READERS WRITE
EDITOR’S NOTE: A recent Associated Press feature carried by The Concho Observer drew several thoughtful responses from our readers, but we were very intrigued by the comment from noted local writer and former San Angelo Police Chief Russell Smith, who graciously allowed us to republish his remarks.
Searching historical fact may be more difficult in the future. I have used newspapers to locate factual delivery and circumstances in my books, but there has been a change into their timeliness and what they report. I wrote the following in the Standard Times years ago… even before such use of social media…
The photograph appeared in a 1966 edition of the Del Rio News-Herald, along with the caption, “Cave Yields Plunder from Burglaries.” Texas Ranger L.H. Purvis and Val Verde County Deputy Samuel Perez were shown with stolen property they dug up in a cave near Pumpville.
This was just one of more than eighty instances where newspapers provided bits of history for the author’s book “The Gun That Wasn’t There.” It is also just one example of why newspapers are important in our society.
Writing non-fiction books has really opened my eyes to the value of those who reported on crimes and specific or local events during previous periods of time. Several photographs and other bits of information (18 in all) in “No Reason to Kill,” the investigation into the death of Sheila Gay Elrod, came from the archives of the San Angelo Standard-Times, or from one of their reporters.
In each of those books, searching the newspapers allowed me to see other events that occurred during the same time period, and provided facts that corroborated things witnesses told me.
Greg Magers was just a teenager back in 1964, but he remembered that a “Blue Norther” had blown in the night he and a friend went to Garner Park in an attempt to capture the “Caveman Bandit,” who was the focus of a manhunt in “The Gun That Wasn’t There.”
The San Antonio Express-News newspaper ran front-page stories about the weather on Monday and Tuesday.
The boys didn’t know it at the time, but the newspaper’s Wednesday edition would include headlines that read, “140 Dead in Eastern Snowstorm,” and lower down, “Fort Worth with 4 degrees at dawn had the coldest Jan. 14 on record…”
It was an obituary printed in a Macon County, Illinois, newspaper that educated me about the life of my great–great grandfather, including a fact I left out of “Steps into God’s Country,” my fourth book, listing that he was very active in the Illinois Democratic Party.
Part of my family’s history was documented in the newspaper, and I found it by researching my ancestor.
My latest non-fiction production, “Women, Whiskey and Sin (Part One)” allowed me to see the real value of the printed word.
San Angelo was just a village known as Santa Angela (or Saint Angela) back then (1875), and the earliest version of the Tom Green Times that I found was years later.
Neither was the San Angelo Standard, which came about on Saturday, May 3, 1884. (The forerunner of the San Angelo Standard-Times.)
So while I had researched records for two years to produce a piece of history, what are missing are the facts written by the reporter’s hand.
J.G. Murphy and W.A. Guthrie started their newspaper with a by-line that read, “The Standard, $2 Per Year in Advance.”
They listed their titles as “editors and proprietors” and by 1884, 9 years after Tom Green County was organized, they showed their address as San Angelo, Texas.
In a column they titled “Salutatory” they wrote, “In making our debut in the list of journalism, it is necessary to follow the time-honored custom of defining our platform, the course we intend to pursue and the motive which prompted us to undertake the arduous and important task.” (Arduous means difficult, according to Webster’s Dictionary.)
“We have no excuses to make, and our only reason for issuing the Standard is because we believe there exists a good opportunity for a live newspaper in this, the largest county, except one, in the United States. In fact a majority of the people in the county seem to think that there is an absolute necessity for a newspaper that will keep pace with our growing section. We propose to do our utmost to make the Standard fill the vacancy.”
Murphy and Guthrie let the readers know they were experienced.
“Being practiced printers and having had some experience in journalism we do not go into this venture with any exaggerated ideas of its results. We are aware of the cares, anxieties and disappointments in store for all who engage in the newspaper profession, and we certainly do not expect to be exempted. Having faith in the future of this section, however, our aim and object is to advertise the great natural advantages of Tom Green County for stock-raising, farming and manufacturing – advantages that have only to be known to be recognized, – feeling sure that when the county of Tom Green and the city of San Angelo attain the growth and take the rank we anticipate, the Standard shall not be without its reward.”
Now, more than 130-years later, the San Angelo Standard-Times still exists, having several new owners and a difference in physical existence over time, but with rewards that probably stood on the words written in that first issue: “Our earnest endeavor will be to conduct the Standard on the principle of justice and truth, and we will ever uphold right and denounce wrong. In politics we shall maintain a strict neutrality, and be independent of political factions or influence. We do not expect to dabble deeply in politics, as our time and space can be devoted to a better use. The encouragement we have received leads us to believe that we will be enabled to issue a journal that will reflect credit on ourselves and be worthy of the patronage and support of this community.” They ended that column with, “Very respectfully, Murphy and Guthrie.”
The first issue was full of advertisements for things like White & Robenson Druggests, Lech and Landrum Land Insurance Agents, Smith’s Pioneer Drug Store, The Concho National Bank, James Moorkens and Co. General Merchandise and many others, but it was also full of little tidbits about what was happening within the growing town and the county.
There was talk about the value of land, the approaching railroad, intelligent and industrious settlers, taxes and a city population that stood at 2,500. There was a piece about how a cowboy stopped a stampede, and other details about things that happened locally.
More than a dozen years ago, when I wrote the 40 Year History of the Concho Bass Club, I searched through hundreds and hundreds of pages of San Angelo Standard-Times newspaper copy, mostly with tiring eyes, made so by the small screen of a microfiche machine.
I was amazed at how many local stories about all kinds of events were within each of those issues, and how pictures of fish catches appeared regularly throughout, as did deer taken during hunting season.
I can’t remember who told me then, but someone said, “Mr. Harte (previous owner) would walk into the newsroom and encourage us to include those personal mementos.”
There have been many changes in the newspaper industry since the first copy was printed by Murphy and Guthrie.
In recent times, journalistic ethics have changed, and the costs of doing business — especially the price of paper, ink and fuel — have risen considerably. Yet their words and photographs, years later, may be the only account of something important to any one of us.
Whether a wedding announcement, obituary, social or sporting event, crime account or something special in history’s itinerary, newspapers everywhere have long been what my friend Cliff Wagnor says are, “Our official records of the past.”
History is documented within our newspapers. Their pages provide the – who, where and how of what happened when. Those words and pictures are as the artist’s brush to the canvas that produces a likeness of a landscape from long ago…
It is sad but within the last few decades large corporations have purchased many community and regional newspapers – and placed editors there that see the landscape differently or have an intent to turn the green grass brown. Some even want to destroy the very history that is the very prize held by the ink on paper.
