Wisconsin’s first newspapers…

January 13, 2013 by · Leave a Comment 

The state of Wisconsin was under several governances before coming onto its own with statehood in 1848. It began as part of the Indiana territory, then part of the Illinois territory, then part of the Michigan territory, then detached as the Wisconsin territory in 1836.

Printing began in the territory in 1827, and it was on December 11, 1833 that Wisconsin had its first newspaper titled the “Green-Bay Intelligencer“, done by Albert Ellis and John Suydam. The city was actually listed as Navarino, which today is a small suburb of Green Bay, population at the 2000 census listed as 442. Ellis was also the very first printer in Wisconsin, printing lottery tickets in 1827 and an almanac in the Chippewa language.

The second newspaper in Wisconsin was actually created as a vehicle to support the candidacy of Morgan Martin for territorial delegate to Congress. He employed William Stevenson and Joseph Dickinson to produced the “Wisconsin Free Press” at Green Bay in August of 1835. But it lasted for less than a year with the printing equipment sold  to the “Intelligencer“.

Two more newspapers were created in the 1830’s, they being the “Wisconsin Enquirer” in November of 1838 at Madison, the newly created capital of the territory, and then the  “Milwaukee Advertiser” on July 14, 1836. During the 1840’s many newspapers were created as Wisconsin worked towards statehood.