History of Northwestern Iowa
Osceola County Newspapers

Osceola County was organized in the fall of 1871, the Sioux City & St. Paul Railroad was built in the following year and the town of Sibley was platted on its line. There the county seat was also located in 1872, and in the summer of that year L. A. Baker established the first newspaper called the Sibley Gazette. Furthermore, the first courthouse was erected in 1872; so that the press and the county government were established in substantial form about the same time. The second newspaper at the seat of justice was founded in 1881, by Charles E. Crossly, as the Sibley Tribune, the name afterward being changed to the Osceola County Tribune.

The town of Ashton was laid out by the land department of the Sioux City & St. Paul Railroad Company in 1872. It was first named St. Gilman, but in 1882 the name was changed to Ashton. The village is in the southwestern part of the county, and its surviving newspaper, the Leader, was established by Claude Charles in 1890.

The Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern Railroad crossed Osceola County in 1894, Ocheyedan being platted as one of its stations in the fall of that year. Its first building were soon erected, but it did not blossom forth as a newspaper town until August, 1891, when the Press came into existence under the shadow of a great personal affliction. The paper was started by D. A. W. Perkins, who intended it for his son, George W. Perkins, but while the material was still in the boxes at the freight depot, the boy was drowned in Silver Lake, near Lake Park. Under the burden of this terrible misfortune, however, Mr. Perkins issued the first number of the Press on August 7, 1891, and was for many years its editor and publisher.

- Source: History of Northwestern Iowa, Its History and Traditions 1804--1926; by Arthur F. Allen; Volume I; Chapter 13; Page 420
-Transcribed by Kevin Tadd