THE DEMOCRAT

The Hall County Democrat. The old Democrat was established here fifteen years ago by George W. Trelfern, from whom the oflice passed to Lee and thence to W. H. Weeks, under whom publication ceased.

The Democrat is edited by E. J. Hall. (1890:563)

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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 18%, 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 Tlie Free Press, the Democrat thus becoming merged and event ually entirely submerged. (1920:400)

THE CENTRAL 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 Wood 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 Anzeiger-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 Anzeiger-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-Herold, 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. (1920:403)

THE FREE PRESS

The Free Press was established about 1893, when Augustine Brothers moved the Doniphan Eagle 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. (1920:403)