BIOGRAPHY: Parrott, Matt
From the A.T. Andreas Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Iowa, 1875

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MATT PARROTT.  Among the various legitimate and necessary callings of life, there 
are perhaps none more exacting and thankless than that of the country editor or 
newspaper man.  His duties are exhaustive, irritating, and never ending, while he is, in a 
measure, subject to the humors and carices of a changing and fickle minded public, 
expected at all times to have a pleasant word and smile with which to accompany the 
matured opinion he may at any moment be expected to give concerning law, politics, 
religion, or metaphysics.  As a good example of this class of men; may be mentioned 
Matt Parrott, the able and accomplished editor of the Iowa State Reporter, who was by 
birth a New York Yankee, being a native of Schoharie, Schoharie County, in that state, 
where he was born may 11, 1837.  His childhood was passed like that of many others, not 
being marked by any peculiar circumstances worthy of mention.  Educated mostly at the 
common school and academy in his native village, the last of which he attended some 
two years, at the age of thirteen he entered the office of the Schoharie Patriot, where he 
remained one year, making unusually rapid progress in acquiring a knowledge of the 
printing art.  At the end of the year his father took him of the printing office and sent him 
back to the academy, intending to fit him for the legal profession, but young Matt having 
become infatuated with the printing business, made such slow progress that at the end of 
one term his father reluctantly consented that he should abandon school and again enter 
the printing office, since which time he has supported himself entirely by his own 
exertions.  He remained in the Patriot office some two and a half years, when in the 
Spring of 1854 he went to Troy and worked for a few months on the Troy Tribune, but 
soon returning to Schoharie, found employment in the Republican office, where he 
remained until the Spring of 1855, when he went to Utica and held a case on the Morning 
Herald for one year.  In August, 1856, he started for the West, working for a few weeks 
in Chicago, when he came to Iowa and commenced work in the office of the Davenport 
Daily News.  The following Spring he went to Burlington and secured a position in the 
office of the Daily Hawk-Eye, where he remained until December, 1857, when he came 
to Anamosa, the county seat of Jones County, and entering into partnership with C. L. D. 
Crockwell, began the publication of the Anamosa Eureka, which is still published and is 
the oldest and best paper in the country.  In March or April, 1863, he was persuaded by 
the flattering inducements offered him by the Republicans in Grundy County, Illinois, to 
sell his interest in the Eureka, and establish the Advocate at Morris, in that county.  After 
running it for some three months, and failing to receive the promised support and 
encouragement, he discontinued its publication, and returning to Davenport, worked 
during the summer on the Rock Island Daily Union.  The following Fall he secured the 
position of foreman in the large job and publishing; establishment of Luce, Lane & Co., 
where he remained until February, 1869, when, with Honorable J. J. Smart, he purchased 
the Iowa State Reporter establishment, at Waterloo, of which paper he has since, most of 
the time, had charge.  Improvements and additions have been made to the office from 
time to tome, so that now the Reporter has one of the best, most complete and desirable 
newspaper and job offices in Central Iowa, having a good bindery, and occupying a large 
and commodious building erected especially for its accommodation.  It is a handsome, 
six column, quarter sheet, ably edited, and admirably managed and arranged, presenting 
the nearest and best typographical appearance of any paper in the state.

As a newspaper man, Mr. Parrott is thoroughly competent in all branches of the 
profession, having tilled every position, from that of office boy and "junior sub", to 
foreman and editor-in-chief.  He is a good writer, has marked ability, and with his large 
experience possesses great advantages in making up the various contents of a readable 
weekly newspaper such as the Iowa State Reporter has the reputation of being.