Wilbur was born on December 19, 1819 on a farm near Salisbury, Vermont, United States, where his grandfather, Solomon, a native of Norwich, Connecticut, had settled during the Revolution. He was the son of Jesse and Elizabeth (Pierce) Storey.
After attending the local schools until he was twelve, Wilbur spent five years in the office of the Middlebury Free Press learning the printing trade.
For a year and a half Storey was a compositor on the New York Journal of Commerce, and in 1838 he migrated to Indiana, where he published two shortlived newspapers, the Herald at La Porte, and the Tocsin at Mishawaka. Subsequently, after a brief experience as proprietor of a drug store, he moved to Jackson, Michigan, where he read law for two years and established a new paper, the Patriot, which he sold upon his appointment as postmaster by President Polk.
Removed from office by President Taylor, he again became a druggist. He attracted some attention in the Michigan constitutional convention of 1850 and his activities in politics led to his appointment as state prison inspector.
In 1861, from Cyrus H. McCormick, he purchased the Daily Chicago Times (established in 1854 in the interests of Stephen A. Douglas), bringing with him a large part of the staff of the Free Press when he took possession on June 8, 1861.
Changing the title to Chicago Times (June 20), he continued the paper as a Democratic organ. After the Emancipation Proclamation, he ceased to favor the prosecution of the Civil War and bitterly assailed President Lincoln, with the result that the Times came to be regarded as a radical "copperhead" sheet. Finally General Ambrose E. Burnside, commander of the Department of the Northwest, ordered its suppression because of its "repeated expression of disloyal and incendiary sentiments".
On June 3, 1863, Union soldiers took possession of the plant; part of the issue of that day was destroyed, and the issue for the following day did not appear at all. This attempt to stifle the Times aroused vigorous protests from loyal citizens who regarded its suppression as an unwarranted interference with the freedom of the press. Lincoln promptly revoked Burnside's order, and the Times resumed publication on June 5. Its circulation and advertising increased after its brief suspension, and by the close of the Civil War it had become one of the most prosperous of the Chicago daily papers. After 1868 it was independent in politics.
When the great fire of 1871 destroyed the five-story plant erected in 1866, Storey was tempted to retire, but with improvised equipment the Times resumed publication on October 18, 1871, and he decided to continue it, providing a new fireproof building which was completed in 1873.
In 1877 he demonstrated his characteristic enterprise in gathering news by establishing a news bureau in London to get the latest reports of the progress of the Russo-Turkish War.
In 1878 he went abroad, hoping to restore his failing health, but suffered a stroke and had to be brought home. His active career ended in that year, although he lived until 1884, being adjudged of unsound mind during the last year of his life. At the time of his death the Times was valued at a million dollars.
Storey, unlike Greeley, Bowles, and Dana, was not primarily an editorial writer, but rather an executive who directed the news and editorial policies of his paper. He died in 1884.
Wilbur Fisk Storey was the owner of the Times in Chicago, redid its typography, sensationalized the presentation, and added local news. The significant part of his journalistic career began in 1853, when he bought an interest in the Detroit Free Press, of which he later became sole owner. He enlarged the paper and on October 2, 1853, began the publication of a Sunday edition to take the place of the Monday issue. Under his direction the Free Press came to be regarded as one of the leading Democratic newspapers in the W. His efforts yielded him a large fortune.
Storey had supported Stephen A. Douglas in the 1860 presidential election. While opposing secession, the Times became a vehement critic of Abraham Lincoln after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued.
His energy, enterprise, and fearless expression of his views on every subject gave the paper notoriety. He was independent in an extreme way, boasting that he had no friends and wanted none, and apparently doing his utmost to create enemies. His whole mind was bent on giving the news, though his idea of what constituted news frequently struck some as morbid and indecorous.
He was married three times: in 1847 to Maria Isham of Jackson, Michigan, whom he later divorced; about 1870 to Mrs. Harriet Dodge, who died in 1873; and on December 2, 1874, to Eureka (Bissell) Pearson, who survived him.
