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Chronicling America
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Newspaper The Virginia Enterprise (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??

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About The Virginia Enterprise (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??

Amidst the clamor and bustle of the booming mining industry of northeastern Minnesota’s Iron Range, the Virginia Enterprise began publication on February 10, 1893. The paper started as a four-page, six- to-eight-column weekly published on Fridays, but soon expanded to eight pages. The Virginia Enterprise primarily featured national and regional news assembled from wire services with local news coverage devoted almost exclusively to the mining and timber industries. The paper also published railroad schedules and reports of land sales. While the largest share of its readers lived in the city of Virginia, where approximately a quarter of the residents were subscribers, the subscription list also included citizens of nearby Eveleth, Gilbert, and Mountain Iron. With its wide readership and a lack of serious competitors in the region, the Virginia Enterprise was named the official newspaper of Saint Louis County by the Board of County Commissioners in 1906.

The story of the paper began in 1893 when 26-year-old William Elbert Hannaford, then editor of the Bessemer, Michigan’s Gogebic Iron Spirit, contacted Frank B. Hand, the editor of the Montreal River Miner of Hurley, Wisconsin, to suggest that they start a newspaper in the newly established mining town of Virginia, Minnesota. The city was chosen because the discovery of iron ore in the late 1800s had created a population boom in the region. Many immigrants settled in the community during this time, coming mostly from Finland, Sweden, Slovenia, Croatia and other European countries, making northeastern Minnesota the state’s great melting pot. With space in the town at a premium, the two men were forced to set up their print shop in the back room of a local gambling house. Enlisting the aid of a young Albert E. Bickford, who later served for 30 years as Virginia’s City Clerk, Hannaford and Hand began publishing their paper.

In June of 1893, they were dealt an enormous setback when a great fire left the town, along with the Virginia Enterprise‘s offices, in cinders. Following the fire, Hannaford bought out Hand’s interest in the paper and resumed publication as the paper’s sole proprietor. Using a second-hand George Washington hand press and, in his own words, “an abundance of nerve, supported by long term credits,” Hannaford continued issuing the Virginia Enterprise until publication halted briefly again in 1900 when a second fire devastated the town. Hannaford used each of these setbacks as an opportunity to modernize and improve the office’s printing equipment. By the time he sold his interest in the newspaper in 1914, the Virginia Enterprise had what he estimated to be “one of the finest equipped country printing offices in the state.”

Like many other newspapers of the region, the Virginia Enterprise was decidedly Republican in its political leanings. Its coverage of the numerous strikes that marked the early years of the organized labor movement on the Iron Range was brief and tended to downplay the severity of tensions between labor and management. Of the 1907 Mesabi Range strike, the first widespread, organized strike on the Iron Range, the paper wrote in its July 19 issue “Talk of a strike this season is entirely without foundation … the men connected with the Western Federation [of Miners] have no idea of instituting trouble of any kind.” Ironically, the strike was called the very next day.

Following Hannaford’s departure in 1914, the Virginia Enterprise continued weekly publication under the editorship of Thomas H. Moodie. That same year, a daily edition, the Virginia Daily Enterprise began, which quickly gained greater popularity among residents. The weekly edition was discontinued in 1915. However, the daily continued until 1945 when the paper changed its name to the Mesabi Daily News.

Provided By: Minnesota Historical Society; Saint Paul, MN

About this Newspaper

Title

  • The Virginia Enterprise (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??

Dates of Publication

  • 1893-19??

Created / Published

  • Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn. : W.E. Hannaford

Headings

  • -  Virginia (Minn.)--Newspapers
  • -  Minnesota--Virginia
  • -  United States--Minnesota--Saint Louis--Virginia

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Began Feb 10, 1893.
  • -  Available on microfilm from the Minnesota Historical Society.
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format as part of the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  Description based on: Vol. 2, no. 35 (Oct. 5, 1894).

Medium

  • volumes

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn90059180

OCLC Number

  • 1769186

ISSN Number

  • 2329-5414

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

The NEH awardee responsible for producing each digital object is presented in the Chronicling America page display, below the page image – e.g. Image produced by the Library of Congress. For more information on current NDNP awardees, see https://aj.sunback.homes/ndnp/listawardees.html.

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

The Virginia Enterprise Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn. -19??. (Virginia, MN), Jan. 1 1893. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn90059180/.

APA citation style:

(1893, January 1) The Virginia Enterprise Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn. -19??. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn90059180/.

MLA citation style:

The Virginia Enterprise Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn. -19??. (Virginia, MN) 1 Jan. 1893. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, aj.sunback.homes/item/sn90059180/.