The band of Pioneers led by Brigham Young and who located in Salt Lake Valley in July, 1847, had with them a small printing plant.  In the winter of 1846-7 William W. Phelps had been sent from Winter Quarters to Philadelphia to purchase a printing outfit, and this was conveyed across the plains by the pioneer company.  The press was a small wrought-iron affair, known as a Ramage hand-press, and the quantity of type, ink, etc., which accompanied it was, of necessity, very small.

In the spring of 1850 this press was set up in a small adobe building, located about where the east wall of the Hotel Utah now stands.  Here the first issue of the Deseret News was set up and printed, the first number bearing date of June 15, 1850. William Richards was the first editor, Horace K. Whitney, who had learned type-setting in Nauvoo, set the type, Brigham H. Young worked the press, and Thomas Bullock read proof.  The paper was a small affair, 8x10 inches, having eight pages of three columns each.  The news printed was necessarily limited.  There was a prospectus with ”Truth and Liberty” as a motto, which has been at the head of the paper ever since.  The proceedings of the United States Senate, nearly three months prior, were given in a paragraph.  President Zachary Taylor’s message to Congress, dated January 22, was reproduced in full from the New York Tribune.  A brief notice of the death of Oliver Cowdery at Richmond, Mo., on March 3, 1850, was given.  A concert was announced in the “Bowery,” and a list was printed of those who had arrived in the city and had departed for the California gold fields, but who had thoughtfully subscribed for the paper before they left.  This first number contained two advertisements: William McBride, Blacksmith, and A. Neibaur, “Surgeon Dentist.”  Though small and crude when compared with our modern newspapers, this first issue of the Deseret News was hailed with delight by a people located in the heart of the wilderness, a thousand miles from their neighbors.

In 1852 a larger press was brought to Salt Lake City, with a quantity of type, and added to the News plant; and in the same year, Almon W. Babbitt brought to the city a printing plant with the intention of beginning a publication.  He abandoned his purpose, however, and sold his printing material to the Church, and it was also added to the News plant.  In the fall of 1852 the plant was removed to the upper story of a building used as a store by Bishop E.D. Woolley, located on the same block a little west.  In the spring of 1854 it was again moved to the north end of the old Tithing Office, and in 1856 to the second floor of the Council House which stood on the site of the present Deseret News building.
   
On account f the approach of Johnston’s army in the spring of 1858, the plant was divided.  One part was conveyed to Filmore and another to Parowan, from which places the paper was alternating issued.  This was done in part for strategic reasons, as it was desirable to conceal from the approaching army the exact location of the Church printing plant.
   
On the return of the inhabitants of Salt Lake City from the “move” south, the Deseret News plant was again established in the Council House, where it remained until 183, when it was removed to the large adobe building on the corner of Main and South Temple streets.  Here it remained till July, 1902, when its present magnificent quarters were ready for it.
   
Matrices for the casting of type had been brought by the Pioneers, and in 1854 the first type was cast by John H. Rumel.  About the same time the manufacture of paper was begun on the Temple Block.  Paper making was followed for years, and large sums of money were invested in a plant built at the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon, which was later destroyed by fire.  In those days rags and produce were taken in payment for subscriptions, and the operating force of the paper had to take the kinds of pay  then in common use in the new country.
   
The first editor, Willard Richards, died March 11, 1854, and was succeeded by Albert Carrington.   In 1856 Judge Elias Smith became editor, holding the position until 1863, when Albert Carrington resumed the editorship, assisted by T. B. H. Stenhouse.
Om 1867 George Q. Cannon became editor.  Up to1866, the paper had appeared as a semi-monthly and as a weekly, but in the latter year, the semi-weekly edition was begun.  On November 21, 1868, something more than a year after George Q. Cannon had become editor, the first number of the Deseret Evening News was issued.  From that date the paper continued in three editions---daily, semi-weekly, and weekly, until December, 1898l, when the weekly edition was discontinued.
   
In 1874 David O. Calder became manager of both editorial and business departments of the paper, and in 1877 George Q. Cannon and Brigham Young, Jr., took charge for a short time.  The same year President Brigham Young called Charles W. Penrose from Ogden, where he was editing the Ogden Junction, to the News  staff.  Shortly afterwards he was appointed by President John Taylor as editor-in-chief.  In 1884 he was sent by President John Taylor to the East on a special mission, and thence to Europe, being absent several months, during which John Nicholson was acting editor.  Returning, Mr. Penrose resumed his labors on the News, continuing until October, 1892, when the paper was leased to the Cannon Brothers, with John Q. Cannon as editor, and Abraham H. Cannon, business manager. In July, 1898, Mr. Cannon left the state in command of Utah’s troop of  Rough Riders, and J. M. Sjodahl became acting-editor until January 1, 1899, when the paper reverted to the Church.
   
President Lorenzo Snow then called Mr. Penrose again to the editorship and appointed Horace G. Whitney business manager.  This marked a new ere in the history of the News.  Modern business methods were employed.  The staff and the departments were organized; the weekly payment of all hands was begun, and payment was always in full; the subscriptions increased as did the advertising matter; the Saturday edition was made a special feature.  The Deseret News came to be one of the modern, up-to-date, influential newspapers of the country.  At the end of the first year the management had paid all the company’s debts and turned over to the Trustee-in-Trust $10,000.  Mr. Penrose continued editor-in-chief until the fall of 1906l when he was called to preside over the European mission.  J. M. Sjodahl, the present editor, succeeded him. Mr. Whitney is still manager.
   
Among the men of prominence connected with the various department of the News, the following may be named:
   
Assistant Editors--John Jaques, James H. Anderson, David W. Evans, John Nicholson, Geo. C. Lambert, Joshua H. Paul, Alfales Young.
City Editors--John E. Hansen, George Carpenter, E. LeRoy Bourne.
Special Writers and Reporters--Orson F. Whitney, R. J. Jessup, Ed. C. Penrose, Ed. Ivins, S. A. Kenner, George E. Coray, John James, Alex Buchanan, Joseph H. Parry, Alex, Mc.Master and others.  H. G. Whitney, dramatic and lyric writer and critic, Josephine Spencer, a Daughters of the Pioneers’ Society and literary writer with well deserved fame.

One of the first proof-readers was David H. Cannon, and among the first foremen were A. C. Brower, Joseph Bull, Henry McEwan, Robert Aveson, and S. Harry Harrow.  Among the early business managers, George C. Lambert, T. Edward Taylor, and John A. Evans deserve mention.  Prominent agents not named in some of the other positions were Angus M. Cannon, Richard Lambert, and B. F. Cummings.  Joseph Bull was one of the oldest and most active workmen and agents, serving faithfully for several decades.
   
Many humorous incidents were narrated by the speaker occurring in the early days of the paper’s history, as well as illustrations of the fidelity, patience and endurance of the attaches and employes, through the troublous times lasting many years.  The triumph of the enterprise established by the Great Pioneer was portrayed and the maintenance of the motto, “Truth and Liberty,” always carried at the head of the Deseret News, was shown up convincingly.  The political equality of the sexes, the rights of all citizens and the freedom of all mankind, to the limits of wholesome law, were championed in the past and would surely be upheld in the future,  The News  had  become a recognized exponent of the doctrine, discipline and authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in its various departments, and recognized as a power in journalism that could not be bought, or swerved from its course by persecution or persuasion.  The speaker concluded with a fervid commendation of Pioneers and the Daughters of the Pioneers and their splendid achievements.

Source: The Utah Genealogical & Historical Magazine, Vol. 1, October 1910
Submitted and transcribed by Richard Ramos