but because it could not get sufficient advertising it was not long before its owner suspended its publication. The plant lay idle for a time and it seems that A. J. Underwood, the editor of the Journal, got control of the plant in some way during 1880 or 1881. It seems certain
Digitized by Google
333
OTTER TAIL COUNTY, MINNESOTA.
that in 1881 another Norwegian paper was started by A. K. Teisberg under the name of the Ugebald. This was printed with the outfit of the defunct Normanna Banner. Being printed in the Norwegian language, its circula- tion was largely limited to people of that nationality, although it numbered some Swedes and Danes among its subscribers. Teisberg was a candidate for clerk of the district court in 1884 against Charles J. Wright, and the exigencies of the time brought about the downfall of Teisberg as editor of the Ugeblad and the installation of Anfin Solem as editor. The history of the deposition of Teisberg from the paper is a part of the political history of the county. Wright was a regular candidate of the Republican party and Teisberg, who had failed to get the nomination in convention, came out as an independent candidate after Wright had refused to promise him a place as deputy in the office. Wright, having promised the position of deputy to another man, and feeling that Teisburg might be able to cause him some trouble, associated two of his friends, A. Levorson and B. N. Johnson, with him and and furnished the capital for A. Solem to acquire the paper. As soon as Solem became owner he removed Teisberg as editor and the paper became a Wright organ during the remainder of the campaign. It is needless to say that Wright was elected. Solem continued as owner and editor of the paper until 1909, when ill health compelled him to dispose of it to a company headed by Ole P. B. Jacobson. Mr. Jacobson became the editor and continued in this capacity until 1912, when the present editor, N. T. Moen, took charge. Mr. Jacobson, who is now a member of the board of railroad and warehouse commission of the state, is the largest stockholder in the company and has been president of it since it was organ- ized in 1909. The paper is Republican in politics and has always stood for county option and all reform measures. It has always been a successful paper from a financial standpoint, although its subscription price is only fifty cents a year. It now has a circulation of about thirty-five hundred. Another Norwegian paper in Fergus Falls, which has long since disap- peared, was the Rodhuggeren. It was established in the fall of 1893 by Torkel Oftelie and Ole Hagen of Crookston. Hagen bought the equip- ment of a defunct paper at Crookston. brought it to Fergus Falls, and Mr. Oftelie bought what was necessary to complete the printing plant. From this small beginning soon grew the strongest Populist paper in northern Minnesota. The title of the paper, Rodhuggeren, signifies the "chopper" or one who digs out stumps or roots. The paper espoused the principles of the Populist party and was a success from the start. Both its editors were radical writers and especially Hagen, who wrote most of the editorials. The paper was outspoken in its advocacy of the tenets of Populism. It was established at the time when this party was in the ascendancy in this part
Digitized by Google
334
OTTER TAIL COUNTY, MINNESOTA.
of the state and in a few months the subscription list was increased from a few hundred to four thousand. In 1895 the owners of the Rodhuggeren bought the Samhold of Elbow Lake and merged it into the Rodhuggeren. About this time I. H. Ulsaaker was added to the company as part owner. Finally, in the spring of 1898, the paper was moved to Fargo, and, as subse- quent events proved, this was a mistake on the part of the owners. They had a complete printing establishment in Fergus Falls, no debts and a paper with more than four thousand subscribers. The only trouble lay in the fact that they could get very little advertising. Upon moving to Fargo, the Rodhuggeren was consolidated with two Norwegian papers, The Dakota and Fjerde Juli, the consolidation of the three resulting in a new sheet known as the Fram (meaning forward). In Fargo there was more adver- tising, but the expenses were so much heavier than in Fergus Falls that the paper ran into debt and, like many other papers in Fargo, it went under the hammer. Hagen died in 1910.
After the Rodhuggeren moved to Fargo. Haldor E. Boen, who had always taken a great interest in the paper, decided to start another paper with the same name in . Fergus Falls. This he did and it was commonly known as the Rodhuggeren child. . It was printed in the office of the Fergus Globe, but did not live more than a year. Since 1907 Mr. Oftelie has been the historian of the Telelag, a national organization of the Telemarkings in America, and serves as editor of the Telesoga, a quarterly magazine devoted to the history, biographies and reminiscences of the Telemarkings in America. The magazine varies in size from thirty to eighty pages, and has a circulation of about two thousand. The magazine, now published in Minneapolis, is in its seventh year, the March, 1916, number being the twenty-seventh issued. The Telesoga was published in Fergus Falls dur- ing the first year of its existence (1909) and then moved to Fargo, where it was issued until 1914. Since that time it has been published in Minne- apolis.
