History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/Barlow Granger
[Barlow Granger]
BARLOW GRANGER, the founder of the first newspaper in Des Moines, is a native of the State of New York. He was born in Tioga County, May 31, 1816, and when twelve years of age his father removed to Rochester where the son entered the printing office of the Cortland Advocate. Young Granger worked at his trade in New York, New Haven, Cleveland and Detroit. He finally went to Albany and was for a long time engaged on State work, where he made the acquaintance of the famous New York politicians and statesmen in the days of Martin Van Buren, Thurlow Weed and Horace Greeley. Later he went south and accepted a position on the Charleston Courier. In 1847 he came West, obtaining a position on the St. Louis Republican. In 1848 he came to Iowa and, having studied law in New York, he began to practice in Des Moines, also carrying on real estate business. Finding no newspaper in the place he, at the urgent request of Judge Bates, purchased a printing outfit at Iowa City and transporting it by wagon to Des Moines issued the first number of the Iowa Star in July, 1849, using for a printing office a double log cabin on the banks of the Raccoon River, formerly one of the fort buildings. He served on the staff of Governor Hempstead, with the rank of colonel from 1850 to 1854, when he was elected Prosecuting Attorney. In 1855 he was elected county judge; and has been mayor of Des Moines.