Wauwatosa News Archive

Wauwatosa is located west of Milwaukee in Milwaukee County. Surrounded by the lush and fertile river basin of the Menominee River, it is in the ancestral territory of the Potawatomi, Menominee, and Ojibwe and was ceded in the Treaty of 1833 by the Potawatomi to the United States Government. Credited as the founder of Wauwatosa, Charles Hart built two mills along the river in 1835, structural icons that would first make the town known as Hart's Mills. Wauwatosa experienced explosive growth in the mid-19th century, made possible by transportation links to Milwaukee and the great influx of German and Irish settlers.

A devastating fire on July 10, 1895, left many commercial businesses in ruin, but the disaster only spurred new growth in the city. With many 19^th- and 20^th-century Victorian-style buildings, Wauwatosa is known as the "city of homes."

The Wauwatosa News was first published in 1885, but ceased publication just after a few issues. It wasn't until 1899 that the Wauwatosa Printing Company under Lysander R. Gridley's leadership began to continuously publish the weekly. John R. Benoy, a printer from Milwaukee who had worked at the Milwaukee Sentinel, the Milwaukee Journal and the Evening Wisconsin, soon joined the Wauwatosa News and eventually became the editor and proprietor in September 1907. He ran the newspaper until his son Cornelius took over in 1921. Other editors and publishers included D.G. Rowe, and Nancy and Lee Perry.

From 1908 to 1939, the Wauwatosa News was the town's only newspaper and covered a lot of local news in columns such as "Local Happenings," "Local & Personal," "Church Announcements," and "Curious Condensations." National and international news was also featured, and columns like "In the Limelight" highlighting important national and international figures, the "Young Folks Column," and humorous and gossip items offered entertainment.

In 1939, a competitor entered the scene. The Wauwatosa Times and the News co-existed until April 1948 when they merged and formed the Wauwatosa News-Times.