In 1898, immediately after the Rodhuggeren was moved to Fargo, E. Mellem, a professor in Park Region College, established another Norwegian paper in Fergus Falls called the Red River Tidende. He had bought the outfit in Crookston from Reverend Johnson, at one time an internal revenue collector. The paper was Republican in politics, but this fact did not save it from failure. It ran a more or less precarious existence for about two years, when it suspended, causing its owners to lose all they had invested in it.
In the fall of 1882 C. F. Kindred established a Norwegian paper in Fergus Falls to further his candidacy for congress against Knute Nelson. This paper bore the Norwegian title of Fremad, which being translated
Digitized by Google
335
OTTER TAIL COUNTY, MINNESOTA.
means "forward," but it lasted only until after the campaign was over. Kindred had no further interest in the paper than to influence the Nor- wegians in his fight against Nelson and as soon as the election was over he withdrew his support from the sheet. He placed Herman Shol in charge of it upon its establishment, but as soon as the campaign was over Kindred sold it to John Strass. The latter conducted it only a short time in Fergus Falls and then moved it to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where he is still issuing the paper under the same name.
The Fergus Falls Daily Telegram, the first daily paper in the county. made its appearance in September, 1882, with Smith Bagg Hall as editor, and Harry M. Wheelock as business manager. Both of these young men had been employed on the St. Paul Globe prior to taking charge of the new daily in Fergus Falls. H. P. Hall established the paper with capital fur- nished by C. F. Kindred, of Brainerd, who at that time was a candidate for congress in this district against Knute Nelson. H. P. Hall was at this time the editor of the St. Paul Globe and firmly believed that Kindred had a chance to defeat Nelson, and especially if he had a paper to boost his candi- dacy. A few weeks after the daily was started a weekly issue was com- menced, and both the daily and weekly continued to come from the press until the paper was absorbed by the Fergus Falls Journal in 1885. During the few weeks before the election the paper devoted its whole energy to the candidacy of Kindred,who, it was said at the time, furnished H. P. Hall ten thousand dollars to establish the paper, with the understanding, of course, that it was to be for Kindred first. last and all the time in his fight against Nelson. The November election proved that Kindred had wasted his money; Nelson overwhelmingly defeated him. With his defeat, Kindred naturally lost interest in the paper and the result was that it was soon in sore straits. It is said that its operating expenses far exceeded its income and that Kin- dred had to write a good sized check each week to keep the paper afloat. In the early spring of 1883 L. L. Baxter and H. E. Rawson, a law firm of the city, bought a third interest in the Telegram for one thousand dollars. At this time a job printing department was installed and C. L. Baxter, a son of L. L. Baxter, was placed in charge of the new department. In reality, how- ever. young Baxter was sort of a general manager, although this fact was not known to the reading public. For two years the Telegram experienced many ups and downs, more particularly the latter, and during this time sev- eral different men were connected with it. In 1883 Mr. Wheelock retired from the paper and joined Capt. James D. Wood in the establishment of the Weekly Democrat, the first issue of which appeared on December 6, 1883. But Democrats were few and far between in Otter Tail county in 1883 and, as subsequent events proved, they were fewer and farther between
Digitized by Google
336
OTTER TAIL COUNTY, MINNESOTA.
than the new editors had figured on. The result was the abandonment in 1884 of the Democratic sheet, which, by the way, was printed on the press of the Journal, a Republican paper. There is no reason to think that this, however, had anything to do with the passing of the Weekly Democrat; even in those days the same ink and type was used for printing papers of both political beliefs.
It is necessary to digress from the account of the Telegram at this point to speak of the entrance of a new factor in the newspaper history of Fergus Falls. In July, 1883, A. J. Underwood, who had established the Weekly Journal in 1873, started a daily edition of his paper and it was but a short time until it was evident that the city could not support two daily papers. The fortunes of the Telegram became more wavering as the Daily Journal increased its circulation.
When Mr. Wheelock retired as manager of the Telegram in 1883, l'eter Claire, who had been running the Independent, the successor of the Advo- cate, suspended his paper and bought a third interest in the Telegram, at the same time becoming its manager. Claire, however, did not have any more success with the Telegram than he did with his Independent, and in a few weeks he was ready to retire and turn the burden over to someone else. A. C. Bunyon next attempted to manage the paper, but his success was no more pronounced than his several predecessors. Smith Bagg Hall continued as editor from the time the paper was started in the fall of 1882 until Feb- ruary, 1884, when Elmer E. Adams, who had just graduated from the Uni- versity of Minnesota. took charge of the paper. Mr. Adams bought an interest in the paper with the assistance of the George B. Wright estate, C. D. Wright, J. W. Griffin and Samuel Hill. The new management did not succeed in improving the fortunes of the Telegram, and within a year the new owners were ready to discontinue the paper. It was at this juncture that the owners of the Telegram and Journal agreed to consolidate, the Telegram buying a half interest in the Journal for a thousand dollars. Un- derwood, the owner of the Journal, retained the other half interest, while Henry G. Page was given one share and endowed with the powers of chief arbiter in case any differences should arise between the owners. Underwood continued as editor of the Journal and Adams became the business manager. Thus passed out of existence the Telegram, the first daily paper established in Otter Tail county.
