The Early Press of Montgomery County

The newspaper industry in Montgomery County has captivated many aspiring editors, with seventy local publications emerging since its inception in 1869. Only one, the South Kansas Tribune, has achieved lasting financial success under consistent management, owing largely to public support. Established in 1871, the Tribune has maintained a Republican stance, benefiting from county printing contracts. Other notable figures include H. W. Young, who has dedicated nineteen years to various papers, and T. N. Sickels, who has successfully operated the Daily Reporter since 1885. Despite its youth, Montgomery County has seen numerous newspaper failures, leading to a fragmented but rich journalistic landscape.

By H. W. Young

There is a fascination about the newspaper business which even those who have spent their lives in the editor’s chair would find it hard to explain. Certainly it must have been this fascination, rather than the pecuniary rewards in sight, which have induced three score and ten men to establish newspapers in nine different localities in Montgomery county. For of all the seventy or more publications which have been started in this county as local newspapers, there is only one which has as yet placed its proprietors in independent circumstances, given them any bank account to speak of, or enabled them to become landowners on any but the most limited scale. And the success which has attended this exceptional venture, is without question, attributable to the public patronage it has enjoyed rather than to profits from the sources of income accessible to all newspapers alike, as the rewards of industry, energy and perseverance.

Before attempting even the briefest mention of the scores of newspapers which have been born and lived their short lives within our borders, it is fitting to refer a little more in detail to the men and the papers which have kept their places longest on the slippery surface where falls have been so frequent.

The only newspaper in the county which has ever reached its majority under the same ownership and management is the one referred to above as the one instance of financial success. The South Kansas Tribune, of Independence, was established in March, 1871, W. T. Yoe, one of the present proprietors, being a half owner, and the other half being the property of the law firm of York & Humphrey; though Humphrey’s name alone appeared as representing this interest and York was a silent partner. This partnership continued only about a year, when George W. Burchard purchased York & Humphrey’s interest, and became editor of the paper, with W. T. Yoe as local or associate editor. At this time the Tribune was the best edited paper in the county, and perhaps in this section of the state. This arrangement continued until 1874, when Mr. Burchard’s Republicanism became so attenuated that the only way to preserve the political integrity of the paper was to remove him from his position. Mr. Yoe accordingly bought him out, and his interest was transferred to Charles Yoe who has ever since been associated in its publication. For the twenty-nine years since, this paper has kept the even tenor of its way, as a defender of the Republican faith; and its unwavering adherence to that organization has made it one of the landmarks of journalism in Southeastern Kansas. Its publishers have become comparatively wealthy; and while it has never reached the highest levels of journalism, it has never sunk to the lowest depths. It has been careful and conservative, and it is usually found on the popular side of public questions. It has not only enjoyed a lucrative income from the county printing almost uninterruptedly for the past twenty years, but its senior editor has held such paying official positions as member of the State Board of Trustees of Charitable Institutions, and postmaster of the City of Independence, while the junior member was until recently secretary of the same board.

Next to the Yoes, the second oldest editor and publisher, in the time spent on Montgomery county newspapers, is H. W. Young, now of the Kansas Populist, but heretofore publisher of the Coffeyville Star, the Independence Star and the Star and Kansan. Mr. Young reckons nineteen years devoted to editorial work in Montgomery county and has held the offices of Receiver of the United States Land Office at Independence and State Senator for the Montgomery county district. By his frequent changes and his impulsive — some would say erratic — methods of conducting a newspaper Mr. Young has illustrated the old adage that “a rolling stone gathers no moss;” and while friends have often commended his newspaper as “the best in the county,” he has never demonstrated any special ability as a money-getter.

T. N. Sickels, of the Daily Reporter, of Independence, comes third in length of service, having become proprietor of that paper in May, 1885, and having published it uninterruptedly since, with the exception of three or four years spent in the pension office at Topeka during President Harrison’s administration, when it was in charge of his son, Walter. Mr. Sickels is one of the few men who have been able to make a local daily self-supporting in towns like Independence, and now rejoices in a subscription and advertising patronage in keeping with the growth of a prosperous city in the gas and oil belt.

C. E. Moore, of the Cherryvale Republican, has also been a long time in the harness, having become connected with the Globe of that city in 1881, and having been engaged in the printing business there for nearly all the time since.

Although Montgomery is a comparatively young county, having been organized in 1869, and is not in the first rank in population, there are only four counties in the state which can boast larger newspaper graveyards. Untimely deaths of publications which have started out with bright hopes and boundless ambitions have occurred at the rate of about two a year during the thirty-four years of our county’s existence, and we now have but twelve living.

