The Des Moines Register is marking its 175th year. Help us share your business's story, too.
Des Moines wasn't officially a city yet when Barlow Granger set up his printing press in a disused barracks of the fort around which the settlement was sprouting at the confluence of the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers.
It was July 26, 1849 ― 175 years ago this summer ― when the inaugural edition of his Iowa Star reached its first readers in the town of about 500, known then as Fort Des Moines. Another two years would pass before the city of Des Moines was incorporated, and eight before it became Iowa's capital.
The Des Moines Register will recount its origins and historical highlights in coverage to be published online and in print as part of a July celebration of its 175th anniversary. But it's just one of the stories of Des Moines that the community's oldest news source intends to tell.
Other businesses also planted roots in the mid-19th century
As the Star grew, changed hands and eventually became the Des Moines Register, other businesses were forming that came to comprise the economic engine of what is now Iowa's largest metropolis.
Hoyt Sherman, who arrived in town the same year as the Star began publishing, would join other early residents to found the Equitable of Iowa Insurance Co., the first insurer west of the Mississippi. It was the starting point of the financial services sector that is today a leading contributor to the Des Moines metro's economy.
Long at the helm of the Equitable was F.M. Hubbell, who also assembled a real estate empire that continues under his descendants' leadership, and whose estate, Terrace Hill, is now the Iowa governor's mansion. Another early financier, Edward Temple, founded the Bankers Life Co., which today is the worldwide Principal Financial Group, still headquartered in Des Moines.
Des Moines becomes a hub of communications organizations
The Register wasn't the only publisher to rise with the city. Starting with Successful Farmer, Meredith Corp. grew into one of the largest magazine publishers in the world. In the same era, the Wallace family began its rise to business and political prominence with the founding of another farm magazine, Wallaces' Farmer.
The third in a line of Henry Wallaces went on to serve as U.S. vice president and founded the Pioneer Hi-Bred hybrid seed company, which now is a part of Corteva Agriscience, with its sprawling research campus in Johnston.
Also in the 1890s, the Iowa Bystander newspaper was established to serve Des Moines' African American community, and in 50 years under the guidance of publisher James B. Morris, it became a leading voice for civil rights in Iowa.
Established at Iowa State University more than a century ago, radio station WOI is the flagship of Iowa Public Radio, while a sister TV station became the first to serve central Iowa and today is part of the ABC network. Des Moines TV stations WHO and KCCI ― the latter initially established by the Register's then-sister company Cowles Communications ― soon joined it.
Tell us your company's story
There are countless other pillars of business in Des Moines and across Iowa that date to the 19th century and continue to contribute to our shared history today. For 175 years, the Des Moines Register has told their stories, and it wants to celebrate them along with its own this year.
We're inviting businesses across Iowa that are at least a century old to submit brief information about when they were founded, their mission and an interesting fact about their history. We'll compile an online list from all those that submit information, and we'll do larger stories on a handful of them in a special package in July as part of the Register's month-long anniversary celebration. Fill out the form at DesMoinesRegister.com/OldestBusinesses to participate.
Questions? Contact business and investigations editor Bill Steiden at wsteiden@registermedia.com or 515-284-8546.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: The Des Moines Register will soon turn 175. Which other firms are 100+?
