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Miss Lynda W. Casteel, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. L. W. Casteel of Rivermines, is a student in the School of Journalism at the University of Missouri in Columbia. She has written a term paper on the subject, "The History and Development of The Lead Belt News," which is presented for our readers. It is an interesting composite of the early struggles of those men who were vitally interested in the progress of this community and believed a newspaper would be an instrument of good toward that purpose:
In 1821 in the heart of one of the world's largest lead deposits sprang a Missouri mining settlement which the people there named Flat River. Now, some one hundred and forty years later, at one end of the main street near the now unused railroad tracks, stands a faded red brick building with the News Sun Printing and Publishing Co. printed in tall white letters high on one side.
This is the home of The Lead Belt News which for sixty-two of those one hundred and forty years has watched and reported the growth of the town in the pages of its weekly editions. The times and town have changed but The Lead Belt News continues to print the news within its creed of service, truth, and justice.
The first actual settlers in this mining community were people who came in from what is now Washington County and other nearly sections of the state, induced by the "lead diggins," wild game and abundance of good farming land.(1)
With improved working conditions, more extensive operations and the construction of smelters to process the lead, the number of mine employees increased and the population grew.
Because it bordered on a small flat stream of water, the settlement was called Flat River. Now the main street crosses this stream on a bridge which bears the sign, Flat River Creek.
In 1868 there existed a single school house in a crude log cabin and numerous small frame shacks, the homes of the miners. A few larger houses, pretentious for the times were constructed by the wealthier miners and executives of the mining companies.
In 1898 there were less than one hundred inhabitants in Flat River. W. H. (Billy) Lewis was then only in his teens, but he had ambitious plans for beginning a newspaper. He later said, "Flat River was young, but it was just then entering an era of prosperous development, following the depression of the early nineties. It was but natural that in spite of my youth, I was able to catch something of the vision of a great future, that was to come to the district." (2)
Deitrich Bauman, a mining engineer for Picher Lead Company, took an interest in Lewis's plan and volunteered to finance the venture. Bauman was a man of culture and ability and Lewis was extremely flattered by the young engineer's interest. So in the autumn of 1898 the two worked together on a plan to establish the first newspaper in Flat River.
After the plan was outlined, Bauman and Lewis made a trip to St. Louis to get an estimate of equipment needed to set up a small printing plant, and a copper plate heading bearing the name "The Lead Belt News." Bauman sketched an outline of the lead mills and shafts in the background of the lettering for the heading.
At this point a dummy newspaper was made and Lewis canvassed the merchants and others in the settlement in an attempt to interest them in the proposed enterprise. The idea received a great deal of encouragement.
Just as the plans were beginning to materialize and arrangements were nearly complete for leasing a lot on the main street of Flat River, preparations were forced to cease. The Picher Lead Company, where Bauman was employed, decided to permanently abandon the St. Francois County field, after spending thousands of dollars prospecting. Lewis's plan callapsed, for without financial aid of Bauman the establishment of the newspaper was impossible.
Shortly thereafter, still in the year 1898, The Lead Belt News was established by J. N. Ward and Page (3) using the name that Lewis and Bauman had selected. (4) The paper continued under the management of Ward and Page for little more than two years.
In 1901 "Billy" Lewis again acquired the paper in a partnership with Charles R. Pratt. Lewis was installed as editor. The plant at this time consisted of a Vaughn Ideal hand press, an eight by twelve Chandler and Price Gordon, half a dozen type racks and a "shirtail" full of type. Pratt and Lewis paid four hundred dollars cash for the plant, which was located in a frame building, and the good will Ward and Page had supposedly built for the paper. Lewis questioned this "good will."
Lewis described the paper at this time as being a crude sheet, produced with inadequate equipment and limited ability and experience of the writers. (5) However, the paper had received liberal patronage from the beginning. It was a weekly edition with two pages of "patent (6) news outside and two inside pages of home news, ads and fill-ins.
The lack of type often presented a serious problem. At one time for a period of several weeks, the home news side of the sheet was decorated with a two-column plate headed "Ways and Means for Raising Money for the Democratic Campaign Fund" because there was not enough money to buy type to take its place. (7)
One of the biggest community events of the period around the turn of the century was the advent of the second railroad in Flat River. The Lead Belt News publicized the project widely.
