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Show Sam Maddon: Pioneer Newspaperiiiiaii Record, both he and his paper were outspoken and often .critical. Like many other fledgling newspapers of pioneer pio-neer Utah, the Record was anti-everything, including anti-Mormon, anti-Chinese and anti-Indian. This didn't mean that Raddon was anti-anythirig, anti-anythirig, it only meant that was the way to sell newspapers, newspa-pers, especially in a gentile mining camp, where Chinese miners weren't, welcome and Indians were about as popular as smallpox. Early issues of the Record are filled with acid-tongued editorials. An April, 1883 issue commented on the death of the Silver Reef Miner after that paper fell into Mormon hands. 'The Silver Reef Miner has got mired so deep in the sand that the owners could not dig it up again. When the; paper got into Mormon hands we felt that it was doomed to death!" Another issue reported the death of a Park City Chinaman. China-man. "He had been ailing for some time, and looked as though he was living only to save funeral expenses. He was buried bv his fellow Chinks with his hat on, so he wouldn't catch cold on his way to the happy hunting grounds!" Raddon's anti-Mormon editorials edi-torials became so vitriolic that they finally drew fire from other editors. In November, 1887 the Provo Territorial Enquirer goaded Raddon when its editor wrote, "The Park Record has got' the Mormon rabies bad, and is ville "was licked right in his own barn, the first licking ever given a Wave Editor for printing the news;" Publishers Publish-ers of the Wave weren't through, for the next issue carried the following ad. "Wanted: A fighting editor at this office.. One who stands six feet eleven inches in his stocking feet and tips the beam at 197 pounds fighting weight, and who can handle his fists, feet, a gun or a club!", . Raddon also observed an attack on fellow editor Charles King of the Morning Rustler at Ogden. "About midnight a party of masked ruffians entered King's office, abused him. dragged him out into the darkness, tarred and feathered feath-ered him. and then decamp-. ed!" '.-i Violence against outspoken editors hit even closer to home in September, 1897 when Editor J.J. Flahiff of the Utah Patriot, one of the Record's competitors at Park City, was assaulted. Raddon observed, "This job of licking editors has become fashionable, the last to come , to our notice was a few davs ago when Editor Flahiff of the Patriot and Matt Connelly, Foreman of the Ontario Mine came forcibly together' Raddon then gave some good advice, to Editor Flahiff when he add, "We would suggest that editors who live in ' beligerent communities com-munities like this 'make a breast plate of old boiler iron . and weaT it under1 their shirts!" . daily!' The Miner reverted to a weekly and finally died from lack of oxvgen in August, 1892. As already noted, another paper which tried to best the Record was the Utah Patriot, under guidance of J. J. Flahiff. After Editor Flahiff s losing fight with Matt Connelly of the ; Ontario, the paper changed hands. On December 3rd. 1897 the Wasatch Wave noted, "J.J. Flahiff," the fat man from Arkansas, has gone north to the Klondike' Its ; new editor J .T. Camp, tried to make the Patriot a daily, but the Wasatch Wave reported, "Being a daily was obviously too fast a rate for the machinery, and its bearings wore out, or else trie editor lost his bearings, for it got to running wild and died!" And that was the last serious competition the Record ever had. The hard times which plagued the competition sometimes nagged at the Record, and its editor often had to take in his belt a notch. During the depression of 1893 ; .Raddon wrote, "Hard times are tough on everybody, and during such times everybody should help one another. Out business is slack, so advertise! And subscribe to the Record, Now!" His appeal worked, for new. subscriptions came in, and the presses kept rolling.. . "even" during hard 'times, ehitors- sometimes pined for palmier days, jsuch as when Raddon once wrote, "There is altogether too much promis- may.be committed and the law allowed to take its course, but the line is drawn on the firebug. God help the man who is caught! A short rope and a long drop will be his portion, as sure as hell!" -Where the town which burned to the ground in 1898 had been a rough shoot-eni-up mining camp, the phoenix which grew up on its ashes . was a city, but even so, it retained a frontier flavor and some wild and wooly ways. The Reverend French Oliver visited the new Park City in I90I . and apparently wasn't impressed with either the town or the Park Record, for he wrote, "Salt Lake City is the wickedest city in America, and Park City is only 40 rods from hell, and the editor of the Park Record is the ring leader of the whole dirty business!" But in spite of the Reverend Oliver's opinion. Park City had moved into the 20th century, and even Sam Raddon Rad-don had mellowed. He still called a spade a spade, but in milder language. In exposing the editor of the Eastern Utah Advocate at Price as an arsonist, Raddon wrote, "It seems his greed was attracted by the; big Democratic campaign cam-paign fund, and he planned to get a snug portion of it. He set -his office on fire to cover his tracks, but the ..scheme was .. exploded, and instead of getting a cash assist," he got. run in for arson!". He had an even lower opion of Editor CW, : Snyder ofHrtie Sevier County Times at -Elsinore. when he reported, "That petty paper seems to be ' in a peck of trouble. It is -owned by C. W. Snyder, who is , neither a printer. or an editor. , Mr. Camp, sort, of an . adventurer, . has had charge " and has been doing, the scribbling, but he and Snyder : had a falling out. and Camp .... decamped!' - The Record weathered the panic of 1 907 and grew. during the prosperity of the I920s, it outlasted the depression of the I930's and , reported war-battles war-battles fro m the Spanish American to Vietnam, It. survived the near ghost town status of the 40Y and 50's when town kids purchased a. handful of papers for 2 'j cents each and sold them door to door for a nickel. Raddon's Record saw the tough times, and the , good times; It reported the birth of numerous weeklys all over the statp. arid, later commented on their deaths, hundreds of. them, and it outlasted them all. to become Utah's oldest weekly. For 1 00 years the Park Record has faithfully reported the life and times of Utah's . leading mining camp. Frisco