The history of news: Part IV

Hannah Gross
NLJ Correspondent
With Leonard Cash
 
In last week’s installment of the “History on Main” series on the News Letter Journal, local historian Leonard Cash found in his records an article from Nov. 22, 1917, which reported a change of hands at the News Journal. 
This transfer of ownership was reported in several newspapers, according to the Dec. 6, 1917, issue of the Journal. Copies of many articles from other newspapers also described the change: Edgemont Express, Sundance Times, Sundance Monitor, Belle Fourche Bee and Gillette News. 
“Mr. Carleton has been in the newspaper game in Newcastle for some time and has given the people of his town an excellent paper,” the Edgemont Express said. “Typographically, it is a gem and its appearance when you first pick it up seems to invite you to read it thoroughly.” 
Pete Kinney, who bought the Republican Journal from Carleton, was a Democrat, politically speaking.
“The News-Journal, of Newcastle, one of the old time republican newspapers of this section of the country, and one of the best equipped printing plants in the state, was sold last week to a company of local democrats,” the Gillette News reported. 
Kinney had originally owned the Weston County Gazette, but after purchasing the Journal, he decided to give the Gazette a rest. Cash said the paper was moved to Upton, where it is currently run today. 
“The Gillette News says one newspaper is enough for a town of the size of Newcastle,” according to an article in the Sundance Times.
“He (Kinney) had his fingers into everything,” Cash said, meaning that Kinney was very involved. Cash said he ran a meat-processing plant, was a contractor, served as mayor, helped to start the first light plant in town, and owned Antler’s and a local bar, among many things.
Among Cash’s records is an article from April 28, 1921, reporting that the editor and manager of both the Journal and Western Printing Co., Lillian Grinnell, was on the verge of death. She had suffered an “acute attack of appendicitis,” and chances of her recovery were very slim because of a “malignant form of blood poison.” Her sister, who was a nurse, was taking care of Grinnell, and her state of health was a shock to all, and “that she will recover is the wish of her friends and of the News Journal.”
While there were no articles in his records about a recovery, Cash said that Grinnell probably did recover.
The Journal was switching locations again to Block 10, Lot 12, which is on the corner of Warren Avenue and Seneca Street, according to the Aug. 31, 1922, issue. It was moving into the basement of Newcastle National Bank, which Cash said is across the street from the Weston County Annex. 
The Journal had been in its building (the one next to First National Bank and the Nichols building mentioned in last week’s issue) for 12 years, since 1910. Before that, it was located in what later became Antler’s Café, which burned down in 1921. 
Because of the chaos that ensues during a move, the Journal was shortened to four pages from the usual 8 to 16.
“We trust that our readers will understand, for there is hardly any one but who has experienced the difficulty of moving something sometime in their lives, and knows exactly what troubles are encountered,” the article said. 
The office of the Journal also had previously been located in (Cash said this is on block 10, where the empty building by Perkins’ Tavern resides) a building that was being remodeled into a movie theater, according to an article from Sept. 21, 1922.
“When completed, (it) will be known under the name that Mr. Barnes always has called his theater, The Edison,” the article said. “This building was recently purchased from Della and Stella Sweet by J.L. Baird, who later leased the building to Mr. Barnes.” 
The project was expected to cost about $2,000 and take a month or so to complete.
The April 30, 1925, edition of the paper reported that the Journal bought new equipment, so the owners shipped their old “plant” to Cheyenne for the newly established newspaper called the Wyoming Eagle. The shipment was superintended by Howard P. McPherson and D.O. Fruet, and the Wangeras and McPherson brothers were to be in charge of the Eagle. 
The News Journal publisher was going to salvage and reserve the old newspaper records from the Newcastle Journal. (In a later article from 1930, it said that the News Letter moved to Newcastle from Upton in 1919 and eventually “absorbed” the News Journal in 1924 to become the News Letter-Journal. It was after these events that the old press was sent to Cheyenne).
 
The News Letter Journal/Leonard Cash history series continues in next week’s issue.