The paper also took the lead, under Lewis's direction in a movement for a real school system. Others involved in the project credited the paper with a large part in initiating and creating sentiment for a school development. The mining corporations, though they would necessarily bear the tax burden, surprisingly were never in opposition to the movement. In fact, many prominent mining men answered the plea of the News for help in the undertaking.
After 1901, Lewis and Pratt began building up the paper and the equipment. Although Lewis didn't remain permanently with The Lead Belt News after he and Pratt purchased the paper, he was connected with the publishing two or three different times, as an associate or employee of Pratt.
Charles Pratt owned and sold the paper three times within the next ten years. He sold it first to Melbourne Smith, but bought it back in a few months, and again sold it two years later to Eugene Brockmeyer of St. Louis. Brockmeyer lost it by foreclosure and Pratt again became the owner. Finally on June 1, 1913, the paper was sold to D. H. Cameron and his partner, Rains, (8) who had been publishing the Labor Herald in Elvins, Missouri.
In the various transfers the plant and equipment was enlarged by combining with the plant of a newspaper at Farmington, and the purchase of new material and presses. The location of the plant was changed from its frame building to the Modern Woodman Building on Main Street in Flat River.
Before 1915, George Stanfill purchased Rains' share in the paper and became the new partner n the enterprise with Cameron. (9) However, Stanfill was the silent partner. Cameron and his wife, Kate, ran the newspaper with Cameron as the editor, for ten years. The Lead Belt News saw the beginning and the end of World War I with the Camerons.
Compared to the modern Lead Belt News, the paper under Cameron had a relatively unattractive appearance. The headlines were little larger than the regular news print, and when, on very rare occasions, a picture appeared on the front page, it was never wider than one column nor deeper than three or four inches. The front page contained only local news items. On the second or third inside page appeared a regular weekly two-column portion of "Interesting News from the Cities." A regular full-page feature was a fiction story by George Fitch or Frank Spearman.
The majority of the paper's local news was of the "doings" of the citizens. Numerous items on health problems also appeared in the paper, and a column entitled "From the State Capital" gave news from all over the state.
The advertising at this period in the paper's growth was made up of simple sketches and wordy copy. For the most part the only pictures seen in the entire paper were those line etchings found in the advertising. Patent medicines were the major source of advertising.
Although Flat River was now growing by leaps and bounds, still nothing had been done about incorporating the town as a municipality. Finally on March 12, 1917, a meeting was called of sixty of the community's businessmen, who then decided that steps in this direction were becoming necessary. At the meeting Commissioners were selected to serve until others were elected in the first municipal election to be held in April.
On June 30, 1917, a petition containing 497 names was presented to the County Court urging incorporation, but the move was opposed by several prominent citizens and the St. Louis Smelting and Refining Works which played a very influential role in the lead mining town, so the matter was dropped. Because of the war, race riots and the excitement of the times, the issue was allowed to drift. The town continued to grow rapidly and became the largest unincorporated town in the United States (10) before it was finally incorporated in April, 1935.
In 1918 the paper was eight pages, six columns wide, and contained no editorials. The influence of the war could be seen quite clearly in the type of news and feature articles printed. Articles such as "When, How and Where Boys of 21 Must Register," "Call for Knitters," "Letters from France," and "List of Officers Severely Wounded" were found throughout the paper. (11) The Lead Belt News led a United War Work campaign and the local bank, as part of a campaign to increase depositors, ran a half-page ad in extremely large type.
On April 6, 1923, on the front page enclosed in a box under the heading "Announcement," the reader was informed of the sale of The Lead Belt News to Charles F. Linza and Robert H. Womack Jr., who took possession of the paper on March 1, of the same year. The announcement stated the intentions of the new owners to adhere to a Democratic policy, not to seek office for themselves, and to "not take part in any school or primary elections, beyond following out our own inclinations at the polls unless action becomes necessary to protect the welfare of the community." (12)
In the same box under the heading "Au Revoir" appeared the farewell message and expression of gratitude of D. H. and Kate Cameron.
