(Editor’s Note: The Sanborn Pioneer business has reached the milestone age of 150. In acknowledgement of the occasion, the Pioneer is reprinting an article by Fay Schall that originally appeared in the December 8, 2016 issue.)
Though the month of December is noted for the most celebrated birthday in history, for our local purposes, it is also the birthday month of the oldest business in O’Brien County, the Pioneer. On December 8, 1871, seven years following the Civil War, the first issue of that publication circulated among the homes and businesses of O’Brien village, the decade old county seat in the southeast corner of Waterman Township.
The O’Brien Pioneer was the brainchild of John R. Pumphrey, a 25 year-old Civil War veteran, who settled on the NE of Section 24, Liberty Township in 1869. Farming apparently held no appeal for J.R. as he was soon engaged in other pursuits, including the establishment of the county’s first bank. His partner/managing editor in the paper was Benjamin Franklin McCormack who received 2/3 of the profits as compensation for his work. McCormack, a lawyer, printer and practical surveyor, came to the county from Waverly, Iowa. His slashy editorial comments about some of Pumphrey’s friends caused occasional discord in the Pioneer office.
J.R. sold the paper to L.B. Raymond in the spring of 1872 and a printing office was then established at Old O’Brien. L.B. was a thorough newspaper man and published other area papers with the goal of receiving the county printing. Though Robert Buchanan in Cherokee had published Pumphrey’s paper, L.B. saw the advantage of an office in the county and moved his printing apparatus to a room over the general store of H.A. Sage. The first issue printed there rolled off the press on May 17, 1872. In the fall of that year, A.H. Willits purchased the paper and continued under the name of O’Brien Pioneer. A.H. was also the Clerk of Court and was able to throw some county printing toward his paper.
When the county seat moved to Primghar in the spring of 1873, the paper moved right along with it, both offices located in the same room of Paine’s store, which was used as a temporary courthouse. The first issue published at Primghar came out on June 27, 1873. A year later the Pioneer moved to the small frame building constructed as a courthouse on the extreme northeast corner of the square and shared the clerk’s office until Willits erected a new building on the north side of the square for his newspaper business.
During this time, A.H. had a couple of successive partners in the paper until his son, A.G. Willits purchased an interest in April of 1875 and it was published under Willits and Son. This arrangement lasted until the senior Willits retired from the clerk’s office and the paper in January of 1879. Warren Walker, Primghar lawyer and father of Mrs. M.M. Burns, acquired an interest in the business that summer. Both A.G. and Walker obviously saw the advantages for a newspaper in the new growing railroad town of Sanborn and declared their intention to relocate the Pioneer. A.G. Willits purchased Lot 16 of Block 10 on Franklin Street (site of Jerry & Shelli Niichel home) and it is possible that the first issue of the O’Brien Pioneer was published there on November 7, 1879. By June of 1880, a new two-story frame building on the west side of Main Street (north portion of Bowl-Mor) had been completed for the paper and for Mr. Walker’s Sanborn office. Eventually the Walker family moved to Sanborn and occupied the second story as a residence.
During this time, newspaper competition in the new railroad town had arrived from the county seat. The Primghar Tribune edited by Mr. Caleb Bundy, became The Sanborn Tribune but did not enjoy a long existence in the village and eventually headed off to greener pastures in the new town of Paullina where it became the Paullina Times.
In early 1882, local lawyer D.A.W. Perkins and a Mr. Kernon initiated the Sanborn Cycle, although Kernon left town soon after. About the same time, Warren Walker sold his interest in the O’Brien Pioneer to his partner A.G. Willits in order to devote more time to his growing land business and law practice. That February it appeared prudent to both Willits and Perkins to become partners and they “married” their papers producing the Sanborn Pioneer. The partnership dissolved in August however and A.G. went it alone. By December, he decided to take the week of Christmas “off” so instead of the usual paper, he treated his 506 subscribers to a 5” x 8” four page Christmas supplement printed on bright calico fabric. (Examples still exist). A.G. finally tired of the newspaper business, sold out in December of 1883 and moved to Minneapolis with his family where he engaged in a firm that manufactured cigar boxes. He eventually became an osteopathic physician and practiced in the Minneapolis area for many years. Note: In 1922 Willits donated bound issues of the Pioneer from 1872-1883 to the Sanborn library through the efforts of Mrs. M.M. Burns.
