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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1954-07-28, Page 29A Dorqinipn washing machine, new, with wringer, for sale at S. Qracey’s, one pound of baking powder. Call and Price $12, can be had for $9. A bargain gpt question sheet frpm W. T. Yat£s, for someone, Who gets it? —Ad 1883, A good gold watch given away with grocer. --Ad 1890.By Publishers of Newspapers The Advance, but when/he asked Mr.| papers in Wingham, it edme increas-In 1885 there were three newspapers ip Wingham, The Times, Liberal, The Advance, Conservative, and The Vi­ dette with no political stand, Printers were more plentiful then, fpr we find that with a population of 2,000', the three printing and pub­ lishing houses employed ten printers and there were nine intelligent com­ positors in town that were unemploy­ ed, Lawsuits could not have been a very costly item in the old days. At the fall assizes in the above year, a Mr. Atcheson brought action of libel against Mr. J. T. Mitcheil of The Vi­ dette and judgment for the plaintiff was for twenty cents damages with full cost of suit. Certainly some of the items printed in the early papers would indicate that there was little danger of going bankrupt over case. a libel 0-0-0 THE VIDETTE when The Vidette was we are not certain, but estab- it had Just lished, a short life of two years at most. J. T. Mitchell was the editor and the office was in the north end of the present Howson & Howson feed store on Josephine Street. The Times and The Vidette were al­ ways at lagerheads and carried On a continual fued, and they printed the most insulting statements about each other. The Vidette was apparently on better terms with The Advance. However, when The Vidette went out of business in 1885 Mr. Mitchell arranged to sell his mailing list to ft JAMES FLEUTY •/-, - ■ SO'/ 1 BUILT BY MOWBRAY CONSTRUCTION a better WINGHAM MOWBRAY Construction Company WINGHAM Mr. Joynt had no newspaper ex­ perience and employed A. G. Smith as managing editor. Mr. Joynt then be­ came interested in politics and when Editor of The Advance from 1873 to to 1895, Mr. Fleuty is pictured withIan early copy of his newspaper. I fiOESOI n Bill Scott NEW WINGHAM PUBLIC SCHOOL HELPING BUILD 0-0-0 THE ADVANCE The Wingham Advance, Conserva­ tive in politics, was established by Mr. Cliff of Kincardine in 1873, and at that time James Fleuty, who had been employed with the Walkerton Telescope, came to work for him. Mr. Fleuty bought the paper the following year and edited The Advance until 1895, when he sold to John Cornyn. Following Mr. Cornyn was Theo. Hall. Mr. Hall installed a power press the year after he purchased the paper. He continued to run the business suc­ cessfully until 1913, when he sold to The Wingham Publishing Company, of which George Spotton was editor. Mr. Spotton was a that time operat­ ing ten business colleges in ten dif­ ferent centres and by 1915 found that he was unable to devote enough time to either project so he sold The Ad­ vance to John Joynt. Fleuty to come to his office, he re­ plied that he cpuldn’t come until he finished his mailing. Mr. Mitchell im­ mediately contacted The Times and sold his subscription list to them with an announcement that he had done so because he had no intention of leav­ ing town and letting FJeuty get his clutches on it free of charge. One week The Vidette was short of news, and with fear of a half filled issue in mind, an employee of The Vidette entered The Advance office (then over the present Stainton Hard­ ware), by means of a ladder and the window and stole a sheaf of copy. The The The Huron not know, have been outcome was an easy edition for Vidette and a quick rewrite for Advance. 0-0-0 THE TIMES The Wingham Times and Advertiser was the first Wingham newspaper, established in 1871 by Ro­ bert Matheson and printed in Clinton, In April, 1872, R, A. Graham purchas­ ed this publication and brought the first printing plant to town. The of­ fice was in the building on Josephine Street that is now used by Canada Packers as an office. At this time a public meeting was held and Peter Fisher had the honor of selecting its name, The Times, after its great Lon­ don namesake. Mr. Graham published The Times from April 19, 1872 to November 14 of the same year, when The Times Pub­ lishing Company was formed, consist­ ing of W. T. Bray, manager; J. M. Leet, editor; Rev. Sinclair, Peter Fish­ er and T. G. Jackson. How long this arrangement lasted we do but it is not believed to for a very long period. The first printers were and Jim Stewart, with’ Bill Risdon as the printer’s devil. There were many changes in owner­ ship in the next ten or twelve years, and by 1885 there had been ten or twelve editors. In the meantime the location had been changed to the south side of Victoria Street, just west or the present Massey-Harris imple­ ment shop, and later to the corner of Scott and Victoria Streets where H. Aitchison now lives; the office being located on the second floor. Howick Enterprise Edwards and Kerr were the publish­ ers in 1885 and The Times was then located in the Queen’s Hotel block, next to McKibbon’s drug store. That