The Saint Paul Dispatch was a daily newspaper in Saint Paul, Minnesota from 1868 until 1985.
Hall and Castle years
When Harlan Hall founded the Dispatch in 1868, he made no secret of his political affiliations. In the 1800s newspapers openly aligned with political parties and the Dispatch was no exception. Under Hall's leadership, the paper initially supported the insurgent wing of the Republican Party. David Ramaley, an active Republican, served as the Dispatch'''s publisher.
But Hall (who was the great uncle of the Minnesota sports broadcaster Halsey Hall) switched parties in the mid-1870s and became a Democrat. When Hall sold the Dispatch in 1878, the newspaper reflected Hall's Democratic affiliation.
With the change of ownership in 1878, however, the paper's political orientation once again transformed "overnight." Hall sold the paper to Henry Anson Castle, who made the Dispatch "an aggressive Republican organ."Castle, History of St. Paul and Vicinity, pp. 1192, 1199-1200 A Union Army veteran, Castle was active in the Minnesota Republican Party and held a seat in the state legislature in the 1870s. Castle also played a leading role in the successful 1874 gubernatorial campaign of Cushman Kellogg Davis. Castle briefly turned over editorial duties in 1880 to Lucius Nieman, who later founded The Milwaukee Journal. But otherwise Castle set the Dispatchs editorial direction until 1885.
George Thompson and the Dispatch Printing Company
George Thompson, an Anglo-American banker and entrepreneur, purchased the Dispatch in 1885.Burnquist, Minnesota and Its People, Vol. 3, p. 108 Thompson was born in Devonshire, England, in 1840. After graduating from Eton College and Oxford University, he worked for 17 years as a banker at Willis, Percival & Co. When the bank collapsed, Thompson took his father's advice and immigrated to the United States in 1882. He worked as an advertising salesman at the Joliet News before moving to Minnesota. He married Abigail Ione Wheeler in 1885 and they settled in St. Paul.
The Dispatch was sold in 1885 by Henry A. Castle to George Thompson and George K. Shaw. Thompson then established the Dispatch Printing Company. His wife, Abigail, was co-owner of the Dispatch and he relied heavily on her advice in running the newspaper. The Dispatch Printing Company bought the St. Paul Pioneer Press in 1909 and managed the two newspapers as independent news outlets. The Pioneer Press became the city's daily morning newspaper and the Dispatch became the city's daily evening newspaper.
Thompson was a staunch Republican and the Dispatch advocated on behalf of Republican candidates. As a long-standing at-large delegate to the Republican National Convention, he wrote the gold standard into the Republican platform. Thompson was a friend of William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and many other national officeholders.
Thompson had a Patek Philippe watch custom made for him in 1914 that was sold at auction by Sotheby's in May 2006 for $1.54 million.
When George Thompson died in 1917, Charles K. Blandin bought a controlling interest in the Dispatch Printing Company. After Abigail Thompson died in 1923, Blandin took over the remaining shares in the company. Blandin operated the newspaper until he sold it to Ridder Publications in 1927.
Ridder Publications (which later became Knight Ridder) acquired both the Dispatch and the St. Paul Pioneer Press in 1927. As a young man, Robert Ridder, the philanthropist and co-founder of the Minnesota North Stars, worked as a Dispatch reporter.
The 1978 election controversy
In 1978 the Dispatch became involved in an election dispute that ended up before the Minnesota Supreme Court. In October 1978, William G. Sumner, the Dispatchs editor, interviewed a state legislative candidate named Bob Pavlak. An Independent-Republican, Pavlak ran for the District 67A state legislative seat against the incumbent, Arnold Kempe, a member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party.
During the Dispatch interview, Pavlak produced documents that indicated that Kempe had missed over 300 roll call votes during the 1977 and 1978 legislative sessions. Pavlak warned the Dispatch that there might be computational errors in the documents.