The old and the new

In the Feb. 7 “The old and the new” column, Chris Smith suggested we give a history of all the newspapers in our little town sometime. His dad, Don Smith, was the publisher of The Pilot-Independent from 1978 to 1985.

There is a very good history of all the newspapers in a book entitled, “Walker’s First Hundred Years,” published by the Cass County Historical Society. The little I know about the history of the papers are from my friendship with two individuals — Larry Oliver, who worked for the Cass County Pioneer and John Plattner, who worked for the Walker Pilot.

Larry was the grandson of A.A. Oliver — the founder of the Cass County Pioneer. He covered all the sporting events of the Warriors from the old Walker High School and I always had to remind him to spell my name correctly, as he always spelled it — “Ringley”.

John was the son of Clem Plattner, the editor, and publisher of the Pilot. John and I were very good friends and did a lot of things together. I would help him with his job at the Pilot, so he could finish faster and we could get out and do what we wanted to do.

Sorry, Chris, but that’s the only history I know about the newspapers in our little town! However, the following information was paraphrased from “Walker’s First Hundred Years,” as was the picture in the masthead of the old office in the Walker Pilot. The employees in the picture are Roscoe Croff and Harry Bright. Roscoe was a jack-of-all-trades, as he helped build our house and Dad’s hospital in 1930. Harry and I played together in the Ninth District American Legion Marching Band in Winnipeg, Canada in 1949. For an older person, Harry was amazing — marching and carrying his huge, heavy sousaphone through the long streets of Winnipeg, and I was honored to be able to play alongside him!

Walker’s first newspaper was published Sept. 21, 1892, four years before our little town was even incorporated. It was called Cass County Cruiser and was available for only 50 cents for the entire year. The editor was C.G. Fairbanks and the publisher was E.M. Ricker.

The place of business was located in the back of Fairbanks Store, where they gathered the news and sent their copy to the Park Rapids Enterprise for printing. Local news was written up in a column called, “Little Leeches.”

Less than a year later, on Aug. 2, 1893, the Cass County Cruiser printed its “Farewell Editorial.”

On Jan. 16, 1894, the first issue of the Cass County Pioneer was published. The editor and publisher was A.A. Oliver, and in his first edition A.A. promised, “The Pioneer will give facts as near as we can ascertain regarding all political movements.”

The first issue of the Leech Lake Letter was printed Oct. 19, 1895, in a little town south of the “Y Junction” called Lothrop. The editor was H. F. Robards and the publisher was William Pennar. Only one issue was published before Robards left the area, and Pennar went to work for the Pioneer.

A year before our little town was incorporated, the first issue of the Walker Pilot was published May 26, 1897, with editors Bernard and Webster.

Farley Dare purchased the paper in 1905 and his “Uncle Hi” column became a favorite of the readers. In 1919, the paper was sold to James Brown, and the Pilot was moved into a new building next to the old Walker Bank. In 1921 Brown sold the paper to the Walker Publishing Company and in 1927, A.R. Maeser bought the paper, moved it to his mink farm in Hackensack, and called it the Northern Minnesota Publishing Company.

In 1935 Maeser’s daughter Wyn and her husband Clem Plattner bought the paper and Clem’s “Scratch Pad” replaced “Uncle Hi” as a favorite column. In 1943, the Plattners moved their business from Hackensack to the Pilot’s present location. In 1962, Northern Minnesota Publishing Company purchased the “Pioneer”, changed its name to the Cass County Independent and later consolidated the Independent with the Pilot, and called the new publication, The Pilot-Independent — a name that remains today.

Because of the long and complicated history of the present Pilot-Independent, I think Chris Smith is testing me to see if all my facts are correct! I know they are not 100 percent accurate; however, I also know the present editor of the Pilot Independent — Dean Morrill will correct them! Dean is doing a great job as editor and should be very proud of his paper, as it has recorded the history, progress and daily life of our little town for 127 years and “The old and the new” is honored to be a small part of that history for eight of those years.

The views and opinions expressed in the “The old and the new” column belong solely to the author, and not The Pilot-Independent or an organization, committee or individual.