Samuel J. Albright established the Dakota Democrat at Sioux Falls City on this day in 1859. It was the first newspaper to operate in what would soon become Dakota Territory.

The printing press Albright used is believed to have come from Cincinnati in 1836, where John King bought it for printing Iowa’s first newspaper, the Dubuque Visitor. Six years later, a company in Lancaster, WI, bought the press to print the Grant County Herald, and in 1849, J. M. Goodhue, bought it for publishing Minnesota’s first newspaper, the Minnesota Pioneer (now known as the St. Paul Pioneer Press). Albright used the press for at least 7 years before it finally outlived its usefulness. He then abandoned it on the shores of the Big Sioux River in Sioux Falls.

Source: Artifact of the Month, Siouxland Heritage Museum. http://www.minnehahacounty.org/depts/siouxland/siouxland_museums/collections/artifact/artifact.asp.

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