USA > Wisconsin > Eau Claire County > History of Eau Claire county, Wisconsin, past and present; including an account of the cities, towns and villages of the county > Part 48
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Owing to the development of business the Chippewa Valley Railway Light & Power Company was organized in 1907 with a capital stock of one million dollars and a bond issue of two millions. They purchased the water power at Cedar Falls from the Wiseonsin Power Company in 1907, and in 1909 the line was constructed from Menomonie to Eau Claire. Later it was extended to Lake City and Wabasha. In 1910 a fifty-foot eon- crete dam was built at Cedar Falls, having 14,000 horsepower. In February, 1910, the capital stock of the company was increased to two million dollars. In 1911 the water works, electric plant
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HISTORY OF EAU CLAIRE COUNTY
and gas works at Cedar Falls were purchased, and in July of that year the electric lighting plant at Menomonie was bought. In that year also the transmission line to Altoona was constructed and sites for a lighting plant were purchased on the Chippewa river. Cars began running to Altoona in 1914. In 1913 the com- pany secured the Spring Valley & Ellesworth lighting plant and in 1914 the Elmwood lighting plant was purchased.
In June, 1914, the Chippewa Valley Railway, Light & Power Company was absorbed by the Wisconsin-Minnesota Light & Power Company. This company has a capital of five million preferred stock and five million common stock, with an author- ized bonded debt of twenty millions. Mr. Albert E. Pierce is vice-president and general manager of the railroad system under the Wisconsin-Minnesota Company.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
THE NEWSPAPERS OF THE COUNTY.
By JAMES H. WAGGONER.
The Eau Claire Times, city of Eau Claire, Wis., August 21, 1857, by E. B. Spencer, Democratie in politics, an official paper of Eau Claire county, were legends of our first newspaper. The "oldest inhabitant" recalls, also, the Telegraphı, by A. W. De- laney, and the Tribune, in the late fifties, and the Herald, in the early sixties (publishers' names not at hand), as others of the pioneer ventures that didn't find "a long felt want" they might have filled. R. H. Copeland started the Argus in 1865. It sur- vived inhospitable conditions longer and the editor and paper were still remembered by inhabitants in the eighties.
The Free Press. The pioneer that made the hit for nearly half a century was the Eau Claire Free Press, October, 1857, Republican in politics; C. G. Patterson, editor. He turned it over to G. E. Porter a few months later, who popularized it and in 1864 sold it to J. B. and H. M. Stocking. Mr. Porter held one of the United States land offices here for several years and later was an active and fortunate participant in the lucrative lumber industry of that period. Porterville, which ceased to be a village soon after the dismantling of the big mill, was named for him. The Stockings continued the paper with success until 1870, when a Mr. Rodman and J. M. Brackett, as business man- ager and editor, acquired control; and on February 19, 1871, a stock company capitalized at $15,000, for the publication of both daily and weekly issues, was organized, with J. M. Brackett, president and editor; John Hunner, vice-president and city editor, and J. B. Stocking, secretary-treasurer and business man- ager. The business was increased and the Republican party became numerically strong. Mr. Brackett, in recognition of service in the Union army and for his party, having been appointed postmaster in 1879, J. A. Whitmore, who had acquired an interest in the company, was editor of the paper little more than a year. George A. Barry was business manager and also editor after Mr. Whitmore's retirement, until September 1, 1881.
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Mr. Brackett was postmaster until August 20, 1886, and there- after moved to Nebraska, where he died November 11, 1888. Mr. Hunner, on the Democratie ticket, in 1890 (the year of "The Little Red School House" campaign), was elected state treas- urer, re-elected in 1892, and thereafter moved to Spokane, Wash- ington, where he is prominent in the real estate business. J. B. Stocking was deputy collector of internal revenue for several years, and passed away twenty-odd years ago. H. M. Stocking is prominent in St. Paul lumber circles. Mr. Barry is in the news- paper business at Monrovia, California.
