Iowa County Democrat Archive

The town of Mineral Point, Wisconsin, was founded in 1827 by lead miners who came to the area from Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri. Their simple shelters - some of which were mere holes in the hillside - earned Wisconsin the nickname "Badger State." During the 1830s, many experienced miners immigrated to Mineral Point from Cornwall, England, and brought with them an architectural style that shaped the look of the town. With the influx of Cornish miners as well as immigrants from Germany, Ireland, and Wales, Mineral Point grew in importance as the territory approached statehood: the city hosted the inauguration of the first governor of the Wisconsin Territory in 1836, established a rail line linking the region to Chicago and points south in 1857, and served as the seat of Iowa County until 1861.

When the Wisconsin Tribune was first published in Mineral Point in 1847, large numbers of lead miners had already left the Southwestern region of the territory to work in copper and iron mines in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and elsewhere. As lead extraction declined, many of those who remained in the area turned to mining another mineral: zinc. Others took up agriculture, particularly wheat and, beginning in the 1880s, dairy farming.

The Wisconsin Tribune and its succeeding titles (Mineral Point Tribune, 1854-58; Mineral Point Weekly Tribune, 1859-68; and Mineral Point Tribune, 1869-1938) and the Iowa County Democrat captured the history of what was once the most populated region of Wisconsin.

On September 3, 1847, just months before the territory gained statehood, Editor George Bliss launched the first issue of the Wisconsin Tribune. Content included poetry on the front page, national and international news catering to the immigrant readership on page two, and local news on page three. In July 1860, the layout changed from a six-column, 22-by-32-inch to an eight-column, 26-by-40-inch spread. Editors George and Edward Bliss also added the slogan "Pledged but to truth, to liberty and law - No Favor Sways us, and no Fear Shall Awe." The following year, the publication became semiweekly to keep up with the fast pace of the growing news industry. This change, however, was short-lived, as was its 1869 slogan, "Independent of all Men - Indifferent to None," which the new editors William Bennett and John Teasdale (1869-71) quickly altered to "Home First, the World Afterwards," suggesting the Tribune's new focus.

Along with the Tribune, the eight-page weekly Iowa County Democrat served readers in the Mineral Point area after 1877. The Iowa County Democrat had succeeded the National Democrat and was published through 1938, when it was merged with the Tribune to form the Iowa County Democrat and Mineral Point Tribune.