Plain Dealer, 43rd Year 1902

PLAIN DEALER

Posted By: Joy Moore (email)
Date: 1/19/2020 at 15:43:42

Source: Decorah Republican Sept. 11, 1902 Page 1 Col 6

After Forty-three Years.
Last Friday’s copy of the Cresco Plain Dealer announces the close of the 43d year of the Mead Bros, with the Cresco Plain Dealer. This is a long period for a steady pursuit of one industry, particularly that of a newspaper. This paper has always differed with Bro. Mead on politics yet it desires to hear testimony that it has been a difference without bitterness or rancor. The difference between the beginning and the close of this long career is summed up quite felicitously in the following paragraph:
Forty-three years ago with less people in the county than the present population of Cresco, the Plain Dealer began its visits to the people with its present editor on the tripod, and his brother Frank in charge of the mechanical department. To them at that time the name of every adult person in the county was familiar. The face of the country was that of an unbroken prairie with here and there, wide apart, was the cabin occupied by the man and his wife, and a family of children more or less numerous. The human faces then so familiar are nearly all absent, gone to the great beyond, and the face of nature has undergone changes even as great. Where was the unbroken prairie is now the highly cultivated farm, where stood the cabin, now stands the stately farm house with its ample surroundings, where familiar faces used to greet us, we meet those who are unknown, though perhaps the offspring of an early friend and acquaintance.