In March 1917, DeVos announced that a new building
would be constructed to house The Chronicle. This was the newspaper’s second home - a
newspaper office, print shop and home for the publisher and his wife at the northeast
corner of Main and Bartlett.
That, and the tenor of a DeVos editorial in 1923, indicates
that he and his wife, Anna, were paying the bills as promised in 1915. He went on boosting
Omak harder than ever - and possibly too hard.
By the first issue in 1926, Anna Mae Rigby was editor. She
noted in her Jan. 14, 1926, editorial that it was the first issue under her management.
There was no other mention of DeVos for some months.
The name of Frank Emert appeared in a social note as a
visitor to Omak from Oroville. By the end of June 1926, Emert was the publisher-owner of
The Omak Chronicle.
Emert and DeVos both came to Omak from the Oroville Gazette.
But DeVos came as a former Gazette employee. Emert was its publisher and continued to own
it and the Pateros Reporter for three years after moving to Omak.
There was a dramatic change in The Chronicle under Emert.
He, like Scates, was a journalist, not a printer like DeVos. Advertising lineage increased
and pages were brightened with with multiple-column headlines and a few more pictures.
The number of pages started to increase, rising to eight a
week by the end of 1926 and hitting 10 a week during the Christmas season. |
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Chronicle file photo |
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Scott Wilson (from left), Jean Andrist and Steve Rowe bundle newspapers in 1971. Wilson
now publishes the Port Townsend Leader, Andrist (now Gustafson) is a school librarian in
Selah and Rowe is an aerospace quality control analyst in Saudi Arabia. |
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