Grand Island Daily Independent, 1910

The Grand Island Daily Independent is the lone survivor of the Grand Island newspaper wars during the late 19th Century. The weekly Platte Valley Independent, Grand Island's first newspaper, came off the press on Saturday, July 2, 1870 with Maggie (Guerin) Eberhart Mobley at the helm. Legend has it Maggie defended her reputation and that of her newspaper with a whip. The Story goes, in 1875, Maggie cowhided, or attempted to cowhide J.L. Wylie, editor of the Mirror, after he printed unflattering remarks about her. The Independent retained Maggie's spirit outlasting Grand Island's other major newspapers: The Anti-Monopolist, the Daily Times, the Democrat, the Free Press, the Republican, and Anzeiger-Herold (a German language newspaper). This photograph, taken in 1910, shows several unidentified men hand setting the type for the Independent's printing press.

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