The Hawk Eye
Encyclopedia
The Hawk Eye is a general-circulation newspaper based in Burlington, Iowa
, and boasts itself as "Iowa's Oldest Newspaper."
, when the capital of the Wisconsin Territory
was moved. The pair did printing work for the territorial government, and were aligned with the Democratic Party.
In Burlington, Jacobs was killed October 31, 1838, in a duel that culminated a "long-simmering" political dispute with local attorney David Rorer. Jacobs was on the verge of a prominent career in state politics. Rorer never was charged.
Clarke became postmaster of Burlington, and later its mayor. Still later, Clarke was named the third and last governor of the Iowa Territory
. Clarke County
in southern Iowa is named in his honor. After his term as governor, Clarke returned to Burlington to run the Gazette. He was elected as the first president of the Burlington School Board. He died July 28, 1850, in a local cholera
epidemic. He was 38. Rorer was one of the pall bearers.
A rival newspaper, the Iowa Patriot, was moved in 1838 from Fort Madison to Burlington by James G. Edwards. Edwards was a supporter of the Whig Party
. At Rorer's urging, Edwards changed the name of his paper to the Burlington Hawk-Eye and Iowa Patriot in tribute to Chief Black Hawk. Black Hawk was a friend of Edwards' and reportedly was present when the first copies of the Fort Madison paper were printed. Rorer wrote anonymous letters to other Iowa newspapers suggesting the territory adopt "Hawkeye" as the state nickname. Consequently, Iowa now is known as the Hawkeye State
.
According to the Iowa Journal of History, Edwards wrote, "If a division of the territory is effected, we propose that the Iowans take the cognomen of Hawk-eyes. Our etymology can then be more definitely traced than can that of the Wolverines, Suckers, Gophers, etc., and we shall rescue from oblivion a memento, at least, of the name of the old chief. Who seconds the motion?"
The journal goes on to state, " 'old chief' referred to was, of course, Black Hawk
."
Edwards published his newspaper until his death of cholera a year after Clarke died. He was 50. After a succession of owners, both papers, which had published separately, were sold during the Depression to Omer N. Custer
In the 1920s, both newspapers built new buildings. The Gazette published from a building noted for its terra cotta tile on Washington Street across the street from the Elks Club; The Hawk Eye from a building on Fourth Street next to the Congregational Church. It, too, was a handsome structure, featuring Doric columns in the front. During the Depression, both papers experienced financial difficulties and were purchased by Omar N. Custer, owner of the Galesburg, Illinois
, Register-Mail. Custer merged the papers and called it The Burlington Hawk-eye Gazette. The papers moved into the Gazette's building.
In 1941, Custer sold The Burlington Hawk-Eye Gazette to Kansas publishers Jack and Sidney Harris. The Harris organization still owns The Hawk Eye.
In the 1959, the newspaper relocated to a renovated bus barn at 800 S. Main St. where it continues to publish. At the time of the move, the paper added a Sunday edition. The newspaper plant overlooks the BNSF rail yards and is in close proximity to the Mississippi River. During the record flood of 1993, preparations were made to print the paper at Ottumwa, Iowa, about 70 miles away. However, the water did not rise high enough to carry out the plan. Instead, water from the rising Des Moines River flooded the Ottumwa paper's basement where it stored its newsprint, and the Courier had to be printed in Burlington.
During the Flood of 2008, which eclipsed the 1993 crest, The Hawk Eye avoided high water again.
After the Hawk-Eye Gazette's move to Main Street, the former Gazette building was acquired by an adjacent savings and loan and razed to create extra parking. The former Hawk Eye building still stands and is now used as a funeral home.
, and to the early years of the 20th century. In 1907, Ralph A. Harris purchased the Ottawa, Kansas, Herald, http://www.ottawaherald.com/ then combined it with the Ottawa Republic in 1915. Later, Harris' two sons, John and Sidney, expanded the group and set its standards. Starting with The Herald as the base, they acquired another Kansas daily, the Chanute Tribune, in 1927, with John as editor. When Ralph Harris died in 1930, Sidney became The Herald's editor and publisher, a position he held until his death in 1955.
In 1933, the Harrises bought the Hutchinson, Kansas News http://www.hutchnews.com/, which became the flagship publication. As The News' editor and publisher, John Harris became a widely quoted columnist and influential editorial writer. He died in 1969.
