The Pioneer-Review Archive

Albert W. Prewitt began publishing The Bad River News on March 15, 1906 in what would become Haakon County, South Dakota, before there was even a town or a railroad. Town lots were sold in May 1907, and The Bad River News was the first business to put up a building. Alvin Waggoner served as editor from 1907 to 1910 and increased the number of pages from two to eight. The six-column Thursday publication cost $1 per year and in 1910 was sold to Robert Durkee, who edited the paper himself.

Another newspaper began in 1907: The Philip Weekly Review, published and edited by Joseph D. Rainey. The six-column, six-page Friday publication sold for $1 per year. In July 1912, Rainey bought The Bad River News and combined the two newspapers into the Philip Weekly Review and Bad River News. He raised the price to $1.50 per year, kept the eight-page, six-column format, and published it on Thursdays. In 1918, Rainey simplified the name, returning it to the Philip Weekly Review. Meanwhile, about 1912, the team of Clarence A. Carlson and John B. Goff began publishing a rival newspaper, The Pioneer, on Thursdays for $1 yearly.

From the beginning, the dominating focus of the Republican The Pioneer was the land. The only white settlers in this part of South Dakota before the early 1900s were ranchers with Native American spouses, as the land was not open to general settlement. The town was named for one of those ranchers: James Philip, a Scotsman, who is credited for saving the bison from extinction. When the Native reservations were opened for settlement to whites, the semi-arid land west of the Missouri River, including Stanley County, saw an influx of homesteaders. The sprawling region of Stanley County would be split into three counties—Stanley, Haakon, and Jackson—in 1914.

For the first few years the newspapers carried increasing numbers of homestead proofs and advice on how to prevent unlawful occupancy of claims and false claims. By 1910, ads and articles encouraging building and borrowing to increase and improve homesteads were appearing in the Philip newspapers. Around the same time there was an increase in ads of land for sale. After 1913, when the semi-arid nature of the region had caused many crop failures, notices also appeared of mortgage sales of farms; these increased yearly, along with ads for the sale of farming equipment. By 1915, newspapers in Philip were promoting irrigation, the growing of alfalfa with seed imported from Siberia, and the cultivation of other hardy plants, such as hybrid plums, roses, and strawberries.

Editorials also often concentrated on land issues. The newspapers in Philip solidly backed herd laws, which required stock growers to fence their cattle in, stating that homesteaders could not afford to fence their properties to keep the cattle out. Strident promotion of the Haakon County area, the need for a creamery, and acerbic reports on politicians were also editorial topics. In the news, local topics dominated, with frequent columns from areas such as Grindstone, Marietta, Pleasant Divide, Hardingrove, and North Fork. Businessmen in Haakon County formed an association and published a weekly report. Wedding announcements, local baseball results, crop reports, serial fiction, the promotion of women's suffrage, and market reports were common as well. An unusual column listed local livestock brands and the persons to whom they were registered. After 1908, there was an increase of boilerplate in the press, but the majority of coverage remained human interest stories, with only a small amount of regional, national, and international news.

When World War I broke out, the contents of the Philip Weekly Review and Bad River News and The Pioneer changed. Topics included the importance of thrift, the need to produce more crops and cattle, and an editorial supporting the German-born editor, Hans Demuth, of South Dakota's Deutscher Herold (German Herald). The newspapers also advertised a new product for soldiers, Wrigley's gum, and contained stories about local Native Americans in the Army with their "natural instincts as scouts and snipers," references to Liberty Loans, quarter-page ads for horses and mules needed for the war, encouragement for young men over the age of 16 to sign up for the Boys' Working Reserve to assist in farm work, and measures to prevent Spanish influenza and to care for its victims.

In 1920 Carlson and Goff bought the Philip Weekly Review and Bad River News, combined it with The Pioneer, titled the six-column, eight-page result The Pioneer-Review, and continued to publish on Thursdays. With the World War in the newly patented rear-view mirror, newspaper content shifted back to a focus on local news, real estate transfers, and farming advice, including using poultry to control grasshopper numbers. The Pioneer-Review continues to cover all the "Old Stanley County" area of Stanley, Haakon, and Jackson counties.