Time Machine: The Lee newspaper syndicate and its connection to a Cedar Rapids family

William W. Walker arrived in Cedar Rapids in 1855 from New York City.

He and his wife, Mary Hitchcock Walker, had two daughters, Mary Ingalls Walker born in 1858 and Lucy Hitchcock Walker born in 1861. Their son, Charles Edward, was born in 1862; his mother died two weeks later, and the boy died two months later.

The Walker sisters gained a stepmother in 1864 when Walker married Laura Weare, whose father, John Weare, had come to Cedar Rapids in 1845 and built a fortune in real estate and banking.

The Walkers had deep civic connections in Cedar Rapids - with William working for early railroads and serving on the water board and bank boards. In 1874, he became the manager and editor of the Republican newspaper.

Newspaper men

Alfred W. Lee - called ”Fred” - was a native of Johnson County. After attending Iowa City public schools, he entered the University of Iowa at the age of 13. After two years in the preparatory school and two in college, he chose to become a journalist and went to work for his brother-in-law, John Mahin, who owned the Muscatine Journal.

As business manager at the Journal, Lee probably visited Johnson Brigham at the Republican offices in Cedar Rapids in May 1883. Brigham had recently become editor and part owner of the paper.

Lee also visited The Evening Gazette, when the fledgling paper was 4 months old. In his opinion, he said, The Gazette's advertising and subscriptions were 'marvelous.”

His visit to Cedar Rapids may have had a twofold purpose.

About two years later, Lee and William Walker's daughter, Mary, took out a marriage license. Both were 27.

Mary was described as 'not only rich in talents and accomplishments, but (as) the possessor of a kind heart and a sweet disposition, and her kindness and charities to the poor are well known.”

The Walker-Lee wedding on June 4, 1885, was conducted by the Rev. E.R. Burkhalter and the Rev. Dr. E.W. Hitchcock at First Presbyterian Church. Mary's sister, Lucy, was a bridesmaid along with their stepmother's sister, Martha Weare. A reception for relatives and close friends was held at the Walker home on Second Avenue SE.

Lee buys Ottumwa paper

A few years later, Lee became business manager for a paper in Hutchinson, Kan. In 1887, the Lees moved to Chicago, where Lee worked in advertising for the Chicago Times, and their first child, William Walker Lee, was born. William died from whooping cough on Feb. 26, 1890. The funeral was held at the home of Mary's uncle, James I. Walker, in Cedar Rapids.

After that, the Lees decided to come home to Iowa. Lee bought the Ottumwa Courier in 1890, the flagship paper of what would become the Lee Syndicate and later Lee Enterprises.

In 1897, Lee was appointed postmaster in Ottumwa, and two years later was among the men who incorporated the Ottumwa and Northern Railway, a line connecting Ottumwa to the Iowa Central.

His first priority, however, was the newspaper.

In 1900, Fred and Mary Lee buried their 9-year-old son, Alfred, in Cedar Rapids, after an attempt to remove his inflamed appendix failed. Of their three children, the Lees now had only 4-year-old Laura.

Expansion

Lee's newspaper enterprise grew quickly. By 1902, Lee Syndicate controlled three other evening papers: the Davenport Times, the Hannibal (Mo.) Courier-Post and the La Crosse (Wis.) Tribune. Lee added another property that year when Mahin, his brother-in-law, retired as editor of the Muscatine Journal and sold that paper to Lee.

The stress of his hands-on management style, however, took its toll on Lee's health, and he decided to leave his papers in the hands of his hand-picked managers and take his wife and daughter on a vacation to Europe.

Lee died in Nottingham, England, on July 15, 1907. He was 49.

His body arrived in Ottumwa on July 28, and his funeral was held Aug. 5 at Ottumwa's First Presbyterian church.

Four men - his brothers, Isaac and Joseph of Iowa City, Courier manager James Powell and Davenport Times manager Emmanuel Adler - then brought Lee's body to Cedar Rapids, where it was placed in the receiving vault at Oak Hill Cemetery until his family arrived for the interment.

Back to Cedar Rapids

Mary and Laura Lee returned to Ottumwa to finalize turning over management of the newspaper syndicate to Adler and Powell. They then moved to Washington, D.C., but often returned to Iowa to visit Laura Weare Walker in Cedar Rapids and Mary's sister, Lucy, who lived in Des Moines with her husband, Johnson Brigham, the state librarian.

In 1922, mother and daughter set up residence in Cedar Rapids at 224 18th St. SE while their home was being built at 1826 Second Ave. SE, a short distance from Mary Walker's home at 1819 Second Ave. SE.

After her stepmother died in 1933, Mary Lee rarely stayed at her Cedar Rapids home, turning its upkeep over to caretakers. After she died in 1938, the house was sold to the A.L. Smulekoff family.

Lee's growth

The Lee Syndicate grew under Adler, Lee Loomis and Adler's son, Philip Adler. It issued its first public stock in 1969 and entered the digital age in 1973, when the Quad-City Times in Davenport became the first paper in the world to be produced by computer.

Lee Enterprises now has 53 dailies and more than 300 weeklies and shoppers in 23 states.

Laura Lee, who lived in Washington, D.C., funded several memorials for her father, including the Alfred W. Lee Memorial Library in the 1969 University of Iowa Museum of Art. She died May 16, 1979, in Washington. She is buried with her parents, siblings and grandparents at Oak Hill Cemetery in Cedar Rapids.

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