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A HISTORY OF THE PRESS OF MICHIGAN PREPARED FOR THE CENTENNIAL BY ORDER OF GOV. JOHN J. BAGLEY
TOM S. APPLEGATE, COMPILER
Section II
In March, 1855, A. E. Gordon started the first daily paper in Grand Rapids, called The Herald. In November following. The inquirer issued a daily edition, and in May, 1856, The Daily Eagle was started. The Eagle having previously been published weekly only.
In 1857, J. P. Thompson, who had for some time been employed as editor of The Inquirer, formed a partnership with A. E. Gordon, of The Herald, and they purchased The Inquirer, and the two were merged under the name of
The Inquirer and Herald. The proprietors soon disagreed, and Thompson retired, and soon after it was closed out by a mortgage, and for a time discontinued. It was resurrected by N. D. Titus, and afterward a Mr. Fordham became a partner, in the early part of the war period. About the close of the war it passed into the hands of Merrills H. Clark, and the name was changed to The Grand Rapids Democrat. With a succession of partners, among them C. C. Sexton. Robert Wilson, Dr. C. B. Smith, and Frank Godfrey, it has been published by, "M. H. Clark & Co. " for the past ten years.
The Grand Rapids Eagle was started December 25, 1844, as a whig newspaper, by Aaron B. Turner, then but 22 years of age, who has ever since been and is now, its principal owner and controller. George Martin and Haley F. Barstow at first assisted as editors, then Ralph W. Cole, in 1848, and for two or three years. James Scribner became part proprietor in 1851, for a short time, then A. F. Proctor about 1852, Mr. Turner soon after repurchasing their interest. During those years times were hard, Grand Rapids was isolated almost from the rest of the world, and "all sorts of produce" was the currency taken for newspaper subscriptions in most cases where it was not sent on credit
THE PRESS OF MICHIGAN
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