The carriers' corporate lines whole: Mishawaka's succession, the Register, the Tribune, and the Democratic line to the News-Times

1840s–2019 · THE PAPERS THAT CARRIED THIS TOWN, AT BOUNDARY SIZE

Mishawaka's line, from the city's own commissioned history (De Kever): the city's first paper was the Tocsin, edited by Wilbur Storey — who sold it to George Merrifield, who moved it to South Bend; the name that carried Osceola's news therefore begins with a paper that left. The Bee followed in 1846 and ran two years. The Free Democrat was created in 1848 for Martin Van Buren's candidacy and ceased when the election did — the closest local analogue to the checklist pattern's one-campaign paper, printed as an analogue and no more (it was a campaign paper, not an abolition paper; no abolition paper was found on this ground). The line that lasted began in 1853, when D. C. Ireland founded the Free Press; Ireland sold to L. A. Elliott, who renamed it the Mishawaka Enterprise; Archibald Beal bought the Enterprise in 1858 and made it staunchly pro-Union through the Civil War. The Enterprise is Mishawaka's oldest business, surviving as a weekly into the twenty-first century — the paper whose microfilm run (1858–2019) at the Mishawaka-Penn-Harris Public Library is, per Newspapers & Media, the file in which Osceola's nineteenth- and twentieth-century news physically survives.

South Bend's Republican line: Schuyler Colfax acquired the Whig South Bend Free Press and renamed it the St. Joseph Valley Register in 1845; the Register added a daily edition on 18 September 1875, and died in 1887, its plant and fixtures sold to the Tribune Printing Company (Howard). The South Bend Tribune was first issued as a weekly on 9 March 1872 — incorporators Alfred Bryant Miller, Elmer Crockett, James H. Banning and Elias W. Hoover — published its first daily on 28 May 1873, and was founded as a Republican paper by men who came from the Register; in 1887 it bought the Register out and absorbed its rival whole. The Tribune then ran as a family paper for 146 years under what became Schurz Communications, until the sale to GateHouse Media: on 19 November 2019 the Tribune became a Gannett paper, its printing moved to Peoria and its newsroom to 635 South Lafayette Boulevard. The Democratic line, whole to its end: the county's first Democratic attempt was the St. Joseph County Forum of 1853, Ariel and William H. Drapier's paper (Howard); it passed to Edward Malloy and into the National Union / South Bend Weekly Union line; Charles L. Murray bought in in December 1874 (his son Charles T. Murray editing), and the line ran on through the Herald/Times succession to the South Bend Times under Henry A. Peed (1881; the Times Printing Company of John B. Stoll printing the daily from 1883). On 2 June 1913 the Times merged with the South Bend News (1908, Gabriel R. Summers) to form the South Bend News-Times — twice-daily until 1927, at peak circulation in 1937 but loss-making, and ceased 27 December 1938. Around the principals the 1880s field was crowded — the Democratic News, the Post and the New Era among the also-rans Howard's generation remembered. The corporate whole is therefore: two cities, three long lines, one survivor each — the Enterprise a weekly in Mishawaka, the Tribune a Gannett daily in South Bend — and between them, on their pages, the entire printed record of a town that never had a paper of its own.

Sources:

1. De Kever, Mishawaka: A History (city-commissioned) — the Tocsin (Storey; sold to Merrifield, moved to South Bend); the Bee, 1846, two years; the Free Democrat, 1848, one election; the Free Press, 1853, D. C. Ireland → L. A. Elliott, renamed the Mishawaka Enterprise; Archibald Beal, 1858, pro-Union; the Enterprise as the city's oldest business, a weekly into the 21st century.
2. Howard, A History of St. Joseph County (1907) — Colfax and the St. Joseph Valley Register (1845; daily 18 Sept. 1875; discontinued 1887, plant to the Tribune Printing Co.); the Tribune's first issue 9 Mar. 1872, incorporators Miller, Crockett, Banning, Hoover; first Daily Tribune 28 May 1873; the Democratic line: Forum 1853 (the Drapiers), Malloy, the National Union/Weekly Union, the Murrays (Dec. 1874), the Times under Peed (1881; Stoll's Times Printing Co. 1883).
3. The South Bend News-Times record (The History Museum, "A Bend in Time") — merger of the Times and the News, 2 June 1913; twice-daily to 1927; peak circulation 1937; ceased 27 Dec. 1938. The Tribune/GateHouse record — Schurz family ownership 146 years; GateHouse sale, Gannett from 19 Nov. 2019; printing to Peoria; headquarters 635 S. Lafayette Blvd.
4. Newspapers & Media — the carriers' holdings (MPHPL Enterprise film 1858–2019; the Tribune) and the banked town-paper negative this article stands behind.