TRIGG, Joseph S.

TRIGG, SPAFFORD, KELLOG, HOEDEK

Posted By: Chantel Schmitt (email)
Date: 5/6/2012 at 16:47:47

Joseph S. Trigg (1841-1906)

Perhaps no other single person in Rockford had a greater influence on Rockford's development than Joseph Trigg, editor of the Rockford Register from 1887 until 1903. He was born in Herfordshire, England, April 8, 1841, the eldest of nine children. He immigrated with his family in 1853 to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, and in 1859 to Freeborn County, Minnesota. In 1862 Mr. Trigg enlisted in the Tenth Minnesota Infantry. Shortly after the conclusion of the war he married Laura M. Spafford. J.S. was a Minnesota pioneer until 1870 when he located south of Charles City. He held several county positions during those years and was mayor of Charles City from 1882-1884. He was already interested in the newspaper business at that time, but it was not until 1887 that he came to Rockford, purchased the Reveille and two other newspapers in the town and established the Rockford Register. He edited the paper until 1904, when he took up a position as agricultural editor for the Des Moines Weekly Register, a position he held until his death June 6, 1906.

Mr and Mrs. Trigg had six children - Mabel, Gertrude, Olive, Elsie, Paul R., and Frank E. Frank, born in 1871, began working for his father in 1901 and with his fathers's death in 1906 became sole propietor and publisher. He married Elsie Kellog in 1904 and edited and published the Register for the next 30 years, when he sold the paper (in 1938) to Mr. and Mrs. Earl E. Hoedek. F. E. Trigg died 10 years later.

Vala, Michael F. The Story of Rockford, 331-332. M.F. Vala Publishing, Dubuque, IA. 1970.

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