BY WAY fF HISTORY. -3 * "
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The WEEKLY. HERALD of CHITINA,ALASKA was ’founded on the 18th' of January,'
193X,by Adriar; Clough Nelson,' 11 years old,who was publisher and editor,
and still is,. It is the first paper ever to be published in‘Chitina, al
though the perdova Daily "TIMES" comes up every week,. and in years past,
a paper called theChitina Leader used to be published and printed in the
same 'town of Cordova. The HERALD believes it is the Farthest North paper
written and edited entirely by boys * The originator ‘of the Herald planned
it up in his mind one winter*s night after he had gone to bed.'. The, next
morning he got up -and hunted out some pld rubber type he had,took it up
to his room,& with some paper set up- a headline "WEEKLY HERALD" .The name , '
and the idea of putting out ^ paper,came from having read and reread aver
and over,a book about the LIFE OR'THOMAS ALVA EDISON telling how he pub
lished his paper, the"Y7eekly Herald",when he was a boy 15 years old.
In. the beginning the paper was■ very far.‘back in the.news and printing
busihess.lt was made on an old 2nd hand typewriter which was borrowed and
which the editor used a machine for the 1st time.(Hunt & peck method) He
printed five copies to circulate amongst his friends fer fun.Some of his
other friends to the no. of about 20,were so sonic because they were not
offered any t6 buy,that the editor took on‘his 9 year old brother Philip
Clough Nelson,as reporter and -Business Mgr .Now 4 carbons had tc be used
for each typing. The 3rd’week found the demand more than doubled and the
people of Kennecott Copper Camp,‘McCarthy,Cordova & Valdez on the Coast,
all clamoTing to be subscribers. Now the play had gotten to be a business
so the.two bros took on their Chum,Billy (Wm.)Alfred Moore,12 years pldr
as Ass*t Editor & Circulation Mgr.Billy wasn’t able to help' out for near
ly 3 months,however,as he had appendicitis * which ruptured - he has the of
fending appendix locked up in a bottle.now,^ keeps it to prove‘to himself
that any stomack ache he has in the future it not appendicitis.
In ashort time there were 87 subscribers on the paid mailing list.As
soon as the publisher saw this coming,he realised the immense am’t of typ
ing it would be fitter school hours(he was then in 5th Gr.)and forstalled
it by having the staff make n change in methods.So the 3 boys had the lo
cal storekeeper wire to Seattle for a mimeograph (Edison*s invention)which
the dealer offered tc sell them at wholesale price & on instalment plan.
It was paid for in only a month’s time,owing to.the rapidly incre^ing &
widely expanding circulation.Much of this was due to the fine support of
the people of the Alaskan towns previusly'mentioned.The publisher had tc
make only one typwritten copy from now on;on a stencil for the mimeo*
At this time,Gend Garrity cf McCarthy,Alaska,& Peggy Duggan of Kenne
cott were taken on as correspondents for those sections. (-13 & 12 yrs re
spectively.) 0.A.Nelson of Chitina donated seme rea.1 printing paper tc
the concern,as the paper they had in the first .was too expensive,© 1 $ a.
sheet and the newspaper itself selling for only 5 £^no charge for postage ,
then was made tc mailing list,but it is charged nowv-Then summer vacation
came, the .boys hired thefr aunt who was visiting from New England,to
address envelopes,sc .they would have plenty of time to be outdoors in va
cation,and when school*commenced in the fall,they hired a lady to type
the stencils each week,and Alberta Taylor(8th Gr;pupil) to make up each
week’s mailing list*.We boys still report,make up,'edit, mimeq, sell and'...
are responsible for our paper.lt cernes 16 3rcu all,just as we get it out,,
for the Sourdoughs like it best that way,they tell us.
The weekly news-magazine "TIME" of new York City,gave us a great and
very kind "boost" in the May 25th edition. Letters came pouring in (over
225)and many new subscriptions. Other papers so kind as to write us up:.
Cordcya(Alaskn)*Daily Times"; Wrangell(Alaska)daily "Sentinel"; Seward
(Ala ska.) "Gateway"; the "Alaska Weekly" of Seattle ;Wn.; Santa Monica( Calif.)
"Evening Outlook"; Riverside(also Calif.)daily, newspaper - came to us as
a clipping,so we cannot honor by giving their name as we dpn’t know itr~:
Na shua (Ne w Hamp sh i r e)" da i ly T e 1 e gr aph" ; Ams ter dam (N. Y..) "R e c c r der " ; Mis s -
ouri Vailey(Iowa)Daily; and the Souix City(also Iswa^" Journal". The Pen-,
sylvania'R,R , Mtns’ magazine; the AMERICAN magazine, the"Marshallite" of
Pasadena,Calif.,and a correspondent of syndicated papers in Berlin and
Paris,France, have also, asked, if they may write us‘up,and sent us ques- •
tionaires which we have not had time to answer yet .This was all spread- .*
id publicity, and we/thank these newspapers,and magazines, each and all.
Two radio Announcers,one on the Atlantic slope and one on the Pacific,
gave‘our Alaskan paper a good word - of two'- by broadcasting.Thanks to
them, too.As a result of this■encouragement,we have npw more than'300
paid subscribers. Our objective has long been 400 (like Edison's), and
while we’are nearing this,we still have seme ways to gp> '
Some of the ncted'people have - taken .out subscriptions to the Herald'
are: Mrs. Elsie Seeger,honored. Mother of the! World War poet Allan Seegef,
who wrote "I Have a Rendcz'vous With Death*'( and who bravely kept that
"rendez vous); Joseph'Chase,the painter of New.York who did Pershing's
portrait; Leroy Ward,great N. Y. architect; penlcy Hunter.* world travel-.
' ler; James W. \7ickershagi,Delegate to Congress; David Malcolftscn,formerly"
professor in Extension class of the University of Californiap'Dr.Junius
Meriam, recently visiting.professor at QaLumbia university,N.Y.,and now
back at University of Calif, a# -L.A. t and Mrs. John Eyre Slcane(Edison’s
daught or, Made 3d n e > who also’wrote us a *kreatrb er^ourhgLng letter* We
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