In Iowa, The Hawk Eye http://www.thehawkeye.com at Burlington was brought into the fold in 1941. Full ownership of the Salina (Kansas) Journal http://www.salina.com/ was added in 1949 a minority had been acquired 11 years earlier.
Other Kansas dailies now in the group are the Garden City Telegram http://www.gctelegram.com/, purchased in 1953; and the Hays Daily News http://www.hdnews.net/, 1970. In addition to these, a number of other dailies figure prominently in the group's history. The Harris group has owned the Olathe Daily News and the Parsons Sun in Kansas; the Camarillo Daily News and the Simi Valley Enterprise in California; and the Spencer Daily News in Iowa.
In 1994, Harris Enterprises purchased assets of a Salina marketing firm and formed a new company, MarketAide Services, Inc. Through MarketAide, the newspapers will be able to offer a wider range of services to advertisers http://www.marketaide.com/.
In the early 1980s, the Harris Group joined other media organizations, including such giants as Knight-Ridder and Times Mirror, in experimenting with a videotex news service, which was available to personal computers via phone modem. Harris Electronic News was launched in Hutchinson in 1982, then moved to Kansas City the next year. The service offered a varied menu of on-line information, ranging from agricultural and weather data to sports and recipes.
As was the case with most of the early videotex experiments, the size of the subscriber base failed to meet expectations, and the effort was shut down in 1985.
In early 1996, Harris Enterprises launched its Internet research and development project through the Hays Daily News.
Weekend publication changed from Saturday to Sunday in 1959. The name, Hawk-Eye Gazette, was shortened to The Hawk-Eye on May 7, 1960, when the first issue was printed in the new building — a converted automobile dealership and bus garage at 800 S. Main St.
In 1965, Stuart Awbrey was succeeded as editor by John McCormally. McCormally also shared co-publisher duties with John Bishop. Three years later, Bishop retired and McCormally became editor-publisher.
Conversion to offset printing occurred in 1972 at a cost of $800,000. The hyphen was dropped from The Hawk Eye at that time.
In 1979, Awbrey returned to The Hawk Eye as editor-publisher and McCormally became a national correspondent for the Harris News Service. Six years later, Awbrey retired and was replaced by Bill Mertens. After beginning his career as a reporter at The Hawk Eye in 1970, Mertens worked at other Harris Group newspapers prior to assuming editor-publisher responsibilities in 1985.
The Hawk Eye converted from an afternoon to a morning publication Nov. 1, 1993.
In 1997, The Hawk Eye started thehawkeye.com http://www.thehawkeye.com.
Steve Delaney, a former reporter and business editor for The Hawk Eye, assumed the editor-publisher position in 2004 after Mertens died. Prior to his return to The Hawk Eye, he was the editor-publisher of another Harris Group newspaper, The Garden City Telegram in Kansas.
Generally it has three sections each day: news, sports and classified advertising.
On Tuesdays, there is a health section called Living Well.
A weekend entertainment guide is published on Thursdays.
A features section is included Fridays called Currents.
A separate section called Home & Garden is included in the Saturday newspaper.
On Sundays, the newspapers includes separate Lifestyles, Business, comics and TV sections.
and its predecessor, the Iowa Ordnance Plant, and their families. The stories helped raise awareness of formerly secret work at the munitions plant carried out by the Atomic Energy Commission
. That resulted in the creation of the Burlington Atomic Energy Commission Plant-Former Worker Program (http://www.public-health.uiowa.edu/baecps/), a medical screening program carried out by the University of Iowa College of Public Health. These articles brought national attention to the case, and national news coverage, both in print, and on television, and the Department of Energy released a statement that there were, at one time, nuclear tests carried out at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant, and that they had stopped manufacturing parts for atomic warheads in 1975.
The Hawk Eye is credited with giving Iowa its nickname as The Hawkeye State.
One of its associate editors, Robert Jones Burdette
, became widely known in the late 19th century as the "Burlington Hawk Eye Man." Burdette joined the paper in 1872 and started writing humorous sketches that were picked up by other newspapers across the country. Collections were published as "Hawkeyetems" (1877), "Hawkeyes" (1879), and "Smiles Yoked with Sighs" (1900). Burdette left The Hawk Eye to join the Brooklyn, N.Y. Daily Eagle as its staff humorist. In 1903, Burdette entered the Baptist ministry and became pastor of the Temple Baptist church in Los Angeles, California
Another of The Hawk Eye's editors, John McCormally http://memofrommac.hoosfoos.com/, helped the Hutchinson News win the Pulitzer Prize for meritorious public service in 1965. As editor of The Hawk Eye, the newspaper three times was named best newspaper in Iowa.
