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Show him Four The Eureka KeimitiT March (. 1!)S1 Issaac Diehl inducted into Newspaper Hall of Fame Only files yellowed with and debating the careers age and, in some cases of law and journalism. sadly incomplete offer For a time it appeared evidence today that Isaac hed rejected both, as he Diehl ever learned the telegraph key Kmory Utah jour- in engaged nalism. The newspapers on which he labored for more than 40 years have either merged with others or ceased to function. Even the bustling and energetic mining community upon which he once his exercised editorial influence is today only a few' scattered homes amid the crumbling foundations of other structures. Darkened, cave-lik- e openings on surrounding hillsides look down on the obliterated almost remnants of Mammoth and reflect the mining industry which attracted thousands to the fabled Tintic district and formed a backdrop for "Ike" Diehls journalistic achievements. Though he never wrote an editorial of ihilitzer quality, Isaac Diehl wouldve been a contender for honors in any competition based on versatility. During his lifetime, in a being addition to competent he was a telegrapher, manager of journalist, early-da- telephone y companies, a lawyer who never intentionally passed the bar, a civic official, legislative clerk and recognized amateur and lepidopterist botanist. His in- ever-prese- nt terest in nature, in fact, is seen in the scientific names of two plants unique to the Mountain States: Alium Diehili, which he discovered in Provo and Canyon Astragalus Diehili, found on the plateaus of eastern Utah. It is quite probable not other newspaperman in the history of this or any other state is never-sateThe curiosity of the man d prompted him to travel from Alaska to Central America in company with Professor Marcus E. Jones, a university of Utah botanist. And his journalistic quests took Richfield Reaper, 850; the Springville Independent 425 and the Vernal Express 510. This was a time when a and later became the first Utahn with a yen to travel telephone operator in could ride to Chicago and Lincoln, Nebraska. His back by rail for only interest in that still-ne$44.50. However $44.50 form of communication was difficult to come by led him to become and there is no indication manager of the exchange people were standing in tickets. in Plattsmouth, lineOneto buy week the news his where Nebraska, of the columns Record enthusiasm and five a related that tramps knowledge revived system its dissatisfied had "stolen gold watch patrons had almost chains at Shrivers Clothing Store, nectotally deserted. Success in Plattsmouth essitating Marshall led him to join the Iowa Stillman coming over Eureka." The Telephone Company as from its southwest district marshall caught the Disappointed culprits and dispensed manager. were by minimal earnings, quick justice-fo- ur however, he reverted to given 30 minutes to get his first love, buying the out of town and the fifth was held for trial in inBedford (Iowa) Like the district court. all dependent. Not long thereafter, the newspapers which once entprinted an Isaac Diehl by- newspaper line, it has since been husiastically reported relegated to journalism's that the County Commission had decided to graveyard. Two other sons of John build a jail in Mammoth. Diehl were also attracted Not only was it the to newspapering and community's first place after Isaac moved to Utah in which lawbreakers in 1890, both Henry and could be incarcerated, Charles followed. For five but it was also the first years, Ike was a reporter brick building in Mamfor the Salt moth. The 867-sft. Iike Herald and midway structure, which would of that time-spain accommodate two steel December, 1893, he joined cells and the marshall's brother Charles in office, was to cost $3,000. Wrote the Records founding the Sandy InA coneditor: "This is a wise dependent. of investment by tlie County temporary newspaper that day, the Brigham Commission as it will City Bugler, labelled the reduce by at least one-hathe expense ocIndependent a "Brisk and d new casioned by making an venture in the journalistic arrest and conveying the field." prisoner to Eureka and In 1895, the Diehls sold then back to Mammoth their paper and it, too, for trial." met Aside from the trivial, its eventually demise. Charles acquired though, the Record the Eureka Democrat, reported with regularity one of a succession on the Tintic's principal w now-decease- d q. n, lf well-patronize- modestly - successful industry, mining and continued to bear the during his Teen years he name of Charles P. Diehl. worked at the Record, related the down-to-eart- h news which resulted from confrontations of the various backgrounds ethnic which followed that work. Hard-roc- k miners worked hard and lived hard-- - and when they played the same way, there was frequently much to occupy the time of law enforcement officers and to fill the newspapers columns. When the Record in reported, manner, that 25 had taken place in Eureka in a single day, the editor of the Eureka Reporter retorted: The Mammoth Record is the for authority statement that there were holier-than-tho- fist-figh- 25 u" ts fights in Eureka on Christmas Day. This paper had made a careful canvass of the situation and we are under the necessity of calling the Record editor down for the exaggerating im- morality of the camp. There were but 24 fights here on that day!" Ike Diehl wrote with dry wit, as evidenced by his wry observation one week; "Labor Day will be generally observed in Tintic by laboring." On another occasion, he penned, tongue-in-chee"Dr. Bailey and Henry k: Elmore returned last night from a weeks fishing trip and are making all sorts of ex- cuses for not serving a fish dinner to their friends. Some of the fish were so large that the men were pulled into the stream and came near tieing devoured by the leviathians." For a few years after the Record's founding, the masthead of one of Eureka s two newspapers the turn of the century, though, Charles disposed of the Democrat and it, along with the Juab County Republican, was eventually melded into the Eureka Repporter. Charles and Henry By still-existe- nt where he was a linotype operator. Always active in the Utah Press Association, Ike served three times as vice president-- - in 1903,. 