041. Print Shop

In 1849, the town was growing as Joe Naper had planned—churches and schools were springing up, business was booming, settlers were becoming citizens. To keep the business and cultural community vital, businessmen saw the need for a newspaper. They bought presses from the Chicago Journal, turned a shed into a print shop, and furnished it with inks, paper and type. They put out the word for a willing publisher, and C.J. Sellon stepped in to edit and publish Naperville’s first paper, The DuPage County Recorder. It was the first of many versions of a Naperville paper to fail in the 19th century. Sellon, unfortunately, was a man whose favor could be bought. Politicians paid him to turn the Recorder into a partisan paper called The Democratic Plaindealer. That publication lasted until supporters of the temperance movement began putting money in his pocket. At that point, Sellon started a new paper, called The Daughter of Temperance. After just a few issues, Sellon took the paper’s funds and left town. In 1867, David Givler, a long-time resident of Naperville, took over the DuPage County Press. Under his direction it became a reputable paper called the Naperville Clarion, enduring until the mid-1900s, at which time the paper came under a new publisher and became known as the Naperville Sun. Many owners later, the Naperville Sun is still serving the Naperville community.