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Progressive Men of
Iowa
1899
TEDFORD, Howard. One of the rising
newspaper men of Iowa is Howard Tedford, of the
Ringgold Record. He was born in Tipton county,
Ind., May .30, 1870. His father is the well-known
J. H. Tedford, at the head of the firm of Tedford
& Son, publishers of the Record, one of the
leading county papers of southern Iowa. His mother
was Elizabeth Rowan, a native of New York, and
descendant of the family of patriots of that name
who took such a conspicuous part in the war for
independence.
Howard
attended the public schools of Tipton county,
Ind., and Ringgold county, Iowa. He entered
Monmouth college at Monmouth, 111., but left
college at the end of two years to enter into
partnership with his father in the publishing of
the Record.
While at Monmouth he was a member of the
Eccritean society, and at the head of his class in
all the branches of study. He came to Iowa first
with his parents in 1879, and located in Mt. Ayr,
which place has been his home ever since. His
first manual labor was performed on the farm, but
he early entered the newspaper business, in fact,
his common school and college education has been
augmented by a thorough printing office training,
and thus by theoretical and practical instruction
he is fitted for the profession of his father.
During his father's absence in Washington he had
entire charge of the paper and then, in 1897,
exchanged duties with his father in Washington, in
order to get the experience of Washington
life.
Like
his illustrious sire, he is a republican through
and through. He is president of the Eighth
District Republican league, has been a delegate to
several of its national conventions, and occupies
a position of influence and usefulness in the
league.
He was chairman of the republican central
committee of his county during the years 1895 and
1896. He is prominent in the order of Knights of
Pythias.
TEDFORD, James Harvey, of Mt. Ayr,
senior editor of the Ringgold Record, is a man who
has the reputation of knowing how to make the best
use of the English language in his well-known
newspaper. He was born in Putnam county, Ind.,
March 4, 1833, of stock whose genealogy can be
traced through the best families of Tennessee. He
is wholly self-made, having earned the money with
which his education was secured by teaching
school. He entered Hanover college at the age of
17, and graduated therefrom in 1856, with the
degree of bachelor of arts. He
subsequently attended the United Presbyterian
Theological seminary at Xenia, Ohio, for three
years, during the time Whitelaw Reid was
publishing a paper in that city. On the completion
of his education he entered prominent churches in
Greenville, Pa.; Tipton, Ind., and Mt. Ayr, Iowa.
At the
conclusion of his pastorate in the last named city
in 1886, he became associate editor and part owner
of the Ringgold Republican, a paper that had been
established and for thirty years a short time
previously. About one year thereafter he, with his
partner, purchased the Ringgold Record, the oldest
paper in the county, having been established in
1865, and the two papers were consolidated. At the
time he first located in Mt. Ayr, in 1879, he was
employed as pastor of the United Presbyterian
denomination, to which work his time was devoted
until entering upon a journalistic career. As a
newspaper man he has been a success. Commencing
with but limited capital, he now owns, with his
son, one of the best newspaper plants in
southwestern Iowa.
His
political preferences have always been for the
republican party. He was clerk for the interstate
and foreign commerce committee in the national
house in 1895-6, appointed by Congressman W.
P.
Hepburn, of whom he has ever been a warm
supporter and faithful friend in victory and in
defeat. He was married in June, 1862, to Miss
Elizabeth Rowan, at Argyle, N. Y. They have two
children: Howard, who is connected with him in the
publishing of the Record, and Mary
Tedford.
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