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Nevada Appeal to celebrate 160th birthday with Meet Your Merchant
The Nevada Appeal is hosting “Meet Your Merchant: Connecting Community with Business” on Saturday, May 17.
The event will offer community members a chance to discover new businesses they may not know in Carson City.
The event will be free to the community. It will run from 2-5 p.m. on Saturday, May 17 at the Carson City Multi-Purpose Athletic Center Facility, 1860 Russell Way.
Booth space for business is available at nevadaappeal.com/meetyourmerchant.
The event corresponds with the Appeal’s 160th year in publishing. During the event there will be a recognition for the Appeal’s achievement. The Appeal’s first edition was published on the morning of May 16, 1865.
For information, or to sponsor, check out the web page or contact Annemarie Dickert at adickert@nevadanewsgroup.com.
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CHAPTER 12
On May 16, 1990, the Nevada Appeal turned 125 years old. To celebrate the occasion the paper published a book on the Appeal’s 125 years in history. For the next eight weeks the Appeal will reprint parts of the book leading into the Appeal’s 160th birthday. The book was produced by then-editor Don Ham with help from John S. Miller, Daun Bohall, Guy Rocha, Jon Christensen and Noreen Humphreys.
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Carson City had already gained its reputation as a graveyard for newspapers by the time the Appeal arrived on the scene May 16, 1865. In a four-year period from 1861 to the Appeal’s debut, the fledgling community had witnessed no fewer than 10 newspaper failures. Without a doubt many of those newspapers that collapsed and died in their infancy or lateralled off into other, more promising communities, were sorry examples to begin with. In those days, a press, a wagonload of type, equipment and supplies, coupled with enthusiasm and a passable knowledge of the English language were all a person needed to start a newspaper. At least a modicum of resident acceptance was needed in order to succeed. Carsonites have, over the decades, rewarded newspaper skill and enterprise with passive acceptance and have punished mediocrity with ostracism.
With newspapers coming and going with about as much impact as freight wagons through town, pioneer Carsonites had become surly and restive in dealing with the parade of hopeful publishers courting their favor. Any newspaper hoping to gain community support would have to be good. Anything less and the new paper would be ignored into oblivion.
But this time it would be different. For openers, this latest newspaper would not be the effort of some tramp printer who happened to run out of money and ideas the same time he hit town.
Three local, well-respected businessmen saw the need for an attractive, efficient pro-Union newspaper in their community. They also had something else that most newspaper creators lack — money. They made up their minds before the paper ever saw print that the editor would have to be somebody special.
There was an aura of anticipation around town. Somehow, everybody was sure, this time it was going to be different. Henry Mighels arrived in Carson with an impressive list of journalistic victories on his chart. Mighels’ editorial performance was everything the people expected but still, over the first few years, it was apparently the financial solvency of the three publishers and not Mighels’ editorial prowess that kept the paper going.
The publishers, E.F. McElwin, J. Barrett and Marshall Robinson, kept upgrading the equipment and eventually bought a building near the downtown mainstream.
But after the first year, circulation was a scant 100 strong when it should have been four or five times that. The slow start, however, may have ultimately been to Mighels’ benefit. The publishing partners began dropping out. Mighels, along with Robinson, one of the three founders, bought out the other two before the first year was out. By 1868, Mighels had taken over Robinson’s interest although Robinson stayed on as business manager, bookkeeper and circulation supervisor.
Whatever the secret formula is, Mighels apparently found it. The Appeal had about 30 competitors over the next 100 years. They lasted anywhere from a few days to 50 years, but all eventually disappeared while the Appeal kept plodding along.
Not all of the hopeful Carson City newspapers died. The Territorial Enterprise, nationally famous chronicler of the Comstock Lode and Virginia City, came to Carson City from Genoa but was quickly coaxed away from this sleepy village by the boom camps at the foot of Mount Davidson. It prospered with the mines and faded with the mines.
