Grundy County Pioneer, 1862

HARTMAN, MUNN, TRACY, CHAFFE

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 2/22/2011 at 17:29:33

In removing the books and papers from the old court house, Jack Siebleist found about a dozen copies of a paper called the "Grundy County Pioneer," by W. H. Hartman. The date of the paper is September 13, 1862, and contains eight columns of delinquent tax sale, and reports from the civil war. There is not a local item in the sheet and the only home advertisement it contains is that of judge Munn's general store. So far we have been unable to find anyone living here now who is able to give us information in reference to the paper or its publisher.

--The Grundy County Republican (Grundy Center, Iowa), 3 August 1893

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The Grundy County Pioneer

Two of Grundy County's Old Settlers Tell What They Know of Its Publication

Morrison, Iowa, August 7, 1893

I notice by last week's Republican that Jack Sebelist found in the old court house papers called Grundy County Pioneer, and you have been unable to find any one to give information in reference to this paper or its publishers. Messrs. Hartman & Ingersoll put a printing press in the old court house in 1860, and published the Grundy County Pioneer. Mr. Hartman is now publisher and proprietor of the Waterloo Courier, Waterloo, Iowa. I was standing by the press and took the first paper. It is the first paper that came from a printing press in Grundy county. I have it now. It is dated August 2, 1860. In it the Lincoln nomination appears for president, and much more of interest to old settlers. Publishers say this is the first issue and we intend to make a permanent institution. Item from the paper: "We learn from D. E. Munn that the goods for his new store at this place were shipped from Troy, New York, on the 20th and they may be expected here soon. This store will be a great convenience to the people of our county, and we hope our people will give Mr. M. a liberal patronage." I sold goods seven years on the corner where Mr. Post is now keeping hotel, five years of that time it was the only store in the county. I claim the title, Pioneer Merchant. D. E. MUNN

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Lake Geneva, Wis., Aug. 10, 1893

Editor Grundy County Republican:

In the Republican of August 3, you have an item in regard to the Grundy County Pioneer published by W. H. Hartman in 1862. That sheet was published a few weeks only, and for the sole purpose of securing the publication of the tax list of Grundy county, and never was intended to be a newspaper, consequently you found no local news in the copies referred to. The first newspaper ever published in Grundy county was the Grundy County Atlas, and was started by myself, I think in 1868. I bought the entire outfit of the Cedar Falls Gazette and hauled it across the prairie to Grundy Center, when that metropolitan city was "twenty miles from anywhere." Jake Slifer, the irrepressible pickle man, secured the first copy ever printed, and if he has it yet, I hope he will remember me in his will. Selah! Yours Truly, L. D. TRACY.

--The Grundy County Republican (Grundy Center, Iowa), 17 August 1893

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That First Paper Again

Ed. Grundy County Republican--

My old neighbor, L. D. Tracy, in his communication dated the 10th, to the Republican represents that he published the first newspaper in Grundy county in 1868, and further says that the Grundy County Pioneer, the paper referred to as being found in the old court house, dated Sept. 13, 1862, was not intended for a newspaper but was only published for a few weeks for advertising the tax list. Now I think my respected old neighbor, in his desire to claim the honor of publishing the first paper in Grundy county, has put on a little paint where it ought not to be. The Pioneer which I have now and will show it with pleasure to any one who will call on me, is dated Aug. 2, 1860, and I know the date to be correct, which was published by Hartman & Ingersoll. The paper is an interesting paper to read--no tax list. The Grundy County Pioneer newspaper found in the old court house, dated Sept. 13, 1862, published by one of the same men that published the Pioneer of 1860, shows without doubt that the paper was published more than two years, and I further know that Heber Chaffe was editor of the Pioneer for some length of time after Mr. Hartman and Messrs. Hartman & Ingersoll stated in their first issue that they intended to make their paper a permanent institution. I think the above honorable men as I knew them to be would not make such a false assertion if they intended the paper to live only a few weeks as Mr. Tracy represents. Mr. Tracy felt such a deep interest in his own paper, published eight years after the Pioneer, that he might not have tried very hard to recollect all the history of the Pioneer. Now the reason the paper found in the court house had not more local items was, the tax list was published at that time, and a large part of the land was owned by non-residents and the list took up a large part of the paper.

Another reason I might say was owing to the small population there were no local items. There were only about six dwellings in Grundy Center, two of them log houses. From Grundy Center to Fifteen Mile Grove only one house. On the Waterloo road east of Grundy Center, only one house in twelve miles; from Grundy Center north two or three dwellings to New Hartford; and west to Steamboat Rock but three dwellings if I recollect correctly. It took a man with a team three days to get a load of goods from the nearest railroad; two days for a load of fuel from the Iowa River; and two days to grist mill. We received mail twice a week and as postmaster I did not have a very large mail to over-haul. In the winter when the roads were badly drifted we would receive our mail once in two or three weeks. It was twelve miles to a blacksmith shop. We did not have a practicing physician or lawyer in the county. If we wanted a doctor we sent to Waterloo. It took most of a day to send for one and most of another for the doctor to get to Grundy Center. If we wanted a lawyer which was seldom, except to litigate the old court house warrants, we sent to Eldora and borrowed Gov. Eastman for a short time. If further evidence is necessary in the above newspaper controversy, I will call witness W. H. Hartman, who is now proprietor of the Waterloo Courier. I will, then, as the attorneys say, rest my case. D. E. MUNN
Morrison, Ia., Aug. 21, 1893

--The Grundy County Republican (Grundy Center, Iowa), 24 August 1893