Century of community newspapering

 In late January of 1990, I worked as the Ad Manager for a group of weekly newspapers on the West Side of the Central Valley in California, and one of those publications, "The West Side INDEX" of Newman, California, celebrated its first 100 years of publishing that year, having only five different owners during all that time. The place was a fascinating study in century small-town newspaper work and I have always considered it a pleasure and an honor to work there at that time, and afterwards, in the heydays of the craft.

Al Rose Sr. at the INDEX's linotype machine in Newman, California.  

The INDEX celebrates 100 years: 1890 to 1990

 By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

In less than a trip around the sun, I reach what always seemed to be considered "Old Age." Not that concerned about it generally, but it is good enough time as any, to contemplate legacy, and such. Mostly, it has to do with habit and ritual. I have been telling folks for quite some time when they card me for beer, that I am at least a 100 years old. But bear with me, as I evaluate (and re-valuate) my place in time, and the world.

The first INDEX opened for business on the west side of O Street, situated between Treft Brothers Butcher Shop and Skinny Homer's Saloon, and was owned and operated by former house painters Innis Sturgeon and T.C. Duffy after the duo had failed in a previous enterprise as painting contractors.
Prior to his death in 1903, Sturgeon moved the newspaper office to a tiny, wood-framed building on "O" Street where the Giavonnoni building is currently located. Sturgeon, the son of a prominent pioneer rancher Ed Sturgeon, succumbed to pneumonia in July of 1903.

Partner Duffy, continued publishing the newspaper for several months before selling to Alvin Fleharty in November of that year. Fleharty went on to record the longest tenure of any INDEX Publisher published to date, keeping the newspaper for some 33 years. Fleharty's weekly column, "Yesterday and the the day before," became the publisher's personnel trademark, and appeared on the front page of each issue.

It was during 1913 that that long-time resident Al Rose Sr. first went to work for The INDEX as a typesetter, running the old-fashioned linotype machines that cranked out "hot type"for use for the newspaper. When the newspaper was set and approved by Fleharty, Rose would print the issue by hand on the letterpress by hand in the backshop. Rose, whose affiliation continued the era of publisher Bill Mattos, who, with his wife Susan, owned and published the paper at the time of 100-year anniversary in1990, and years later.

Fleharty moved moved the INDEX offices three times during his tenure -- including one change of locale because of a devastating fire. The blaze broke out in the former INDEX office on July 4, 1905, and quickly demolished the office and the newspaper files from early years. Boys playing with firecrackers were believed to have started the Independence Day Blaze.
Rose noted that Fleharty didn't care for the name Alvin, and simply referred to himself as "A. Fleharty." Fleharty moved the paper to its long-time location at 1021 Fresno Street in 1929. That building, he liked to point out was supposedly fireproof. 

Fleharty's son Roland, was also involved in the journalism business, publishing the Patterson Irrigator. Crows Landing businessman Frank McGuinnis, a staunch Repulican, purchased the INDEX in 1936. McGuinnis traded his Coal, Ice and Feed business for a career in newspapering. He, in turn sold the INDEX to his son, William McGuinnis. The younger McGuinnis published the paper for 18 years, finally selling it to Bill Mattos in 1976.

 

When Al Rose Sr. first walked into a pressroom around 1910, things were very different than they are today. Paper was hand-fed into the equipment, there were no photos in the newspaper, and type for advertisements was selected a letter at a time from cases and placed in the proper order. The clock didn't mean a thing to printers in those days.

 

"We didn't ever look at the clock. We worked until the job was done," said Rose, who began his printing career feeding the presses at the Hayward Journal around 1910.

 

Rose's first job in Newman had nothing to do with Newspapers. "I had promised a man I would start a dairy route for him, and so I did. I was collecting a milk bill one day at the paper, and I asked if I could take a look around. I told them I had worked feeding presses as a kid. They were short a printer and they asked if I would like to help them out. I did, and I ran 1,000 straight through."

 

"I was making $2 a day on the milk route, which was pretty good money back then, but they offered me $3 a day to go to work for newspaper, so I went to work there."

 

He worked for the West Side INDEX for nearly 20 years as a printer and linotype operator, before taking a job as press foreman at Colusa in 1939.

 

Rose returned to Newman in 1947 to manage his brother-in-law Manuel D'Avila's general merchandise store after D'Avila's death, and operated the store until 1975. However, he continued to help out at the INDEX, whenever  he was needed until the early 1980s. "I would leave my business, to help with his business," he said of his friend and former INDEX publisher Bill McGinnis. He continued to help out and became friends with another INDEX publisher after Bill Mattos purchased, and began publishing the paper. 

 

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Kit Carson's name all over the West

Hunter, trapper, guide's geographical tracks across Colorado

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com 

Namesake of towns, cities, counties, forts and other geography all over the West, Kit Carson was born in Kentucky in 1809, he fled a saddlemaker’s apprenticeship at age 16 to work as a fur trapper, teamster and buffalo hunter in the West.

