Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1910-03-05
GEORGE soWER, OLDEST NEWS.
PAPER MAN OF MARSHALL
TOWN, DEAD.
END CAME PEACEFULLY
LATE FRIDAY NIGHT
Illness Lasting Thruout Winter, of
Bronchial Asthma, Proves Fatal to
Old Resident-Mr. Sewer Former
Owner of Marshall Times and Refec-
tor-Sketch of Career.

| Death at 1920 Friday night ended
the earthly career of George Sower, the
oldest editor and newspaper owner of
Marshalltown, former part owner of the
Marshall Times and the Reflector. Mr..
Sewers death was due tobronchial
asthma, with which he had been suf-
fering most of the winter.
While Mr.. Sewer was somewhat i'm
proved Friday, and in the morning felt
much better than for several days, a
change for the worse set in about G
o'clock in the evening. The patient
continued to fail rapidly, until the end
came. Mr.. Sewer was conscious to the
very last. and recognized and talked
with those at his bedside.
Last of tho Old School.
Mr.. Sewer is the last of the old
school local newspaper men who have
continued to make their home in this
city since the close of their active la
bors. His old co-partner, E. N. Chaplin,
died on July %, 1895, leaving Mr.. Sow
er as the oldest of the early newspaper
men of the city living here. Probably
the only survivor of the pioneer days
in local newSpapering is w. H. Gallup,
who owned the old Times even before
the days of Chaplin & Sewer, and who
is now living in Boone. Byron Web
ster, another of the pioneers. died Jan.
81, 1907. Probably the oldest resident
newspaper owner left is Charles
Henry, who was associated with Mr..
Sower in the Reflector
Once Owned Marshall Times.
Mr.. Sewer, in company with E. n.
Chaplin, bought the Marshall Times,
then a weekly paper, shortly after Mr.
Sewer came to Marshalltown from
Tama county in 1869 On April 81, 1875
the owners launched a daily venture.
and according to Mr.. Sewers own
statement, made in recent years, he lost
in his daily what he had made in his
prosperous weekly Mr.. Sewer was a
careful manager of his newspaper and
printing business, paid cash for what
he bought, and saved his discounts
He attributed his success in the bus
mess to looking after the little things
that were too many times neglected by
the managers of competitive plants.
Upon the consolidation Of the Times
and the Republican, in 1880, Mr.. Sewer
later interested himself in the Weekly
Reflector, buying a half interest Of
Billy Crowl This he retained for
several years, or until he retired from
the business.
Pioneer of Tama County.
Mr.. Sewer was in reality more Of
pioneer of Tama county than Mar
shalltown, having settled in Columbia
township, Tama county, in February,
1854. His first newspaper venture was
in Tama county, when he associated
himself with Dr. Henry Badly in pub
fishing the Iowa Transcript, the first
paper published in Tama county.
An Interesting Autobiography.
An interesting autobiograp writ
ten in $780, best tells of the career of
Mr.. Sewer in his own words. 1t follows
in full:
THE subject of this sketch was born
in Aschaffenburg, Kingdom of Bavaria
Germany Jan. g. 1881. His early
life has the experience of most boys
born under imperial rule and, hearing
of the free land of America, naturally
had a desire to live under a free gov
eminent, which desire he had inherited
from his father, who had served under
Napoleon I. in all of his battles for
ten years and acted as one of his staff
on the retreat from Moscow.
LAS soon as he attained his majority.
in 1852. he bid adiau to his native land
and set sail for freedoms land. Hav-
ing been apprenticed at the printers
trade he had become competent
printer and man of general usefulness
in and about a printing office, and up
on landing in America circumstances
directed him into Connecticut, the land
of steady habits, and he soon found
work at his trade in the Litchfield En-
quirer. Without a knowledge of the
English language, but with a will to
convert German into English he finally
succeeded in mastering the knowledge
of the universal language. Like most
young men he believed that compan-
ionship added to the engagement Of
life and the same year he married
Susanna Euler, born in Giessen, of
Hesse Darnstadt, and the twain set out
together to make the conquest of max
ing living among free men.
Having imbided the western in
spiration in Bavaria. which landed him
in Connecticut, he now shifted the
ozone Of the western prairies andin 1854
struck out for the far west, going be-
yond the verge of civilization as dem
onstrated by internal improvements,
and cast anchor in Tama county, then
/
farming being the only visible means of
obtaining a living, he set out to ex-
tract the wherewithal from the virgin
SOIL The result was such as might be
expected from an effort to force agr1-
cultural products from, the raw sod.
1.-THE following year better promise
seemed to present itself in the news
paper field. He helped to start the
Iowa Transcript, the first paper pub
lished in Tama county. From that
time, to 1869, he continued in the news
paper and other business. when he
cleaned up his effects and moved to
Marshalltown, and in company with E.
N Chaplin bought the Marshall Coun-
ty Times and continued its publication
for several years with good success. In
1880 they disposed of theoffice and re-
tired from the printing business. Sub
sequent to this he engaged In the bank
ing business at Conrad Grove, Iowa,
and continued that with good success
until he disposed Of the same. His
trips overland by team to his bank in
terests were sometimes quite lonely,
and not a little amusing. The wide
swept prairie of the past was shorn of
its earlier times by the groves that
now cover the prairies, making 1t look