E. S. J. and the Courant newspapers

One hundred eighteen years ago, the Pennington County Courant had its beginnings at Quinn. On March 21, 1907, the Bad River News at Philip, printed “This office is in receipt of the Quinn Courant, Vol. 1, No. 1., published at Quinn, the second station west from Philip. E. C. (sic) Johnston, the promoter, is a thorough newspaper man . . .”

A little eight-page booklet titled “The Odyssey of E. S. J.,” given to invited guests honoring Edward Smith Johnston on his 80th birthday, tells of his path from southeastern Ohio to Pennington County. Known throughout his adulthood as “Ed.”—yes, he always used the shortened form of his given name and always with a period. 

Born March 20, 1851, Ed. was four when his parents moved by covered wagon across three states to Black Hawk County, IA. At age ten, he had his first opportunity to attend school. Seven years later he began teaching in a rural school and for 11 years, he taught, attended high school at Waterloo and had one year of college at Grinnell.

At age 26, Johnston ventured to Canton, Dakota Territory, but his stay was brief. Two years later he was admitted to the practice of law at Waterloo and returned to Dakota Territory, first settling in Firesteel Township, then moving to the young town of Mitchell. Soon the settlement of Mt. Vernon beckoned and in 1883, Ed. purchased his first newspaper, the Mt. Vernon Gazette. 

Disaster hit when a prairie fire swept the town, burning 53 buildings including the print shop so Johnston set up shop in Mitchell and published the Mitchell Gazette. After selling in 1903, he started up several weeklies—the Ethan Enterprise, Fulton Advocate, Murdo Messenger and Stamford Standard. During his 27 years in Davison County, Johnston served four terms as county judge. Six of his nine children were born there and four graduated from high school.

By January 1907, Johnston had a buyer for the Murdo paper and was ready to move on west. He secured an appointment as U.S. land commissioner at Furnas, a post office on J. F. Furnas’s homestead several miles north of the Chicago-Northwestern’s new station stop, Quinn. (Postmaster Furnas soon moved the office to Quinn.) In July 1908, Ed. and his spouse represented the Wall Record and Quinn Courant at the SD Press Association’s summer meeting in Rapid City, indicating Johnston had either purchased the Record or established it himself. (Copies of these early newspapers have not been saved. At SD State Archives, microfilm reels of the Wall Record from 1915-16 and 1922-26 are available, but none for the Quinn Courant.)

Ed. merged the Courant with the Record in June 1925 and chose a new name—Pennington County Courant—with it’s office at Wall. Six years later he sold to R. F. Lewis, editor until his death in 1975. Lewis’s son, Dale, continued as publisher/editor until ’78 when he sold to Les and Belle Ravellette. 

Until the 1925 merger, either the Record or the Courant was one of Pennington County’s three official newspapers and the Pennington County Courant has retained that status to the present day.