year they bought the subscription list of the Howick Enterprise. Shortly after this the paper passed into the hands of S. W. Galbraith and he pur­ chased the mailing list of The Wing­ ham Vidette. This had been a busy year for The Times, with changes in ownership, amalgamation, and- an­ other change of location, this time to the Stone Block where it remain­ ed for several years. Mr. Galbraith died in 1888, at which time his brother-in-law, Sam Youhill, took over for a few months.'Rs El­ liott then bought the newspaper from the estate and published until 1896, when his son, H. B. Elliott became the editor and published until 1921, sell­ ing to Mr. Colgate, but by the time of amalgamation with The Advance in 1924, it was again in Mr. Elliott’s hands. he was elected MLA for North Huron in 1919, he sold the newspaper to Mr, Smith, in whose hands it remained. 0 -' 0 - 0 THE ADVANCE-TIMES In the latter years of two news- ingly difficult to make ends meet. Prices of equipment, labor and ma­ terials had mounted and in 1924 Andy Smith of The Advance and H. B. El­ liott of The Times, could see that amalgamation was the only answer to the problem. Mr, Smith bought The Times, and while he was editor and proprietor, Mr, Elliott remained as assistant edi­ tor for a time. The following year, 1925, The Ad­ vance-Times purchased The Gorrie Vidette and The Wroxeter News so that by now at least seven newspapers were amalgamated as one concern. W. Logan Craig purchased The Ad­ vance-Times in 1927 and following his death in 1932, W. W. Armstrong, as editor, and Wm. B. McCool, manager, formed The Advance-Times Publish­ ing Company. Bill had been with The Advance since 1913 and had been in complete charge during the two-year illness of Mr. Craig. Mr. McCool became sole owner in January, 1946, continuing as publisher until purchase of the Advance-Times by Wenger Brothers in January, 1951. This firm also publishes the Gazette at Mildmay. Barry Wenger is publisher of the Advance-Times. the The first Wingham newspaper pub­ lisher was Robert A. Graham, a native of Borthick Brae, Roxbourghshire, Scotland. Mr. Graham moved to Delhi, N.Y. with his parents, while still a child and there was educated. In 1857 he came to Canada, teaching in schools at Linwood and Wroxeter. About 1866 Mr. Graham moved to West Wawanosh, where he farmed on the present Ben Cruickshank farm, the original house later being used as a summer kitchen to the present building. He purchased The Wingham Times April 1872. This newspaper was in infancy, having only been publish­ er a few months and printed Clinton. At the time of the pur­ in its ed in chase Mr. Graham equipped a news­ paper plant on Josephine Street, the building now used as an office by Canada Packers Company, Limited. In November of that year he sold the paper to The Times Publishing Co., and returned to farming. In 1890 Mr. Graham purchased the grocery business of Charles Reading, approximately where Henderson’s bar­ ber shop is today. He then moved to the present Omar Haselgrove stand, later selling this building to A. M. Crawford and then moved to the building now occupied by Mr. Slosser as a barber shop. When he finally re­ tired from the grocery business he devoted his time to market gardening and his daughter, Miss Elizabeth Graham, took over the management of the store. Mr. Graham was an ardent checker -player ar*d was known to become so intensely interested in the game as to play far into the night. His friend, Mr. Currie was his most frequent op­ ponent and one time when they were playing at the Graham home, he dis­ covered at daybreak that his horse had gone home without him. Mr. Graham had to transport him home. On another occasion when the two friends were playing Checkers at the home of another friend, the host be­ gan to feel the need for rest. Finally he said, "I guess you fellows won The Wingham Advance-Times, Wednesday, July 28, 1954 Page Twenty-nine W. B. McCOOL W. W. ARMSTRONG be coming back”. The visitors were a little startled and inquired why. “If you don’t go home, there will be no need to come back because you will be here,’’ was his reply. Mr. Graham died in December 1925 at the age of 95 years, having been a familiar figure in this district for al­ most 60 years. He had a yen for writ­ ing poetry and it was probably his interest in writing that was respon­ sible for the birth of The Winghairi Times. Three members of the Graham fam­ ily still survive, Thomas and Miss Mary Graham, who reside on John Street, and Frank of Windsor, em­ ployed at the Book Cadillac. Welcome Home, Visitors! OF COURSE! Red Front Grocery Quality Food Products for 20 Years iok=xo2 Citizens Battle Through Newspapers (Continued from page 28) the morning he was very much sur­ prised to find the papers ready for the post office. It was not a perfect crime, how­ ever, since the editor of The Advance had left behind a pocket knife that he always used for cutting his to­ bacco, and which was familiar to everyone. How Mr. Leet knew that his letter was to be discarded was never re­ vealed, but it was certainly evident that the opposition had been called in and had taken a hapd in producing the week's issue.