The history of news: Part V

Hannah Gross
NLJ Correspondent
With Leonard Cash
 
In his first installment of the History on Main series about the News Letter Journal, historian Leonard Cash explained that the newspaper was in nearly every building in town, and that’s proving to be the case as he starts this week’s edition with yet another move.
According to articles from March 18 and April 7, 1926, the Journal was relocating to the east room of the A.M. Nichols Supply building, which was on block 10, lot 4. Previously, it had been in the D.A. Fakler building, which was on block 7, lot 20 (now the parking lot next to Modern Cleaners, according to Cash), but missing are the newspaper records of when the paper moved from the Newcastle National Bank building into the Fakler building between 1922 and 1926. 
Various fires destroyed many of the downtown buildings at one time or another. According to Cash, a city ordinance was passed after a fire. The ordinance stated that all wooden buildings had to put up sheet metal siding. According to an article from Sept 15, 1927, a neighboring building of the News Letter was doing just that. 
“A sheet iron fireproof structure is being erected on the lot next to the News Letter office that for the past year has been occupied by the stand of Paul Keef. The new building will be used by Paul for his business and the truck now being used will be put to other uses,” the article said. 
An update around March 14, 1929, noted that a “fine, new job print” had been installed.
“They’re just putting in a new printing press,” Cash explained. 
Shortly after purchasing a new press, the Journal changed its printing style. The Sept. 5, 1929, issue reported that the style was changed to “All Home Print” because of the “increasing demand … by satisfied advertisers.” 
“The printing of an ‘All Home Print’ paper necessarily means that there will be 12 columns more to fill and so as to make the paper even more interesting to our many readers, we will, in our issue of Sept. 12, run the first installment of the popular novel ‘Hate,’” the article said. 
This book was about the adventures of an American sea captain privateer, giving readers “another reason to look forward to the weekly visit” of the paper. 
A year later, the March 27, 1930, paper reported a milestone.
“What is probably the largest single issue of a newspaper ever published in Weston county,
is being issued this week from the News Letter-Journal office,” the article said. “It consists of twenty-four pages of reading matter and advertisements, and the co-operation that has been met with from the local people in the getting out of this big paper, speaks well for the community.”
After editing the Journal for a decade, owners O.G. and Sadie J. Franzine sold the paper and their home to new management, according to the May 15, 1930, edition of the paper. Earl J. Heavey of the Wyoming State Tribune, Tracey McCracken of the Wyoming Eagle of Cheyenne and Stanley Greenbaum, editor of the Campbell County News Record, were the successors. 
By May 29, 1930, Heavey had arrived to take over as editor and “will give Newcastle as good or better paper than they have had under the old management.” McCracken and Greenbaum were expected to arrive soon and “then the final transfer of the business will be made,” and they would obtain possession by June 2. 
Four years later, Heavey passed the baton to Dave. G. Richardson, who bought the News Letter-Journal and became the new editor and manager, according to a report from June 30, 1934. The town was already familiar with Richardson because he was a representative of the Western Newspaper Union of Omaha and made frequent trips to Newcastle before his move. Richardson graduated from the University of Nebraska, and he and his wife had a 3-year old daughter named Patricia. 
The building of the Weston County Gazette (formerly in Newcastle, but now in Upton) was “completely destroyed” by fire, reported the May 28, 1931, issue of the Journal. The frame was deemed “flimsy,” which caused the walls and the roof to cave in as the fire spread from the back to the front of the building. A cylinder press, small-job press and a paper cutter were the only surviving items, and it was hoped to salvage and reuse them. 
On Feb. 16, 1933, the paper reported that a contract was awarded to the News Letter-Journal Publishing Co. by the county commissioners and treasurer. The rate of the contract was 6.5 cents “per single column line for the first publication” and 5.5 cents for “subsequent insertions which is one-half cent per line lower than any previous rate the county has ever received on all of its legal publications.” 
The article said that the contract was in agreement with the economy program, and in the next two years, it was expected to locally reduce the publication costs.
The April 27, 1933, reported the sad news that Benjamin F. Hilton, who had been in the local newspaper business for 37 years, passed away peacefully in his sleep at the age of 64. While he had been slightly ill, his death was said to still come as a surprise. 
Hilton’s news career in Newcastle started in 1896 (although he held experience before that) as editor of the Newcastle Democrat. Since that time, he had worked for the Newcastle Times, the Weston County Leader, the Newcastle News-Journal, and the News Letter-Journal as printer, editor and reporter. He also served as a justice of the peace and appointive officer for Newcastle and even took the school census.
Another former Journal editor also passed away. According to the Oct. 4, 1934, paper, W.O. Carleton died in Fort Collins at 11 a.m. on Thursday. 
In addition to being editor for the News Journal, he had served in many political offices. Carleton was the Weston County clerk, deputy secretary of state for Wyoming, the secretary of the public service commission and board of equalization, and state budget officer. Gov. Fenimore Chatterton said that Carleton “performed (his services) with exceptional ability.”
“He was a fine man — of sterling quality and a well-educated gentleman,” Chatterton said. 
 
Look for more in the History on Main series in next week’s edition of the News Letter Journal.