In 1879, two years before the accepted birth of the city of Hillsboro, E.D. Barker established the Hillsboro Banner. Since that time the newspaper has served the people of Hillsboro and Traill County.
Barker bought the plant in 1879 from Delacy Wood, who had operated a paper in Caledonia in the early days called The Northern Signal. The Banner was founded at approximately the same time as the Grand Forks Herald. Both were small town weeklies at that time.
Besides being the editor of the Hillsboro Banner, E.D. Barker, was a dealer in real estate. His advertisement appeared on one of the pages, giving a short description of Traill County –fertility of soil, heavy timber, streams of excellent water. He mentioned Hillsboro as “the commercial center of the famous Goose River country, midway between Grand Forks and Fargo, and situated on the line of the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba”. In 1884 Barker sold his interest in the paper to George L. Bowers, a prosperous farmer living near the city.
A timeline of the Hillsboro Banner history:
October 1887 the Banner consolidated with the Press, another Hillsboro newspaper. They continued under the name of the Banner.
1892 Alvin Schmitt, who had served on the Banner staff since 1882, bought the paper from Bowers.
1894 the city fathers made the Hillsboro Banner the official paper of the city of Hillsboro.
1896 the Banner Publishing Company was organized. By 1899 the circulation of the Banner was 1200 issues per week.
1910 Schmitt died and in 1911 L.E. George of Fertile, Minn., bought the paper from his estate, marking the beginning of the longest era of one-family ownership in the paper’s history. George and his family retained possession of the newspaper for just 16 days short of 44 years.
1935 George edited the Banner until his death , at which time his son, Lyle, stepped into the editor’s chair to manage the paper. Later he and his sister, Vila, bought it from their mother. Lyle left the paper to take over the Jackson Pilot in Minnesota and Vila continued to publish the paper until
1955-1961William Kremer took over the editor’s position.
1961 Eugene Carr bought the paper.
1971 the paper was sold to Mylon Ash and later to Barnesville Publishing.
1971-1978 Tom Ellingsworth claimed the title of publisher and editorwhile retaining interest into 1991.
1978 Gary Wright joined the staff and became acting editor until becoming publisher 1979.
1979 – 1980, Wright continued as publisher, while his wife Peggy served as editor for the Banner.
1980 – 1983 Robert Pore and Bette Pore acted as publisher and editor.
1983-August of 1985 Keith Meyer became editor and publisher.
August of 1985, Meyer accepted a position as teacher at the Hillsboro Public School system, assigning the position of editor to Sally Thompson.
January of 1987, Meyer sold the Hillsboro Banner to Rick and Val Alfson, with Thompson remained editor.
April 1991, Alfson’s sold the rights to the Oldest Weekly Newspaper in North Dakota to Kelly Publishing.
January of 1994, O’Gorman H. King, Jr. became publisher. Thompson continued to act as editor-in-chief until her departure in 1995.
April 1995 – summer of 1997 Val Coit, a young published photographer, joined the Hillsboro Banner as acting editor.
Michelle McLean served as the associate editor through the fall of 1997.
Fall of 1997 – March of 1999 Scott Julin served as editor to the Banner.
1999 the Banner welcomed a veteran of ND weeklies to it’s audience when Neil O. Nelson, joined the staff as editor. Having served under the Carr’s in the 1960s, Nelson has “come home” to Hillsboro.
<>The Hillsboro Banner received the general excellence award at the North Dakota Newspaper convention held in April of 2000 due to the accomplishments of both Nelson and McLean. The Hillsboro Banner has a current subscriber list of close to 1,500 members with a publication date of Saturday.
<>HillsboroBanner.com is our on-line publication reaching an audience of unlimited numbers. Welcome!
