ROGERS — A small, dusty, Arkansas railroad town named Rogers welcomed its first newspapers in 1881.
In 1881 there were two newspapers in Rogers: The Rogers Champion, which published for about six months after its September start, and the New Era, a parent newspaper to the Rogers Morning News, which first printed in October. There were no sidewalks or boardwalks, sewers, telephones or electricity in Rogers in 1881.
Each letter of type had to be set by hand for the early press. A more automated form of typesetting didn’t arrive until 30 years later in the form of the linotype machine.
Many newspaper names and publishers are tied to what is now the Rogers Morning News, but the newspaper can trace its origins back to the New Era, published in a one-room building on what is now Arkansas Street.
The mission of the newspaper has not changed, said Rusty Turner, editor and publisher.
“We’ve been in the community for well over 100 years with the same goal,” Turner said, “To provide the community a place to go to engage in community life.”
City government, institutions or the stories of community neighbors can all be a part of filling the need for news, Turner said.
Rogers incorporated May 28, 1881, but celebrates its beginnings with the May 10, 1881, arrival of Capt. Charles Warrington Rogers, Frisco general manager, on the first passenger train to the town.
Two-thirds of the town were built on the west side of the track and one third on the east. During the spring of 1881, Benjamin F. Sikes, the landowner who gave the railroad right-of-way through his property, sold 180 lots in a 15-block square to form the city of Rogers.
Timeline
Rogers Newspapers
• Sept. 1, 1881: The first newspaper in Rogers, the Rogers Champion, prints its first issue. It folds shortly thereafter.
• October 1881: The New Era, later the Rogers Democrat, prints its first edition
• May 1888: The Rogers Republican launches. It printed for 25 years, although it changed hands eight times. The Republican family of newspapers included the Rogers Free Press, established in 1907. The Rogers Journal and Rogers Free Press were consolidated as the Rogers Republican in 1908. The Republican was sold in 1915, the name changed to Rogers Advocate and the politics switched to democratic.
• Nov. 1, 1894: The New Era is renamed the Rogers Daily-Democrat by owner H. M. Butler.
• Jan. 1, 1896: The Rogers Democrat closes its doors. It was purchased and opened Nov. 19, 1896, by E. M. Funk and his son, Erwin C. Funk. Between the two, they owned and operated the business for 33 years. Erwin C. Funk purchased the newspaper in 1919.
• Jan. 1, 1910: The Rogers Daily Post starts publication using a small hand-operated press.
• 1911-1912: The Rogers Democrat, Rogers Daily Post, Rogers Republican are printed through combined press operations called the Co-operative Press.
• 1919: The Rogers Democrat is set on its own linotype machines.
• July 1, 1927: The Rogers Daily Post becomes the Rogers Daily News after being purchased by James P. Shofner.
• Nov. 1, 1929: The Rogers Democrat is purchased by Shofner, owner of the Rogers Daily News. Offices and publication operations are combined for the two papers.
• 1935: Printing operations for the Rogers Daily News and Rogers Democrat are purchased by Charles Nutter and housed in the old Main hotel at the corner of First and Poplar Streets.
• Dec. 1, 1955: Donrey Media Group purchases the combined Rogers Daily News and Rogers Democrat.
• April 9, 1962: Donrey converts the operation from linotype to offset press, the first major newspaper in Arkansas to do so.
• 1972-1973: An equipment upgrade gives the Rogers Daily News electronic composing machines with a Goss Urbanite press, the standard for the time. The newspaper increases its capacity to 32 pages.
• 1978: The Rogers Daily News begins a morning edition, Northwest Arkansas Morning News. Both morning and afternoon editions were printed until 1981 when the Rogers Daily News ceased printing.
• 1990: The Northwest Arkansas Morning News is printed in the Springdale production plant, combining print operations with its sister paper, the Springdale News. The Rogers paper is called The Morning News.
• 1992: Saturday editions are added to The Morning News.
• 1994: The Morning News and Springdale News, both now owned by Stephens Media, merge into “Morning News of Northwest Arkansas”
• 2000: Zoned editions titled the Rogers Morning News, Springdale Morning News, Bentonville Morning News and Fayetteville Morning News are produced through Stephens Media.
• October 2009: Northwest Arkansas Newspapers is born through a joint operating agreement between Stephens Media and Wehco Media.
Rogers’ first store opened at First and Walnut streets. Construction didn’t keep up with demand, so proprietor W.A. Miller took his wagon body off its wheels and set it lengthwise on a large oak stump to display his wares. By 1882 the town had a population of 600, according to writings of Rogers historian Vera Key. Rogers became a second-class city in 1903.
Rogers got its first electric lights in 1895. In 1897 the first telephone was a single iron wire run from Springdale to a dry goods store on Walnut Street. By 1898 there were board sidewalks and streetlights. An April 1907 special election decided cows should no longer roam the city streets, following the 1896 directive that hogs no longer be allowed to run loose inside the city.
Records are unclear as to the date, but the New Era was renamed the Rogers Democrat, because of political leanings common to the county at that time. The New Era became a daily newspaper and was renamed the Rogers Daily-Democrat in 1894.
On Jan. 1, 1910, the Rogers Daily Post began publication on a small hand-operated press. The Daily Post went through several name and ownership changes, publishing 13 issues as the Northwest Arkansas Times in 1923, and finally taking the name the Rogers Daily News in July 1927. It published as the Rogers Daily News for the next 50 years. The Rogers Democrat combined operations with the Rogers Daily News in 1929. The Rogers Democrat name was in use in some form until 1962.
Between 1911 and 1912 the Rogers Democrat adopted a junior linotype machine, then a full-size machine in 1919. Linotype was used through 1962 when Rogers Daily News was the first newspaper in the state to convert to offset printing.
Linotype represented a great change from the early days of the newspaper. With a linotype machine, also called hot metal printing, the operator could use a keyboard to set type, instead of sliding each letter into place. Letters were punched in on a 90-character keyboard and once a line of letters was assembled it was cast using a hot lead alloy in another part of the machine. Each letter of type was automatically returned to the correct magazine to be used again and the lead slug was used to print the paper.
Before the linotype, the early newspaper had eight pages filled with six columns of text. Four of the pages were printed in Rogers and four pages were “ready-print” from St. Louis, according to writings by Erwin Funk, who with his father, E. M. Funk, owned and operated the Rogers Democrat from 1886 to 1929. One of his sisters set type and another served as secretary for the family business.
“I’ve tried my hand as managing editor of a daily; as a state newspaper code administrator; as a special Washington newspaper representative and I liked them all,” Funk wrote in a 1959 manuscript.
Erwin Funk chronicled the history of Rogers and newspapers until his death in 1960. His writings were collected into a book titled “Sixty-Four Years of Newspapering in Arkansas.”
“[The] newspaper business has made pessimists out of men and women who began their careers as enthusiastic optimists,” Funk wrote, “It’s a tough old game but has its rewards if you are not expecting credit for the time and effort expended and can be satisfied with your own consciousness of a job well done to the best of your ability. I have never regretted for one minute that my life has been spent in newspaper work.”