Ipswich History

The Ipswich Historical Society is sharing articles written by IHS students. The students visited the museum, researched and wrote about events, people and businesses in the community.

Ipswich Tribune

by Lindsey Grabowska

I chose the Ipswich Tribune as my topic because it had a big role in the founding of Ipswich and has a very rich history behind it. I did research over the newspaper using the community history books that I found in the Marcus Beebe Library. The founding and rising popularity of Ipswich, South Dakota can be partly credited to the newspaper. According to the Ipswich Tribune website, the newspaper was founded in 1883 by Arthur B. Chubbuck and D. B. Worthington, where it was first named the Dakota Tribune. The Tribune began in the small town of Freeport, but moved to Ipswich in September 1883, putting it in the center of the county while still being connected to the railroad.

Along with the facts about the Tribune, there are also some very interesting facts that you may not have known. According to the Ipswich Anniversary Silver Addition Book, the Ipswich Tribune is the only business still in operation since the town was founded. According to the Ipswich Centennial Book, Chubbuck would walk to Aberdeen once a week to get the patent sheets needed for printing.

In 1909, Chubbuck sold the paper to J.W Parmley, who ran it for three years before selling it to L. C. and Bettina Jackson, according to the Ipswich Centennial Book. According to the same source, the newspaper had many owners over its lifetime, including Frank Tracy, the uncle of Spencer Tracy. During Frank Tracy’s ownership of the paper, he combined the Ipswich Tribune and the Edmunds County Democrat, another newspaper.

According to the Ipswich Centennial Book, the ownership of the Tribune was sold to the Bebermeyers, who kept the publication in their family for 39 years. The Bebermeyers sold the Tribune to the Morlocks. The newspaper was owned by the Morlocks until passing ownership to Dwain and Tena Gibson in 1984.