It was political newspaper created to support Democrat candidate Joseph Showalter Smith who was running against David Logan for a seat in the United States House of Representatives.
[4] The paper's office space was bought by Frank Stuart who started a new title called the Polk County Times.
[3] Casey and Hammond purchased the Republican in August 1874 and renamed it to the Dallas Itemizer.
[8][9] Casey bought out his partner and then sold the paper to Walter Williams and George E. Good.
J. S. McCain,[11] who later that year sold the paper to V. P. Fiske, followed by Graham Glass Jr. and Mr. Prudhomme in 1885[3] and W. A. Wash in June 1888.
[14] Bloom dropped out after three years and Boyd operated the paper for the remainder of Fiske's ownership.
[3] In 1888, Charles C. Doughty and George Snyder started the Polk County Observer.
[18] He sold the Observer a few months later to Lew A. Cates, former publisher of the Cottage Grove Sentinel.
[23] The Observer plant was destroyed by fire in April 1921,[24] but Koen never missed an issue.
[27] On November 11, 1970, a gas leak ignited in the newspaper's office and caused an explosion.