He listed himself, C.P. Scates, C.E. Weatherstone,
Ben Ross, John Godfrey, Conrad Knosher and W.S. Shumway as investors.
Clough also told Kerr that Scates had recently come back
from Alaska and had a little newspaper experience. DeVos described him as a former
Spokesman-Review reporter.
Scates operated for a year on that start, then formed a
stock company of local investors to keep the paper going, DeVos reported in the
“Heritage.”
For the first dozen years, most issues of The Chronicle
consisted of four pages. Much of the time, two of those four pages were primarily
“boilerplate” - pre-set filler material ranging from short stories and novels to
how-to advice and health tips.
When Scates announced incorporation, boilerplate diminished
and local news increased, although local advertising did not. The infusion of new capital
brightened The Chronicle considerably for several months.
During that era The Chronicle survived two fires. Both fires
burned the nearby Middleton building housing Delmonico’s cafe.
The Chronicle then was located in a building about where
Donaldson’s Mercantile, Antique and Collectible Mall is today. Delmonico’s, 50
feet south across a vacant lot, burned in May, was rebuilt and burned again in August.
Townspeople - no doubt some of them investors - used garden
hoses the first time and a bucket brigade the second to save The Chronicle building.
Both times Scates followed the fires with effusive praise
and thank yous to volunteers, and sturdy editorials on behalf of fire protection.
Later in 1912, the Omak Publishing Co. announced it was
leasing The Chronicle to Scates and urged its creditors to pay their bills. Scates again
was alone on the masthead.
Things fell apart in February of 1913. Scates’
name disappeared from the masthead in the Feb. 21, 1913, edition. The Omak Publishing Co.
took its place.
The paper was a mongrel in makeup, content and typefaces.
Readers, who likely knew then, as now, more than the
newspaper printed, had to wait until Feb. 28 for a tiny item buried at the bottom of
column 3, Page 3, announcing: “C.P. Scates, who has guided the destinies of the
Chronicle since the paper was founded three years ago, has retired from the management and
will hereafter devote his energies to the publishing of the Riverside Argus.”
Scates apparently had been involved in both for some time.
The story went on to report that “no definite
arrangement for the continuance of this paper has yet been made, but for the present Mrs.
Bessie Howard is officiating in the composing room with J.W. Godfrey and C.E. Weatherstone
rendering assistance in other departments.”
Godfrey and Weatherstone were businessmen, obviously part of
the group underwriting the paper.
They kept The Chronicle going, relying heavily again on
boilerplate. A month later The Chronicle reported that Mary P. Scates (C.P. Scates’
wife) was moving her millinery shop from Omak to Riverside.
F.A. DeVos of Oroville showed up in the social notes as
“an Omak visitor Sunday” in the April 18 edition. |
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Chronicle file photo |
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| Earl Tinker adjusts the folder which, when it malfunctioned, noisily crumpled paper, and
“caused every head in the shop to rise up,” recalls staff member Elizabeth
Widel. |
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Chronicle file photo |
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| Longtime ad manager Harley Heath checks a page in 1965 |
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Photo by Elizabeth Widel |
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| Newspaper rolls off the press in a 1961 photo |
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