New owners for the Faulk County Record!

As of Monday, June 1, the Faulk County Record has new owners. Jennifer and Robbie Miller and family have purchased the paper from Val and Dan Ramsdell. “We are very happy that Jennifer has purchased the paper,” Val said. “Jennifer has worked for us for more than four years, since we took over in October of 2015, from long time owners, Jim and Jody Moritz. Jennifer knows the business and is looking forward to serving as publisher.”

“Val and Dan have been very good to me over the last four plus years. I couldn’t have asked for better employers. I will do my best to continue to provide the trust and quality they have given our community,” stated Jennifer.

Ramsdell will continue to work at the Record part time, however they have plans for travel in the future. Also on deck will be Jim and Jody Moritz as part time, and Jennifer has hired Marie (Weinrich) Webb, formerly of C o l o r a d o S p r i n g s, Colo., so there is a new face at the shop!

The Ramsdells will be hosting an open house in the near future especially to greet and congratulate the new owners, meet Marie, the new employee, and celebrate the Ramsdell’s retirement.

A little history The Faulk County Record is the oldest continuous business in the county. Established in 1882 the paper has had a number of name changes in the past 138 years, including change in the mid 1970’s when the Faulkton Record merged with the Cresbard Beacon to become the Faulk County Record.

The newspaper was started in Faulkton in December of 1882, publishing two issues by the end of the year. Capt. Hervey H. Humphrey was the editor and publisher. He called his newspaper, the Faulkton Times. He also ran the Radiator, a newspaper at Harrington located ten miles west of Faulkton. That ghost town would have been located about a mile south of Burkmere which is also now a ghost town. The Radiator later moved to Seneca with the railroad and became the Seneca Radiator.

With the Dec. 24, 1885 issue, the newspaper changed its name to the Faulk County Times. Humphrey sold the paper in October 1884 to J.F. Armstrong whose first issue was Oct. 11, 1894. He sold to N.F. Frayne as editor and publisher of the Republican Record. LaFoon, the first county seat, also had its own newspaper called the LaFoon Record. It started Feb. 24, 1883 and was published every Saturday by James R. McVean. When Faulkton became the county seat in 1886, the LaFoon newspaper moved to Faulkton and became the Faulk County Record. A.E. Evans was the editor and proprietor.

Evans with Fremont Young started a newspaper called the Faulk County Republican in 1891. From 1886-1890 C.M. Dunkel as editor and publisher was operating the Faulk County Democrat. The Record and the Republican were combined with W.H. Rice of Wisconsin as editor and proprietor. The name was changed to the Republican Record with its first issue on Oct. 11, 1894.

Starting Oct. 29, 1898, a rival newspaper called the Faulkton Advocate was published by Hope Smith Coon as editor. Fremont Young became the publisher in 1903 and continued until his death in 1910 when his widow, Eva, took over. She sold the paper in 1911 to Alfred A. Pickler as editor. He sold in 1913 to Octavia Jones who then sold in 1915 to T.E. Bickel who had been editor under W.H. Rice at the Record.

Starting Oct. 6, 1906, the Republican Record changed its name to the Faulkton Record with W.H. Rice as publisher. In 1933 his daughter, Grace Tanner, became editor and her husband, Chauncey, became the ad manager and pressman. Rice died on Jan. 21, 1937, leaving the business to the Tanners.

T.E. Bickel sold the Faulkton Advocate in June 1939 to J.M. Earle who published only one issue (June 6, 1939) and then sold the paper to Tanner’s con solidating the Faulkton Advocate and Faulkton Record. In the late 1930s the Tanners had also purchased the Seneca Journal which had been published since 1902.

On April 1, 1968, the Tanners sold the consolidated Faulkton Record to Gordon Sjodin. He purchased the Cresbard Beacon from publisher Vera Hodges and published both newspapers out of Faulkton.

On Dec. 1, 1972, George and Willa Stevens of Pierre became the owners of the two newspapers and published the final edition of the Cresbard Beacon on Dec. 25, 1975. Stevenson changed the name of the newspaper back to a title used in the 1880s - the Faulk County Record - a weekly newspaper serving all of Faulk County.

Jim and Jody Moritz purchased the newspaper becoming the publishers on Oct. 20, 1977.

On Oct. 1, 2015, the Faulk County Record changed hands again. Val and Dan Ramsdell became the new owners with Val as the publisher.

This history of your local newspaper until 1977 was researched by Faulk County historian Irene Cordts.