A look back in time at the OPP

This column was previously in the Owatonna People’s Press July 11 edition. Jan Mittelstadt Tippett was the editor of the paper during the 100-year anniversary and she submitted the column again for this special 150-year celebration.

It’s been 150 years and it’s still here.

The “it” in this case is the People’s Press. Editors and publishers are often called upon to give talks to community organizations. And sometimes we’re even invited back. It’s part of the job. Like politicians, there is a standard stump speech that is useable for the first time one is invited.

My standard stump speech, in my old newspaper days, was about history and beginnings (and changes) at the newspaper where I was either the editor or publisher. And, for whatever reason it might be, I still have the first speech I prepared for the Owatonna Rotary Club in the late 1970’s. It is written on the yellow copy paper that was ubiquitous in newsrooms for decades on a typewriter not powered by electricity and here’s how it went:

“There is a story that the founder of the People’s Press Benjamin E. Darby used to delight in, I’ve been told. Thomas Kelly, a pioneer general store proprietor, called on Mr. Darby after his first issue was published and handed him a small advertisement.

“Run this ad as long as you want, “ Mr. Kelly told Mr. Darby, “but you probably won’t been publishing very long.” The ad appeared in every issue for many months before Mr. Kelly called back to admit he “guessed Darby would be here a long time” and killed the ad.”

The People’s Press was first published on Sept. 2, 1874 as a weekly newspaper. The original location was where Elwood’s used to be until it recently closed. The owners were Benjamin Darby and a Mr. Lemen (first name unknown) who dropped out after two weeks.

In the 1890s, Mr. Darby was joined in the business by his three sons and in 1894, the business moved to the corner of Pearl and North Cedar where it remained for 70 years. In those days, the press and composition departments were in the basement and the news, advertising and business departments were on the second floor. On the first floor was Ryp’s Bar. I have been told by impeccable sources that the dumb waiter that passed from the basement to the second floor made many a stop on the first floor.

Working together, the father and sons expanded the business and on March 1, 1916, entered the daily field with the publication of an independent morning newspaper – The Daily People’s Press. It was the only morning newspaper in Minnesota, outside of the metro area. The Darby family hedged their bets and continued with the weekly newspaper until 1921 when it was folded into the daily.

Following the death of the founder at age 92 in 1939, his son George F. became the president of the company until his death in 1944 when he was succeeded by son Harry B. as president and publisher. When he died in 1951, the third generation, Benjamin E. Darby II, took over. Soon, the building was outgrown and Ben II built the present building at 135 W. Pearl in 1964. It even had a heated sidewalk in those days.

When the fourth generation Darby wanted to pursue other than a newspaper career, the Darby family decided to get out of the business, 93 years after its founding. For many years, the newspaper was known as Darby’s or Darby’s Distress or other even less than flattering names.

The newspaper was sold in 1967 to the Free Press Company of Mankato. The name of the paper was changed from the Daily People’s Press to the Owatonna People’s Press and, dear readers three, we gained different less than flattering names. The ownership changed again to Ottaway Newspapers, the community division of Dow Jones, publishers of the Wall Street Journal, in the mid to late 1970’s.

And so ended the formal talk, that wasn’t really too formal, to the Rotary Club – all men in those days. My notes said that I was willing to take questions. I must have. I think that typographical errors must have been part of those talks, and many others. My favorite typo of all time didn’t happen in my watch but it was posted on the bulletin board in the newsroom and it certainly was in the People’s Press. It was a story about a shipwreck where survivors were found clinging to a misspelled raft (the r and f were transposed). It makes me laugh even today.

The 100th anniversary of the People’s Press in 1974 was filled with special editions, an open house or two, parties, and a telling of the newspaper’s history as well as the 100 years of history for Steele County and Owatonna. There were four sections of the Centennial edition, each one printed on four consecutive Saturday nights and inserted into the Sunday newspaper. We asked our readers to save each Sunday section and put them together to have the full complement at the end of the four weeks. Whether that happened remains unknown.

I was transferred from the People’s Press in 1985 but remained with Ottaway and Dow Jones so any subsequent programs didn’t include the sale of the People’s Press in the late 1980s to Huckle Publishing or its subsequent sale to Adams Publishing Group.

And I prepared a different newspaper history talk for Rotary Clubs, and other community organizations, in Arizona, Pennsylvania and South Dakota where members weren’t all white men but still the dominant gender and race.

But my hometown newspaper story about Ben Darby and Kelly’s remained my favorite.