One of Grand Island's oldest businesses didn't actually get its start in Grand Island.
What is now The Grand Island Independent began as The Platte Valley Independent in 1869.
Publisher Seth P. Mobley moved the paper to Grand Island after an angry mob gathered in front of the newspaper's North Platte office. The group was upset over columns that had been written about the Union Pacific Railroad.
As part of a peace agreement between the railroaders and Mobley, he and his editor, Maggie Eberhart, had to leave town. Around the same time, a group of Grand Island businessmen were looking for a newspaper proprietor and welcomed The Independent to town.
The first edition of the weekly Independent in Grand Island was printed on July 2, 1870. Mobley and Eberhart were married the next year. By the end of the decade, the Mobleys were feuding with just about everyone in town. They faced financial difficulties but did have one major advertiser, Fred Hedde.
In 1881, Maggie Mobley, who was the first female newspaper editor in Nebraska, directed criticism at Hedde's wife, and the Mobleys' relations with their last major supporter were damaged. The paper was put up for sale.
"Since (The Independent's beginning), other papers sprouted to serve various political leanings or ethnic customers," the late editor, Bill Dunn said. "There have been papers that served Republicans, Democrats and other parties as well as several German-language newspapers. Free enterprise being what it is, the financial pressure of the publishing business eventually caused most of them to fold after a year or two."
The Independent was saved from being a mere history-book description when J.A. McMurphy bought it in 1883. He only owned the paper for a week before selling it to Hedde, who renamed the paper The Grand Island Daily Independent.
Hedde converted the paper to a daily in 1884. During the late 1800s, there were as many as eight newspapers in Grand Island, but a severe depression, drought and grasshopper infestations destroyed the city's economy in the early 1890s and nearly wiped the newspaper out of business. In 1894, The Independent's circulation dwindled to just 360 households.
Prior to the depression, The Independent had already become much more than just a newspaper to Grand Island.
"Many do not realize the importance of The Platte Valley Independent to the initial growth and eventual success of Grand Island," Dunn said. "At one point, The Independent and the Union Pacific Railroad went together to Germany to recruit settlers to the Platte Valley. That resulted in the large German population that moved into the area to farm and establish businesses."
By 1900, Hedde's health was failing, and he turned ownership of the paper over to several Grand Island businessmen, including August Buechler, J.R. Fullerton, Fred G. Baldwin, Gus E. Neumann and Charles E. Fralick.
Oscar Stauffer purchased The Independent in 1930 and owned it until the newspaper was purchased by Morris Communications, a family-owned corporation, in 1995.
The newspaper has seen a number of changes over the last several decades, including computerization in the 1970s, adding a Sunday publication in 1979, switching from afternoons to mornings in 1992 and launching a Web site in 1996.
The word "daily" was dropped from the name of the paper on Nov. 13, 1989.
The Independent has also called a number of buildings home. In its beginning, the newspaper was housed in a small frame building behind a hardware store owned by Hedde. It was then moved to the Hedde Building on the corner of Third and Locust streets, where it remained until 1910. That year, the business moved to 113 N. Locust St., where Equitable Bank is today.
In 1957, it moved to its present location, 422 W. First St., a building that was constructed specifically for the newspaper. The building covers 23,370 square feet on the first floor and has a partial basement.
The Independent bought other buildings on the block in 1989 and, by the time the main building was remodeled in 1993, the newspaper owned the entire block.
Dunn said the paper's mission hasn't changed much in its history.
"The role of The Independent in the Central Nebraska community is to be the primary information center for our readers," he said. "In addition, as the largest news-gathering operation between Lincoln and Denver, we are committed to a role as the watchdog over government and the seeker of truth in our coverage area. With the introduction of the Internet, The Independent's role is increasingly becoming a center for community conversation, where people can share opinions about their community.
"With one of the largest reader pe*******on rates in America, we appreciate the trust that readers place in The Independent, and we work hard every day to validate that trust," Dunn said. "As the media evolves and technology allows us to present the news in faster and more complete ways to our readers/viewers, The Independent has become even more vital in the lives of our customers. The transformation of electronic and print media that The Independent has undertaken means that readers/viewers will look to The Independent even more than ever.