"Though illiterate and small in stature, Carson was also a natural frontiersman who learned half a dozen native languages and knew the wilderness like the back of his hand. In 1842, his skills caught the attention of explorer John C. Frémont, who enlisted him as a guide for a mission to map the American West. The pair eventually teamed up on three epic excursions across the Rocky Mountains, California and Oregon, and Carson became a frontier celebrity after Frémont praised him in his expedition dispatches. 

His fame only grew during the Mexican-American War, when he slipped past enemy lines at the Battle of San Pasquale and made a 30-mile barefoot trek to San Diego to fetch reinforcements," wrote Evan Andrews.
Carson served as wagon train guide, Indian agent, and Union army officer during the Civil War.

"He battled Confederates at 1862’s Battle of Valverde in present day New Mexico, but spent the majority of the war leading a series of controversial campaigns to subdue the Navajo and other Southwestern Indian tribes."

"Maria Josefa was not Carson’s first venture into married life.  An Arapaho woman named Waa-Nibe married him in the summer of 1835.  Waa-Nibe died from a fever three years after they wed.  The couple had two daughters the youngest of the girls died in a tragic accident.  Adaline his oldest daughter, was entrusted to the care of one of Carson’s sisters living in Missouri.  Carson had joined an expedition traveling to Yellowstone and Bighorn and could not take the child with him," writes Chris Enss, in "Wild Women Of The West: Maria Josefa Jaramillo"

"Once again Carson encountered problems with Native Americans living on the land.  The Blackfoot Indians were so desperate to get rid of Carson and the other mountain men with him they set fire to the dry grass and brush around their camp. Carson managed to escape the blaze and continue on with the venture."  

Between 1826 and 1842, Carson was a part of more than a dozen organized treks across the western wilderness.  His reputation as a great frontiersman grew with each undertaking; from the Columbia River to the Rio Grande, through the Sierra and the Rocky Mountains, his powers of endurance were impressive to all who heard about them.  

"In 1841, two years after he lost his first wife, Carson married a seventeen year old Cheyenne Indian woman named Making-Our-Road.  The two became acquainted during a trip to Bent’s Fort in Colorado.  Carson had been contracted by the commander of the post to do some hunting for the troops.  The extended time he spent away from his new bride working contributed to the demise of their union.  Less than a year after they were married, Making-Our-Road decided she no longer wanted to be tied to Carson.  When he returned to the Cheyenne tribe camp to see his wife, he found his personal belongings outside her lodge.  According to Cheyenne custom that was her way of telling him she wanted him to be gone.  She later migrated out of the area with other members of her tribe," writes Chris Enss, in "Wild Women Of The West: Maria Josefa Jaramillo"

A year after his marriage to Making-Our-Road ended Carson met Maria Josefa.   

"Maria Josefa was born on March 19, 1828, in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Her father, Francisco Jaramillo, was a merchant, and her mother, Maria Apolonia Vigil, owned substantial acreage in the Rio Grande area of the state. Maria Josefa helped her parents maintain their ranch and cared for her younger brothers and sisters.  She met Carson in Taos in 1842.  He had been on an expedition with Colonel John Charles Fremont in the Rocky Mountains and was anxious to visit a place where there were lots of people," says Enss.   

Fort Carson, Colorado  – After World War II, with 60,000 acres in military reservation near Colorado Springs at Camp Carson providing training facilities for the 89th, 71st, and the 104th divisions was of course named for frontier scout and military leader Kit Carson. In 1954, the Defense Department designated it as a permanent installation and renamed it Fort Carson.

Interestingly enough, Kit Carson has a lot more than forts named after him including the following:
• Kit Carson County, Kit Carson Peak, town of Kit Carson in Colorado • Carson City, Nevada • Carson Pass in Nevada and California • Kit Carson, city in California • Mount Kit Carson in Washington • Carson National Forest in New Mexico • Carson River in California and Nevada.

Kit Carson stagecoaches primarily refer to transport lines operating out of the town of Kit Carson which served as a crucial Kansas Pacific railhead in the late 19th century. These coaches connected remote Colorado communities to the railroad, with notable, often treacherous, routes operating until about 1887-1908.  

The Kit Carson Home & Museum in Taos, New Mexico, located at 113 Kit Carson Road, is a National Historic Landmark showcasing the 1825 adobe home where the famous frontiersman lived with his wife, Josefa, for 25 years. Kit and Josefa were first buried in Boggsville in the Colorado Territory. Their remains were moved to Taos in 1869, as Carson's will stipulated.  

He was Fort Garland, Colorado's post commander for a time, and died from an aneurysm in 1868, a year after being mustered out of the army as a brigadier general. His last words were supposedly, “Doctor, compadre, adios!”