Biography - E Hulbert
E. M. HULBERT & JOSEPH W. WILD. The history of a newspaper reminds one of the appearance of an actor on the stage. Whatever may be the individual joy or grief, the cause thereof must be suppressed. Death may be lurking in the home of the vivacious comedian, but the audience demand smiles and jests in return for their money. The personality of the editor appears but little in the sheet, though there is the under-current of influence that individualizes the paper. What would the Globe-Democrat have been without Grady, the Tribune without Greeley, the Courier-Journal without Watterson? So the individuality of the proprietors is shown in the sheet, the history of which we shall touch upon lightly.
The Free Press was born, so to speak, in July, 1878. It was originally a small advertising sheet, but not long after was enlarged and flung to the breeze as a popular newspaper educator, and an advocate of the Democratic principles. The Press was the first to appear before the public. Its editor, Mr. Hulbert, later purchased the Nokomis Gazette, which had been established some eight years previously, and consolidated the two under the name of the Free Press Gazette, and the whole was launched on the sea of independent politics, and as such has since been conducted.
In 1880, Mr. Hulbert, who is a far-sighted newspaper man, realizing that there was a large and continually growing population of German-reading people in his locality, started a German sheet with the suggestive name of the Deutsch Amerikaner. The fortunes of these papers are so closely united with the history of its editors that we here give a brief biographical sketch of each.
E. M. Hulbert of the firm of Hulbert & Wild, the wide-awake editor and publishers of the Free Press Gazette and Deutsch Amerikaner, was born at Pittsfield, Pike County, Ill., July 22, 1858. He is the only son of W. M. and Laura (Tooley) Hulbert. His father is a native of the old Bay State, having been born near Boston. He was one of the early settlers in Pike County, having located there more than forty years ago. For many years he was engaged largely in the manufacture of brick, and at this writing (1892) is living near Nokomis, where he owns a farm. He came to this county about 1864. Mr. Hulbert's mother was a native of New York, who passed from this life when our subject was a lad of nine years of age. His father contracted a second marriage and young Hulbert grew up on the home farm much as do other farmer boys, receiving a fair education in the public schools of Nokomis.
Early in his boyhood days our subject displayed a great taste for the printing business, and when but thirteen years of age became possessed of a toy press, which he kept in his sleeping room at home. His love for the business grew with him, and at eighteen he enterprisingly established the Nokomis Free Press, which was received as has been above stated. Upon the establishment of the Deutsch Amerikaner he associated with himself Joseph W. Wild, a thorough German scholar, and then it was that he purchased and brought to Nokomis the first power press ever used in Montgomery County, and the new addition proved to be a winning card in his fast-increasing business. Some eight years later he disposed of a half -interest in the entire plant to Mr. Wild, and at the same time the firm took up, in addition to their newspaper business, the real-estate and insurance business, which they have carried on with marked financial success.
Mr. Hulbert is in every sense of the word a thorough business man, which has been attested by the growth of his incipient boyhood love of printing into his present large interests. Aside from his newspaper, real-estate and insurance businesses, he is one of the Directors in the Nokomis Building & Loan Association. Socially, he is genial and affable, but he appears to the best advantage when on, his own ground, that of a business man.
In 1878, Mr. Hulbert married Miss May L. Wetmore now a native of Madison County, and daughter of R. E. Wetmore, a prominent fanner in South Dakota. The home circle of our subject includes three bright children, whose names are as follows: Winifred, Walter R. and Gertrude. Fraternally, Mr. Hulbert is a prominent member of the Odd Fellows and is also a Knight of Pythias.
Extracted 10 Jan 2017 by Norma Hass from 1892 Portrait and Biographical Record of Montgomery and Bond Counties, Illinois, pages 321-322.
