Henning Happenings

Chad Koenen

A new press has been added to the front of the Citizen’s Advocate office, but don’t expect to see this machine back in action anytime soon. The Alden Model 3 Job press is on loan from the Landmark Center in Henning after it was donated by Linda and the late Dave Simpkins family to the Landmark Center several years ago. The press was reportedly stored in Simpkins’ garage until his passing, where it was then moved to another garage for storing until earlier this spring.

Landmark Center Executive Director Dan Broten said the original plan was to restore the old printing press and use it for classes at the Landmark Center, but plan did not come into fruition due to the amount of restoration work that was needed, as well as the shear girth of this extremely heavy machine.

Broten went on the say that the Simpkins’ family wanted the press preserved and stay locally. As many of you know, Dave Simpkins was originally from the Henning area and went on to own several newspapers in the Sauk Centre area. 

Earlier this year Broten brought the press to North Star Welding where several of the pieces were fixed and eventually to Grizz-Lee Industrial Coatings where it was powder coated and painted a deep red color. It was delivered to the Citizen’s Advocate office for display earlier this month.

We thank the Simpkins family and the Landmark Center for the opportunity to display this old press as it is a chance to look back at the rich history of the printing industry. The press is functional, but as anything from 100 years ago, isn’t quite as easy to work with as the new printing equipment that is readily available today.

The Alden Model 3 Job press dates back to a company founded by William Clark and Joshua Daughaday in 1874. To the best of our knowledge the Model 3 Job Press was manufactured by Alden & Bro., a press manufacturer in Cincinnati, Ohio, during the short stint after Daughaday was rumored to have gone bust in 1885.

The company was eventually sold to W.H. Wilson in 1912 when the company name was changed to Model Press Co. The company was closed in the United States of America for good in 1918. 

The press itself was likely used for things like stationary and envelopes, not necessarily printing a newspaper.

We thank the Simpkins family and the Landmark Center for the opportunity to display this historic piece of printing past.

Sports calendar

It just seems like we completed the fall sports season, but alas we are on our way to jumping into the winter sports season head on. The winter sports season will get underway for many of our teams this week and that means the release of our annual winter sports calendar.

The winter sports calendar was distributed over the past two weeks, but if you would like to get your hands on one of these free sports calendars, make sure to stop by the Citizen’s Advocate office during our regular business hours. We have several of these free calendars still available to be picked up. The calendars have the schedule of events for the boys and girls basketball teams, as well as the wrestling team.