''Wallaces Farmer'' is an agricultural newspaper based in
Des Moines, Iowa
Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, ...
. It is owned by media company
Informa
Informa plc is a British publishing, business intelligence, and exhibitions group based in London, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
It has offices in 43 countries and around 11,000 ...
and operates as part of the company's
Farm Progress
Farm Progress is the publisher of 22 farming and ranching magazines. The company dates back nearly 200 years. Farm Progress Companies is owned by Informa.
Farm Progress has the oldest known continuously published magazine, ''Prairie Farmer'', whi ...
division.
History
The newspaper's lineage can be traced back to the 1850s and two separate publications, the ''Northwestern Farmer and Horticultural Journal'' and the ''Iowa Farmer and Horticulturist'', which merged in 1861 to become ''The Iowa Homestead and Northwestern Farmer''; the name eventually shortened to ''The Iowa Homestead''.
Henry Wallace became editor of ''The Iowa Homestead'' in 1883, and James M. Pierce purchased the paper in 1885. Conflicts between the two over the paper's philosophy caused Wallace to leave. Wallace's sons had been publishing ''The Farm and Dairy'' since 1893, and he joined in its operation; the Wallace name was added in 1895, and the publication's name was shorted to ''Wallaces' Farmer'' in 1898. ''The Iowa Homestead'' and ''Wallaces' Farmer'' were bitter rivals, and Wallace family ultimately bought out ''The Iowa Homestead'' in 1929.
Henry's son,
Henry Cantwell Wallace
Henry Cantwell "Harry" Wallace (May 11, 1866 – October 25, 1924) was an American farmer, journalist, and political activist who served as the Secretary of Agriculture from 1921 to 1924 under Republican presidents Warren G. Harding and Calvi ...
, and his son,
Henry A. Wallace
Henry Agard Wallace (October 7, 1888 – November 18, 1965) was an American politician, journalist, farmer, and businessman who served as the 33rd vice president of the United States, the 11th U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, and the 10th U.S. S ...
—later a Cabinet secretary and vice president under
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
—served as editors.
The first issue of the combined ''Wallaces Farmer and Iowa Homestead'' came out in October 1929, as the stock market
began to crash. The publication faltered, and in 1932 Dante Pierce, son of James M. Pierce, came back as
receiver; he purchased the publication at a sheriff's sale in 1935. After Dante Pierce's death in 1955, the publication was sold to the publishers of ''
Prairie Farmer
''Prairie Farmer'' is a weekly newspaper which covers agricultural and rural news in the state of Illinois. It was first published in 1841 in Chicago, Illinois by John Stephen Wright and was called ''The Union Agriculturist and Western Prairie F ...
'', and the name was shortened to ''Wallaces Farmer''.
References
Further reading
* Kirkendall, Richard S. Ed.
“A Magazine Called ''Wallaces’ Farmer''” ''The Goldfinch'', vol. 12, no. 3 (February 1991), pp. 14–15. Available a
''Iowa Pathways Television''
External links
''Wallaces’ Farmer''a
informa.com
Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections: ''Wallaces’ Farmer'' (1898-1950)
Newspapers published in Iowa
{{Iowa-newspaper-stub