Show Page 2 - Anniversary Edition From the horse and buggy days to the space-ag- e newspapers have served Millard County There was no priming press in the vanguard when the Mormon migration to Utah began but once the settlement on the Great Salt Lake was established the call went out to "bring us the material whereby we can furnish our children with books and the Saints with the new things to feast the soul” On June IS 1850 the first edition of the Deseret News came off the press The scarcity of paper in isolated Utah kept a lid but newspapers began on expanded publishing springing up everywhere in the Territory of Deseret and by 1893 Millard County was sporting a tabloid in the form of the Millard County Blade from the Deseret and Oasis areas As was the want of small newspapers everywhere the Blade went through a quick succession of owners until after a few years it fell to its most famous publisher the “fighting editor” Josiah F Gibbs Gibbs was that type of pioneer editor who considered himself a weakling if he did not stand and aggressively for or against positively something monitoring the thoughts and actions of the community with the dignity and severity of a Dictator His editorials led to threats against his printer and Josiah took to carrying a gun to protect his First Amendment rights In 1895 he had JM Viele and LW Gaisford Editor and Proprietor of the Millard County Progress (Fillmore) arrested for criminal libel The suit apparently grew out of a newspaper quarrel in which Gibbs got worsted The Progress charged him with being a literary pirate according to another newspaper of the time Eventually Gibbs gave it up and moved his operation to Nephi but for another thirty years he continued to rail against conditions and influences which rankled his sense of moral rightness Progress bora 1894 Fillmore was some 40 years old when the Millard County Progress was bom The first number lists Editor Jacobsen and Manager The Brigham JP Bugler said its “plump advertising columns show that the businessmen of Fillmore are wide awake and progressive” Jacobsen and George C Viele set up shop in the southeast comer of the old statehouse with an old hand press a job press and a supply of pretty good type they bought in Corrine Utah for a 500 Other owners in the venture were JS Giles James A Melville Alma Greenwood TC Callister Christian Anderson D R Stevenson and George W Nixon For a time the Progress was published in a merger with the Clear Lake Reveiw Clear Lake Town was a small railroad burg some 20 miles south of the present Deseret In rapid succession several publishers bought and sold the Progress between 1900 and 1925 They clude Lorenzo W and AF Gaisford WW Aldrach SA Greenwood CW Frampton Christian Anderson and Joseph Smith Beckwiths: Then and now from page I unselfishness in rearing foster children her tenacity in doing battle with the giant military that would have turned the county into an MX launching pad her dedication to the Utah Press Association and her determination to carry on a tradition of fair press so espoused by her father and grandfather True she has had her detractors along the way That frequently is the way it is for individuals who carry the strength of their own convictions To those she says: “I think a person has a responsibility to do his part to improve the environment which he chooses to enjoy This means studying and actively supporting or opposing issues” Twelve years ago men saw fit to recognize the impact of that basic belief In 1974 Sue Dutson was elected to sit on the board of directors of the Utah Press Association — the first woman ever accorded that honor In 1982 bulldog-lik- e she served as the first UPA woman president 40 years after her father held that position Perhaps that laurel was written in the stars on the very day she was bom into a newspaper family She grew up learning the business from the ground floor Literally Among her first memories are “sweeping up around the place” Not a piece of machinery — from linotype to flatbed press — escaped her youthful curiosity and eventual mastery No leather executive this one Sue Dutson knows her business and she epitomizes the popular image of a country publisher-edito- r She is visible and totally involved in her community She has no fancied dreams of wandering or escaping from her chosen vocation She is content to continue in the professional fashion of her namesakes And that remembering the style and class is no easy task of earlier Beckwiths James H Mountford bought the paper in January 24 1919 and in turn sold November 20 1925 to E Vance Wilson and his wife Jane (McBride) The Wilson’s became an institution in Fillmore with E Vance running his law office on Main Street with the newspaper operations in the back rooms Jane later became editor and publisher as well as Lumber assisting with her family’s “McBride Company" Jane was honored in 1965 as Master Publisher of the Year by the Utah Press Association Her son William (Bill) returned from college and helped the newspaper editing He and wife Madeline eventually assumed much of the newspaper duties but in when Bill and Madeline moved to the California Jane again assumed editorship until her death in 1980 Meanwhile the Progress in 1970 merged some operations and editorial duties with Delta’s Millard Eventually the two papers County Chronicle shared inside pages until in September of 1984 Bill and Chronicle publisher Sue Dutson merged the two papers completely Chronicle grows in Delta Monday July 4 1910 in the tiny Millard County outpost of Burtner (Delta) the Millard County Chronicle was born The railroad stop there however was called Aiken Chronicle Editor and Publisher Norman B Dresser disliked both names and launched a newspaper compaign to rename the growing town Delta was the choice Dresser’s Chronicle did little to hide the fact that saw it was primarily a promotional sheet more opportunities in Delta than any mother ever saw in a family of twelve” said Utah Journalism historian J Cecil Alter Dresser saw the paper through hard times He often made use of a dog cart to deliver the issues to various outlying post offices Dresser’s newspaper pathfinding petered out in 1914 A few investors made a go of keeping the Chronicle alive but in 1919 the Delta State Bank “entered the front office for the same reason banks often enter” said historian Alter Frank Beckwith Sr Cashier of the Bank decided on a career change and became Managing Editor publisher and printer of the Chronicle for the bank Soon after he became proprietor Alter labeled Beckwith Sr as one of the state’s most picturesque publishers “He speaks with authority on fossils Indians history geology ansnakes thropology paleontology photography boy scouts— everything under the Millard County “he sun" By the 1930s Frank Beckwith Jr was manning the helm with father Beckwith Both were later stalled in the Utah Press Association Hall of Fame Frank Jr survived his father and was carrying on the torch of free speech in West Millard Counwhen an ty with great finesse until the unexpected heart attacked claimed his life The Chronicle lapsed out of the hands of the Beckwith family after nearly 40 years of continuous ownership Bob Riding former employee of the Beckwith’s and his wife Inez bought the paper and ran it until 1970 when Susan Beckwith Dutson and William V Wilson of Fillmore formed a partnership and purchased the Chronicle Wilson has since ceased to be an active partner and is now continuing his newspapering career in Calif |