The Hawk Eye's circulation area includes Des Moines, Lee, Henry, Louisa and Van Buren counties in southeast Iowa, and Henderson and Hancock counties in west-central Illinois. County seats in those counties are Burlington, Fort Madison/Keokuk, Mount Pleasant, Wapello, Keosauqua, Oquawka and Carthage, respectively.
Burlington, Iowa
Burlington is a city in, and the county seat of Des Moines County, Iowa, United States. The population was 25,663 in the 2010 census, a decline from the 26,839 population in the 2000 census. Burlington is the center of a micropolitan area including West Burlington, Iowa and Middletown, Iowa and...
, and boasts itself as "Iowa's Oldest Newspaper."
History
The newspaper traces its roots to the Wisconsin Territorial Gazette and Burlington Advertiser, which was established July 10, 1837, by James Clarke, and Cyrus Jacobs. Clarke and Jacobs moved to Burlington from Belmont, WisconsinBelmont, Wisconsin
Belmont is a village in Lafayette County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 871 according to the 2000 census.-History:Founded in 1835 by land speculator John Atchison, Belmont was the original capital of the Wisconsin Territory, and the original territorial capitol building is preserved...
, when the capital of the Wisconsin Territory
Wisconsin Territory
The Territory of Wisconsin was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 3, 1836, until May 29, 1848, when an eastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Wisconsin...
was moved. The pair did printing work for the territorial government, and were aligned with the Democratic Party.
In Burlington, Jacobs was killed October 31, 1838, in a duel that culminated a "long-simmering" political dispute with local attorney David Rorer. Jacobs was on the verge of a prominent career in state politics. Rorer never was charged.
Clarke became postmaster of Burlington, and later its mayor. Still later, Clarke was named the third and last governor of the Iowa Territory
Iowa Territory
The Territory of Iowa was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 4, 1838, until December 28, 1846, when the southeastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Iowa.-History:...
. Clarke County
Clarke County, Iowa
-2010 census:The 2010 census recorded a population of 9,286 in the county, with a population density of . There were 4,086 housing units, of which 3,701 were occupied.-2000 census:...
in southern Iowa is named in his honor. After his term as governor, Clarke returned to Burlington to run the Gazette. He was elected as the first president of the Burlington School Board. He died July 28, 1850, in a local cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
epidemic. He was 38. Rorer was one of the pall bearers.
A rival newspaper, the Iowa Patriot, was moved in 1838 from Fort Madison to Burlington by James G. Edwards. Edwards was a supporter of the Whig Party
Whig Party (United States)
The Whig Party was a political party of the United States during the era of Jacksonian democracy. Considered integral to the Second Party System and operating from the early 1830s to the mid-1850s, the party was formed in opposition to the policies of President Andrew Jackson and his Democratic...
. At Rorer's urging, Edwards changed the name of his paper to the Burlington Hawk-Eye and Iowa Patriot in tribute to Chief Black Hawk. Black Hawk was a friend of Edwards' and reportedly was present when the first copies of the Fort Madison paper were printed. Rorer wrote anonymous letters to other Iowa newspapers suggesting the territory adopt "Hawkeye" as the state nickname. Consequently, Iowa now is known as the Hawkeye State
Hawkeye State
The Hawkeye State is a popular nickname for the state of Iowa. According to the Iowa State web site, "Two Iowa promoters from Burlington are believed to have popularized the name." The nickname was given approval by "territorial officials" in 1838, eight years before Iowa became a state.The two...
.
According to the Iowa Journal of History, Edwards wrote, "If a division of the territory is effected, we propose that the Iowans take the cognomen of Hawk-eyes. Our etymology can then be more definitely traced than can that of the Wolverines, Suckers, Gophers, etc., and we shall rescue from oblivion a memento, at least, of the name of the old chief. Who seconds the motion?"
The journal goes on to state, " 'old chief' referred to was, of course, Black Hawk
Black Hawk (chief)
Black Hawk was a leader and warrior of the Sauk American Indian tribe in what is now the United States. Although he had inherited an important historic medicine bundle, he was not one of the Sauk's hereditary civil chiefs...
."
