Edwin Albert Tostevin was born in Racine, Wisconsin on September 22, 1864.He graduated from high school and had two years of business college education which was unusual for the times.In 1883, E.A. married Florence Clemons and together they had three sons.
Edwin worked first as a farm machinery salesman for his fathers fanning mill plant and when the farms failed he went to work for the Racine Journal.He worked in the business office of the \ newspaper rising to the post of Secretary for the corporation but realized if he was ever to be manager/editor he would have to find his own newspaper.
In 1909, he traveled to North Dakota and purchased the Mandan Pioneer, a weekly newspaper, from W. Harry Spears.(The Pioneer Publishing Company was incorporated in 1883, with the Marquis de Mores, Michael Lang, Joseph Miller, R.M. Tuttle, A.C. Macrorie and George Bingenheimer as stockholders).
In the first issue of the Pioneer under EA's management, he offered the following introduction: "In assuming control of the Pioneer, the writer wishes to assure the people of Mandan and the people of Morton County that the policy of the paper will not be changed, that it will be found loyal to those Republican doctrines and principles under which the nation has prospered. To issue a bright, clean, newsy paper one that will deserve the loyal support of the people of this section, will be the ambition of the writer." The paper continued as a weekly until April of 1914 when it became a daily paper.Lively, local political campaigns for state and county offices and the outbreak of WWI ensured the necessity for a daily paper and the circulation almost doubled in a short time.The Mandan Daily Pioneer was an influential paper serving the Western Slope area.
Over the years, the three Tostevin sons, would join their father in the newspaper business.Earle and Walter entered the Army and Edwin D., the youngest, filled in at the paper.
Edwin A. Tostevin died on February 15, 1943. He and his wife Florence are buried in Union Cemetery in Mandan, ND. The Tostevin family would remain in the newspaper business until they sold the Pioneer in 1963
The Society would like to thank members James and Patricia Tostevin for sharing this information with us
