Jørgen Ingvard Marinus Jensen (October 4, 1858 – October 29, 1923) was the publisher of Skive Folkeblad from 1882 to 1906, while he eventually became (co-)owner of several peat factories, Limfjords-Østerskompagniet and a textile factory.
Printer and manufacturer Marinus Jensen’s family grave can be found at Skive Cemetery
Morsø Folkeblad
Skive Folkeblad’s early beginnings
Mar. Jensen (as he was always referred to at the time) was born in Skive in 1858 as the son of laborer David Jensen. He was trained as a typographer and got a job as a factor (i.e. head of the print shop) at the Liberal Party newspaper Morsø Folkeblad in Nykøbing Mors. In 1880, he helped print the first issue of Skive Folkeblad, which was published by an association of Liberals in Salling.
Mar. Jensen becomes a young publisher
Skive Folkeblad was a so-called offshoot with local material and local ads, but essentially with the same articles as in Morsø Folkeblad. The plan was to form a limited company to publish Skive Folkeblad as an independent newspaper with an address in Skive, but it was not possible to raise the necessary share capital. Instead, Mar. Jensen offered to establish his own printing house in Skive and publish Skive Folkeblad. From April 1, 1882, Skive Folkeblad was published as an independent Venstre newspaper, printed in Skive in a warehouse at Frederiksgade 7, where Mar. Jensen had set up his printing shop. He was only 23 years old, but the age of majority at the time was 25, so for the first few years his father, David Jensen, was in charge of the printing house. Mar. Jensen hired an editor as the only writing employee at the newspaper, and with this modest starting point, Mar. Jensen began to expand his business.
Skive Folkeblad supports Venstre, and that’s good business
Mar. Jensen enters politics
Politically, the Skive region was dominated by Venstre, and Mar. Jensen chose to let Skive Folkeblad support the Liberal Party MP elected at any given time from the Skive constituency. This put Folkebladet in line with the majority of voters, which benefited the newspaper. Circulation rose and rose throughout the 1880s and 1890s, and the newspaper became a good business. As early as 1885, Mar. Jensen was able to buy Frederiksgade 11 and set up his editorial and printing offices here, and in 1896 he was able to move to a newly built newspaper building in Nørregade 22. The growth of Folkeblad was due to several factors: in addition to its affiliation with Venstre, the newspaper supported the burgeoning cooperative movement and a number of popular movements such as the temperance movement and the shooting movement. Mar. Jensen became chairman of Skive Afholdsforening and Skive Borger- og Håndværkerforening. In 1894, he was the first Liberal to be elected to Skive City Council, where he was particularly involved in the work of the poor committee.
The Left Reform Party
A cooperative man appears
From 1883 to 1902, the moderate Liberal, farmer J.P. Dalsgaard, was a member of parliament for Skive. Dalsgaard, was the MP for the Skive constituency. In 1902, farmer Carl Hansen became the district’s new MP. He joined the large Liberal Reform Party, which had now become the governing party, and Folkebladet also switched from supporting the moderate Liberals to supporting the Liberal Reform Party. Carl Hansen was an avid cooperative and wanted to spread the cooperative idea to more and more areas, while also wanting to secure Folkebladet for the Left Reform Party. In 1906, he and a group of other Liberals offered to buy Folkebladet and hand it over to a newly founded guarantee company of Liberals with MP Carl Hansen as chairman.
Mar. Jensen is in a hurry and sells Folkebladet
By 1906, Mar. Jensen had moved into other business areas. He had become a peat producer in Gl. Rønbjerg (Rønbjerg Tørvefabrikker s.m. farmer Andr. Sørensen) and in Engesvang. He was co-owner of Limfjords-Østerskompagniet in Nykøbing Mors and of Dollerup Mølles Fabrikker near Viborg, etc., and his many commitments probably contributed to him selling Skive Folkeblad to the guarantee company for DKK 107,530.45 in 1906.
Liberals or Radicals?
Mar. Jensen drops the connection
After the sale, Mar. Jensen continued in the management of Skive Folkeblad. For many years, he was chairman of the guarantee company’s executive committee and from 1911 to 1912 he was the editor-in-chief of Folkeblad. In 1920, a new election law forced the local Liberals, who since 1908 had had their own local “party”, Venstreforeningen af 1908, to choose between joining Venstre or Det radikale Venstre. Venstreforeningen af 1908 and thus Skive Folkeblad had slowly approached the radicals over the previous years, so in 1920 they chose to join Det radikale Venstre. Mar. Jensen chose to join Venstre, which led to him being expelled from the board of the guarantee company later in 1920. This ended his connection with the magazine he had built up.
The family continues in his footsteps
Mar. Jensen moved into Gl. Skivehus, which he bought in 1918. He died here in 1923 as a wealthy man.
Printer and manufacturer Marinus Jensen’s family grave can be found at Skive Cemetery.
Several of his sons continued in his footsteps. The family still had interests in Limfjords-Østerskompagniet, and in 1928 they bought Diges Trælasthandel in Skive, where one son, dentist Valdemar Jensen, was chairman of the board, and another son, Ejnar Vedel Jensen, was director from 1930 to 1946. And the family kept their half of Rønbjerg Tørvefabrik, which is now called Jensen & Sørensens Plantage.
Sources
- Elin Hansen: Skive Folkeblad. Mar. Jensen’s magazine. 1955
- Niels Mortensen: Peat digging was also child labor. In: Skiveegnens Jul ’90, p.