The Des Moines family that turned a farm magazine into Better Homes & Gardens.
Edwin Thomas (E. T.) Meredith was born in 1876 and grew up on a farm near Marne in Cass County; the family's Iowa roots trace to Thomas Meredith, who settled in western Iowa in the 1850s. E. T. founded the company in 1902 by launching Successful Farming magazine.
After serving as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture under President Woodrow Wilson, he returned to his company in 1920 and expanded into more titles. A home-and-garden magazine first launched as Fruit, Garden and Home was renamed Better Homes and Gardens in 1924 “to better express our real purpose”; its subscriptions grew from about 25,000 to more than 500,000 within eleven years.
Meredith Corporation was publicly traded for decades; in 2021 its national media group was acquired by IAC's Dotdash for about $2.7 billion ($42.18 per share).
Beyond publishing, E. T. Meredith was a civic force in Iowa: he helped launch 4-H clubs, championed farm-to-market roads, and was a driving force behind the Jefferson Highway in 1915.
The company he founded remained a Des Moines cornerstone and one of America's largest magazine publishers for more than a century.
Meredith is based in Des Moines, Iowa. Grew into Meredith Corporation, a century-long Des Moines media institution
1902.
Edwin Thomas (E. T.) Meredith — founder; U.S. Secretary of Agriculture (1920–21)
Curious about your own family's story? We trace it through the public record and write it up as a documented history.
See how it works →This profile presents only publicly reported facts, drawn from the sources above. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the family or its companies.