The Nevada State Journal began in Carson City, but its publishers apparently quickly realized the mistake of going against Mighels. After a stay of less than a week, they moved to Lake’s Crossing where the Journal eventually grew and prospered with the city of Reno.
The Appeal, by anyone’s definition, was a late bloomer. William “Bill” Dolan, who was at the Appeal more than 40 years, served in various capacities including proofreader, journalism intern, reporter, photographer, editor and advertising salesman. The Appeal was sold to Donrey Media Group in 1951 for $35,000. Years later, Dolan was asked why he didn’t buy the Appeal himself.
“I probably could have,” he observed, “the only thing is I’d have gone broke trying to keep it running the next 15 years.”
The community’s population has been basically responsible for the Appeal ‘s long, slow climb to success. It took 100 years for the community to grow from 2,000 to 4,000 people. From the years 1950 to 1970, the population jumped from 4,000 to 24,000, more than doubling after each federal census. As 1990 begins, the population is estimated at 36,000.
It was only in the year 1976 that the Appeal began to see a semblance of the advertising activity and subscription growth that Mighels was hoping for in print back in 1866.
Harry knew the town was going to grow and carry the Appeal with it; he just missed the guess by 110 years.
The Appeal has always been a bellwether of innovation in Nevada journalism, especially under the quarter century of Donrey operation.
The newspaper began publication in 1865 with a model of the first cylinder press ever invented. The press was a major breakthrough in the printing profession. The English common press, used from the advent of moveable type until the early 1800s, had pressure for printing applied by screwing down the printing plate against the typebed.
A more popular modification of this device used widely on the American frontier had a single-sweep lever to apply the pressure. This speeded up the laborious printing process.
Sometime between 1811 and 1814, Friedrich Koenig, an employee of the London Times, substituted a cylinder for the flat platen and devised a method for the typebed to roll back and forth under it. He then applied steam power to it and later added a second cylinder underneath so both sides of the paper could be printed at the same time.
In New York, Robert Hoe’s printing company began producing similar presses. An 1832 model was developed by son Richard, who was an inventor-genius of national reputation.
This 1832 model was the one used by the fledgling Appeal. The press was over 30 years old when the Appeal obtained it — more than likely from a destitute predecessor.
In 1872, the Appeal owners purchased new equipment and a new press with a steam power unit. As mentioned earlier, the press was the first item of through-freight hauled into the area by the Virginia & Truckee Railway which had just opened a route between Reno and Carson City.
In 1947, the Appeal was purchased by Arthur N. Suverkrup. He changed the name of the newspaper to the Nevada Appeal with the notion that since it was located in the capital city, it should represent the entire state in its coverage of state government.
The Appeal installed the state’s first Scanagraver machine in 1957, with which to reproduce photographs and artwork for the printing process. The machine, using a style of the rotograveur process, would etch a 100 percent reproduction image into a sheet of plastic. This plastic could then be trimmed and mounted on a lead or wood base to be dropped into the chase with the rest of the type.
Up until this time, what little artwork that was used in the news pages and in advertisements came from zinc-plate engravers in Reno and Sacramento. These items took as long as 10 days to get, and they were usually mug shots of politicians and local newsmakers.
The arrival of the Scanagraver was the debut of photojournalism at the Appeal and other small newspapers in rural communities. For the first time, there was a speedy, efficient method of printing the local news in pictures.
The Appeal had, for quite some time, been printing national news photos but these were received in the mail in the form of fiber mats which were cast in molten lead and then placed on the press.
Donald W. Reynolds purchased the Appeal in 1951, and the first thing he did was move it out of its tiny quarters on Second Street and into the brewery building on the southwest corner of King and Division streets.
The building was constructed new in the 1870s as a moving and storage business. The building was later converted into a brewery. The Appeal business office was installed in what used to be a corner bar where the brewery’s product was sold direct to the consumers.
