"An Illustrated History of the Big Bend Country; Embracing Lincoln, Douglas, Adams and Franklin Counties; State of Washington". Spokane, Western Historical Publishing Company, Publishers, 1904. WILLIS S. SWENSON, of Pettijohn & Swenson, proprietors of the RITZVILLE TIMES, has had a varied and interesting newspaper career. Born in Iowa, September 27, 1875, his father is Hanson Swenson, a native of Christiana, Norway, who came to the United States in 1863, and who now lives in Dawson, Minnesota, carrying on the boot and shoe business there. His mother, Mary (Johnson) Swenson, also a native of Norway, died in Nebraska, August 18, 1894. Willis S. Swenson's boyhood was spent in the states of Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota, and his education acquired in a number of different schools. The foundation of his education was laid in the district school and was continued in the state university of Vermillion, South Dakota, the Northwestern Business college, Sioux City, Iowa, and the state Methodist college at Lincoln, Nebraska, he paying his expenses from his own earnings. At the age of twelve he began to learn the printer's trade; at sixteen he published the RANDOLPH REPORTER, at Randolph, Nebraska, which he continued two years and sold. At the expiration of this time he went to Colordao and published the DAILY SUN at Florence. This endured but a short time, however, and he returned to Nebraska and founded another paper at Randolph and one at Emerson. At the expiration of one year he sold these, returned to Colorado and worked on various papers in Denver and other places, as reporter and compositor. In the fall of 1897 he enlisted in Company C, National Guard of Colorado, at Pueblo, but being discharged on account of illness, he came to Oregon, where he worked on papers at Baker City and Lagrande. Two years later he came to Ritzville, 1899, where he obtained a position with Editor Gilson both on his paper and as his deputy in the court house. Mr. Gilson then being county clerk. In March, 1901, he entered into his present partnership with D. W. Pettijohn who had bought out the interest of Mr. Gibson a short time before. Willis S. Swenson has two brothers, Harry S., of Newport, Washington, who publishes the MINER, and Albert E. of Minneapolis, Minnesota, publisher of the MASCOT; and two sisters: Dora, wife of J. F. Valleau, a Methodist minister, at Foss, Oklahoma Territory, and Josephine, wife of R. R. Heineman, a mining man of Colorado. Politically, Mr. Swenson is a Democrat, and his paper is a recognized power in the Democratic cause in Adams county. Submitted by: Georgia Harter Williams, georgiahw@earthlink.net