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welcome
history of the home news
The Home News is one of the oldest continually operating newspapers in Wisconsin. The Times was the first paper published in Spring Green. It started October 14, 1881. By the fourth issue, the name was changed to Spring Green News, and later to The Weekly Home News. There had been two previous papers. The first was The Dollars Times, published for Baraboo and Spring Green. It started in 1877. The Inter-County Times, published for Spring Green and Lone Rock, started in 1878. The Weekly Home News was run by the Purdy family for 65 years. Vernon E. Hill operated the Home News from January of 1945 to 1980, when James Olson purchased it. In 1983, Bill and Dolores Griffith bought the Home News and ran it, with their daughter Linda, until 1996 when Linda, took over operations following Dolores’ death.History of the Home News Building
This building was built by H.C. Harrison & J.C. Reushlein in May 1921 to accommodate their blooded horse and automobile business. In June 1936, they sold the building & business to W.H. Berning. It remained an automobile garage until November 1943 when M.E. Hulett purchased the garage from Berning and started Hulett Farm Service. Hulett sold Allis-Chalmers & J.I. Case farm machinery as well as repairing equipment and selling equipment parts. Later, Ray Jensen started Jensen Implement Co. with Hulett owning the building. He also sold Allis-Chalmers and added New Idea and Gehl farm equipment. The building stayed in the Hulett family until April 1952 when Ben & Cal Hanson bought the building from Hulett and the business from Jensen. Earl Hanson ran Spring Green Implement until the early 1960's. In November 1968, the Hanson estate sold the building with the living quarters to Jack & Mary Ann Baryenbruch, owners of the nearby Post House. Jack & Mary used the building mostly for storage and volunteer groups that needed space. Dale & Helen O'Brien bought the building from Jack & Mary Ann in June 1972. They moved into the living quarters. Dale & Helen were deeply involved with the River Valley Players (a local live theater production group) and let the group use the rest of the space for rehearsing, building sets and storage. William & Dolores Griffith purchased the building from the O'Brien's in May 1983. In 1985, the Home News & River Valley Buyers Guide moved from their Lexington St. location to this site. |