The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1911-12-28
25 YEARS As AN EDITOR

The Reporter Man Closes a Quarter
of q Century's Work as Psb-
fisher of This Paper.
With this issue of The Reporter,
the editor, o. E. Hull, completes
twenty-five years continuous work as
editor of the paper. Just think of 1t,
q quarter of century on weekly
q newspaper in the same town. 1t is
a record achieved by few publishers
and we naturally take little pride
in the matter, especially when we
compare The Reporter of today with
the dinky little sheet published when
we took charge of the paper.
1t was on January 1st, 1887, that
we landed in Leon to take up our
residence and gain fame and fortune
in the work of publishing country
weekly. We have gained the fame
as one of the oldest publishers in
length of service in Iowa, but the
fortune has been lost on delinquent
subscribers who have allowed the
paper to stop after having taken 1t
for a number of years and never pay
ing anything for it but promises,
which did not pay the pay roll on
Saturday night. But as we look back
over the struggles of quarter of
century as an editor it is with feel
ing of pride and pleasure, for during
that time we have made many warm
friends, and not a few enemies. We
love the former and forgive the latter
and start in on our second quarter
century with a clean slate, for with
the new, year every subscriber VINO
has not paid for his paper in advance
will be dropped from our list, and at
the end of the second quarter CEN
tllry we are going to have something,
to show for our fifty years work on
The Reporter.
- It was indeed "a sorry looking
printing office which we stepped into
twenty-five years ago. 1t was known
as the Democrat-Reporter, but the
first thing we did was to drop the
first name, for if the policy of the
paper does not show that it is dem
ocrat1c no word could express the
fact to the reader. The office was
owned at that time by Lon H. Boyd
ston, and for many years new editor
had taken charge every few years.
The office, editorial rooms, compos-
ing and press rooms all were located
in the rooms now occupied as den
tai Office by DR.. J. w. Rowell, over
the Exchange National Bank. Soon
after we took charge of the paper we
found it necessary to have more
room, so the rooms over Stempel &
Cherrington's drug store were leased
for a number of years, and here The
Reporter made it's home until it's per-
manent home was built, specially as
a newspaper Office in it's present 10
cation. When we commenced work
in Leon the equipment of the office
consisted Of an old Gordon job press,
made long before the civil war, on
which the paper and all the job. work
was done. Cylinder presses and
power presses were very scarce at
That time in country Offices. The
paper was a little five column sheet,
and only half of it was printed In
the office, the other half being print
ed in Chicago. Such thing as extra
pages was never dreamed of and the
paper came out pretty nearly on any
day that the editor and printers
could get it out. We would have to
fold all the papers four times IN or
der to print one page OF the paper at
a time on the job press, and we had
to stand up land kick the press with
foot power too. Then perhaps the
next job was hundred envelopes or
dozen visiting cards, and the same
old press had to be used. But this
+ did not last long. Soon after taking
charge of the Office we bought
Washington hand press, and thought
we were we'll fixed for we could print
two pages of the paper at once. A
few years later we installed second
hand Taylor cylinder press, and now
The Reporter is printed on one OF
the latest model Babcock presses,
the best press made outside of the
perfecting presses used by the large
dailies.
The Reporter was the first print
ing office in Decatur county to install
steam press, and how we did
splurge about our steam print. The
power was from a little one horse
engine which used gasoline for fuel
to generate the steam. This was
followed by the first gasoline engine
i used to operate printing office, the
iatter being finally replaced with
individual electric motors to drive
the various presses and other ma
chinery used in the office. We In
stalled the first folder in Decatur
county and now we wonder after
swatching this machine turn out the
;Abig list of papers each week, all
folded and trimmed, how we ever
managed, to fold the papers by hand.
And last but not least by any means.
The Reporter installed the first limo.
type ever brought to Leon, the most
wonderful piece Of machinery manu-
featured. Il cost I. pile Of money,
bute.wAen we compare itA facilities
for turning out column after column