1904 and 1912. He was the association's secretary in 1911, its treasurer in 1913 later newspapered in and its president in 1916. Burley, Shosone and In 1913, during a conIdaho and vention held in New Oakley, founded one of the Orleans, he was elected predecessor publications secretary of the Western of today's Twin Falls Editorial Association. He Times-NewThough was also active in Editorial Henry would sink his National roots in Idaho and Association and travelled prosper as a builder of widely to its conclaves grain elevators, Charles held in many states. His contemporaries briefly returned to Utah to edit the Bingham became accustomed to Press, eventually earned the butterfly net he a doctorate in chemistry carried with him on and became a Califor- association outing- s- but nian. While cosmetic the scientific would has manufacturing was his remembered him more he's also for plantlife discoveries livelihood, remembered for per-- f than the pursuit of butterflies and moths. e c t i n g The success of mining of homogenization peanut in another area of the for in discoveries butter, district prompted Tintic the mining of pearlite and to Ike initiate the for devising a mechanical Dividend Examiner. The Isaac was married on paper had a comDec. 31, 1894 to Nellie paratively brief life span, House, who before her though, and is obscured death on Aug. 23, 1937 by an almost total lack of would teach in Tintic files. Isaac Diehl's study of district classrooms for over 30 years. Though law bore fruit after inwas they had no children, they Mammoth took into their home two corporated in 1910. In the of the three small sons of community's first Charles after their election, he was named mother's untimely death. City Recorder. Later he The boys, Holland and served as City Attorney Ieon, grew to manhood in as well as Recorder. In the Diehl home. The third 1915, he was Clerk of the of House son, Charles Elmo, was Utah the first raised by the House Representatives, family in Nebraska, but lawmaking group to at age 16 he came to Utah assemble in the then-newhere he too. lived with state capilol building. the Diehls. Eventually he When the nation's earned an engineering economy foundered after from the degree Continued on page six University of Utah, but s. the beet-digge- r. w papers in that town. For a brief mining of lime, Ike was period his editor. The United States had suffered a catastrophic depression in 1893 and its impact was felt for nearly two more years. Mining early-da- y was particularly hard-hit- . But by 1890, the economic picture had brightened and with the revival of other segments of the nation's industry, mining him to such then-epibut again blossomed. That news lured Isaac Diehl to sources as the historic travel but a few miles opening of the Panama around the mountainside to the neighboring, but Canal. Though in his declining smaller community of years he earned but slim Mammoth and there to sustenance as a printer in launch the Record. At the turn of the a depression-ravagetown where mining had century, Utah's most almost come to a halt, widely circulated was Isaac Diehl could look newspaper the back on a fruitful and Deseret News, published in Salt Lake City where rewarding life. A son of Kev. John 53,531 people resided. Its issue had Diehl, a Isaac was 21,000 readers and the born near Ashtabula, daily morning edition Ohio on May 24, 1801. reached 5,100, according While he was a child, the to the accepted "Bible" of to that day. Remington moved family c, far-remove- d d minister-turned-storekeepe- Nebraska, r, where homestead land was plentiful and where the elder Diehls would live out their lives. Isaac studied at the University of Nebraska as a young man, writing for the school newspaper semi-weekl- y brothers Newspaper Manual. Ike Diehl's Record had 420 subscribers; Wasatch Wave 790; Ephraim Enterprise the Moab Times 241; Nephi Record 727; Price Advocate (UK); the the 650; the the the This photograph was taken during school year 1927-2- 8 and shows the Tintic High School Chorus in costume and make-u- p for an operetta they perThe formed. picture belongs to Mr. and Mrs. Dee Clement, both of whom are in the picture. Dee is standing with the group (although almost hidden in the fourth row from the front.) Ina is at the front of the photo and only the back of her head can be seen. Names of some of the people in the photo are as follows: Mel Done, music director; Ray Done, Principal TIIS; Orson (llap) Allred (make-u- p artist); Ada Ilirch (Green); Norma Dietta Stapley (Randle): John Towers; Rex Hickman; Itulon Lelali Larsen; Ruby Ilearst (Kobinson-Raum); Alta Sorensen (Pyper); Wall (Hoyns-WilsonHickman (Richmond); George (Judd) Audrey Manson; Myrth Allen (Hassell) Margaret Blackett ); (Rriskey); Mildred Holts; Minnie Wheelock (Gillespie); Louise Tuckett (Frisby); Beth Caslleton; John Bradley; Bernice Cook; Julia Sandstrom (Sylvester); George Humble; Waldine Anderson: Bartella Black (Wilde); Max Nisonger; and Charles Kay. Seated by Ina Larsen (Clement) is her sister, Beth Larsen, and a photographer. Dee was stage manager for the production. Note the lights lie rigged up for the music stands...inade from split tin cans. Do any of our readers recognize anyone not identified on the photo? |