THE WAUPACA POST

March 29, 1894

 

PIONEER LIFE IN WAUPACA

The Birth of the First Newspaper

 

            It was during the first week in November, 1853, that there came into Waupaca, at that time a small village in the enjoyment of intensely cold weather, two brothers, Charles and Joseph Redfield.  Charles, or as he was called, Charley, was tall, of swarthy complexion, vying in its tint with that aboriginal members of the region, and having a figure as straight as theirs.  He had no family.  Joseph, or Joe, as he was commonly called, was of medium height, of a fair face, and had a young wife.  Both were silent men – as silent as the typical savage.

            The brothers brought with them a Washington press, new – the one now in use in the office of the Waupaca Republican – a few cases and a small quantity of type. An office was secured in the second story of Captain David Scott’s store, which also contained the post office.  The Captain was a genial gentleman on the sunny side of 70, who had determined to make his home on the Indian lands and grow up with the country, and he was doing it.

            Into that dingy up-stairs room the paraphernalia of the first printing office in the county was deposited, and the place was soon filled with a typical crowd of frontiersmen, all eager to “lend a willing hand and see the preparation an’ printin’ of the new paper”.

            Men greeted each other on the street with:  “Hellow, this ain’t Injun land no more.  We’re going to have a paper,” and – presto change – in a few days the press was up and the type was under manipulation.

            In those days the mail came only once a week, and then by the way of Berlin.  It always came on Monday night, and its coming was the signal for filling the post office with a motley crowd.  There were lumbermen, prospectors, corner lot buyers, resident merchants, traders, trappers, gamblers, loafers, men with pistols, and some with big knives; teachers and lawyers, with a sprinkling of an et cetera population that Waupaca has not seen in many a day.

            They gathered about the little stove to keep it warm, and naturally discussed the prospects of the paper about to be born, while Captain Scott distributed the mail.  Many were the guesses and suggestions as to the name.  The Redfield Brothers were of the number of those who went to get warm and to wait for the mail.  They were very quiet, and the greater part of the group did not know them.  The remarks heard and the criticisms made were unique.  Some were complimentary, and some were warning the young men to avoid a losing enterprise.

            One man who is still living, but who shall be nameless, for he was a good friend to the paper afterward, said:  “I tell you, Captain, if them young men’s got a dollar, they’d better keep it.  They can’t sell fifty papers here a year.  There don’t nobody want to advertise, ‘cause we all know what everybody’s got, an’ what’s the use of advertisin’ jest to give them fellers money?  Ef I knowed ‘em I’d tell ‘em to go to some bigger place an’ lose their last dollar.”

            Charlie Redfield heard the remark but maintained the stoical demeanor so characteristic of his nature, and he also heard John M. Vaughan’s reply:  “I say, Blank, if those young fellows have come out here to start a paper, it shows they’ve got grit.  I’m going to put down $3 for two papers, and if I knew the young men I’d give it to them now.  They’ve got enterprise, and that’s what we want.”

            “What ye goin’ to do with the second paper, John?” asked Blank, and began to laugh in a comical way.

            But the answer came quick:  “Send it to my friends down East, just what every man in Waupaca ought to do,” and John M. – he was a little, bustling man – strutted up and said:  “Here, Captain Scott, take this $3 and give it to those newspaper men, and when I come up here next week again I’ll bring some more names and money too.”

            The effect was electric.  “Bully for John”, “give the boys a lift”, “Where are they?”, “Let’s hunt ‘em up”, “hurrah for the new paper”, and similar expressions showed a growing enthusiasm.

            Captain Scott beckoned to the two brothers and presented them to the warming up crowd.  They were called upon for a speech:  “Yes, gentlemen, we have come into the new country and propose to try out chances.  We have the dollar that was mentioned, and we have the grit too.  We will put both into the paper.”

            Twenty subscriptions were received then and there, and nearly all were cash down.  But to John M. Vaughan was reserved the credit of paying the first cash down subscription for the new paper.

            Thus was the Waupaca Spirit greeted on its advent into the Indian land.  It afterward went the way of all the earth, and became spiritualized, nothing remaining at this late day but its historic press.

            An article was published not long since to show that the Spirit was not issued until January, 1854.  A copy of the paper bearing the date December 19, 1954, and the legend, “Vol. 2, No. 2”, is now preserved in the Republican office in this city.  It was sent to the office by Charley Redfield a short time before his death.  This would make No. 1 of the same volume to have been published Tuesday, December 12, and one year earlier would be Tuesday, December 13, 1853, thus fixing the date of the first publication of the first paper printed in Waupaca county as Tuesday, December 13, 1853.

                                                                                    CHARLES ROLLIN BRAINARD.