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Donald had bought The South English Herald from Ellis Rickey. It was located in the large northwest room of the Dillaway House, a former hotel now owned by Burly and Mary Dunn. This room might have been the bar since it boasted a huge wall mirror.

The room boasted a large table that held an Underwood typewriter with elite type and a stand for the stencil work - a tilted glass with a lighted bulb underneath. There were plastic forms of various shapes and several different letters of the alphabet. I did most of the typing and stencil work on the ads. Donald gathered the news and advertising and wrote a column “After All”. He printed the paper on Wednesday evening on the mimeograph. Our good friends, Abie Grove and Ed Euler usually helped fold and sort. Guess they liked the company, doughnuts and coffee.

Newspapers of South English
From the History of Keokuk County, 1880

    The first paper published at South English was called the “Advance” and was established by W.W. Yarham, May 1872, the first number being published on the 20th of said month. The paper was run by Mr. Yarham until September, 1872, when it was sold to E.L. Rankin and D.S. Burson, under whose management it was run until June, 1873, when E.L. Rankin disposed of his interest to J.F. Shotts, continuing under the name of Burson & Shotts. In July 1873, Shotts bought Burson’s name and interest and became editor and proprietor, and changed the name to the “Western Herald.” In August, 1873, he sold a half interest to G.J. Brown, the firm then being Shotts & Brown, under whose management the paper was enlarged. Shotts sold his interest to Prof. R. Kieler, in December 1873, the firm then being Brown & Kieler. On the 23rd day of April, 1874, G.J. Brown bought Mr. Kieler’s interest, and became editor and proprietor, and run the paper until April 15, 1875, when he formed a partnership with his brother, Rev. Wm. M. Brown, under the firm name of Brown Brothers, and the business was continued by them until October 19, 1876, when G.J. Brown again became proprietor and continued the publication of the “Western Herald” at South English, until August 18, 1877, when he moved the material to Harper and run it until March 1, 1878, when he sold to the Harper Publishing Company. The paper was published there until September 6, 1878, and discontinued, when G.J. Brown again bought the material back and moved back to South English, and on the 18th day of October, 1878, again commenced its publication. On the 1st of March the office material was sold to J.F. White as proprietor and G.J. Brown editor and publisher.
    On August 4, 1883, the “Western Herald” changed its name to “South English Herald.” Although complete files of the paper have not been found, copies of 1893 and 1894 were published by T. Leroy Evans. We have information that a Mr. Ives, Dan Evans also were publishers. The last was Doll Young, probably before 1900.
    In January of 1935, Ellis Rickey began publishing an 8 1/2 x 14 mimeography paper also called the South English Herald. It was published by Rickey until December 1937 when the paper was sold to Donald S. Garrett. The “Baby” Herald, as Mr. Rickey had called it, was published until 1942, when Garrett entered the service in World War II.



 In December 1937, my father, Donald S. Garrett, purchased the South English Herald and published it until he left for the service in World War II in October 1942. In 1976, he and my mother, Alta, published the Bicentennial Edition of the South English Herald and in 1986 the Supplement to the Bicentennial Edition.

There don't seem to be many copies floating around of the original 1976 Edition so off and on I post some of the articles from the Bicentennial Edition to share some of the history and photos.
- Gini