The following week, on April 13, the first supplement appeared, folded within the pages of the paper. It was four columns wide on only one side of the paper, and contained general news and advertisements.
The new owner editors made two new additions to the paper. Banner headlines were beginning to be used more often, and editorials, two columns in width, appeared frequently on such subjects as the "Menance of Measles" and "Preservation of the Game and Fish."
The Lead Belt News conducted major campaigns at this time, through its editorials, in support of bringing a new clothing factory to the community and improvement of the roads in the county. Both campaigns were successful.
An editorial appearing on the front page, in the usual box which seemed to surround every important issue in the paper, exemplified the strong position the editors took on major issues in the community. It was printed shortly after they had been criticized for not attacking the Ku Klux Klan movement in Flat River. The reply to the criticism read as follows:
"Get this straight. There is no 'yellow streak' in the NEWS. When it becomes necessary for us to open up in defense of American ideals and American citizens we will do so without fear and without favor regardless of whether it be an organization or an individual that we are called upon to attack and without the least hesitancy as to what or who they might be. We shall make no hasty decisions on any question. We shall know our position is right when we taken it." (13)
Through just such editorials, Linza and Womack did much to establish The Lead Belt News as a strong organ of public opinion in the community, a position which it holds with even more force today.
In November, 1923, the plant and business of the paper were taken over by the News Sun Printing and Publishing Company and a new corporation was formed with capital stock of $30,000. Charles Linza left the journalism profession and bought a furniture store in Flat River.
The principal stockholders of the new corporation were R. H. Womack of The Lead Belt News and W. L. Bouchard of the Desloge Sun. Womack became the secretary-treasurer and Bouchard the president and business manager of the corporation which was now publishing both the News and the Sun.
With the change of ownership, the newspaper advanced even further with an increasingly large number of pictures appearing on the front page and editorials which continued to do justice to the reputation established by the former editors.
In 1924, a special issue was published which had three sections and twenty-four pages. It contained lengthy articles on industries, health and education of St. Francois County written by R. H. Womack.
A successful campaign was also launched for more fire fighting equipment for the city fire department. At the height of the campaign a large picture of the needed fire engine with the caption, "Help Buy," was run on the front page.
On April 3, 1925, the size of the paper was increased from six to seven columns in width, but the paper remained at eight pages. In the same year the Desloge Sun and the Lead Belt News, which up to this point had been published separately, were combined to be published under the heading, The Lead Belt News and the Desloge Sun. The new officers of the corporation were W. L. Bouchard, president and business manager; W. H. Bouchard, secretary and treasurer; R. H. Womack, news editor and advertising manager; Charles E. Wilfong, mechanical foreman.
Until 1927 both papers were published, then The Lead Belt News absorbed the Sun completely and the paper was published under the single head of The Lead Belt News. In the upper right hand corner beside the head on the front page were the words, "This Paper Reaches The People Who Read." (14)
By this time, the population had grown to five thousand. The subscription rates were $1.50 per year and 75 cents for six months, anywhere in the United States. For a subscription to be sent to a foreign country the rate was $4.50.
June 10, 1938 was the fortieth anniversary of the paper, and the occasion was commemorated by the publication of a sixty-page special edition under the direction of the editor, W. L. Bouchard. The heading read, "The Lead Belt News, St. Francois County's GREATEST Newspaper."
The edition contained an index to advertisers, a printed subscription list, pages of letters of congratulations to Mr. Bouchard for his twenty-five years of service to the paper, the printed creed of the paper, and a society column under the heading, "The nicest courtesy you can show your guests is to have their visits mentioned on this page." (15) There was also an article announcing a film to be shown at the Roseland theatre of the clearing of the site of the new factory which The Lead Belt News had helped bring to Flat River.
The anniversary edition was dedicated to James A. Caselton of St. Louis, who was a personal friend of Bouchard and was head of the company which had given the editor his first job. It was a full page article with a picture of Mr. Caselton and a dedication written by Editor Bouchard. The paper's Democratic policies were shown in this edition by the announcement of W. L. Bouchard's candidacy for State Senator.
On May 18, 1945, another special edition was printed called the Victory in Europe edition. It contained a separate section for each of the towns in the county honoring the men who had given their services for the country in World War II.
