Granite Times (NV, 1908)

June 21, 2011

Roy Alden Atwood 1908, Alphabetical Order, G, Images, Mining Camp Papers, Nevada, United States Leave a comment

Granite Times (NV, 1908)

Place of Publication:  Granite (seven miles west of Schurz in present-day Mineral County), Nevada

Frequency:  Weekly?

Volume and Issue Data:  March 20, 1908-May 1, 1908

Size and Format:  Two-page, three columns; graphite pencil and blue pencil headlines, or black ink in longhand, with occasional shading and coloring with crayon

Editor/Publisher:  Frank Eugene Bugbee (elected to Nevada Assembly 1931, 1933, and 1937) (1908)

Title Changes and Continuation:  Richard E. Lingenfelter, The Newspapers of Nevada (San Francisco:  John Howell-Books, 1964), 131, identifies paper as the Granite News.

General Description & Notes:

The Granite Times, according to its 1908 Easter edition, was “Devoted to the Mining and Material Interests of Granite and the Mountain View District.”  According to Highton, the paper was regularly sold for $1, while the special the Easter edition was $5.  The paper included general local news, editorials and poetry.  Stories addressed such events as the completion of an automobile road between Granite and Schurz.  The Rawhide Rustler, April 18, 1908, reproduced a portion of the Granite Times:  “We reproduce . . . a section of the Times, a paper printed in lead pencil in the new town of Granite . . . .  It shows the usual progressiveness of new mining camps in Nevada.”  Lingenfelter and Gash speculate that the Times suspended publication with its seventh number on May 1, 1908.

Earl and Moody report that editor Bugbee was an Ohio native who taught school in Kansas before arriving in Nevada at the turn of the century.  He visited several mining towns before joining the rush to Granite and starting the Times.  Bugbee reported in one issue that he had ordered a carload of type to print his paper, but through an error he received a mess of tripe.  He offered “a bar of soap and a pound of tripe” to those who solicited others for new subscriptions to the Times.  Noted the editor, “Do not get discouraged because have not the tools and equipment you should have to run your lease.  The editor has only three lead pencils, but he gets out a paper every week.”

The two extant issue of the Granite Times at the Nevada Historical Society were donated by Bugbee in 1909.

Information Sources:

Bibliography:  Phillip I. Earl and Eric Moody, “Type, Tripe and the Granite Times,” Nevada Magazine, (May-June 1982), 17-18; Jake Highton, Nevada Newspaper Days:  A History of Journalism in the Silver State (Stockton, Calif.:  Heritage West Books, 1990), pp. 97;  Richard E. Lingenfelter, The Newspapers of Nevada (San Francisco:  John Howell-Books, 1964), 131 (identifies paper as the Granite News); Richard E. Lingenfelter and Karen R. Gash, The Newspapers of Nevada (Reno:  University of Nevada Press, 1984), 110.

Locations:  April 17, May 1, 1908:  NvHi (also on microfilm)

The Denial Bay Starter (Australia, 1908)

June 20, 2011

Roy Alden Atwood 1908, Alphabetical Order, Australia, Community Papers, D, Frontier Papers, Images Leave a comment

The Denial Bay Starter, Australia, 1908

Publication History:

Place of Publication:  Denial Bay Township, Australia (west side of Eyre Peninsula, 500 miles from Adelaide)

Frequency:  “Weekly”

Volume and Issue Data:  November 14, 1908 (first issue) through 1909

Size and Format:  Early editions were three columns. After the New Year, 1909, it went to two columns.

Editor/Publisher: Dr. C.T. Abbott (with Mrs. Abbott, assistant production officer and general press hand”) [Alan Finch, Pens & Ems]

Title Changes and Continuation: None

General Description and Notes:

In his history of Australian journalism, Alan Finch describes The Denial Bay Starter as “produced in a violent mauve ink on a hectograph in atrocious handwriting.” According to Finch, the first editorial, or leading article, explained the anonymous editor’s goals for the publication:

“Dear friends, this obscene sheet is only started with the intention of amusing you and gathering for your perusal any little items of news that may be brought to our notice. We do not wish to enter into the arguments that arise from burning questions of the hour, but will try to plainly set before you both the good and the bad points of any discussion. We should be willing to inscribe any letter or correspondence that the public may forward to us . . . we do not wish to hurt anyone’s feelings but if we inadvertently do so please tell us and we will strive to make atonement in every possible way.”

The editor went on to explain the title of the new paper: “. . . this is a starter and we hope to see in the near future a type printed paper which will bring the West Coast more prominently before the public than it has been hitherto.”

The paper was issued each Saturday, but the editor remained anonymous until shortly after the New Year 1909, when the editor’s name was included at the top of the paper: Dr. C.T. Abbott, a medical doctor and relative newcomer to the area.

Number 20 was produced with the aid of  a typewriter and duplicating stencil.

In the January 29, 1910 edition, the editor announced the paper’s retirement:

“The time has come, when the Starter will retire from the arena, and cease to exist. But we hope that this year old infant, has been able to bring other thought and ideas to your minds, than you had previously, that it had been able to sow on rich ground, a few seeds which in the future will spring up. “

The editor, Dr. Abbott, brought the paper to an end because he moved to a new position at Pine Creek.

Information Sources:

Bibliography:  Alan Finch, Pens & Ems in Australia: Stories of Australian Newspapers (Adelaide, 1965), pp. 12-18.

Locations: Public Library, Adelaide, Australia; National Library, Canberra, Australia

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