History of Atchison County, KansasIngalls, Sheffield
History
History of Atchison County, Kansas
Ingalls, Sheffield
Atchison County (Kan.) -- Biography; Atchison County (Kan.) -- History
Meanwhile, the _Champion_ had its ups and downs, but did not die. A
daily again appeared April 22, 1901, with Ewing Herbert, one of the
celebrated newspaper men of Kansas, as its editor and owner. Mr. Herbert
was at that time the owner of the _Brown County World_, at Hiawatha. He
conceived the idea that Atchison offered an attractive field for a
newspaper venture, and he succeeded in interesting some local capital in
his enterprise. Capt. John Seaton was a stockholder, among others, and
Jay House, the present mayor of Topeka (1915) and a brilliant newspaper
paragrapher, was city editor. Mr. Herbert spent only part of his time in
Atchison, and turned over the management of the _Champion_ to Mr. House.
It looked for a time as if Mr. Herbert was going to make a success of
his venture, but just at the height of his prosperity he was guilty of
an editorial indiscretion, which turned some powerful influences against
the paper, and on August 17, 1901, Mr. Herbert gave up his effort as a
bad job and turned the plant over to one W. A. Robinson, formerly of St.
Louis, Mo. Mr. Robinson was a follower of Henry George, the great single
taxer, and conceived it to be his duty to spread the single tax
propaganda through the editorial columns of the _Champion_. His efforts
in this direction did not prove profitable, and becoming disheartened
and discouraged he fled from the city shortly thereafter, a much poorer
but wiser man.
The _Champion_ next fell into the hands of Corman H. Young, for many
years a successful music merchant, of Atchison, who incidentally
acquired a small job printing plant, which he operated on North Fifth
street, and which he subsequently merged with the _Champion_ plant,
having acquired that by paying off the mortgage which Mr. Robinson gave
Ewing Herbert at the lime he undertook to acquire the property. Mr.
Young ran a weekly paper for a number of years, until May, 1907, when he
employed Walt Mason, the famous prose poet of the United States, to
assume the editorial management of a daily. Mr. Mason many years before
had been a resident of Atchison, and ran the Globe during the absence of
Mr. Howe in Europe. He was not so famous in 1907 as he is in 1915, but
he was just as brilliant. He published the daily _Champion_ on pink
paper and filled it with columns of editorial matter and humorous
running comment on current affairs. Mr. Mason had a wonderful capacity
for work and could prepare more “copy” in one day than all the other
writers on the paper could prepare in a week. During the summer of 1907,
Sheffield Ingalls, having returned from the legislature, where he was a
member of the house of representatives, became an editorial writer on
the _Champion_. November 20, 1907, Mr. Young prevailed upon Mr. Ingalls
to give up his other work and become editor of the paper. As Mr. Ingalls
walked into the office, Mr. Mason walked out, never to return. Mr.
Ingalls remained editor and manager of the _Champion_ until October 6,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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