May 1873: Happy Anniversary! The Sidney Sun-Telegraph

It was the month of May in the year 1873 that the first published newspaper appeared in the frontier town of Sidney, Nebraska. The owner, editor, publisher, and pressman was one man, L. Connell, who distributed the four-column folio sheet under the banner of The Sidney Telegraph.

The town of Sidney began as an end-of-track, Union Pacific railroad town in 1867 with all the drama and excitement that towns with those beginnings bring. Gamblers, whiskey peddlers, barrooms and brothels provided all the amenities that many hardworking railroad laborers could want. In December of that year, due to the constant and deadly Indian attacks on railroad survey crews and those who built the grade and laid the track, the U.S. established Sidney Barracks. The new sub-post was manned by troops from nearby Fort Sedgwick in Colorado Territory.

As the railroad moved westward, so did the usual parasites that prosper from the poor judgment of others. The westward march of the steel rails depleted the population of Sidney, but the military post remained for purposes of basic protection from the declining Indian threat and as a supply post for the military. However, there also remained an element of citizenry who intended to make Sidney more than a frontier outpost.

At that time, Cheyenne County comprised the entire southern half of the Nebraska Panhandle, and Sidney boasted the largest concentration of citizens. In October of 1871 the people of Sidney decided it was time to organize. Sidney’s pioneer lawyer, George W. Heist was made probate judge. John Ellis was appointed sheriff, Thomas Kane treasurer, and L. Connell was elected county clerk and also served as commissioner.

I don’t know if Mr. L. Connell retained his public offices when he started his newspaper in 1873, but two years later, he sold the enterprise to one Joseph B. Gossage in December of 1875. After that date, I have found no other references to L. Connell in the history of western Nebraska. Although Mr. Connell appears to have disappeared, the namesake of his paper continued. Connell’s Sidney Telegraph was the first newspaper in the Nebraska Panhandle and was said to have been independent in its politics. The second newspaper to be published in the panhandle was published in Lodgepole, Nebraska.

In 1878 another paper arrived in the growing high plains community of Sidney. In October of that year W. H. Michael established the Plaindealer and both papers enjoyed a loyal readership. Connell’s Sidney Telegraph changed hands several times between 1875 and 1881 when it was sold to A.C. Drake. Mr. Drake had also purchased the Plaindealer when W.H. Michael had retired from the business, and the combined papers continued with Mr. Drake’s editorship as The Sidney Plaindealer-Telegraph. In 1882 it was the only newspaper in Cheyenne County which Nebraska historian, William Cutler, declared “…a bright and newsy paper.”

These days the Telegraph may not carry such stirring headlines such as: “Doc Middleton shoots U.S. Soldier,” “Three killed at local dance. Bodies stacked in a corner,” or “GOLD discovered in Black Hills!” However, I’m quite certain that William Cutler would still declare The Sidney Sun-Telegraph to be a bright and newsy paper.

This month marks the one hundred and fortieth year after L. Connell published that first four-column folio. Cheyenne County residents, pioneer descendants throughout the panhandle, and folks across the continent are still able to fold back the pages of today’s Sidney Sun-Telegraph, the first and longest continuously published newspaper in the Nebraska panhandle. Happy Anniversary!

M. Timothy Nolting is an award winning Nebraska columnist and freelance writer. To contact Tim, email; [email protected]