J. H. WILLEY
In 1873, J. H. Willey, a typographical graduate of of this office [the Atlantic Messenger], purchased a half interest and the firm became Johnson and Willey. They changed the form of the paper to a seven-column folio, and shortly after to an eight-column, which was well filled with paying advertisements. Mr. Johnson, the senior of the firm, attended to the business, Mr. Willey being the railway postal clerk on this division of the railroad. In the latter part of 1879, however, J. H. Willey, purchased the interest of his partner, and has been sole proprietor ever since. Financial reasons being the cause of Mr. Johnson's retiring from the editorial field, he inserted in the last issue of the paper under his control, the following "adieu" to his friends and patrons, the sad farewell of a parent parting from a child:
"Having sold our interest in the Messenger office to Mr. J. H. Willey, our interest in the same expired on the 3lst day of December, 1879. . . ."
J. H. Willey, on taking up the editorial quill, wrote the following short but pithy salutatory, a specimen of Spartan terseness that should serve as a model to many young venturers upon the rough and stormy seas of journalism:
"It is customary for incoming editors to indulge in a 'salutatory,' varying in length from a 'stickful' to a column, devoted to making promises as to what they propose doing. I do not care to do anything of the kind. If I make a success, people will find it out; and if I don't, they will know it soon enough."
The paper is now a nine-column folio, cleanly and neatly set up, and printed with care on a Campbell press. The editorials are carefully and well written, for Mr. Willey, although a young man, is one of the few men in the profession who think before they write.
Contributed by Lisa Varnes-Rex from "History of Cass County, Iowa. Together With Sketches of its Towns, Villages and Townships, Educational, Civil, Military and Political History: Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Citizens." Springfield, Ill.: Continental Historical Company, 1884, pp. 438-439.
J. H. Willey, the present able editor of the Messenger, is a native of the "Buckeye State," having been born in Zanesville, Muskingum county, Ohio, on the 1st of April, 1853. He is the son of M. H. and C. B. Willey. When Henry, as his friends call him, was about two and a half years old, his parents removed to Oskaloosa, Mahaska county, Iowa, where he was reared, and educated in the schools of that city. When he was sixteen years old, he removed to Boone county, but remained there but about six months, when he came to Atlantic, Cass county, where he has since remained. When he first came to this point, he engaged in any work that he could find to do, not being of the kind of men who sit down, and, Micawber-like, "wait for something to turn up" in their favor. In August, I870, he entered the office of the Messenger, then conducted by H. C. Johnson, to learn the "art preservative." Having acquired the trade, on the Ist of October, 1873, he purchased a half interest in that journal, and in connection with Mr. Johnson, carried on the work of the office. In March, 1875, Mr. Willey was appointed postal clerk, and assigned for duty on the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific railroad. This position he occupied, without severing his connection with the Messenger, however, until the 1st of January, 1880, when he resigned, and once more entered the office of that journal, having purchased the remaining interest of Mr. Johnson, and has continued it ever since, alone. Mr. Willey was united in marriage on the 28th day of September, 1876, with Miss Sarah Eugenia Boyer, of Boone, Iowa. By this union there have been two children, Harry and Nellie, the former of whom has, however, passed from the arms of his sorrowing parents, and translated to a congenial sphere, where his name is written upon the "White Stone."
From "History of Cass County, Iowa. Together With Sketches of its Towns, Villages and Townships, Educational, Civil, Military and Political History: Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Citizens." Springfield, Ill.: Continental Historical Company, 1884, pg. 440.
