A Brief History of Door County Newspapers

Three years after Wisconsin entered the union as the 30th state in 1848, the peninsula was recognized as Door County and communities started springing up. It took another full decade before one of the first signs of progress and growth of a newly settled territory in the United States came in the form of a newspaper.

The Door County Advocate made its debut on Saturday, March 22, 1862. Printed at the top:  Terms, $1.50 per annum in advance.

Joseph Harris (Sr.), editor, wrote the first editorial, simply titled “Salutatory.”

“We have undertaken, and with your aid shall publish, a paper devoted entirely to the interests of Door County.”

He goes on to put things in a historical context by alluding to the almost one-year old Civil War:

“The Advocate will sustain the administration of President Lincoln, in putting down this unholy rebellion, our politics will be strictly Union, until peace, is restored to our beloved country, we shall sink all other political questions, until every state is back in the Union, and peace law and order re-established in the land.”

That first four-page broadsheet issue was filled with war news. A.R. Laurie & Co. advertised in heavy, bold type, “Ready-Made Clothing!” S.W. Earle & Brother advertised that they had the best stock of dry goods in northern Wisconsin, “War or No War!”

Another decade would pass before a competitor arrived. On October 24, 1873, The Expositor appeared to challenge The Advocate.

“We aim to advocate the highest and best interests of the whole people, absolutely regardless of all parties in politics and sects in religion. Terms:  Two dollars per annum.”

Its editors referred to the competition as “the organ.”

The Expositor added Independent to its title with the May 11, 1877 issue, with its sale to Charles Martin. Last issue on June 25, 1880.

On March 5, 1886, the first issue of The Independent was published after having purchased the “equipment and goodwill” of The Expositor. Its aim? “To be wholly devoted to the best interests of Door County.” Its last issue appeared on June 27, 1890.

One week later, on July 3, 1890, The Republican was born, with the same motto as The Independent, “Devoted to the Local News of Door County.” Editor Joseph Harris Jr. declared The Republican to be “straight Republican in politics, will advocate every measure calculated to advance the best interest of Door County and Sturgeon Bay…”

In the beginning, its masthead read:  “A Republican journal published every Thursday afternoon.” By the time of its final issue on Dec. 22, 1892, the masthead read “A Democratic journal published every Thursday afternoon.” Apparently Mr. Harris had a falling out with the Republicans, but not enough to change the name of the newspaper.

That was followed on Jan. 28, 1893, by The Door County Democrat, which announced a subscription of $1.50 a year. “Is it not worth it? Of course it is very agreeable to have subscriptions paid in advance, but if you want the paper and are not prepared to pay for a year just now, send us your name and address and pay us later on. This will be entirely satisfactory to us.”

Its first front page was filled with local tidbits such as “John Drab was kicked by a vicious horse at the Northwestern House and is disabled from duty” and “The inside of Stiles & Reynolds’ drug store has received a new coat of paint.”

It seemed to mimic a more metropolitan tone by providing plenty of world and national news stories and tidbits, such as “Robert Louis Stevenson, the novelist, is said to be dying of consumption at his home in Samoa.” Some of it seemed more like filler, such as the story “African Cattle Plague.”

Finally, the editorial introducing the publication addresses the very issue mentioned above:  “The Door County Democrat will be much more than a local paper. We scarcely understand, any more, the old marked distinction between provincial and metropolitan. The idea and even the words are becoming obsolete. We believe it practicable, even for a local paper, to glean from the best sources, condense, and present in readable form, all the more important news of the state, the nation, and the world.”

Messrs. John J. Pinney and Kirke G. Shepard were owners/editors and unabashed advocates of the Democratic Party. After their welcome editorial, they lambasted the Advocate and owner Joseph Harris for spreading “lies” about the new Democratic newspaper.

And then, a little more than 25 years later, on Friday, July 26, 1918, The Democrat, boasting “Largest circulation in County,” announced on its front page the merger of the Door County Democrat and its rival, The Advocate. They consolidated under the name Door County Publishing Co.

Four years before that acquisition, another newspaper appeared, The Door County News. It published a front-page creed with its first issue on July 1, 1914:  “The Door County News aims to be just a fearless champion of all things that make for the welfare of the majority. Where something needs to be done, we will shed our coats and jump into the fray. We believe that empty criticism of men and things accomplishes nothing. But seeing a positive task and doing it — in other words, engaging in forceful constructive work — this is the highest mission of a newspaper. Such are the aims and purposes of The Door County News. It will aim to be an aggressive force in the community. It will do things constantly. It will be the kind of newspaper so electrically alive, so alert and so interesting that you would rather go without your meals than miss it.”

Earl M. LaPlant served as its president, manager and editor and its motto was “Broad and Liberal In All Things.”

In what turned out to be its final issue, a notice on the front page of August 31, 1939, Door County Daily News said it would be delivered a day late the next week due to the Labor Day holiday. But that was its last issue.

On its September 8, 1939 front page, The Advocate announced “The Advocate Purchases the Door County News.” The purchase gave the county “one newspaper administered as second-class matter at the post office for the first time since October 24, 1873, when a publication known as The Expositor entered the field together with The Advocate…”