MHS Centennial Business:
Winnipeg Free Press (Manitoba Free Press)

Volume 1 Number 1 of the Manitoba Free Press was launched November 30, 1872. A few copies distributed free appeared November 9. It was started by two young men, one with newspaper know-how, William Fisher Luxton, and the other with money and muscle, John A. Kenny. Luxton bought a press in New York and they rented a shack at 555 Main Street, near the present Main and James Street corner. It was hot in summer and cold in winter. The Luxton family and the widower Kenny lived upstairs. John Cameron, reporter and humourist, and Justus Griffin, printer, had a bunk downstairs in a cubbyhole next to the front office.

The type and press arrived by Red River steamboat on 25 October. It was the first cylinder press north of St. Paul, Minnesota, and was run by human muscle power supplied mainly by the huge and powerful Kenny who, among others, turned the handle.

Liberal in philosophy, the Free Press was a leader among newspapers in Canada. It became a leading daily and its sister weekly, the Prairie Farmer, became the most widely circulated farm weekly in Canada. Of 20 newspapers that started in Manitoba between 1859 and 1890, only the Free Press survived.

The eight-page first edition contained a variety of material including a story, a poem, men’s news, telegraphic dispatches, editorials, local news, and classified ads. The first main story was the re-election of General Ulysses S. Grant as President of the United States of America. It was the only daily west of Toronto on 6 July 1874. It cost 25 cents per week on subscription and there were 900 subscribers. In those early years, putting together a newspaper was a formidable task. All copy was written by hand and type was set by hand, one letter at a time. In very cold weather, even the red-hot box stove in the press room could not keep the ink and rollers warm and a row of 32 coal oil lamps was placed around the press.

Many other problems surfaced in those early years - failure of telegraphic services via Montreal and the U.S.A. due to adverse weather - storms, frost and prairie fires, unreliable paper supply that had to come by rail, steamboat or ox cart. For example, a paper shortage coincided with the hot story of the downfall of Prime Minister John A. Macdonald’s government. There was just enough paper for the Free Press to produce a handbill-sized sheet carrying the news from Ottawa and apologies to readers.

In 1874 the enterprise moved to a new building on Main opposite St. Mary Avenue. As it grew in popularity it continued to live up to its motto of fostering “Freedom of Trade, Liberty of Religion, and Equality of Civil Rights.” In 1882 it moved to a building on McDermot east of Main Street, stayed there until 1900, and then moved to a new address on McDermot and Albert Street. By then it had added a women’s section, crop reports, and a book and magazine page. Because of its growth it moved in 1905 to a four-storey building at Portage and Garry. As circulation grew and new presses were added, another move became necessary, and in 1913 the paper occupied the building at 300 Carlton and remained there for 78 years, becoming known as “the old lady of Carlton Street.” In 1991 the Free Press moved to its present location at 1355 Mountain Avenue.

From the beginning, Luxton’s outspoken editorials shaped the future of the new City of Winnipeg. About 1892, control of the Free Press passed to Clifford Sifton. From 1901 to 1944, John Wesley Dafoe served as editorial writer, editor-in-chief and president. He, too, was a man of strong opinions. He fought for Western issues such as breaking the C.P.R.’s monopoly in the prairies, and lower freight rates. He actively promoted Dominion status and autonomy for Canada. In 1931 the name of the Manitoba Free Press became the Winnipeg Free Press.

James Gray related an interesting story dating to when he worked for the newspaper. A character named Day Rait established squatter’s rights in the newsroom in 1924. His consuming passion was to avoid work at all costs and he managed to spend his life in idleness. He cadged quarters from the newsroom staff, and for ten years slept erect in a chair by the door of the newspaper library. At the time the business manager for the paper was E. H. Macklin, known for his sulphuric vocabulary. A new employee, Scott Young, asked about the old man sleeping by the library door. Clem Shields, a senior employee thought he would play a joke on the newcomer. He said: “That’s Mr. Macklin, so for God’s sake don’t slam the door when you go in or out. If you do and he wakes up, run and don’t look back.” Thereafter Scott Young tiptoed past the sleeping Rait, until one night disaster struck. Out of the library a few paces behind Young came the editor-in-chief John W. Dafoe. Young held the door open for Mr. Dafoe, who, preoccupied with weighty matters, paid no attention to the door. It closed with a loud bang. Davy Rait awoke and screamed and shouted abuse at Dafoe’s back while the awe-struck Young hid behind a counter. So convinced was Young by this exhibition of what he thought was “Macklin terror,” that for weeks afterwards he removed his shoes before tiptoeing past the sleeping Rait.

Executives of the Manitoba Free Press / Winnipeg Free Press (1872-present)

Executive	Term	Position
Edward A. Armstrong (1904-1950)	1944-1950	City Editor
Albert Boothe (1913-1985)	1960-1975	Managing Editor
	1975-1978	Consulting Editor
Murray Burt	1979-1990	Managing Editor
Brian Cole	1995-?	Editorial Page Editor
Albert Ernest Horsemah “Abbie” Coo (1885-1967)	1944-1950	Managing Editor
Bob Cox	?-?	Editor
	?-present	Publisher
John Wesley Dafoe (1866-1944)	1901-1944	Editor
	1936-1944	President
John Dafoe	1980-1995	Editorial Page Editor
Alexander Grant Dexter (1896-1961)	1946-1948	Associate Editor
	1948-1954	Editor
George Victor Ferguson (1897-1977)	1944-1946	Editor
Margo Goodhand	?-present	Editor
Nicholas Hirst	1996-?	Editor & Executive Director
Thomas Worrall “Tom” Kent	1954-1959	Editor
David Lee	1990-1993	Managing Editor
William Fisher Luxton (1844-1907)	1872-1893	Editor & President
Shane MacKay (1926-2001)	1959-1967	Editor
Edward Hamilton Macklin (1863-1946)	1900-1912	Business Manager
	1912-1935	President
Arnott James Magurn (1861-1923)	1898-1901	Editor
Richard C. Malone	1974-1979	Publisher
Richard Sankey Malone (1909-1985)	1961-1974	Publisher
John Mather (1828-1907)	1893-1906	President
Peter McClintock	1967-1980	Consulting Editor
Duncan McMonagle	1993-1996	Executive Editor
Terry Moore	?-?	Editorial Page Editor
Don Nicol	1979-1987	Publisher
Rudy Redekop	1994-?	Publisher
Bruce Rudd	1990-1992	Publisher
Frederick Edward Molyneux St. John (1838-1904)	1893-1898	Editor
John Wright Sifton (1833-1912)	1902-1906	Vice-President
	1906-1912	President
Victor Sifton (1897-1961)	1944-1961	President & Publisher
John Beaufort Somerset (1843-1901)	1893-1901	Secretary-Treasurer
Maurice Switzer	1992-1994	Publisher
Art Wood	1987-1990	Publisher

An MHS Centennial Business Award was presented to the Winnipeg Free Press by Sam Loschiavo in January 2001.

MHS Centennial Businesses

Page revised: 15 September 2009