About The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962
Ypsilanti, Mich. (1928-1962)

Ypsilanti Daily Press

Ypsilanti, Michigan has a long history of local newspapers. The first newspaper published in the community appeared in 1837.

The Ypsilanti Daily Press traces its history to the Ypsilanti Evening Press, which began publication in 1904. The paper was politically independent and was owned and managed by Frank T. Codrington, who had worked previously for the Detroit Free Press. Codrington was quickly succeeded as editor by several individuals.

In 1908 the then editor, William B. Hatch, and his wife Eunice Lambie (daughter of a wealthy lumber baron) purchased the Ypsilanti Evening Press and another local newspaper, the Ypsilantian, and continued them as separate publications. Hatch was fond of writing lengthy, and by most accounts boring, editorials about temperance and law enforcement but quickly tired of the long hours required of a daily newspaper editor. Hoping to winter in Florida, Hatch hired George C. Handy to run things for what was intended only to be a few months. Hatch never returned to grind of daily newspaper work.

Handy was, at that time, a recent graduate of what is today Eastern Michigan University, which is located in Ypsilanti. In 1906, while a student at Eastern, he had worked as the circulation manager of the paper. After graduating, Handy briefly ran a newspaper in Indiana, but he returned to the area to attend medical school at the nearby University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Handy would manage the Ypsilanti paper until his death in 1958, becoming its owner in 1917. In 1912, the Ypsilantian and the Ypsilanti Evening Press merged under the new title, the Daily Ypsilantian Press. In 1928 Handy changed the paper’s name to the Ypsilanti Daily Press, a name it retained until 1962, when the Handy family sold the paper.

Handy's guiding principle, as reported in the Ann Arbor News on June 22, 2008, was simple: "Consider the good of Ypsilanti first." He often used the paper to further community projects or meet community needs. For example, during the Great Depression the paper offered subscriptions to farmers in exchange for produce. The food was distributed for free to the hungry of Ypsilanti. The same Ann Arbor News article goes on to quote from an article Handy wrote in 1954:

"These 50 years of Daily Press progress are paralleled by scores of other similar experiences. It has been an interesting era of growth and development for one of the finest communities in the best nation in the world. To be a part of such a community and to have had a part in its development is an experience and privilege which everyone here can cherish with grateful pride."

Provided by: Central Michigan University, Clark Historical Library