Mansfield Mirror Archive

William H. Pyles issued the first edition of the Mansfield Press in Mansfield, Wright County, Missouri, on October 9, 1908. A four-page, four-column newspaper, the Press was published on Fridays. It was one of the first newspapers in Mansfield and the only paper published at the time. Pyles was surprised that there was not a newspaper in Mansfield when he started the Press. He wrote: "For such a town to be without a newspaper is like a ship without a rudder, drifting about on unknown seas with no medium through which to make its purposes known." The management of the Mansfield Press changed frequently; according to one report, the "editorship of the paper changed hands almost every hour on the hour."

The Press received a permanent editor when William A. Black and his wife, Alma E. Black, purchased the paper in 1912. They published their first edition on December 26, 1912. The Blacks changed both the name but also the format of the paper. The new Mansfield Mirror was a four- to 18-page, six-column paper published weekly on Thursdays. The Blacks were former editors of several Caldwell County newspapers including the Hamilton Hamiltonian and the Kidder Independent. They were known to be "excellent newspaper people, capable, reliable and industrious." Black's tenure with the Mirror ended on December 30, 1920, when Oliver B. Davis became editor. At the time, the Mirror was the largest newspaper in Wright County with a large group of subscribers and claimed that "Everybody takes a look in the Mirror." Davis enjoyed a long career as editor and publisher. He built the first publisher-owned home for the Mirror in 1925 before retiring in 1936.

The Mirror published several articles from the magazine Missouri Ruralist written by Laura Ingalls Wilder (referred to as Mrs. A. J. Wilder in the paper), author of the "Little House" book series and one of Wright County’s most famous citizens. The paper also included many news items regarding Rose Wilder Lane, the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder and one the most successful women writers of her time in the United States. The Mirror covered Lane's work as a journalist for the San Francisco Bulletin, noting in an article dated July 29, 1915, her former connection to the newspaper. The Mirror also followed Lane’s work with the Red Cross Publicity Bureau and her reports on the condition of women and children in postwar Europe which appeared in national magazines, including Good Housekeeping.

In 1957, the Mansfield mirror combined with the Wright County Republican, and the two are still jointly published today as the Mansfield Mirror the Wright County Republican.