Press

T. J. Pickett launched a Republican paper -the Rock Island Register-February 9, 1859, and published from the start a weekly and tri-weekly, with Campbell W. Waite as associate editor, who continued his connection with the paper for about five months. June 6, 1860, C. W. Kirkland became a partner, the firm name being Pickett and Waite. editors and proprietors. January 9, 1861, Mr. Pickett having been elected to the Legislature, Mr. M. S. Barnes took charge of the editorial department, which he retained until the return of Mr. Pickett in August of that year. The tri-weekly ceased publication some time …

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After the Banner began its support of the Democratic party, the Whigs felt the need of a paper during the political excitement of 1840, and accordingly in the early part of October of that year the Upper Mississipian was started; its editors and proprietors at first not being announced, but all communications were to be addressed to Daniel Crist. The paper had an eventful career and its editorial columns were principally filled with personal quarrels. At times the paper failed to be published on account of lack of funds with which to purchase paper, and at one time it was …

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While the Union was first issued in Rock Island, November 5, 1862, the origin of the paper is to be sought in Moline, the daily and weekly Union representing a union of two Moline papers, and the transfer of the office of publication to Rock Island, the county seat, and the political and commercial centre of the county. In August, 1857, Ames Smith, who came west from Lambertville, New Jersey, started the Moline Workman, a weekly which strongly espoused the anti-slavery cause. In February, 1857, he sold the plant to Robert H. Graham and Alfred Webster, who changed the name …

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Jesse A. Winger was the founder of the Press. He bought the entire plant, new from shooting-stick to newspaper press, in Chicago, and issued Number one of Volume one in Aledo, the seat of Mercer County, on October 19, 1894. In that city it was published for more than a year as a red hot Democratic weekly. But the income wasn’t quite large enough to pay the expenses, and so Mr. Winger sought a new field. He found it at Reynolds, the metropolis of the lower end of Rock Island County, and one of the finest little villages in the …

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The first issue of the Port Byron Globe appeared October 16, 1880, J. W. Simpson being editor and proprietor. It was then an eight-column folio and was liberally patronized from the start. Mr. Simpson, February 22, 1885, sold out to Hess and Owen. This firm continued for a year, when Mr. Hess sold his interest to C. A. Metzgar, and the latter disposed of his interest to Mr. Owen after only a short connection with the paper. In 1891 W. D. Hall purchased an interest and the firm was then known as Owen and Hall. March 1, 1898, Frank McMeekin …

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In 1845, the Whigs were again without a paper, and in November of that year, a prospectus was issued, for a new paper to be known as the Northwestern Advertiser, edited and published by Doctor Horatio P. Gatchell, who came from Cincinnati, Ohio, as a Christian (Campbellite) preacher, and Miles W. Conway. The press was purchased at Dubuque, Iowa. On the 12th of November Mr. Conway died, and this so discouraged Doctor Gratchell that he sold the paper to General William Vanderer in May, 1846. Mr. Vanderer published the paper for about a year when he sold it to Messrs., …

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On the 30th of August, 1875, the first number of a handsome semi-weekly, entitled Neue Volks Zeitung, was issued from Zeis’ Building on the northeast corner of Eighteenth Street and Second Avenue. It was started by Charles C. Winter, one of the editors of the Westliche Post, of St. Louis, who had come here during the April previous to inspect the prospects for such an enterprise. The paper was a success from the start. In politics it was thoroughly independent, and it maintained that position admirably through out, until its name was changed. Mr. Winter’s paper flourished until March 1, …

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On the 10th of March, 1855, James Bowie issued a daily paper in Rock Island called The News. It was printed in Raymond’s office in Gothic Block, and was of transient duration. It expired after an existence of one hundred and twenty-eight days. Bowie came here from Baltimore, and after leaving here edited a paper at Geneseo, Henry County. In September, 1858, he returned to Moline, and in connection with Frank Linnehan started the Citizen, which soon failed, and in 1860 he was again at Geneseo, in connection with another short lived paper in that place, where he died in …

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Although the youngest of the newspapers of Moline, the Moline Evening Mail has, from the first, enjoyed the confidence and favor of the great mass of the people comprising Moline’s population; and with the growth of the city and suburbs the paper has increased in these attributes. Started as a Sunday morning paper in 1893, the daily edition was begun soon after-ward, induced by the growth in popularity of the Sunday edition. The first owner of the paper was the firm of Stanley and May-Messrs. T. I. Stanley and Charles E. May-and it so continued until Mr. Stanley sold his …

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From June of 1867, when Captain L. M. Haverstick bought the Moline Republican and discontinued it, to November 26, 1870, Moline had no newspaper. On the date last named, Messrs. Lowe and Gilson (Frank R. Gilson, later of the Clinton, Iowa, Herald and the Benton Harbor, Michigan, Palladium, during his proprietorship of which latter paper he died) started the Moline Review. They used the printing material of the discontinued Republican. February 17, 1871, Mr. Lowe retired from the firm. Mr. Gilson continued publishing the paper till September 23, 1871, when he gave way to Kennedy and Crichton. May 1, 1872, …

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