The man who first envisioned that journalism should become an academic profession in the Midwest had earlier been a newspaper editor-publisher in Grand Forks. From 1882-89, William J. Murphy published the Grand Forks Plainsdealer, one of two major newspapers in the city.

Murphy was also the person most responsible for turning the Minneapolis Tribune into a world-class newspaper.

Murphy was born July 23, 1859, to James and Mary Murphy. He grew up in Hudson, Wis., 15 miles east of St. Paul, Minn. His elementary education was in rural schools and, after graduating from high school, he attended Notre Dame University where he earned a law degree.

Murphy then took a postgraduate course at the University of Wisconsin, and his professor, William F. Vilas, offered him an apprentice position with his law firm.

Vilas was active in Democratic Party politics and later served as Postmaster General and Secretary of the Interior during the administration of President Cleveland. Murphy's political ideology was primarily Republican, and he parted company with Vilas after passing the bar exam.

In 1880, Murphy arrived in Grand Forks and started his law practice. One of the people he soon befriended was George Walsh.

Walsh was a powerful politician who was speaker of the Dakota Territorial Council, which is equivalent to the North Dakota State Senate. Walsh was also an important part of the "McKenzie Machine," a powerful cadre of politicians who favored the railroads, bankers and business interests.

In 1875, Walsh established the first newspaper in Grand Forks, the Plainsdealer, which had no competition for the first four years. However, George Winship started the Grand Forks Herald in 1879.

Winship opposed Walsh, Alexander McKenzie and the interests they represented. He did not mince words when he wrote in an editorial, "All the Plainsdealer gang were saloon keepers, gamblers, ballot box stuffers and horse thieves."

Walsh was busy in Bismarck and did not have time to get involved in the heated press debate brewing in Grand Forks. Early in 1882, he convinced Murphy to purchase the Plainsdealer.

When Murphy took over the Plainsdealer, it was a weekly newspaper, but its publication releases were inconsistent.

The Herald cut deeply into the circulation of the Plainsdealer. To complicate matters, the Herald became a daily in November 1881.

One of the first things Murphy did was to publish the Plainsdealer daily beginning May 15, 1882. Even though Murphy's paper represented almost everything Winship opposed, he liked Murphy as a person and respected him as a professional journalist.

Murphy felt the same way about Winship.

When another daily paper, the Daily News, was started later in 1882, Murphy and Winship worked together against their competitor.

None of the Grand Forks newspapers had a wire news service. Instead, they relied on the trains coming in from Minneapolis to find out what was happening nationally and internationally.

The news staffs would go through the papers from the Twin Cities and use or rewrite the articles they liked.

To put pressure on the new daily paper in town, it was rumored that Winship and Murphy hired people to board the train before it arrived in Grand Forks and buy up all of the papers. This way, when the train reached Grand Forks, there were no papers available for the staff of the Daily News.

Henry Hansbrough, editor of the Daily News, eventually became frustrated. Winship and Murphy seized the opportunity to get rid of the competition by offering to help Hansbrough finance the Devils Lake Inter-Ocean newspaper, and he accepted.

Now that the competition was gone, Winship and Murphy were again rivals and resumed calling each other "liars" and "thieves" in their editorials.

Readers assumed they hated each other, which was not true. This was manifested in 1884 when a fire destroyed the Plainsdealer building.

Immediately, Winship "made his own press and equipment available to print Murphy's paper." Had this disaster happened to Winship, undoubtedly Murphy would have extended the same courtesy.

It was reported that railroad tycoon James J. Hill helped Murphy rebuild a new facility. Besides the Plainsdealer, Murphy also established a book-binding enterprise.

On July 26, 1886, Murphy married Josephine Hopkins from Chicago, and they had four children: Kingsley, Paul, Charlotte and Josephine.

In 1889, with North Dakota becoming a state, there were two items that Murphy championed. One was to defeat the Constitutional Question that North Dakota become a dry state, and the other was to support his good friend Gilbert Pierce in his run for the U.S. Senate.

Pierce was elected, but the voters chose to prohibit the sale of alcoholic beverages. Since the bar owners were among the primary financial supporters of the Plainsdealer, Murphy sold his paper to H. G. Mendenhall, pastor of the Presbyterian Churches in Grand Forks and East Grand Forks.

Murphy then purchased the Grand Forks Gas and Electric Company and the Crookston Waterworks, Power and Light Company.

When Pierce was defeated for re-election in 1891 by Murphy's old nemesis, Henry Hansbrough, Pierce and Murphy decided to purchase the Minneapolis Tribune for $450,000.

It was agreed that Murphy would be the publisher and Pierce the editor.

The Tribune was heavily in debt, and its mechanical equipment was antiquated. At that time, typesetting was done by hand. However, a new invention called the linotype, which was a keyboard typesetting machine, had just come on the market, and Murphy purchased the first one in the area.

Within a few months after the purchase of the Tribune, Pierce began experiencing some serious health problems and sold his half interest to Murphy in 1893.

Again, in 1899, Murphy's newspaper plant was destroyed by fire. Again he rebuilt, equipping his new building with the most modern machines and appliances. It has been written that Murphy was a man with "remarkable vision." He was one of the first newspaper men to recognize the potential of the automobile and began soliciting advertisements for his paper.

At the start of the 20th century, the Tribune carried more automobile advertisements than any other paper in the U.S.

Murphy brought family members into his venture.

He hired his younger brother Frederic as a circulation manager in 1895 and promoted him to advertising manager in 1905. Kingsley, Murphy's oldest son, became a reporter for the paper. William J. Murphy died on October 24, 1918, and his brother Frederic took over the newspaper.

It has been written that William Murphy "was a man of indomitable will power and energy, and possessed a keenly analytical mind."

These are some of the attributes that made the Minneapolis Tribune "the most influential paper in the Northwest."

Murphy also realized the importance of professional journalism and set aside $350,000 as an endowment for a school of journalism at the University of Minnesota.

Journalism education at the university began in 1917, and the department of journalism was established in 1922. In honor of William J. Murphy, the university constructed Murphy Hall in 1940, which became the School of Journalism the following year.

The university's journalism department has turned out some of the best journalists in the nation.

One example is Eric Sevareid, from Velva, who graduated in 1935. In 1980, the School of Journalism constructed the Eric Sevareid Library.

I find it interesting that the two most important academic facilities at the University of Minnesota's School of Journalism are named for people who lived in North Dakota.

(Written by Curt Eriksmoen and edited by Jan Eriksmoen. Reach the Eriksmoens at cjeriksmoen@; cableone.net.)