Forerunners Several other newspapers started in the Pekin area before the Daily Times, including the
Tazewell Reporter (1839), the
Pekin Weekly Visitor (1845), the
Tazewell Whig (1848),
Pekin Commercial Advertiser (1848), and the
IIlinois Reveille (1850). In 1852, a short-lived German language newspaper
Per Wachteram Illinois was published.
Pekin Daily Times The
Daily Times was founded by Joseph B. Irwin and W. T. Dowdall as a daily on January 1, 1881. The Daily Times purchased its last Pekin-based rival, the Tribune, around the same time. In the early 1920s, the Daily Times was owned by
Ku Klux Klan Grand Titan Oscar Walter "O.W." Friedrich, the owner of the Capitol Theater, and his business partners and fellow klansmen Silas Strickfadden and E.A. Messner. The newsroom on the second floor was reportedly used to recruit socials to the KKK. According to a Minnesota publication, it was the first daily newspaper to be purchased by any Klan in the country, and the Pekin Klavern was one of the most active in the Midwest, inducting 500 participants on August 15, 1923. McNaughton bought the Zerwekh Building when the Zerwekh brothers closed their bakery business. In September 2007, the offset printer produced its last run and printing operations moved to the GateHouse press in the
Peoria Journal Star building. The merged team is located in the Pekin headquarters. == References ==