The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1892-06-25
WAITER Y, UAIprNAN.
ness OF newsp;

WALTER y. HAIpEMAN.
rier-Journal could never have been what
it is without the brilliant editorial pei
of Henry Watterson; it would have beer
quite as much of an impossibility with.
out the energetic and sagacious manage
ment of Walter Newman Haldeman.
Though well known among newspaper
publishers everywhere, and to all people
Of his native state, Mr.. Haldeman's life
of business has made him less familiar
ly known to the general public than his
colaborer, Mr.. Watterson, bat he is 1;
man of remarkable character and with a
career as full of interest as it is of sue.
cess.
April % Mr.. Ha!leman celebrated his
seventy-first birthday. His years sit
well upon him, and i'll spite of them he is
still a constant and t~ireless worker. He
is "a native of Maysville, Ky. His father
was of Swiss origin, but both his par
ents came TO Kentucky from Pennsyl-
vania. He began life as clerk in a Louis
vile business house, having received his
education i'll the schools at Maysville.
General Grant was his schoolmate dur.
ing part Of the time. In 1910 he Joined
the newspaper workers as bookkeeper
for the Louisville Journal. edited bc
the brilliant George d. Prentice. In
1914 he became owner of The Daily
Dime, a paper which had been unsuc-
cesSfullv run for about eleven months.
and which he took to secure a debt. He
thus began by accident his career as z
newspaper publisher.
In June, 1914, he enlarged The Dime
and changed its name to The Morning
Courier, a paper whose name is still pre-
served in that of The Courier-Journal.
During the next ten years he took in at
different times a number of partners.
but always bought back the interest he
had sold. The task of establishing the
paper required patience and hard work.
and only one of his indomitable pluck
would have stuck to it. By 1854 he had
it on a paying basis, and in 1859 he in
corporated a publication company. Mr..
Haldeman's time was mainly devoted to
the business interests of the paper.
though he wrote a great deal and wrote
well. There are few better photographers.
and his close supervision of every part
of the paper and his energy and liberal
ity i II gathering news under the difficult
conditions then prevailing in the west
won success.
In 1861 The Courier, which sided with
the south, was suppressed by General
Robert Anderson and the Office seized.
Mr.. Haldeman avoided arrest through
the timely warning of one of his employ
ees, who overheard two Federal officers
discussing the plans for capturing him.
lie made his way to General Buckper's
headquarters at Bowling Green, KY, in
September, 1861, and soon after, at the
Of the Confederate authorities,
began the publication Of The Courier
within the Confederate lines. He es-
tablished an Office and an associate ed
ltor at Bowling Green and went himself
to Nashville, where the paper was set
up and printed, because of the impossi-
bllity of securing the necessary outfit at
the smaller place. The paper retained
its Kentucky identity by its Bowling
line, and the Louisville-B Bowl
ing Green-Nashville Courier furnished
many a merry jest to the Federals and
the northern papers.
The paper, which was issued wholly
from Nashville after the Confederate
evacuation of Kentucky, was a success
from the first. 1t became instantly a
favorite with the army and the people
the south, and attained a circulation
only by its mechanical facilities.
Securing reliable news from the north
was a difficult matter, but that was
what was wanted within the C~onfeder-
ate lines, and Mr.. Haldeman met the
demand. He gained in those trying
times an experience both of the value of
and of the possibilities of an or
gained news service which has since
been valuable to him. A number of ac-
tive men were employed in the danger
Gus service of procuring files of northern
newspapers for The Courier, and so per-
and regular vas the service that
the military authorities relied on The
for information. The adven-
of these messengers in passing
through the lines in search of news were
often exciting.
After the war Mr.. Haldeman re-
sumed the publication of The Courier
at Louisville, and in 1868 it was CONSOLE
dated with The Journal, which had
then passed from the control of Mr..
Prentice to that of Mr.. Watterson. The