Another paper to appear in the eighties was the Otter Tail County Farmer, which sprang into existence full-grown, Minerva fashion, from the brain of George W. Boyington, then filling the office of register of deeds. Thirty years have passed since Boyington launched his sheet with the agri- cultural heading and opinions as to why he ventured into the undertaking
.
Digitized by Google
.
337
OTTER TAIL COUNTY, MINNESOTA.
are no less well defined today than they were at that time. Boyington was a wealthy farmer with a consuming ambition to engage in politics and the best evidence points to this desire on his part as the real reason for the establishment of the Otter Tail County Farmer. Starting the paper during the boom days of the early eighties, he continued it for a few years without ever making a real newspaper out of it. If he had any political ambitions beyond holding the office of register of deeds his paper was not able to help him to gratify them. He held his office from 1878 to 1889 and during one year at least ( 1886) his paper was the official paper of the county. Harry Brocklehurst was connected with the paper for a time as its editor. Boying- ton did a large amount of job printing, especially of official blanks, and if his paper made any return at all on the investment it was from this source. For some time he printed the paper in the brick building on Court street, on the north bank of Red river, then owned by Harrison & Bears. About the first of September. 1888. James A. Nowell, of the St. Paul Globe, at the suggestion of the Democratic state committee, took charge of the Otter Tail County Farmer and operated it until about the middle of the following December, when he disposed of it to the Journal. In the fall of 1888 the Democratic party was well united in the state and it was thought there was a good chance to elect Cleveland for President, E. M. Wilson for governor and Charles Canning, of Norman county, for Congress. It was to further the candidacies of these three men that Mr. Nowell took charge of the Otter Tail County Farmer. Shortly after taking charge of the paper, Mr. Nowell started to issue a daily edition under the name of Daily Farmer in order to compete with the Daily Journal, and continued issuing both the weekly and daily until the middle of December following.
The Fergus Globe was established November 19, 1887, by E. S. Lam- bert and F. E. Salvage. Later, Salvage disposed of his interest to Lambert, who continued it alone until 1895. when he sold it to H. E. Boen, who had just retired from Congress. Up to that time the paper had been Republi- can in politics, but when Boen secured control of it he started it on the road to. Populism. It followed the vagaries of that party through thick and thin and when the party became too thin its owner took up socialism.
In the spring of 1910 Boen turned the management of his paper over to O. J. Arness, of Minneapolis, who was of decided socialistic tendencies. The Globe had been leaning toward socialism, and Arness made it a full- fledged organ of the party. Shortly after becoming its managing editor, Arness proposed to Boen to buy the Globe and the owner agreed to take three thousand dollars for the plant. Arness attempted to raise the money by forming a company and selling stock, but failed to secure the necessary (22)
Digitized by Google
338
OTTER TAIL COUNTY, MINNESOTA.
support among his socialist brethren in the county. The deal fell through when Arness found that Boen had misled him in regard to the subscription list, and he at once withdrew and made preparations to start a paper of his own. Shortly after Arness withdrew from the Globe. that paper suspended, its owner, Boen, being physically unabe to manage the sheet himself, Arness started his newspaper under the name of the Minnesota Socialist.
The Minnesota Socialist made its initial appearance in Fergus Falls, December 15, 1910, with O. J. Arness as editor. According to the editorial page of its first issue, its publishers were the "Producers Publishing Com- pany," but it is not known who the stockholders were. The fact that the socialist candidate for Congress received 1,248 votes in November, 1910, may be one reason why the paper was started in the county at this time. The paper was published in the shop building on Mill street in the same room with the Fergus Falls Blank Book Manufacturing Company. The latter company was in charge of Herman Thode, who, however, had no official connection or otherwise, with the Socialist. The paper continued to come from the press until the summer of 1911, when it was discontinued for lack of support. The plant was removed from Fergus Falls and taken to Grand Forks, North Dakota, but local subscribers in Fergus Falls received no issue of the paper after it left the city.
