The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1900-06-13
A MILWAUKEE NEWSPAPER.
WILLIAM E. CRAMER, the edito

WILLIAM b. CRAMER, the editor
in-chief of the Evening Wisconsin.
rounded out his fifty third year in
that capacity last Stature day.
The Wisconsin has had a remarkable
and steady growth, and always has
been one of the VERY FIRST papers Of
the state. A. J. Aikens, one of the
proprietors of the paper, under the
title of "A Newspaper RETROSPECT
ton" writes interesting in the an
niversary number of the paper,
which appeared Saturday. He
SAYS.
SiXty-four years ago Daniel Rich
ards, pioneer printer of Milwau-
kee, established the Milwaukee Ad-
vertiser, the first newspaper pub
ished in the city. and the lineal
ancestor of The Evening Wiscon-
sin. Ffty-three years ago yester-
day the first number Of the Evening
Wisconsin, by that name, was is
sued by William E. Cramer, the
present venerable editor-in- chief.
From that DAY to this Mr. Cramer
has remained at the head of the
firm and corporation which has
owned and managed the paper.
When Mr.. Richards established
the Advertiser, Milwaukee was but
a hamlet of but few hundred in
habitant is living in cabins and pri-
mitive houses, the remnants of an
Indian tribe occupying it's suburbs.
A few venerable relics of that day
still survive to tell us the story of
their labors and trials and we &C.
casionally meet them on our streets,
bowed and bent with age.
The Milwaukee Courier succeeded
to the Office of the Advertiser,
and was printed with various sue
cesses and vicissitudes until 1847,
when it passed into the hands of
Cramer & Curtis, and the first
number, of the Evening Wisconsin
was printed on the afternoon of
June 9Th, 1847. 1t was a small four
page paper, printed upon hand
press, the type set by hand, whose
advent was not heralded by any full
some words or by sounding promises,
but modestly and earnestly it set to
work to do what it could for the
benefit of the people and city in
which it was printed. The popula-
tion of the city at that time was
$4,000 souls. Of these not more
than 5000 still remain alive, and of
that number the majority have gone
out of the great northwest to help
build other cities and cultiva tie
other lands. Of the EMPLOYEES
and assistants of Mr. Cramer in the
publication of The Evening Wiscon-
sin of that day, not one is known
to the writer to be alive today. Mr..
Cramer remains alone 10 tell the
hurry and hustle of the issue Of
that days paper. Only three other
persons now corrected with the
publication of the Evening Wiscon-
sin were yet born upon that June
day in 1847-A. J. Aikens, John. F.
Cramer and Louis Bleyer.
No railway trains came to the
city frome the outside world until
eight years afterwards. There we're
no paved streets, there was no
electric light, there were no steam
fire engines, there were no libraries,
no art galleries, none of the modern
appliances of city. The young
Evening Wisconsin first printed
news by telegraph some six months
after its first publication, and ten
years later it published it's first dis
patch which came under the At
lantic Ocean. Today the Evening
Wisconsin goes regularly to the
homes of city of 100000 popula-
ton, q city of beauty, of wealth and
all the modern appliances of ciyiliza-
ton In the fifty-three years past
more has been done for civilization
than in the previous five hundred
years, SO that the life of the Even
ing Wisconsin of fifty-three years
covers the greatest epoch in the
history of the world.
The Evening Wisconsin starts out
today on the fifty-fourth year of it's
publication, full of hope and promise
Of it's future. It will strive as in the
past, to keep step with the spirit of
the age. Whatever will interest,
instruct and elevate the readers it is
our purpose to give in these col.
umes, in the future as in the past,
without boast or brag. To continue
in the even tenor of our way, giving
all the news and advocating the in
terests of ilwaukee and Wiscon-
sin.