A relatively long time ago—two full lifetimes or so--a paper called ‘The Stanley Republican” was started at a then 15 year old municipality called Stanley Wisconsin—dating to 1881 on the plat map.

The new paper’s editor, Wilbur Henry Bridgman, had come from Iron County Wisconsin where he was a publisher and county school superintendent, putting out the Iron County Republican at Hurley Wisconsin, starting in June 1893.

Moving to Stanley but keeping his Iron County publication for a while, Bridgman went on to build a legacy in the Stanley country incorporating many different parts—including the Stanley Journal and Boyd Bee, it turns out.

If you’ve never heard of these, it’s because Mr. Bridgman bought the rights to the Stanley Journal in March 1897, incorporating it into his own paper and making them as one. The Stanley Journal had been tied to the Munroe family, who ran the Cadott Blade at Cadott. Run by young “Fred” Munroe, the Stanley Journal was sold to Richard Yundt in 1895, who sold it to Mr. Bridgman.

Bridgman in turn would briefly name this combined paper “The Stanley Republican and Journal” before leaving the last part off in April 1899.

The Boyd Bee, published by a former editor of the Stanley Republican, would join this tradition under editor Ralph Bloom over a half century later, or around the time the Stanley-Boyd Area School District was founded. Counting the Journal the paper you’re reading has chronicling local life for just over 13 decades—but to start at the beginning we take you back to 1896, when Mr. Bridgman came to Stanley.

The Republican, then three years old in its Iron County edition and named for Bridgman’s belief in the protective tariff as a measure lifting American wages above those of Europe, debuted to wondrous effect, as Bridgman recounted from May 23, 1896, in Issue 2 of Volume 1, dated locally:

“Stanley’s new paper, The Republican, published by Bridgman Bros., appeared last week,” the Thorp Courier was quoted as saying. “It was handsomely illustrated, showing saw mill and tannery plants, churches, schools house and several handsome residences.”

Bridgman summed up the paper’s reception inside as he reported an important element in  continued newspaper life: subscriptions!

“A large number of Stanley people have voluntarily come forward and added their names to our subscription list this week,” he reported. “This is as it should be. We do not want to force this paper upon anyone, now do we wish to embarrass anyone by compiling him to refuse it. But where is the family or home in Stanley that can afford to go without the Republican?…If you have a family, home, business interests in Stanley, you certainly cannot.”

Thus closes the first chapter of our present narrative, but not the last. There is more to tell about, and beyond, the time when two local papers—The Stanley Journal and The Republican—became one…(to be continued).