J. H. Waggoner, of Richland Center, and J. H. Keyes, of Watertown, successful newspaper men, aequired control of the Free Press September 1, 1881, by purchase of the stock held by Brackett and Whitmore and by W. A. Rust, and subsequently bonght the stoek held by J. B. Stocking and John Hunner. Mr. Waggoner became president and treasurer of the Free Press Com- pany, and editor of the Free Press; Mr. Keyes, vice-president and secretary and business manager. Mr. Waggoner bought the stoek of Mr. Keyes and of J. G. Thorp in October, 1887, thus beeoming the sole owner; but he continued the business in the name of Free Press Company until -- impelled by the handicap of impaired
V sight-he sold the plant and paper to II. C. Ashbaugh, March 9, - 1880. As sole owner he discharged the functions of editor, bnsi- ness manager, mechanical superintendent, bookkeeper, etc., and onee a carrier boy. His safe and sane party leadership was mani- fest in the result of the campaign of 1886, when as editor of the Free Press and chairman of the Republican county committee, the election of the entire Republican local ticket was triumph- antly scored, for the first time in Ean Claire county, and at one- fifth of the expense of the presidential campaign preceding it. Mr. Waggoner had been chief elerk of the state senate for several · years, and was chief elerk of the state land department, and Mr. Keyes' clerk of the insurance department at the state capitol in recognition of honorable service in the Civil War and for their party, when they became interested in the Free Press, but each preferred the more onerous though less remunerative activities of newspaper work. The former, in 1902, after seven years of exceptionally gratifying newspaper experience at Oconto, returned to his Eau Claire residence. Having three papers in smaller towns part of the time, and other interests elsewhere all the time, he has lived here in voluntary retirement from aetive participation in community affairs except an occasional requisi- tion by friends and neighbors, to which he has willingly responded.
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THE NEWSPAPERS OF THE COUNTY
Mr. Keyes bought into the Eau Claire Linen Mills Company after sale of his interest in the Free Press Company, and was its man- ager for some years. Later his stalwart body yielded to the ravages of a wound received in battle, and thus he gave up his life that the Union might live. Such sacrifice is the supreme test of courage, patriotism and loyalty. Mr. Ashbaugh eame to the Free Press with experience in the publication of a daily in a small city, and his ownership of a dozen years may well express a compliment to him. He christened the daily issue the Evening Free Press, continned both issues until 1902, when he soll the lists and good will to C. W. Fiske, then court reporter, who merged his purchase with the Evening Telegram. The equip- ment of the Free Press was converted into a job printing outfit, successfully developed by the Ashbaugh Printing Company. Mr. Ashbaugh lives in comfortable retirement at Denver, Colorado. The city reporters for the Free Press now recalled were John Hunner, Henry Slingluff, George A. Barry, Ira Flagler, F. W. Phillips, C. M. Ilyskell, W. P. Weleh, Frank C. Dougherty, Claude Dunlap, of whom Slingluff and Phillips are dead.
The Eau Claire News. The publication of the News, Demo- eratie in polities, was begun in 1869 by Flavius Mills and H. C. VanIlovenberg. The latter sold a year later to W. F. Bailey, and Mills and Bailey sold to R. H. Copeland in 1874, and Copeland sold to G. O. Mills and S. S. Kepler in 1876. Mr. Mills died a few years later and his interests passed to W. S. Cobban. Kep- pler and Cobban sold two-thirds of the proposition to Fred W. A. and M. A. Pauley in 1887, and the other third a year later ; and after Cleveland's second election, in 1892, they discontinned the paper that they might give their entire attention to the large job printing business they had developed. Fred W. A. Pauley bought his brother's interest in the job plant ten years ago and is carry- ing on the business. M. A. Pauley went to California and has large interests in mining prospects in lower California. The News was ever a faithful exponent of the demoeracy of its time, and especially able under the editorship of Mr. Keppler, who was a trenehant writer, and one of Eau Claire's most worthy citizens. Judge Bailey's connection with the paper was merely an incident, as he has been one of Ean Claire's foremost lawyers and was cirenit judge six years in the nineties. Mr. VanHoven- berg, by industry and business acumen, amassed a comfortable property and passed away four years ago. He was an active ehurehman and a zealous prohibitionist.
The Eau Claire Leader. The Eau Claire Leader is the morn-
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HISTORY OF EAU CLAIRE COUNTY
ing daily paper of the Chippewa Valley that carries the Asso- ciated Press news of the world, and is issued in a daily form of eight pages, with sixteen or over of its Sunday editions. The publisher is the Eau Claire Press Company, and its present editor is P. C. Atkinson.