When a company of Oswego men in the summer of 1869 determined to locate a county seat on the Verdigris and get in “on the ground floor” in the new county to the west, one of the first things they did was to provide for the publication of a newspaper; and so we find the first paper issued in Montgomery county to have been the Independence Pioneer. The first number bore date of September 5th, of that year. It was published by E. R. Trask, of the Oswego Register, and printed at that place until March, 1870, when it was provided with an outfit of its own, and David Steel became its editor. In December, 1870, it was sold to Thos. H. Canfield, who changed its name to the Republican. The paper remained at the county seat for about two years longer, changing proprietors every few months, and in the spring of 1873 again went west “to grow up” with some other county.

The second paper established in the county was the Westralia Vidette, by McConnell & McIntyre, in the spring of 1870. It lived only three months and two days, succumbing to lack of nourishment. Following it came the Record, founded by G. D. Baker at the new town of Parker. It is said to have been an excellent paper, but when Parker faded away it had to give up the ghost.

The first paper on record as being avowedly in opposition to the dominant Republican party in the county was the Kansas Democrat, which the well-known Martin Van Buren Bennett removed from Oswego to Independence in December, 1870. “Van” is supposed to have intended to use this publication as a lever to boost him into congress; but his paper was sensational and not as popular as he hoped, and in 1872 he sold it to Peacock & Sons who, a year or two afterward, removed it to the state capital.

In casting about for something to do, after the sands of his official life had run out, ex-United States Senator E. G. Ross concluded to try his fortunes in the new county just opened down on the south line of the state; and in the fall of 1871 established Ross’ Paper at Coffeyville. Misfortune still pursued the man who had saved Andy Johnson from impeachment, however, and in March, 1872, his office was destroyed by a tornado. He did not re-establish it but removed to Lawrence.

Following this came the Circular, by H. W. Perry; and in the spring of 1873, the Courier, by Chatham & Scurr. Jim Chatham was one of the best local itemizers who ever struck Montgomery county, but his abilities as a business man were not adequate to the strain, and bad luck compelled him to suspend in July 1875. His office was put on wheels and taken to Independence, where he published the Independence Courier for a time, to be succeeded by the Daily Courier, and the Workingman’s Courier, which was published by Frank C. Scott until 1879.

The Independence Kansan was established in the fall of 1875 by W. H. Watkins. The paper was Democratic, though Watkins was known to be a Republican. While the Tribune, started in the spring of 1871, still lives under one of its original publishers, the Kansan has seen changes and vicissitudes without end. Will H. Warner took it off of Watkins’ hand in December 1876, and ran it at high pressure for a little more than two years, vastly increasing its subscription list, getting the county printing, and filling it with live local news; giving, however, too much space to salacious gossip. Finding the income of the paper insufficient to enable him to “sit in” on poker games at Kansas City as frequently as he wished, he sold it in January 1879, to George W. Burchard, the only man in Montgomery county who has edited both the Republican and Democratic organs of the county. In less than a year Burchard disposed of the paper to Frank C. Scott, of the Courier, who merged the two papers into one. Scott sold the Kansan to H. W. Young of the Star in February 1882, but at the same time transferred the good will and business to A. A. Stewart, who published a new paper with the old name, Independence Kansan until January 1885, when he also sold out to Mr. Young, who has bought more Montgomery county newspapers than any other man living. The Kansan and the Star were then consolidated as the Star and Kansan. The Star was originally established at Coffeyville by Mr. Young in April 1881, as the Coffeyville Star, but was removed to Independence in October of the same year and published as The Star until the merger just mentioned. The Star and Kansan was published by Mr. Young until June 1890, when he removed to Colorado, leaving Charles T. Errett in charge of the paper. It was published in Mr. Young’s name until September 1892, when Errett became proprietor. In January 1893, Mr. Young returned and repurchased the paper, again becoming its editor and publisher. In November 1896, he sold a half interest to A. T. Cox, but the partnership was uncongenial and lasted not much over a year. Indeed, the partners were unable to even agree as to the method of getting unhitched, and the courts had to be resorted to to divorce them. Walter S. Sickels was appointed receiver in January, 1898, and ran the paper until May 1st when it was sold by the sheriff and purchased by Mr. Cox, who has since conducted it. A couple of years later Mr. Cox began the issue of the Daily Evening Star, which he still publishes.

In June 1898, Mr. Young, deciding to continue in the newspaper business in Independence, purchased the name and list of the Kansas Populist from Mr. Ritchie at Cherryvale. He has published the paper since that time, having recently associated his son, H. A. Young, with him in the business, under the firm name of H. W. Young & Son.

The Daily Reporter was established at Independence in August, 1881, by Harper & Wassam. They published it only a year or two, when it was taken in hand by O’Conner & McCulley, who held claims upon the material. Subsequently, for a time, it was published by Charles H. Harper, a son of one of the founders, and then in 1885 it was sold to T. N. Sickels, in whose ownership it still remains.

