Story by Oran Sorenson
If you take a stroll down main street of Garretson on the east side somewhere in the midst of 3 or 4 buildings before you get to the American Legion to the south, there in a big window sits a beautiful mechanical piece of art, at one time even “state of the art.” The old printing press has sat there sometimes noticed, and sometimes not noticed, for many years. The machine is called a Washington Hand Press and is quite rare to exist in this pristine form yet today. The work of art was built during the mid-1800’s by the Cincinnati Type Foundry, which would eventually go out of business in the late 1880’s. According to Bob Sanders, this actual press is of the older version with a wooden wheel and leather strapping which can be seen in remarkable condition. The newer version in the later 1800’s had a metal chain drive mechanism.
The dates of the exact purchase and first use of this modern press are still not found today, but this machine may have printed copies of the Palisade Progress, the newspaper of our community before businesses relocated in Garretson in 1889. At least four copies of the Progress are believed to exist somewhere in our community yet today. Let’s hope they are cherished and preserved in good hands. According to Bob Sanders volumes of the Garretson News today exist back to 1901 or so. This Washington Hand Press would do its job printing the Garretson News for decades to come, then still later be put to work as a proof press.
In those early years the Palisade Progress and Garretson News were but 4 pages in length. Every single letter was set together to make words by individual print blocks, each carefully set in its place. It usually took an entire day to set the print blocks for one page. Thus, after four days the printing might be done, but each page then had to be cut or folded before the paper was set to be delivered. With the automation of the 1920s and 30s, American genius and technology would bring us the linotype machines which could roll out hundreds of pages at much greater speed, which sent most of these early printing presses to the scrap drives of the world wars. Lucky for us and our posterity, this press known to have been used by John P Sanders for all those early years still exists as it was cared for by the Sanders family. A much more complete history of Sanders Printing can be found in the red bound Garretson 100th Anniversary book.
For a few years some of us have known that Garretson’s longest running family business was nearing its end. Sanders printing was first founded by John G. Sanders in 1906. Early this spring Bob Sanders contacted an auction house out of the Twin Cities area to start liquidating some of the larger printing machines on an online only auction. As one local historian had inquired as to the disposition of the old press, attention turned toward the bidding on that auction site. When other collectors from around the nation started bidding quite rapidly and in high succession, other community members were called upon to see if we could successfully keep this prized possession here at home. A big thankyou goes out to Brian Tyrrell and family, First Bank and Trust and Rod Wolforth, and the entire Bob Sanders family for stepping up to help in this project. Another thank you needs to go out to Garrick Moritz and family who are going to allow us to keep the work of art in their front window as they eventually move their business a few doors south. It should be noted that while these four currently own the machine, it will soon become the property of you and all the people of Garretson. At an early spring meeting of the Garretson Area Historical Society a vote by board members passed to accept ownership of this historical prize whenever a secure site might be needed.
