Grand Traverse Herald
-- Nov. 3, 1858: Morgan Bates publishes first issue. The Grand Traverse Herald is located in an office on the Bay Road.
-- 1861: Herald moves into its new building on the southeast corner of Front and Cass streets. The U.S. Land Office register and county treasurer offices are on the same floor as the printing office. Bates is both register and treasurer at that time.
Traverse Bay Eagle
-- 1865: Elvin Sprague starts Elk Rapids Eagle. He renames it the Traverse Bay Eagle and moves it to Traverse City in 1867. He adds the first power press in the Grand Traverse region that year and the first steam power in a northern Michigan printing office the following year.
-- 1867: Morgan Bates sells the Herald to Dewitt C. Leach. His nephew, Thomas T. Bates, has been office manager and in Leach's real estate business since 1865. He buys Leach's real estate interests in 1871.
-- 1869: Leach moves the Herald to his new building at Front and Park streets.
-- 1876: Leach sells the Herald to Thomas Bates' brother, also named Morgan Bates, publisher of the Marshall Statesman. Thomas acquires it later and is publisher-editor for 36 years.
-- 1879: Herald moves back to an enlarged building at its old site, the corner of Front and Cass.
-- 1893: Sprague starts Daily Eagle, Traverse City's first daily, and GT Herald follows the same year with the Daily Herald.
-- 1894: Daily Herald and Morning Bulletin merge to form Morning Herald. The Bulletin is a daily owned by the Transcript, another local weekly.
-- 1895: The Herald needs larger quarters and moves in September into a new building at 123 Front St.
-- 1897: The Morning Herald becomes The Evening Record.
-- 1904: Grand Traverse Herald and The Evening Record are incorporated into Herald & Record Co.
-- 1908: Sprague dies May 7. GT Herald and The Eagle convert into semi-weeklies.
-- 1910: Sprague's wife sells Eagle properties to Herald & Record Co. First Record-Eagle rolls off press on Oct. 31. Grand Traverse Herald as weekly for a few years.
-- 1912: Thomas T. Bates dies Dec. 18. His son, George C. Bates, becomes president.
