Brownsville news (Brownsville, Minn.) 1885-1920  Browse the title

Established by Henry George Forschler, the Brownsville News published its first issue in Brownsville, Minnesota, on June 11, 1885. Brownsville, a small town situated along the Mississippi River in Houston County in southeastern Minnesota, had been founded in 1848 and was host to a station on the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad line

Issues of the News were published on Thursdays with generally four pages and seven columns of content. Politically democratic in allegiance, the paper covered news and politics on a local to international scale. Brownsville state bank reports, agricultural advice, and Milwaukee Road train schedules were also printed. An article entitled "Brownsville" in the February 6, 1908, issue provides a description of the town of Brownsville, calling the town a "favorite resort" during the summer. 

On October 23, 1920, a fire swept through the business district of Brownsville, destroying the paper’s printing office and putting an end to the Brownsville News as an independent publication. The Houston County Chief, published in the neighboring town of Hokah, Minnesota, stepped in to help, offering space for the Brownsville News within its own pages, until "Forschler can rebuild or make...other dispositions." Starting with the October 28, 1920 issue, the Brownsville News appeared as a one-quarter to one-half page section inside the Chief, containing business advertisements, comics, and local news. In April 1921 Forschler asked the editor of the Chief to discontinue publishing the News, due to a lack of interest in rebuilding. The Chief's editor accused Forschler of allowing his "mental vigor" and "ambition to work" to be cut by the "pruning knife of wealth", calling him "lax" and "less active in the garnering of material" for the News. 

After this, the Brownsville News continued to be printed in the Chief but with the News Publishing Company replacing Forschler's name in the masthead. Forschler’s name reappeared in that place, without explanation, starting with the March 26, 1925 issue. The Houston County Chief was renamed Hokah Chief in April 1927, and the Brownsville News made its last appearance in the July 28, 1927 issue of that title. There was no explanation as to its discontinuation. Forschler wrote a column for Hokah Chief entitled "The King’s Highway" from October 1929 to his death in February 1938.