In the ancestry of the Klamath Falls Record was a little paper conducted at White Lake City, boom town of the Klamath basin in 1905 and 1906. This paper, called the Times, was launched there in June, 1905, by E. B. (Bert) Hall, town-site boomer, with Vance Hutchins, later Evans' city editor on the Northwestern, as managing editor. Though the town had only 200 inhabitants, Hutchins built up a circulation of 900 for the paper, whose readers were scattered through the entire Klamath country, for the Times was the only paper in the Klamath basin published outside the metropolis, and it was brightly edited.
The White Lake City boom broke when the purchase of the Weed logging road by E. H. Harriman routed the railroad away from White Lake. The paper died, and the plant, purchased by Nathan Merrill, was moved over, late in 1905, to the town named after him. Among the early editors were Vance Hutchins and G. R. Carlock. Finally Mrs. Catherine Prehm Terry, a remarkably capable newspaper woman, bought the paper for $700—$10 down. Within four months she had paid in the full amount. In a half century of newspaper experience Mrs. Terry has done about everything there is to do on a newspaper. One of her feats, accomplished in 1917, was to assemble a linotype and put it into working order—perhaps the first woman ever to do that. She had been, while setting type on a Baltimore paper as a young girl in the 80's, the first woman to operate a linotype, in the city where Mergenthaler invented it. She sold the paper, now called the Record, to W. H. Mason in 1915.[1]
The Record had already been moved to Klamath Falls when Mason purchased it. He adopted for his slogan "The Paper With out a Muzzle or a Club." It became the official publication of the Klamath county water-users. In 1920 he began publishing the Record as a daily, with United Press wire service.
Don Belding, war veteran, former Western Union operator and student at the University of Oregon, was at the time manager of the Western Union office in Klamath Falls, where he had gone from Eugene. With a yen for journalism, he left the telegraph key to become business manager of the Record. The new daily in 1921 was boasting a circulation of 1800. August 17, 1921, Mason sold his interest to a newly-formed corporation, with Clark Williams president, W. A. Wiest vice-president, and Don Belding secretary-treasurer. Williams, experienced newspaper man from the Oregonian, was made editor, Belding manager, and Howard Hill, later with the Herald, city editor. Elizabeth Grigsby did society. A. J. DeLaix was head of the mechanical department.
Within a few weeks Clark Williams relinquished his interest, and Belding was elected president. The concern was now cooperative, with stock held by several of the employees.
- ↑ (158)