When this paper was started it was called the Daily Leader, and its first editor was W. H. Lamb, who began it in May, 1881. From that time until 1885 it saw many different owners and editors, until there entered into the management William K. Atkinson, a Canadian from London, Ontario. For many years the Leader was a sort of family newspaper, W. K. Atkinson being assisted by his sons, P. C. Atkinson and by Harry M. B. Atkinson, who died September 29, 1908, and who at that time was the active business manager. W. K. Atkinson also received great assistance and in a peculiarly valuable manner from his brother, Henry M. Atkinson, whose death came on October 13, 1913. The brothers were known respectively as the "Major" and the "Colonel," and they gave to the paper that personal element that is, perhaps unfortunately, passing away in these days of co-operation and corporation. What the major or the colonel wrote was distinetively characteristic, and for a score of years they were marked characters in western Wiseonsin. Major Atkinson is still a contributor to the paper in a department ealled "Northern Sparks," and which deals with incidents and opinions that have to do with the great and growing country north of Ean Claire.
Politically speaking, the Eau Claire Leader is recognized throughout the state as conservative Republican. It is in fact independent and progressive. It does not seek the mission of being "a moulder of public opinion," but there have come times in its thirty-three years of existence that it has seized hold of, or made the opportunity that meant something for the com- munity. Quite recently it began the effort to make Eau Claire the first so-called "Commission City" of Wisconsin. It sue- ceeded. Before this, at the time of the free silver propaganda, it ehanged from a Democratie to a Republiean paper. In a large sense the Leader is a popular paper, and easily leads all others in this part of the state in point of eirculation. It has for years maintained a Chippewa Falls department, now edited by Miss Kathryn Gadsby.
The Eau Claire Press Company publishes the Leader in the morning and the Daily Telegram at night from a plant and build- ing that are suitable and fully abreast of the times. Their com-
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TIIE NEWSPAPERS OF THE COUNTY
bined daily circulation is close to the ten thousand mark, and no city of the size of Eau Claire has the news field better covered.
The Eau Claire Telegram was founded by William Irvine in 1894, the date of the first issue being December 16, of that year. It was started as a morning publication, with offices in the Ash- land block, South Barstow and Gray streets. In August, 1895. the paper was sold to W. P. Welch and A. J. Rich, and soon thereafter the Telegram Publishing Company was organized and took over the property. The incorporators were W. P. Welch, C. W. Fiske and G. A. Barry. Mr. Rich at this time retired from the newspaper business and moved to Indianapolis. Mr. W. P. Welch was the editor and continued as such early in 1913, when he retired on account of ill health. To him is largely due the fact that the paper survived the vicissitudes incident to starting a daily paper in a limited field, already occupied by two dailies.
Soon after the organization of the Telegram Publishing Com- pany the paper was changed from the morning to the evening field. In 1899 Mr. E. S. Welch, now postmaster at Eau Claire, became associated with the paper as stockholder, director and business manager, and continued as such until April, 1907, when he assumed the duties of postmaster. He was succeeded as man- ager by C. W. Fiske. In December, 1901, the Free Press was purchased by the Telegram Publishing Company from H. C. Ash- baugh and consolidated with the Telegram. The Free Press was an old established paper, history of which has already been given. This left the Telegram the only evening paper in the field, and from this time on its growth was rapid. The paper at various times occupied quarters in the Layeock building and in the Wilson building. In 1894 the Telegram moved into new quarters espe- cially built for it, at the corner of South Barstow and Main streets, where it remained until the Spring of 1913, when it moved into its present quarters in the Eau Claire Press building.
In February, 1912, the property was sold to the Eau Claire Press Company, which also took over the Leader, the Eau Claire morning publication, the former stockholders of the Telegram Publishing Company. and the Leader Publishing Company being the owners of the stock of the new company. The Leader and the Telegram from a news and editorial standpoint are separate and occupy separate offices, but the mechanical work is done by the same plant and the same force. It was believed that in mak- ing this arrangement better service could be given, better papers could be made, and economies effected on the production end. This belief has proven correet. The mechanical equipment of the
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HISTORY OF EAU CLAIRE COUNTY
Eau Claire Press Company is modern and complete in every par- ticular. As time goes on the wisdom of this move to give Eau Claire and this section of the state better papers and better service will become more and more apparent. In politics the Telegram has always been Republican, though independent in its views as to matters affecting the party.