Edwards published his newspaper until his death of cholera a year after Clarke died. He was 50. After a succession of owners, both papers, which had published separately, were sold during the Depression to Omer N. Custer
In the 1920s, both newspapers built new buildings. The Gazette published from a building noted for its terra cotta tile on Washington Street across the street from the Elks Club; The Hawk Eye from a building on Fourth Street next to the Congregational Church. It, too, was a handsome structure, featuring Doric columns in the front. During the Depression, both papers experienced financial difficulties and were purchased by Omar N. Custer, owner of the Galesburg, Illinois
Galesburg, Illinois
Galesburg is a city in Knox County, Illinois, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 32,195. It is the county seat of Knox County....
, Register-Mail. Custer merged the papers and called it The Burlington Hawk-eye Gazette. The papers moved into the Gazette's building.
In 1941, Custer sold The Burlington Hawk-Eye Gazette to Kansas publishers Jack and Sidney Harris. The Harris organization still owns The Hawk Eye.
In the 1959, the newspaper relocated to a renovated bus barn at 800 S. Main St. where it continues to publish. At the time of the move, the paper added a Sunday edition. The newspaper plant overlooks the BNSF rail yards and is in close proximity to the Mississippi River. During the record flood of 1993, preparations were made to print the paper at Ottumwa, Iowa, about 70 miles away. However, the water did not rise high enough to carry out the plan. Instead, water from the rising Des Moines River flooded the Ottumwa paper's basement where it stored its newsprint, and the Courier had to be printed in Burlington.
During the Flood of 2008, which eclipsed the 1993 crest, The Hawk Eye avoided high water again.
After the Hawk-Eye Gazette's move to Main Street, the former Gazette building was acquired by an adjacent savings and loan and razed to create extra parking. The former Hawk Eye building still stands and is now used as a funeral home.
About Harris Enterprises
The group's origins trace to Ottawa, KansasOttawa, Kansas
Ottawa is a city situated along the Marais des Cygnes River in the central part of Franklin County, located in east-central Kansas, 50 miles southwest of Kansas City, Mo., in the central United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 12,649. It is the county seat and most populous...
, and to the early years of the 20th century. In 1907, Ralph A. Harris purchased the Ottawa, Kansas, Herald, http://www.ottawaherald.com/ then combined it with the Ottawa Republic in 1915. Later, Harris' two sons, John and Sidney, expanded the group and set its standards. Starting with The Herald as the base, they acquired another Kansas daily, the Chanute Tribune, in 1927, with John as editor. When Ralph Harris died in 1930, Sidney became The Herald's editor and publisher, a position he held until his death in 1955.
In 1933, the Harrises bought the Hutchinson, Kansas News http://www.hutchnews.com/, which became the flagship publication. As The News' editor and publisher, John Harris became a widely quoted columnist and influential editorial writer. He died in 1969.
In Iowa, The Hawk Eye http://www.thehawkeye.com at Burlington was brought into the fold in 1941. Full ownership of the Salina (Kansas) Journal http://www.salina.com/ was added in 1949 a minority had been acquired 11 years earlier.
Other Kansas dailies now in the group are the Garden City Telegram http://www.gctelegram.com/, purchased in 1953; and the Hays Daily News http://www.hdnews.net/, 1970. In addition to these, a number of other dailies figure prominently in the group's history. The Harris group has owned the Olathe Daily News and the Parsons Sun in Kansas; the Camarillo Daily News and the Simi Valley Enterprise in California; and the Spencer Daily News in Iowa.
In 1994, Harris Enterprises purchased assets of a Salina marketing firm and formed a new company, MarketAide Services, Inc. Through MarketAide, the newspapers will be able to offer a wider range of services to advertisers http://www.marketaide.com/.
In the early 1980s, the Harris Group joined other media organizations, including such giants as Knight-Ridder and Times Mirror, in experimenting with a videotex news service, which was available to personal computers via phone modem. Harris Electronic News was launched in Hutchinson in 1982, then moved to Kansas City the next year. The service offered a varied menu of on-line information, ranging from agricultural and weather data to sports and recipes.
As was the case with most of the early videotex experiments, the size of the subscriber base failed to meet expectations, and the effort was shut down in 1985.
In early 1996, Harris Enterprises launched its Internet research and development project through the Hays Daily News.
Harris publishers at The Hawk Eye
During the Harris tenure, Clarence Moody was editor and publisher from 1941 to 1957 when he retired. He was succeeded by Stuart Awbrey.Weekend publication changed from Saturday to Sunday in 1959. The name, Hawk-Eye Gazette, was shortened to The Hawk-Eye on May 7, 1960, when the first issue was printed in the new building — a converted automobile dealership and bus garage at 800 S. Main St.