Of short-lived papers published at Independence, mention may be made of the following:

The Osage Chief, by Ed. Van Gundy and A. M. Clark, in the spring of 1874.

The Itemizer, triweekly, by J. E. Stinson, in 1879.

The Living Age, by V. B. Castle, in 1881.

The Montgomery Monitor by Vick Jennings, in December 1885, and January 1886. Jennings was the only newspaper publisher who has died in the harness in Independence.

The Independence News, daily and weekly, by Cleveland J. Reynolds, in 1880.

The Montgomery Argus, by Sullivan & Levan, in 1886-87.

United Labor, by A. J. Miller, was an Alliance organ established in 1892 and published until 1894. John Callahan, who was then deputy sheriff, christened this sheet “The Dehorner,” and it came to be much better known by that appellation than by the name printed at its head.

The Weekly Call and the Daily Evening Call, by Rev. J. A. Smith, in 1896.

Turning again to Coffeyville, we find that Hon. W. A. Peffer, who subsequently became United States Senator, established the Coffeyville Journal in the fall of 1875. After four or five years he removed to Topeka and left the paper in the hands of his son, W. A. Peffer, Jr., better known as “Jake,” who continued its management until Capt. D. Stewart Elliott assumed control in 1885. Elliott was subsequently elected to the legislature, but owing to financial reverses was compelled to sell the paper in 1896, when it went into the hands of a company, with W. G. Weaverling and I. R. Arbogast as editors. They have conducted it very successfully since that date, and have for several years been publishing a daily edition, which is the newsiest paper of the kind now published in the county.

The Gate City Independent was established at Coffeyville in the early nineties, and for the past ten years has been published by C. W. Kent. Sometimes it has been a weekly, but most of the time a twice-a-week; and often, as now, it has had a daily edition.

In 1895 or 1896, John Vedder established the Montgomery County Democrat, which he published for several years, to be succeeded by J. P. Easterly. Still more recently the paper has had a number of editors and publishers; but about a year ago its name was changed to the Record, and it has been made a daily by the Coffeyville Publishing Company, with Will Felker as editor.

Another weekly published for about the same length of time is the Coffeyville Gaslight, established in 1898, by W. A. Bradford. It now carries the name of Fred R. Howard as editor.

Cherryvale’s first paper was the Herald, which was established in 1873, but pined away after a sickly existence of but six weeks. Following it came the Leader, which flourished for a while in 1877. The Cherryvale Globe was established in 1879, the Cherryvale News in 1881 and the Cherryvale Torch in 1882. The Globe and News were consolidated in 1882 and the Torch joined the same combination in 1885. The Cherryvale Bulletin, the only Democratic newspaper Cherryvale has ever had, was established by Major E. W. Lyon in 1884 and continued until 1888. The Cherryvale Champion ran from 1887 until 1895. Other short-lived Cherryvale papers are the Southern Kansas Farmer and the Kansas Commonwealth, 1891; the Morning Telegram, 1892; the Cherryvale Republic and the Republican-Plaindealer, 1893.

The Cherryvale Republican was established in 1886 and is still published by C. E. Moore.

The Kansas Populist was started by J. H. Ritchie in 1894 as a weekly. In connection with it he has published the Daily News, and since 1898 the weekly has also been known as the News. The publishers are J. H. Ritchie & Son.

The Cherryvale Clarion, daily and weekly, was established in 1898, and is now published by L. I. Purcell.

Elk City has had the Times, established in the fall of 1880, which turned up its toes when only ten weeks old; the Globe, from 1882 to 1887; the Star in 1884-85; the Democrat, 1885-86; the Eagle, 1886–1890; and the Enterprise from 1889 to the present time, with W. E. Wortman as editor and publisher.

Caney has the Chronicle, which was established in 1885, and is still published by Harry E. Brighton.

Other papers that have been published there are the Times and the Phoenix. The Times was established in 1889 and ran until the later nineties, having had Cleveland J. Reynolds, Hon. J. R. Charlton and A. M. Parsons as editors.

Havana has been without a newspaper for the past ten years, but had at various times the Vidette, the Weekly Herald, the Recorder and the Press and Torch, none of which survived to reach the mature age of three years.

Liberty has had the Light, published for a short time in 1886, and the Review from 1887 until 1892.

All sorts of newspapers have been published by all sorts of men in Montgomery county; but the local conditions have never been favorable for the building up of a great county newspaper of universal circulation. The railroads have not all centered at the county seat, but have run all around the edges of the county. This has resulted in the development of towns at the four corners of the county, two of which have come to be cities rivaling the county’s capital, and all of which are newspaper towns. So instead of being concentrated, the newspaper business has been split up, and no newspaper, no matter how well edited, nor how accurate and enterprising a purveyor of news, has yet been able to command the patronage that would make it or give it a commanding position, nor the three or four thousand circulation which is sometimes found in counties the size and population of ours.