The new owner of the Pioneer was Jacob H. Wolf, a Civil War Veteran who brought his family to Franklin Township in 1873, locating on the SW portion of Section 14 north of Sanborn, now the Grooters farm. At the time, their only neighbors were the Dummett family in Section 8. Wolf had previous newspaper experience in his hometown of Washington, PA and under his management the Pioneer flourished. By 1886 the number of subscribers had grown to 618 and it was one of the official county papers. During most of the fifteen years the Wolf family owned the business it was located on the site of Sanborn Savings Bank’s drive through. Long’s Photography Studio operated on the second floor of the frame building.
With Thomas Gravenor as his partner, J.H. Wolf purchased the O’Brien County Bell in 1894, selling out his Pioneer interest to sons Will F. Wolf and later H.E. Wolf. J.H. moved to Primghar in 1900 and as editor of the Bell, lived to be the oldest operating newspaperman in the state at the age of 84. Jacob Wolf died in December of 1928 and is buried at Primghar.
In September of 1901, the Pioneer moved to the lot which includes the north portion of Vander Werff’s today, eventually locating across the street (north portion of Rails).
Some later owners of the Pioneer included W.H. King & B.R. Corkins, George J. Clark, W.S. Johnson, C.E. Foley and Richard Closson. W.E. Hefley from Des Moines purchased the paper in 1916. During the 1920’s Howard Africa, Curry & Locke and Wm. Larsen all took a turn at the Pioneer helm.
From the files of April, 1932 it was noted that the paper left the building belonging to the Jackson estate which it had occupied for the past 40-50 years and moved to a building owned by Pete Omer, location uncertain.
In late 1932, Wm. J. Gibbs and E.G. Mattson were enroute from Chicago to a small South Dakota town where a newspaper was for sale. Due to bad weather, they pulled off the road at Sanborn’s Pike Café operated by John Neitzke. When a casual conversation revealed the travelers’ mission, Mr. Neitzke directed the young men downtown where the Pioneer (located north portion of Sanborn Chiropractic) was for sale. They must have liked what they saw, as a bill of sale dated December 5, 1932 demonstrates that $4,600 was paid to Walter E. Harrington by the two aspiring men that entitled them to “the newspaper known as the Sanborn Pioneer, subscription lists, subscription accounts and good will and all machinery and equipment.” A list of the equipment that followed included three types of presses, folders, paper cutters, a lead and slug cutter, type cases, racks, office furniture, etc. Wm. Gibbs married Lillian Neitzke and eventually moved to Everly where he operated that town’s paper for many years.
Otis and Bernice DeVoll purchased the Pioneer in the late thirties, selling to James Wilson in 1952 after 18 years of operation. During Wilson’s almost 20-year tenure, the paper moved to its current location in the “Shubert building” October of 1958. Wilson’s ownership ended with a sale to John Van Der Linden in 1971. Two years later in April, the paper was sold to Dorothy Chrisman who was later joined by her son Scott. Dorothy edited the weekly journal until her death in 2007. Since that time, management of the oldest business in the county has fallen solely to Scott who has been associated with the Pioneer since 1974. (Editor’s note: The Pioneer was sold to Marcus News, Inc. in December 2017 but continues to operate as The Sanborn Pioneer at the same location.)
In this brief history, it is impossible to detail all the changes experienced by the newspaper industry between the days of handset type and the computer age. It is equally impossible to name all the Pioneer owners and employees covering a span of 145 years (now 150). Suffice it to say that hard work and dedication has produced thousands of weekly issues in the face of many obstacles throughout the paper’s century plus existence.
Sanborn Preservation salutes the Sanborn Pioneer on its birthday anniversary and for its long service to the area community. In the words of a neighboring paper on the 20th anniversary of the Pioneer in 1891: “It is here to stay. Editors come and go, but the Pioneer abides ever.”
Happy Birthday!
— Fay Schall