Der Herold, in the German language, was founded in 1886 by Leopold Kortsch, who published it until 1890, when he dis- posed of it to Joseph Weiss. Mr. Weiss continued to publish it until 1892, when the present owner, John J. Auer, who had pre- viously bought the extensive job printing plant of D. L. Elbert, by whom Der Herold (edited by A. Weissonfels, who later returned to Germany) had been printed for some time, purchased one-half interest in it, forming the partnership of Weiss & Auer. The business was carried on by them until 1898, when Mr. Auer bought out Mr. Weiss and became sole owner. In 1900 Mr. Auer received the subscription lists of the "Thalbote," a German paper at Chippewa Falls, by Theodore Brockman, and of the "Nordstern," a German paper at Menomonie, by Charles Pieper, which, with its own circulation, gave Der Herold a large circula- tion all over the northwestern part of Wisconsin. Der Ilerold is now the only German newspaper published in the northwestern part of Wisconsin, and it commands a strong circulation among the thrifty German population in this part of the state. Mr. Auer being an ardent Democrat and devoted to the principles of that party, has made Der IIerold a strong Democratie organ, whose services have been invaluable to the Democratic party of Wisconsin. He is also popular with his fellow citizens of other nationalities. As his party's candidate for state senator in 1900 he ran ahead of his ticket against a popular Republican nominec. Eau Claire, Buffalo and Pepin counties then comprised the sena- torial district.
Mr. Kartsch was a Republican and twice elected to the office of coroner. After selling Der Herold he was employed by other publishers in the city, and was accidentally drowned in the Dells pond four years ago.
Norwegian Newspaper Reform. In the eighties several attempts were made to establish a Norwegian newspaper at Eau Claire. The last one, "Arbeideren" (The Workman) was ahout ready to give up when a "temperance wave" struck the city about 1886. Among the converts was George Alfred Engelstad. He was a well educated man, but a hard drinker. He had done editorial work on the "Arbeideren," and when he changed his
NIAGARA HOUSE;
NIAGARA NOUSE.
NIAGARA HOUSE
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THE NEWSPAPERS OF THE COUNTY
views and attitude on the liquor question the paper also ehanged. This brought Mr. Engelstad in tonch with Mr. Ole Br. Olson, at that time publishing a small monthly temperance paper at Chi- cago. The two agreed to consolidate their publications and started a six-page weekly, "Reform." In 1891 a company was formed-the Dremad Publishing Company-with a capital of two thousand five hundred dollars. Mr. Engelstad returned to Norway in 1890 and Mr. Olson turned over his interests to the company. IIc was editor and business manager and worked hard. In 1896 Mr. Waldemar Ager engaged as business manager and Mr. Olson continued as editor. In 1903 Mr. Olson died and Mr. Ager was engaged to fill his place. Mr. Alfr. Gabrielsen was manager for one year in 1904, but sinee that time Mr. Ager has served both as editor and manager.
The capital stock of the company has been inereased to four thousand dollars. They have published many books, and the com- pany has its own plant and linotype machine. The circulation of the paper is at present five thousand seven hundred. The com- pany also publishes a children's paper, the Monthly "Lyngblom- sten," edited by Rev. Olav Repsval, of Chetak. The founder of the paper, Ole Br. Olson, was born at Christiania, Norway, May 19, 1857, and emigrated to Chicago in 1877, where he lived until he moved to Eau Claire in 1887. He was the leading spirit in the movement for total abstinence and prohibition among his countrymen. He was a brilliant speaker and a good writer, and was known everywhere where Norwegians had settled. He made a trip to Norway in 1895 and leetured in that country. He was usually mentioned as "The Norwegian, John B. Gough."
Waldemar Ager, his successor, was born in Norway, in 1869, and came to America when six years old. He worked in various printing offices in Chicago until 1892, when he came to Eau Claire to take charge of the "Reform" printing office. Was later engaged as bookkeeper and in 1896 became business manager. He is well known as an author, having published half a dozen books, two novels, three collections of tales and short stories, and one which contains literary essays. IIe has also found time to write for papers and magazines both in Norway, Denmark and in this country. One of his books is translated into English. two of them are published both in Norway and the United States. He is a leading member of the Norwegian-Danish Press Associa- tion, and served as its president for three terms; a member of the Eau Claire library board six years; member of Anglo-Amer- ican one hundred years anniversary peace committee; elected
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honorary member of the Thinalian Club at the State University of Minnesota; secretary of the Norwegian Society of America, ete., and is well known as a lecturer.
