Aikens is regarded as the creator of the "patent inside" preprinted sheet in 1863 — an early form of syndicated news and advertising content which helped to make the production of small weekly newspapers economically viable.

[1] Aikens was deeply interested in politics from a young age and in 1852 he was elected as a delegate to the National Convention of the abolitionist Free Soil Party, helping to nominate John P. Hale for the office of President of the United States at Pittsburgh.

[2] Aikens spoke throughout the New England region on Hales' behalf, marking the beginning of a lifetime of dedication to the principles of the anti-slavery and pro-unionist Republican Party.

[4] Aikens instantly fell in love with the booming small Upper Midwestern town and decided to make a career as a journalist there,[4] moving there permanently early that same summer.

Local publisher William E. Cramer was a politically connected young lawyer turned journalist from Waterford, New York, who had come west to Wisconsin to establish a partisan newspaper loyal to the Democratic Party, formerly headed by General Andrew Jackson.

[6] Despite his divergent political views, Cramer was quick to snap up the ex-President's namesake, Andrew Jackson Aikens, for his booming local publication, The Daily Wisconsin, which he had owned since June 1847.

[10] Aikens was widely read and well-traveled, spending extended time in Europe during a pair of trips made in 1877 and 1878, and accumulating a vast personal library.

At the time of his death it was reckoned that as many as 10,000 American newspapers[11] – about half of the weekly papers in the country – used some form of the "patent insides" system of preprinted sheets that Aikens had developed, saving these local publishers millions of dollars in production costs.