The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1908-01-03
Window Reporter Sold

~ 49, SOs~ +
After neg citations extending over
several months the Window Reporter
has been sold by S. aud E. G. Hunt
lngton to L. W. Henderson, who will
run the paper in the interest of Ex-
Congressman McCleary. In relin-
gushing the editorial tripod. after 81
years as editor of the Reporter, Bro.
E. G. gives the following very inter
resting review of his labors for Win
dom and southwestern Minnesota:
1t has been our effort to own the
paper and our opinions which has
necessarily required US to antagonize
the advice and opinions of friends to
maintain our self respect and loyalty
to right as we conceived it. Neither
our property nor our opinions or con-
science have been owned by others.
When the Reporter was established
in 1871, excepting the Jackson Re-
public and the MadeIia Times, the
former edited by George Chamberlain
and the latter by B. g. Sanborn, both
of whom are dead, there were no nesvs-
papers in the entire territory west of
Blue Earth and Faribault counties,
and the Reporter was the official paper
for several of these counties until pa
pers were established in them. There
were no papers between Madelia and
Lemars; none west of New Ulm, one
in Skakopee, the Argus, possibly one
in Belle PLANE, one in LeSueur, the
Sentinel, edited by J. j. Greene, the
the Tribune in St. Peter, edited by J.
K. Moore, two in Mankato-the Re-
view, by J. G. Wise, and the Record,
by O. O. Brown. So far as we can
recall we are the only editor living, ex-
cept j. J. Green, who were in the bust
ness then-between St. Paul and L.
mars while there were but seventy
papers IN the STATE.
The county was trackless, treeless
wilderness, now teeming with wealth
and aggressive, progressive people.
1t had then hardly ceased to be The
home of the bison and the elk. Then
the county had less than 900 popula-
ton, and Window possibly hundred;
Mobiles about $50; Rock about the
same; Pipestone perhaps fifty; Muir
ray about $50; Jackson possibly 1900.
People live / in dugouts and mud huts
matched with prairie grass. Until
Window was esta blished in June, 1871,
Jackson was the market place for near
ly ali these people, though for short
time St. James was the market town.
When the Reporter began business
there were not to exceed two dozen
buildings of the cheapest possible
construction in Window, one tent in
which booze was the staple dispensed,
and some of the other shacks were
saloons. There was one residence
completed and one under way. Such
were the conditions a mere boy found
under which to begin business for
himself. Now the writer is the oldest
in continuous bushes in the city.
Many prosperous business men have
come and gone, like the seasons, and
like some of Our competitors.
From the shacks of 1871 have
sprung splendid architecture, and
Window stands without a rival in
beauty and prosperity among the
many towns along the Omaha system,
with banks showing deposits close to
the million mark. And yet it seems
but yesterday that the prairie fires
swept down the valley of the Des
Moines and we all turned out one
autumn Sunday night to check it's
heartless course and save the little
shanties that formed the nucleus of
the present splendid city. It Was
checked a few rods north of Tenth
street, but the beautiful scene of ap-
preaching flame cannot be forgotten
by those who participated in saving
the scant property of the settlers.
The homes of settlers on farms we're
destroyed that autumn by the same
element, and year or two later came
the grasshopper scourge, followed by
several years of complete devastation.