The Reynolds Press
Jesse A. Winger was the founder of the Press. He bought the entire
plant, new from shooting-stick to newspaper press, in Chicago, and issued
Number one of Volume one in Aledo, the seat of Mercer County, on October
19, 1894. In that city it was published for more than a year as a red hot
Democratic weekly.
But the income wasn't quite large enough to pay the expenses, and so Mr.
Winger sought a new field. He found it at Reynolds, the metropolis of the
lower end of Rock Island County, and one of the finest little villages in
the State, located, by the way, about half way between Aledo and Rock
Island, and surrounded in every direction by a particularly rich
agricultural region. The Aledo Press thus became the Reynolds Press,
without missing an issue, in January, 1896, at the same time changing its
politics to independent.
In February, 1897, the plant and subscription list were sold to Guy V.
Pettit, who at that time was principal of the Brimfield, Peoria County,
schools. Mr. Pettit had been in public school work for twelve years, five
of them having been spent at the head of the Hampton and Reynolds schools,
respectively. Without a single day's experience in a print shop, the new
owner assumed personal charge of his venture July 1, 1897, and has been
with the paper ever since.
In common with most country weeklies, the Press was a "patent inside"
paper up to May 1, 1904. Since that time it has been an "all home print,"
published in six-column quarto style, with occasionally two to four
additional pages to accommodate special spurts of advertising. The old
hand press, on which the paper was printed for six years, disappeared in
1900 to make room for a big drum cylinder, that runs at the rate of 1,200
an hour. The Press, which, by the way, has never missed an issue since its
birth twelve years ago, attempts to make a specialty of local news,
neighboring correspondence and live advertisements. Its principal claim
for distinction lies in the fact that, considering the size of the
village, it probably has a larger circulation than any other paper in the
State.
The Press Of Rock Island County
Source: Historic Rock Island County, pub. Kramer & Company, Rock Island, Illinois, 1908