Dowagiac’s paper of record can mark off another accomplishment in its storied history covering the Grand Old City.

The Dowagiac Daily News reached a new milestone this week, as the paper celebrated its 120th birthday Monday.

The paper was established Feb. 6, 1897, by Charles Heddon, the youngest son of famed Dowagiac businessman James Heddon, founder of the Heddon Lure Company.

According to an account of the Daily News’ early history written by Mayor Don Lyons, Charles broke into the news industry that year at his father’s paper, The Dowagiac Times, a weekly publication that was the city’s leading publication at the time. Like James, Charles was a naturally gifted writer, and saw the paper as an outlet for his talents.

Just five weeks after starting with The Times, Charles branched off on his own and launched The Dowagiac Daily News, finding the weekly publication schedule of his father’s business “too slow for [his] purposes and ideals.”

“I remember that few had faith in the possibilities of success,” Charles wrote in an article published in the Daily News on Jan. 29, 1937, in commemoration of the paper’s 40th anniversary. “I did not enjoy bank credit and my father’s purse was a very modest one. But the will to do and the faithful cooperation of my associates caused us to climb the hill successfully.”

The founder was joined by a staff of six — “three girls, two men and a boy” — in the endeavor, he wrote. With he and all but one other employee drawing a salary of $9 a week, Charles and his staff worked long hours to make the paper a success, often working from 6 a.m. to late hours of the night.

Unlike The Times, which was an overtly pro-Democrat paper, Charles established the Daily News as an independent
news outlet.

“I felt that a daily paper, enjoying a monopoly in its field, should not be a vehicle of expression for views or prejudices, but rather an unprejudiced publication for the use and service of all the people,” Charles said.

In 1906, the Heddons discontinued The Times and sold half their interest in The Daily News. Charles also stepped aside as manager and editor, though he continued to own a stake in the company until his death in 1941.

The paper changed hands several times over the proceeding decades until it was purchased by what is now Boone Newspapers Inc. in 1984. The Daily News continues to be one of the pillars of Leader Publications’ suite of newspapers, alongside daily publication The Niles Daily Star and the weekly newspapers The Cassopolis Vigilant and The Edwardsburg Argus.

Former editor John Eby was a large part of the paper’s history. Outside of a brief stint with St. Joseph’s Herald Palladium, the Dowagiac native served as a reporter and editor with The Daily News from 1980 to 2013.

Eby was hired to work at the paper by then-publisher Ken Kirby, who thought the publication could take advantage of the reporter’s depth of knowledge about his hometown, Eby said.

“Cities the size of Dowagiac are not typically large enough to have a daily newspaper, so I always tried my best to keep it going,” Eby said. “It was hard work, but I got to cover a lot of interesting things.”

Some his biggest memories of his time with the paper included interviewing several prominent authors and artists who visited the city during its annual Dogwood Fine Arts Festival — including one of his literary heroes, Kurt Vonnegut — and meeting famous figures, including future President George W. Bush, who he nearly got into a fight with, he said.

“In the old days, it was a lot of fun,” Eby said. “You were only bound by your imagination.”