Colfax Messenger begins 124th year of publication
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
COLFAX — In 1897, A.C. Chase and his wife, Jennie, decided Colfax needed a newspaper.
The first issue of the Colfax Messenger was published April 30, 1897.
In the very first issue, A.C. wrote: “The public is again confronted with this, the first issue of another new journal, christened ‘The Colfax Messenger.’ It has come to stay, and it is the intention of its editor to make it one of the best general news journals in the Northwest.
“It will be strictly non-political, dealing only with items of general interest. Its aim will ever be to give the public local and general messages and in return for its service, it appeals to all for their liberal patronage for its support.
“Hoping the Messenger will be a welcome visitor and that the people of Colfax and vicinity will take special pains to lend their most cordial patronage to the support, socially and financially. I am yours to serve, A.C. Chase, editor.”
The Colfax Messenger was not the first newspaper in Colfax.
The first newspaper was The Colfax Record. It seems that the man who started the first newspaper collected subscription money, published a few issues, and then skipped town with the subscription money — leaving people in the Colfax area wary of newspapers, at least for a little while.
Another article in the very first Colfax Messenger gave information about the village.
“Who said Colfax was an out-of-the-way place? Well, no matter, anyhow. Whoever said so did not know for we claim to be doing as much business, or more than any other town of our size in this part of the state. We claim about 300 inhabitants; have five general stores, one hardware store, a paint shop, three hotels, two liveries, one drug store, a barber shop, two warehouses, a creamery, two millinery shops, two blacksmith shops, a union church, a fine graded school, a post office, and we are about to have a fine lumber yard, if we are in an out-of-the-way place. We are on the main line of the Wisconsin Central and have good train service; so you see, we are in-the-way — for business.”
A.C. Chase also included one last message to his new subscribers:
“The Messenger is about 6 hours later in making its first weekly appearance than it expects to be in the future, owing to a delay at headquarters.”
A.C. and Jennie Chase were editors and publishers of the Messenger from 1897 to 1917 when it was purchased by Ward Swift. Ward died in the 1920s, and then the newspaper was operated by his son, Holden Swift.
In the May 22, 1952, issue of the Colfax Messenger, it was reported, “A deal was recently closed in which Kenneth D. Reed of Cumberland became the new owner of the business and the equipment at the Messenger Publishing Company, formerly owned by the partnership of Mrs. Emma Swift, Scott Rand and P.H. Swift.”
Ken and Helen Reed were the editors and publishers of the Colfax Messenger from 1952 until 1968, when the newspaper was purchased by Lyle and Inez Christianson.
One captivating feature of the Messenger during the time it was owned by the Reeds was Helen Reed’s column, “Winding Up the Yarn.”
In one of Helen’s columns, she wrote about Margaret Christianson and Mary Kiekhafer, the Colfax school district’s first two “women bus drivers.”
One day Margaret was out in the hot summer sun, picking cucumbers for the pickle factory and thinking there had to be a better way to earn some money, when a school bus drove by. She was pretty sure driving a school bus would be easier than raising cucumbers.
Mary Kiekhafer started out as a kindergarten bus driver for the school district.
In another of her columns, Helen wrote about a man in Colfax who wanted to buy his wife a new dress at the Crazy Day sale. He found a very pretty dress that he was sure she would love. When he held it up, he was certain it would fit her, too.
As it turned out, the wife was rather matronly, and the dress was about six sizes too small. But she loved the dress anyway and said she would cherish it always — because apparently, in her husband’s eyes, she was still a young slip of a girl who could fit into that dress.
When Lyle Christianson purchased the newspaper in 1968, he was the only Colfax native to own the newspaper in the history of the Colfax Messenger.
Lyle’s Messenger won a number of awards from the Wisconsin Newspaper Association, including one award for the Messenger’s initiative to kick-start and sustain a fund-raising effort to build a new stock barn at the Colfax Fairgrounds. The stock barn still stands today and was refurbished a few years ago with new walls and a new roof to look just-as-good-as-new.
Lyle and Inez operated the Messenger until January 1, 1995, when the newspaper was purchased by Ellis Bloomfield of Wanamingo, Minnesota.
Bloomfield owned a printing business in Wanamingo for 15 years, and prior to that, he was the publisher of the Hector Mirror in western Minnesota from 1969 to 1979.
Bloomfield owned the Messenger for three years, and then he sold the newspaper to Carlton DeWitt, editor and publisher of the Glenwood City Tribune Press Reporter.
Carlton DeWitt remains the Colfax Messenger’s editor and publisher today as the Messenger begins its 124th year of publication.
One of the Messenger’s recent accomplishments was to publish the stories and pictures of survivors of the June 4, 1958, Colfax tornado on the 50th anniversary of the tornado in 2008 and to cover the tornado commemoration ceremony at the Martin Anderson Gymnasium for which there was standing room only.
Another of the Messenger’s recent accomplishments was to bring to light the Colfax Village Board’s declaration 35 years ago that the ball park, now known as Tom Prince Memorial Park, be dedicated to the veterans of the Vietnam War.
A Vietnam veterans memorial was never installed at the park, so the Messenger turned over the information to William C. Yingst Jr., Colfax school district administrator and a United States Army veteran, and the result was the Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Tom Prince Memorial Park was dedicated August 30, 2018.