In 1965, Stuart Awbrey was succeeded as editor by John McCormally. McCormally also shared co-publisher duties with John Bishop. Three years later, Bishop retired and McCormally became editor-publisher.
Conversion to offset printing occurred in 1972 at a cost of $800,000. The hyphen was dropped from The Hawk Eye at that time.
In 1979, Awbrey returned to The Hawk Eye as editor-publisher and McCormally became a national correspondent for the Harris News Service. Six years later, Awbrey retired and was replaced by Bill Mertens. After beginning his career as a reporter at The Hawk Eye in 1970, Mertens worked at other Harris Group newspapers prior to assuming editor-publisher responsibilities in 1985.
The Hawk Eye converted from an afternoon to a morning publication Nov. 1, 1993.
In 1997, The Hawk Eye started thehawkeye.com http://www.thehawkeye.com.
Steve Delaney, a former reporter and business editor for The Hawk Eye, assumed the editor-publisher position in 2004 after Mertens died. Prior to his return to The Hawk Eye, he was the editor-publisher of another Harris Group newspaper, The Garden City Telegram in Kansas.
Newspaper contents
The newspaper focuses on local issues in Burlington, West Burlington, Des Moines County, southeast Iowa and west-central Illinois.Generally it has three sections each day: news, sports and classified advertising.
On Tuesdays, there is a health section called Living Well.
A weekend entertainment guide is published on Thursdays.
A features section is included Fridays called Currents.
A separate section called Home & Garden is included in the Saturday newspaper.
On Sundays, the newspapers includes separate Lifestyles, Business, comics and TV sections.
Reporting about health problems at IAAP
In the late 1990s, reporters Dennis J. Carroll and Mike Augspurger wrote a series of stories about health problems experienced by former workers of the Iowa Army Ammunition PlantIowa Army Ammunition Plant
The mission of the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant , located in Des Moines County in southeastern Iowa, near the city of Burlington, is to manufacture and deliver large caliber items for the Department of Defense using modern production methods in support of worldwide...
and its predecessor, the Iowa Ordnance Plant, and their families. The stories helped raise awareness of formerly secret work at the munitions plant carried out by the Atomic Energy Commission
United States Atomic Energy Commission
The United States Atomic Energy Commission was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by Congress to foster and control the peace time development of atomic science and technology. President Harry S...
. That resulted in the creation of the Burlington Atomic Energy Commission Plant-Former Worker Program (http://www.public-health.uiowa.edu/baecps/), a medical screening program carried out by the University of Iowa College of Public Health. These articles brought national attention to the case, and national news coverage, both in print, and on television, and the Department of Energy released a statement that there were, at one time, nuclear tests carried out at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant, and that they had stopped manufacturing parts for atomic warheads in 1975.
Distinctions
Tracing its lineage to the Territorial Gazette, The Hawk Eye is the oldest newspaper in Iowa.The Hawk Eye is credited with giving Iowa its nickname as The Hawkeye State.
One of its associate editors, Robert Jones Burdette
Robert Jones Burdette
Robert Jones Burdette was an American humorist and clergyman who became noted through his paragraphs in the Burlington Hawkeye.-Early life:...
, became widely known in the late 19th century as the "Burlington Hawk Eye Man." Burdette joined the paper in 1872 and started writing humorous sketches that were picked up by other newspapers across the country. Collections were published as "Hawkeyetems" (1877), "Hawkeyes" (1879), and "Smiles Yoked with Sighs" (1900). Burdette left The Hawk Eye to join the Brooklyn, N.Y. Daily Eagle as its staff humorist. In 1903, Burdette entered the Baptist ministry and became pastor of the Temple Baptist church in Los Angeles, California
Another of The Hawk Eye's editors, John McCormally http://memofrommac.hoosfoos.com/, helped the Hutchinson News win the Pulitzer Prize for meritorious public service in 1965. As editor of The Hawk Eye, the newspaper three times was named best newspaper in Iowa.
The Hawk Eye's circulation area includes Des Moines, Lee, Henry, Louisa and Van Buren counties in southeast Iowa, and Henderson and Hancock counties in west-central Illinois. County seats in those counties are Burlington, Fort Madison/Keokuk, Mount Pleasant, Wapello, Keosauqua, Oquawka and Carthage, respectively.