Augusta Eagle. The first newspaper established in Augusta was founded by the late Griff O. Jones, one of the prominent men of northern Wisconsin in his time. Mr. Jones was a native of Wales, born in 1836, and spending his childhood days among his native hills. He came to Cambria in 1847, and the education he received was in English and Welsh. His first newspaper venture was at Westfield, Wisconsin, in 1873, and in June, 1874, he came to Augusta and founded the Eagle, which he owned and managed for twenty-five years. At that time he was appointed postmaster and died Jannary 14, 1901, before the expiration of his term of office. He was a man of unusual qualities of mind, a thorough scholar and poet. In a competition, which was national in its scope, he was pronounced the ablest Welsh poet in America. Ilis editorials were widely quoted, and the Eagle was always looked upon as one of the strong Republican papers of the state. Ile was a Mason and was the first master of the Masonic lodge at Cambria. At the time he was appointed postmaster he sold the Eagle to D. S. Benedict, who ran it for a short time, finding it rather more than he had bargained for to keep up the reputation which had been achieved for it. He resolved to take up some other business, and in the fall of 1900 he sold the Eagle to Messrs. Wilson and Masters, who came from the office of Hoard's Dairy- man at Fort Atkinson and assumed control. They made a suc- cess of the paper and continued in charge until 1907, when Mr. Masters retired and Mr. E. J. Wilson became the sole owner. He has run the paper on conservative lines, avoiding that which would work for discord and striving at all times for everything that would be for the best of the community. The paper enjoys a liberal patronage, and while not the factor politically that it was in the early days of its history, still it is a strong factor for making a home and its surroundings better.
The Augusta Times was founded in 1884 by the late James H. Williams, who came here and successfully managed the paper for a number of years. He was a veteran of the Civil War, going out with the Forty-eighth Wisconsin Regiment under Capt. Hobart M. Stocking. lle was a man of ability and strong characteristics. No one who ever lived in Augusta had a wider circle of friends, and these remained steadfast to the last. Ile was a thorough- going newspaper man, believing that a local newspaper should give the local news, and at all times be independent. The paper
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took front rank from the first and was destined then to lead all of the northern Wisconsin papers of its class. After a few years Mr. Williams resigned the management and moved to Barron and founded the Barron County Republican. Later he moved to Hayward, and ran the Hayward Republiean and later the Sawyer County Gazette. He died in Hayward August 3, 1908. Follow- ing the ownership and management of Mr. Williams the Times had a precarious existence for fifteen years, during which time it changed its polities frequently and was the organ of first one set of politicians and then another, until only a close observer could tell where it stood. By being as it was-a party organ instead of a local paper-it lost the prestige it had gained under the able management of its founder. In May, 1904, the paper an! outfit was closed out and sold to E. G. Hlerrell, one of the home boys, and he has owned and managed it since that time. With the exception of the first year or two of his management, when the paper was an active supporter of Senator LaFollette, the paper has been strietly independent in politics, and in fact inde- pendent in everything that pertains to its management. The paper is strictly a home newspaper, giving all the local news and the news of the surrounding towns and county seats. Advertisers have been quick to take advantage of the paper's popularity, and the Times has a larger advertising patronage than most country papers in this part of the state. Progress is manifest along all lines. An entirely new equipment has been added, the old "ready prints" have been discarded and the Times, in its own building, is now in that class of papers which are profitable business propo- sitions and solid institutions in the state.
The Fairchild Observer was founded in 1900 by Julius Ewald, who conducted it about a year alone, and then took a partner in the name of E. A. Pratt, and the firm of Ewald & Pratt published the paper two years. The plant was then sold to J. II. Netteshern, who conducted it one year, when he sold out to E. A. Harmon, who, after a year, died, and its publication was continued by his widow for one year, and on May 17, 1907, the plant was pur- chased by R. B. Swarthout, who has since successfully continued its publieation. It is an eight-page sheet, six column quarto, and had a circulation in 1913 of nine hundred and is not only a credit to the publisher, but Fairchild and vieinity, and Eau Claire county.
Fall Creek Cultivator. The first issue of the "Fall Creek Cultivator" was on December 21, 1910, by Walter Brueski, founder, owner and editor. It is a newsy eight-page folio sheet
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and enjoyed in 1913 a circulation of five hundred copies, with a rapidly inereasing subscription list. In August of 1913 a hand- some eement bloek building 16x 32 feet was erected for office purposes, fully equipped with the latest power machinery for use in condueting a first-elass up-to-date newspaper and printing offiee.
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