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1886–1930s · J. F. Endly, then William A. Endly — the paper spells it ENDLEY
On Mintle's death the paper passed to the family that would hold it for half a century: Howard records the sale to J. F. Endly, who renamed it the Walkerton Independent, and, after J. F. Endly's death, its continuation by his son William A. Endly — still conducting it when Howard wrote in 1907, from the two-story cement-stone building the younger Endly owned and the paper occupied. The paper's own surviving issues complicate the title Howard gives, and the complication prints whole: the issues of 1890–1892 reached in Hoosier State Chronicles run under the title St. Joseph County Independent — the United States Newspaper Directory record (LCCN SN86063061) carries that title from 3 July 1886 to 23 October 1897 — so for its first Endly decade the paper wore the county's name on its masthead while the county history calls it the town's. The surname prints two ways, and this build does not merge them: Howard spells the family Endly; the paper's own masthead of 1890 reads "W. A. ENDLEY, Publisher," and a 1909 trustee's report pays "W. A. Endley, printing" — the in-paper spelling carried here as the paper's own. A second Walkerton paper belongs to the same man's enterprise: J. F. Endly started the St. Joseph County Republican in 1879, sold it in 1881 to D. M. Eveland, after whom it passed to Needham and then to Burroughs & Son, and ceased, its presses removed to La Porte — Howard's telling, at Howard's strength, the rival's whole course in one sentence.
Sources:
- Howard, A History of St. Joseph County, Indiana (1907) — the Endly purchase and renaming; William A. Endly's continuance and building; the St. Joseph County Republican's course (1879–after 1881), read first-hand.
- St. Joseph County Independent, issues of 1890–1892 in Hoosier State Chronicles (the title as the paper wore it; "W. A. ENDLEY, Publisher," 1890) — OCR at transcription strength.
- United States Newspaper Directory records via Chronicling America (LCCN SN86063061: St. Joseph County Independent, 3 July 1886 – 23 October 1897; LCCN SN87055783: Walkerton Independent, to 1962).
- Lincoln Township trustee's report, 1909, as printed in the paper ("W. A. Endley, printing").