and Kimberly. Mercur and Ophir, Silver Reef and Gold . Hill and dozens of other camps, with their dozens of mining camp papers have all come and gone. but. Park City and the Park Record are still going strong, both well into their second century. May ' 100 years! ' : by George Thompson Any account of the Park Record has to be a history of Park City also, and it will be pretty much the story of Sam Raddon as well. All three grew up together, and all shared equally in the good times and the bad. the ups and the downs, the 'highs and the . . lows. V; Most Record readers know that a small band of Col. Patrick Connor's-soldier -prospectors made their way down across the snow covered Bonanza Flats in December, 1868 and discovered the outcrop of ore which became the Flagsraff Mine. And we've read how a .few brush shanties, dugouts and log cabins grew into a mining camp, later to become Park City. We also know that the Park " Record had its birth in 1880, but few today can recall the old Park Record as it was published by Sam Raddon. In the days before out of town newpapers were easily available, avail-able, a town's own newspaper was a thing of local pride. It riot only reported everyday happenings at home but also kept folks aware of what was going on at other camps. Frequently there was a real rivalry between the newspapers newspap-ers of rival camps, and often personal fueds between their - editors. The Record was such a paper during.its early days and Sam Raddon was known . as a fighting editor. The Park Mining Record made its first appearance in February, ' 1880 with James" . Schupback as publisher, but by June, 1881 its masthead revealed that Harry White had become publisher and editor, Schupbach having left for Butte, Montana. In July, 1881 a small back page entry reported that Mr. Sam Raddon of ; the Salt Lake Tribune had been a visitor at the Record Office There is probably more to that inconcpicuous item than meets the eye for later events indicate that Raddon had more than just a passing interest in the Record. In 1 883 the Record again reported that Raddon was at Park City. The following year J.J. Buser succeeded White as publisher, arid another entry reported that Raddon was "visiting- the .Record office again. In November1884 the Record announced that Sam Raddon, formerly ' of ' the Tribune was ; now ; associated with the - Record arid only a month later the ' paper's masthead jlisted the paper's owners" as Biiser & Raddon. The following July Buser was replaced ' by L.E. Camomile. Thel masthead '-' then read Raddon & Camomile, but shortly-1 'afterwards Carho mile's name ' was' dropped, leaving Sam Raddon as eoMtbr and publisher; 'whicH . would ? remain unchanged . for more than half a century. ; . .. tit From the ;very StarM of. ' Raddon s association with the proving itself a complete ass. Poor thing, it is a financial fizzle and thinks it may make a living catering to the taste of the anti-Mormons. Will someone some-one please . knock it on- the head and end. its miserable existence!" Editors like Sam Raddon seldom missed a - chance to editorialize in the most caustic terms against their fellow editors, for readers waited from week to week to follow those verbal fueds on papev and they did self newspapers when there was little real news to report. In February, 1891 Raddon commented on a running fued between the Bugler ancf the Herald, both of Brigham City. "The Bugler and the Herald are engaged in a life and death struggle, but the Herald is edited by a lady, so it seems to have the best of the argument! ' Raddon printed the truth, as he saw it, but his editorials directed against the elite or the "400" sometimes resulted in threats against him. He didn't seem to worry very much, although he certainly recognized there was a " real danger, for it was a time when editors were often challenged to duels or run out of town on a rail. Mariv such incidents hit close to home; and the Record . reported them. - One attack occurred right Vnextoos-aCJier Wasatch Wave Editor (jlan- The Utah Patriot was only one of several Park City newspapers that tried to run the , Record out of business. The first to try was the Park City Call, which appeared in January, 1887 .under direction of Publisher fi.H. Buchanan. Like the Record, the Call, started as an anti-Mormon weekly, but it lasted only a vear and a half. In "August, 1 888 the Record purchased that failing paper and added its press to the Record's plant. Next to appear was the Park City Mirier in September 1890, with C.S. Austin as "proprietor. "pro-prietor. Publisher Editor and Manager." Other Utah editors welcomed it. among them the Brigham Bugler, whose editor wrote, "The initial number of the Park City Miner strutted up and gave us a hearty handshake. It is a live, clean paper with good sense backed by sinewy legs. Put'er there boys, put'er there!." But the Miner failed to catch on and had trouble attracting paying advertisers. Editor Raddon noted "A bad odor about the Miner" and called it "A particularly obnoxious publication", noting not-ing that Col. Trewick of the Wabash Mine was suing its editor for libel. The Miner tried to publish on a daily basis, b it as the Record dryly .noted, . 'There isn'treHOugh. oxygen at this t altitude for 4a . . .... cuous shooting on the streets at night! " One longing for better times was expressed in a brief editorial which recalled happier days at Silver Reef, "When that camp used to dish up a man or two once a week for breakfast. Ah, those were the palmy days!" Without doubt the Record's darkest days were right after the great fire of June 19th, 1989. It's newly purchased plant was completely destroyed destroy-ed and all equipment and records burned, still to its credit, not an issue was missed. The first few issues after the fire were published by the Herald Republican at Salt Lake City, but even before the ashes' were cool, the Record was operating out of a borrowed tent. The Payson Header probably probab-ly best described the courage of the Record Staff. "No neighbor, not an issue was missed. It was a bad blow. When the ashes were cool, the staff stood dazed, but only for a moment. In only a few short hours after the fire, a tent was pitched, and for several weeks the paper was issued from that borrowed tent." Sam Raddon was damn mad about the fire, and left no doubt what would happen to any arsonist caught at Park City. 'Should -anyone. sbe caught in the act of setting fire not "be wrirth a straw. Murder |