Today, in 1960, The Lead Belt News is put in thousands of mail boxes every Wednesday all over St. Francois County. There are many pictures on the front page and throughout the paper, and an editorial written by Mr. Bouchard, now in his forty-fourth year with the paper, appears every week.
Two of the key personnel on the paper are the society editor, Mrs. J. J. Politte, who has been with the paper for thirty-two years, and Mrs. S. C. Thomasson, who has been the advertising manager for the paper since 1936.
The subscription rates have increased to $2.50 per year in St. Francois and adjacent counties and $3.00 per year outside of St. Francois County in the United States. (16)
The newspaper is an affiliate member of the National Editorial Association, and a member of the Missouri Press Association. The advertising representative is the Missouri Press Service, Inc., in Columbia, Missouri.
The Lead Belt News continues to print its weekly edition under the traditional creed of service, truth, and justice:
"To procure and publish the news of our territory in its entirety. To differentiate between that which is news and that which is rumor or gossip. To get the news, regardless of cost, and with no thought of time consumed--just get it! That is our idea of service. To tell it without fear or favor where it has a definite connection with the interests of the public. Prove it first, then print it, is our motto. That is our idea of truth. To know no creed, no class. To promote that which means most for most and to oppose that which is founded upon selfishness and greed. To recognize the rights of every honest citizen and protect them, as we would our own. That is our idea of justice." (17)
Things have changed a great deal in Flat River from the day in 1898 when Billy Lewis began work on his plan for the first town newspaper. The Lead Belt News has watched the town grow and prosper and at the same time the paper has grown into one of the leading weeklies in the state.
Today one drives down the main street, now wide and paved and lined with parking meters, and sees the old brick buildings which now have new modern front and large display windows. The newspaper office still stands in the same brick building on the last block of Main Street that was erected in 1925 by the present owners. As you walk into the front office, you see there the friendliness and activity of the town and the paper reflected in the bustling atmosphere of rolling presses and staff members busily bent over desks working on the week's news for the paper, to come out on Wednesday. Any stranger can walk in, take a paper off the top of the stack, which still smells of fresh ink, and leave a dime in its place.
Editor Bouchard sits behind the desk in his small office, puffing on a cigar and contemplating the problems which face every editor. His duty is to get the news to his readers according to the creed which the Lead Belt News has adhered to so faithfully for sixty-two years; the creed of Service--Truth--Justice.
Flat River Day, August 1, 1936.
The Lead Belt News, January 5, 1917.
The Lead Belt News, May 31, 1918.
The Lead Belt News, April 6 through April 27, 1923.
The Lead Belt News, November 30, 1923.
The Lead Belt News, March 7, 1924.
The Lead Belt News, April 3, 1925.
The Lead Belt News, June 10, 1938.
The Lead Belt News, May 18, 1945.
The Lead Belt News, November 30, 1960.
The Lead Belt News and The Desloge Sun, July 3, 1925.
Missouri State Tribune, November 26, 1901.
Bouchard, W. L., interview, editor, The Lead Belt News, November 25, 1960.
____________________________
�(1) The Lead Belt News, June 10, 1938.
�(2) The Lead Belt News, June 10, 1938.
�(3) The author was unable to find the first name of Mr. Page in the available
records.
�(4) W. L. Bouchard, editor, The Lead Belt News.
�(5) The Lead Belt News, June 10, 1938.
�(6) News taken from other papers.
�(7) The Lead Belt News, op. cit.
�(8) The author was unable to find the first name of Mr. Rains in the available
records.
�(9) The author learned from W. L. Bouchard, editor of The Lead Belt News, that
Charles F. Linza and a man named Ellinghouse owned the paper for a short time before 1915,
but the exact date was not known and could not be found in records.
(10) Lead Belt News, June 10, 1938.
(11) Lead Belt News, May 31, 1918.
(12) Lead Belt News, April 6, 1923.
(13) The Lead Belt News, April 27, 1923.
(14) The Lead Belt News, June 10, 1938.
(15) Ibid.
(16) The Lead Belt News, November 30, 1960.
(17) Lead Belt News, November 30, 1960.