A nniversary Parsons Sun begins 154th year of publication today
Volume one, issue one of The Sun appeared on June 17, 1871, as a weekly newspaper. A year-long subscription cost $2.
The first edition advertised for attorney offices, hair dressers, hotels, millers and dressmakers, banks and railroads. The edition also carried poetry, stories and news items in eight columns on each of four pages and published the first 21 ordinances of the city of Parsons.
Milton W. Reynolds and Leslie J. Perry were its joint editors and proprietors. Reynolds wrote on Page 2 of the edition: “The Sun is established for the pecuniary interest of its proprietors, to promote the growth of the rising young city of Parsons, advance the interests and aid in the development of Southern Kansas and the State. We have no enemies to punish or friends to reward. Did we have, we should prefer to use other means than the columns of The Parsons Sun for the puncturing and praising business.”
The essay concluded: “We hope and trust that the long years of the future will show that it is good for The Sun to be here, and that its friends here and throughout the State will be glad of its rising.”
The city of Parsons was founded months earlier, anchoring the city and The Sun to the Katy Railroad, which helped found Parsons. Parsons got its name from Levi G. Parsons, builder of the Katy and a nephew of the first J.P. Morgan.
With its Sept. 5, 1880, edition The Sun became a daily morning paper and in
See SUN, Page 2.
1903 the publication time was changed to afternoon when it began printing news from the Associated Press Morse Service.
In 1914, Clyde M. Reed purchased controlling interest in the Sun and remained its publisher until his death in 1949. Lester Combs became secretary-manager in 1919 and served in that capacity until his death in 1942. The Sun was owned jointly by the two families when Clyde M. Reed Jr., the youngest of seven children in his family and the only one interested in journalism, borrowed funds in 1953 to purchase the interests of his brothers and sisters and that of the Combs estate.
While the elder Reed became governor and then a United States senator for 10 years, the younger Reed also ran for governor (but was defeated), served on the Kansas Board of Regents and served presidential appointments to federal commissions.
After 68 years, the Reeds sold The Sun to Harris Enterprises of Hutchinson (1982).
Kansas Newspapers LLC bought The Sun in 2008 and sold it in 2023 to Montgomery County Media, LLC.
The Sun moved to a twicea- week publication the week of June 20, 2023. The newspaper is printed on Monday and Thursday nights and distributed by mail and in news racks on Tuesdays and Fridays.
