A long time ago—the spring of 1894 to be exact—a Civil War veteran named William Spencer (W.S.) “Fred” Munroe established a paper at Stanley with his son William Richard Munroe, to be named the Stanley Journal.
With the Stanley area first covered in the locals of the Thorp Courier and by Chippewa Falls papers, the Journal started May 23, 1894 marked a new home enterprise.
Later sold to Richard Yundt in the summer of 1895, would soon flow as tributary into another paper started by Wilbur Henry (W.H.) Bridgman on June 8, 1893, at Iron County, Wisconsin. Bridgman’s paper, established in its Stanley edition on Saturday May 16, 1896, would go on to become the Stanley Country’s trusted news source, after Mr. Bridgman bought out Yundt’s interest in the Journal and sold his own Iron County interest
At the time of his arrival in Stanley Mr. Bridgman was just shy of 30, having been born October 27, 1866 at Wiota in LaFayette County Wisconsin and raised at Darlington, also in LaFayette. He would spend the next 47 years of his life building and growing the newspaper at Stanley, to which he dedicated his business skills and life.
Initially in partnership with his brother Benjamin, a future professor at what is now UW-Eau Claire, Bridgman bought out an earlier paper called The Stanley Journal from Richard Yundt, combing the two as The Stanley Republican and Journal until April 1, 1899, when “and Journal” was dropped from the name.
The paper of those early years was slightly different in its content from today, carrying national and international news alongside local content.
With railroads the main form of transport between rural communities and radio yet to come into its own, the Stanley Republican shared city news alongside that from various countryside communities, including Cox, Brownsville, Eidsvold, Wilson, Pleasant Valley and Hamilton Falls—but these far from an exhaustive listing.
Published on Saturdays before shifting to Friday for advertisers in 1913, The Stanley Republican covered the start of City Hall and Library as well as their builders, early Stanley industries, North/South Side Schools Debate of 1904 (both were eventually built), Great Fire of 1906, search for water and well drilling, architect of what is now ADM (Robert Potter), city politics and outlying settlement happenings.
In short, it kept busy.
From Wilson in the south to the Yellow River community further north, the Stanley Republican, its editorial staff and reporters kept a watch on local happenings as well as those abroad. If Bridgman thought something benefited the Stanley Country he wasn’t shy, sharing his opinions in the editorial column.
He also defended his friends, saying of one that they had been “stabbed in the back” by ungrateful comrades.
“The ungrateful individuals who went after Mr. Rabenstorf’s scalp are fair specimens of the genus popocrat. He worked shoulder to shoulder with them for the success of their party and they in turn took advantage of his temporary embarrassment and knifed their tried and true friend.”
As for the Republican itself, the paper came to be run as a mutual stock corporation. Bridgman explained more from January 4, 1908:
This, the first number of the Stanley Republican in the year 1908, its issued by the Inter County Publishing Company, a corporation chartered by the State of Wisconsin. The management of The Republican and allied businesses remains the same…Mr. Merton W. Stone who for several years has had charge of the mechanical department becomes the owner of a portion of stock. A few more shares of the stock may be disposed of to Stanley people seeking a safe investment which will insure them returns from six percent to eight percent. The business is capitalized at $5,000, there being 50 shares of $100 each, par value.”
As Stanley waxed in population and prosperity so did the newspaper and vice versa, with several employees later going on to work at and/or found other area newspapers. From Henry Johnson Terry Zier and Faith Richards, to Hank and Mary Brochtrup, Walter Brovald and Jerry Bates, the dedicated employees and reporters for the Republican covered their beat and printed the paper, with several special editions showcasing the area and local industry for the outside world.
Stating in a note from 1917 kept at the UW-Eau Claire that “business has picked up a bit” and “I think I can make a living on it,” Bridgman covered the local news beat until shortly before his death in 1943, from failing health.
From 1896 when he came to town through the early 1900s, the newspaper and surrounding area formed a symbiotic relationship, each helping the other.--but then tragedy struck.
In November of 1929, a devastating fire struck the newspaper’s printing plant, as told December 6, 1929:
“REPUBLICAN HOME DESTROYED BY A NOON DAY BLAZE
Printing Plant of Inter County Publishing Company Reduced to Mass of Junk
The printing and publishing plant of the Inter County Publishing Company, publishers of the Stanley Republican, and the building which it occupied, owned by W. H. Bridgman, were both destroyed by fire on Saturday of last week, during the noon hour.
Going on to print the next edition at the Herald-Telegram offices in Chippewa Falls and establish a temporary printing office in Stanley to recover, surviving the fire that could have destroyed it.
The Republican shrank to four pages in the Great Depression before expanding with the return of prosperity in the mid-forties.
As for those who went on to found area papers and contribute in their own way, that will take another installment of the paper.