I had been told by my uncle Bill Walker, and my great-uncle, George V. Walker that my great-great-grandfather, John Finley Walker was the owner-editor of the Ellettsville Republican newspaper. I didn't have any confirmation of that story, however, until the article below was posted on the Monroe county genealogy list. It originally appeared in the Ellettsville Farm, upon the occasion of the latter paper's 60th anniversary, 15 Dec 1932, and was transcribed by Randi Richardson...
SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF PAPER AT ELLETTSVILLE
December 15, 1872 - December 15, 1932W. B. Harris
Christmas 1932 revives memories for the editor of The Farm dear and interesting.
A bleak December day, two weeks before Christmas, 1872, on December 15th, I set my first stick of type. As a boy of 16 I took passage on the tempestuous life in the art preservative of all arts under the tutelage of John F. Walker, an old printer of Bloomington long since gathered to his fathers.
It was by the "skin of the teeth" that a newspaper was established at Ellettsville, and the "divinity that shapes our ends" decreed that I should accidentally be "snatched" from the auspicious beginning of a medical student under the late Dr. Rice C. Harris to the case of a printer. It was thusly:
[Illegible] young printer by the name of Howard Morris arrived in town early in the summer of 1872, his "features furrowed with care," thirty cents in his pocket, a lead pencil behind his ear, and a glib tongue motored by a fertile brain in the direction of the organization of a publishing company at Ellettsville.
The campaign of Grant and Wilson was in full heat and with a hundred or more Civil War veterans in the community, the town and township heavily Republican, with a bare handful of Democrats in the neighborhood, or county for that matter, the field was rich and prolific in subscribers for stock in the publishing company.
Among the many old timers who became organizrers of the company, all gone on, were: Eli Ritter, merchant here then; Dr. J. M. Harris; Capt. G. K. Perry; Peter T. Matthews; Parker Thompson; Alkany Copenhaver; F. E. Worley; W. H. Jackson; N. R. Matson; Col. John A. Reeves; Preston Knighten; George N. Puett; Simpson Sharp; Johnson Sharp; and a few others.
The company held two or three meetings electing Mr. Ritter president, and the plant was ordered. It consisted of an old fashioned, second-hand Franklin press, 150 pounds of long printer [paper?] and various other articles of equipment, quite scanty but large enough to be adorned with a bill of lading for $675.00.
After the plant got in, for some reason the company got cold feet, and the shares of stock remained in the grip of young Morris. After a mournful habitation of three months at the Monon station, the old Franklin Type Foundry of Cincinnati ordered the material returned. Riley Wilson was Monon agent here then.
Young Morris, who had been, as prospective editor, cutting a wide swath with Ellettsville belles and having several young fellows on the ragged edge, with quite a few young married ladies of the various churches vying for the financial support and preferences of the handsome, young editor in reporting ice cream social and various social functions, was literally stripped of his [illegible] and his appearance [illegible] very dark [illegible]wn taste.
He chanced to meander down the creek to the flouring mill of the late Samuel B. Harris. Upon inquiry, Mr. Harris learned that the following day the plant was to begin its return voyage to Cincinnati and the much acclaimed paper was to fail.
Those were the days when banks were scarce; holdup men had not learned the art, and the gangster age had not arrived. Most of our men who had money carried it around with them for safe keeping. Mr. Harris was of this type, always having a pocket full at his command. With his usual enterprise, he made one dive earthward in his jeans and brought up a large roll from which he peeled off 20s and 50s to the aforesaid needed $675.00.
The plant was moved to a small building located where the rear of the Ellettsville Hardware Store now stands, and the first number of the Ellettsville Republican was issued August 18th, 1872.
After a very popular and satisfying editorial career of three weeks, Mr. Harris found the young man was not scoring up to the rule and guide to which he considered business affairs should obtain, and Mr. Morris was invited to move on to greener pastures.
Mr. Walker, as above mentioned, was employed and handled the affairs of the office till the first of the year, 1872.1
With his regulation financial acumen, Mr. Harris suggested to the "medical" student, could he learn something about the business and take charge "temporarily" until something should "shape up."
Yes -- on that bleak December 15th the boy started. What a great day -- 60 years ago today -- started at 16. Through, done -- no, still carrying on, sometimes lonely for the company of the old chums who entered into the hopes and pleasures and activities of those days, and yet not alone -- still right up in the collar, busy and hopeful.
Those wonderful, youthful days, surfeited with energy and ambition, judgment of the youthful type but buoyed with ample independence and self-satisfying egotism to go head-on, wondering how the ages had prospered so well without my councils.
Such days are mighty important as a sort of balancing-ration for future days of youth.
Ellettsville is a very small town in the northern part of Monroe county. At one time, it was the location of several limestone quarries and flour mills. While the article is interesting for its depiction of small-town Indiana's bygone days, we wish the author could have offered more reminiscences about John Walker.
The following is from page 302 of History of Lawrence and Monroe Counties, Indiana, Indianapolis, Indiana, B. F. Bowen & Co., 1914:
Up to 1883-84 the only other place in Monroe county where a newspaper had been established was at the enterprising town of Ellettsville, where in 1872, or possibly a year later, Howard L. Morris, editor, and S. B. Harris, proprietor, issued the first number of the Ellettsville Republican, which after two issues passed into the hands of Mr. Harris. At the end of two issues more Harris employed John Walker to edit the paper, which had a life of about six months, after which Harris assumed control for about two years, then leased his office to Charles McPheetridge, who sold to William B. and S. B. Harris...
1 The author may have meant 1873 or even 1874, since John Walker is supposed to have operated the Republican for about two years. The article doesn't make clear whether the Republican and The Farm were both in existence at the same time, or whether they were one and the same paper. The Indiana State Library has microfilmed issues of the Republican from 29 Aug 1872 through 4 Dec 1873, and of The Farm beginning in 1895.
This page was last updated 5 Apr 2007.