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     THE LOUISA COUNTY SAFEGUARD is a weekly newspaper published at Columbus City, by R. H. Moore. Subscription price $2 per annum. The SAFEGUARD is the only paper in Louisa County that is all printed at home. It is Republican in politics, has the largest circulation, and is the best advertising medium in the county. Specimen copies mailed free upon application to the publisher. Those in destitute circumstances, and unable to take the paper, will be supplied gratis by making their desires known at the office.

    ROBERT H. MOORE, the Editor of THE LOUISA COUNTY SAFEGUARD, first saw light of day in Altoona, Blair County, Penn., on the 13th day of June, 1845, and is, consequently, twenty-nine years old. His parents immigrated to Iowa in 1851, and located in Black Hawk Township, Jefferson County, where they resided but a short time. While residing here the family were unfortunate in the loss of their father. On leaving this township, there was not enough money in the entire family to pay a month’s rent in advance, and there being five boys and three girls, it behooved them to strike out for “better or for worse.”

    They consequently moved to a habitation near Fairfield, and one of the boys entered the office of the Fairfield Ledger at a small stipend per month, while the balance of the family from day to day filled their heads with “hay seed,” and earned their living by the “sweat of the brow,” on the farm. At the present writing, one of these boys is President of the Bank of Red Oak, another owns a large livery and sale stable at Fairfield; and still another holds a lucrative position as route agent on the B. C. R. & M. R. R., while the one about which we write controls the neatest-appointed job office, and probably the best paying and most prosperous and wide-awake local paper in Iowa, and is worth between $10,000 and $12,000.

    Mr. Moore is undoubtedly one of the best financiers the county has, and his integrity and private standing in the community where he lives is above reproach. In five years he has made all he is worth. Commencing his trade in 1859, in the office of the Fairfield Jeffersonian, he worked off and on at different times in different offices, and finally, in 1865, started a small sheet, called the Fairfield Whacker, which closed its eventful career after eleven weeks duration. In 1866, he became connected with the Fairfield Home Visitor, and when the affairs were settled up, found that he had nothing ahead.

    After retiring from the Home Visitor in the forepart of 1868, he thought that he had better strike out and do something for himself. He went from Fairfield to Des Moines, and worked at the case for $15 per week. In the job rooms of the Iowa State Register, and from his earnings saved about $65. With which, being aided by two good friend whose kindness he shall never forget, established, in the Fall of 1868, the Brighton Pioneer, at Brighton, Washington County. At Brighton, he made his office clear in two years, and, in 1870, he removed to Columbus City and established the SAFEGUARD, the marvelous successful financial career of which the readers are entirely conversant. In all his business relations, Mr. Moore has endeavored to make his word as good as his bond, and no citizen of Louisa County discharges his obligations, either financial or otherwise, more promptly or cheerfully. In anything and everything for the good of the community in which he lives, Mr. Moore willingly lends a helping hand, and to his paper in a great measure is due the growing improvement and prosperity of this section of the county. We will close this sketch by publishing the following complimentary mention of Mr. Moore’s career, which we find in the Iowa State Register, of the 19th of December, 1873.

     “Among all of our Iowa newspaper folks we know of no person who has more signally illustrated what a young man can do when he tries, than Mr. R. H. Moore, of THE LOUISA COUNTY SAFEGUARD. His course is good denial of the stilted assumption of a recent magazine article that the public is stupid to think that there is any connecting link between a printer and an editor. Five years ago, Mr. Moore was a printer in The Register office. He was a bright determined boy, prompt and conscientious in the performance of his duties, and an artist in his work. To a good name as a news printer he quickly added the reputation of the best of job printers. He worked hard, made good wages, and saved his money. Leaving here, against the advice of older heads who thought him foolish in turning his back on large wages and a steady situation at the case, the boy went off in the world to find if it wasn’t in him to be something more than an employee. Mere boy as he was, he managed to get hold of enough material to start a newspaper at Brighton, the Pioneer.

    At once he showed that he had good brains as an editor, as well as swift fingers as a printer. The same industry, thrift and good judgment which had been his traits as a compositor, attended him as an editor. In 1870, we think it was, he thought he saw a better field at Columbus City, Louisa County, and removed there. Soon he had put his new paper on a paying foundation, and as soon he had gained for its popularity and influence. In January, 1872, his office was burned down. Mr. Moore was not long in getting a new office together, and the SAFEGUARD, in its new form, appeared all the brighter and seemed but the better for having been burned. This renewed evidence of energy gained for the young publisher and still more generally popular confidence. The public recognized merit in such evidence, and, as it always will, rewarded it. The prosperity of the SAFEGUARD, the rapidity with which it was put on sure and permanent footing, and the wide-spread influence it has attained to, both at home …

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… and in the state at large, are the simple results of the patient work, good management, and clear-headed Bob.

    We are told by one of the prominent men of that section, who has watched his career with pleasure and pride that Mr. Moore is today worth not less than $7,000 or $8,000. All this has been made out of his business by the thrift of good management and the dint of much hard work by his own hands. Such an example as this is one for young men to reflect upon and profit by. Mr. Moore began life under adverse circumstances. He was sensible enough first to get a good trade, and after that he was sensible enough to be industrious. This is the whole secret. To be sure, he had ability, but so have many young men, the most of them indeed. His notable success as a journalist, and his sterling worth as a man, have induced us to write at the length we have. There are plenty of printers who can go and do likewise, and who should do it. The men who are the best men for society and the state, are men like Bob Moore.”