The brewing vats and malting tanks were boarded over and the resultant space was used for newsprint storage.
In 1961, the Appeal was the first newspaper west of the Mississippi, and the third in the nation, to go to the photo offset printing process. Some of the equipment and procedures were still considered experimental at the time. Cameras, photo paper, chemicals, darkroom and typewriters replaced hot lead and Linotype machines. Today, hot metal production is virtually extinct.
Additional rooms were constructed in the rear to house the growing newsroom and composing room. Desks and work counters in the newsroom were the smooth-top iron slabs that were used in earlier times by compositors as page-makeup tables.
At the Appeal, the new offset printing process produced an attractive, sparkling newspaper that electrified the readers as well as other publishers. For years the Appeal was visited by newspaper owners and general managers from all over the West who were interested in adopting this new process.
In addition to being a trendsetter in newspaper mechanics, the Appeal has also been a leader in the formation of public opinion. Mighels set a trend for fearless, well-thought-out editorials that has persevered unbroken over the last 113 years.
The daily editorial repast ran the full range from promoting a fundraising dance for Warren Engine Company No. 1 to world affairs. Mighels set a tone of editorial responsibility that seemed to inspire his dozens of successors over the decades.
Some of the editorial stances reflected the attitudes of the times, and positions on specific topics occasionally flipped and flopped back and forth over the fence, reflecting the personal predilections of individual editors. However, some of Mighels’ editorial opinions of the 1860s were sound enough and wise enough to withstand the passing of time and have been repeated by subsequent editors.
Mighels was dedicated to the preservation of the Union, America’s good stature in the world and was an unabashed booster of Carson City and the state of Nevada.
However, editorial opinions of the past 10 years, which would be considered conservative by today’s standards, would be viewed as blasphemous liberalism by Mighels.
Here are some landmark editorial opinions as they surfaced over the years:
• States rights criticized as a hobby horse for slavery proponents. “To advocate states’ rights is to sustain secessionalism.” (1865)
• William Jennings Bryan endorsed for president. (1890)
• Supported a system of parole and work farm for inmates. “This is a prison reform in the right channel.” (1911)
• Urged suffrage question placed on the ballot. (A one-sentence editorial.) (1911)
• Liberalize divorce. “It should be easy to rectify a mistake. A man can get out of a salted mine or an unsound house. Why not a bad marriage? Women are just as apt to make a mistake and be the greater sufferer.” (1911)
• Criticized as ridiculous laws that call attempted suicide a crime. “A suicide attempt is clear evidence of mental derangement, and the victim should be hospitalized — not jailed.” (1931)
• Gambling called a parasitic growth. “The largest gambling income should get the highest taxes. Tax gamblers to the limit and reduce the tax load for productive citizens.” (1939)
• A warning against pollution and the over-development of Lake Tahoe. Editorial called for growth controls at the lake. (1939)
• Called for the state inspection of schools and recommended minimum standards of sanitation be instituted. (1946)
• Urged the development of new water supplies and the institution of some means to control unbridled growth in Carson City. (1947)
• Suggested mandatory six-month jail terms and $500 fine for drunken drivers along with a mandatory driver’s license revocation. (1947)
• Noted the slaying of mobster Bugsy Siegel and called for state and federal governments to investigate mob activity in Nevada. (1947)
• Warned against letting the Virginia & Truckee Railroad sell off its equipment to movie studios. Recommended a state fund be established to buy and preserve historic equipment. (1948)
• “Repeal prohibition for Indians. The sooner we quit treating Indians paternalistically, the sooner they will assume a useful place in society and cease to be a ward of the government.” (1948)
• The Bible is cited as a good reason to abolish capital punishment. “However, a life sentence must mean just that.” (1948)
• Opposed federal aid for public schools because “federal dollars for Nevada schools will lead to federal control of state education affairs.” (1949)
• Opposed above-ground atomic blasts near Las Vegas. (1959)