The Free Press made its bow to the public September 21, 1900, with C. J. Sawbridge as editor, A. C. Thomas, manager, and the Free Press Pub- lishing Company as owners. The paper continued under this name until November 29, 1901, when its name was changed to the Fergus Falls Free Press, by which name it has since been known. The paper espoused the cause of the Populist party at the start and so continued until it changed owners in 1902. On March 7, 1902, the paper passed into the hands of J. G. Morrison, then pastor of the Grace M. E. church of Fergus Falls, and J. G. Durrell, an old newspaper man in the city. The new owners struggled with the paper for nearly four months, but the issue of June 27, 1902, again carries the name of C. J. Sawbridge as editor and informs its readers that it has returned to its former management. Mr. Sawbridge continued as editor until June 21, 1906, when the paper passed into the hands of a stock company composed of the following: Leonard Eriksson, president ; John O. Johnson, vice-president ; Enos M. Ricker, secretary; F. R. Schweitzer, treasurer. Mr. Ricker was installed as editor, and the same issue informs the public that the new company is to be known as the Johnson-Ricker Com- pany as soon as the proper incorporation articles could be filed. The new company had charge of the paper about six months but evidently were not able to make it a financial success. The issue of May 3. 1907. contains the announcement that Martin W. Odland, who had bought the paper in the
Digitized by Google
339
OTTER TAIL COUNTY, MINNESOTA.
previous January, would supplant Mr. Ricker as editor. Since that date Mr. Odland has been the sole owner and editor of the paper. Future gen- erations may hear old residents say that the Free Press once issued a daily and in order that this fact may be definitely established the facts may be thus briefly set down. The Daily Free Press, with Martin W. Odland as editor, was published without interruption from November 9, 1909, to July 7, 1910, a total of two hundred one issues coming from the press. The plant of the paper is located on the south bank of the Red river on Mill street.
Wheelock's Weekly was established by Harry M. Wheelock and made its initial appearance with its issue of September 19, 1895. Mr. Wheelock learned the newspaper trade in the state of New York and later located in St. Paul, where he was working on the old St. Paul Globe when he came to Fergus Falls in 1882 to join the staff of the Daily Telegram. Mr. Whee- lock was with the Telegram until 1883, and then assisted Capt. J. D. Wood in the founding of the Weekly Democrat. When this paper was discon- tinued the following year he became associated with the Daily Journal and was with this paper until he established his own in 1895. On March 17, 1913, Mr. Wheelock took G. C. Mantor in with him, under the firm name of Wheelock & Mantor.
At least five other papers have appeared in Fergus Falls only to disap- pear. One of these, bearing the welcoming title of the Saturday Morning l'isitor, was a fly-by-night sheet which came and went about the middle of the nineties and made such a faint impression upon the reading public that little is known of the paper other than its name and not even that much information has been preserved of its progenitor. It was like the grass- hopper of former years, which came from parts unknown and disappeared to regions of the same kind.
Another ephemeral sheet was unfurled by C. J. Sawbridge in 1914, flying at its mast head the broad title of the Park Region Review. It was published at Fergus Falls, printed at Wadena each Saturday and distributed by carriers in Fergus Falls each Sunday morning. A sharp lull in the wind soon caused this breezy sheet to be hauled down after it had issued four numbers.
The Morning Index, a daily paper, was launched in 1905 by Vincent. Comstock and led a checkered career for about three months. It represents a class of papers in Fergus Falls which have been for political purposes only; when their sponsors lose enough money in their respective adventures to ease their political wrath, they cease publication. It attained a nominal circulation of one thousand during its brief career. It was published in the
Digitized by Google
340
OTTER TAIL COUNTY, MINNESOTA.
building now occupied by the Fergus Falls Press, on a press which had formerly seen service in the Globe office.
It is not a matter of general information that Fergus Falls once boasted of a paper which appeared only on Sunday morning. In December, 1883, S. C. Harris placed before a Sabbath-loving public a sheet bearing the descriptive title of the Every Sunday Morning, which, according to one of its contemporaries, the Journal, "gives promise of being a spicy and read- able adjunct to the press of the city." No copies of this paper seem to have been preserved and it is not known whether it measured up to this promise or not. Another reference to it in the Journal stated that it was a society and church paper. While its birth is duly recorded by the Journal nothing farther is known of it; its death and funeral evidently private.
In these days, when the cry of preparedness is being heard throughout the land, it is gratifying to note that Fergus Falls once had a militia com- pany which owned, edited, distributed and read a newspaper which bore the cognomen The Gopher. Back in the eighties, when politics, militarism and other fads were seeking expression through the press, Company F of the Minnesota National Guard, proposed to issue a weekly paper. This sheet was under the editorial management of Clifford I .. Hilton, now assistant attor- ney-general of Minnesota, while its management was intrusted to A. Lever- son, now deputy clerk of the United States district court in Fergus Falls. Probably the most unique feature of this military sheet was the manner in which it was printed. Levorson printed the whole issue on a typewriter and then made mimeograph copies for the subscribers, about two hundred in number. The paper was not sufficiently remunerative to justify its con- tinued existence and after coming from the typewriter for three or four times it ceased publication. Thus came to an end The Gopher in Fergus Falls. Some time afterwards the University of Minnesota began publish- ing a paper by the same name and the proprietors of The Gopher in Fergus Falls have always claimed that the university got the idea from their paper.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.