With this issue, The Express begins Volume 126, That means The Superior Express has been published for 125 years and always under the name of The Superior Express.
C. E. Dedrick published the first issue in January of 1900, approximately 25 years after the town was established. Depending upon how one counts time, The Express could be even older. When it was established, Mr. Dedrick took over the subscription list of the Superior Sun, a paper that had been established perhaps 10 years earlier and edited by Charles Bishop. The earliest copies of the Sun known to exist date to 1895. Later The Express takes over the subscription list of the Superior Journal which began publication in 1888 or before. To claim those dates as the beginning would make it older.
In its 125 years, The Express has had five managing editors.
When it was established, newspapers were printed in the town of publication, usually on a press owned by the newspaper. That is still true for The Express. About 25 feet separate the editor’s desk and the nearly 60-year-old press on which it is printed. In house printing is no longer the norm. Most newspapers are now printed in another town, many in another state. For example, the Fairbury, Concordia and Beloit newspapers are now printed in Iowa.
Regardless of where or how printed, newspapers are a serialized history book frequently referred to by those searching for information on things like births, deaths, weddings and anniversaries. If given the opportunity, we will publish the stories without charge.
Today we often aren’t given the opportunity to do so. In my 54 years with The Express, I have observed a dramatic drop off in submissions of all kinds. For example, in the spring of 1959, we were alerted to a wagon train traveling from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon to mark the 100th anniversary of Oregon achieving statehood.
Today I know about that because Gwen (Jones) Porter, contacted me this week and asked if The Express had a story. We did because somebody called the office and told us about the wagon train passing through Nuckolls County.
Gwen was a pre-schooler and remembered the wagon train participants camping near her parents’ farm located along Highway 14 north of Nelson. Gwen got to stay the night with the travelers and rode in one of their wagons the next day. Her father, Boyd Jones, accompanied on horseback the wagon train to Fairfield.
Gwen remembered wearing her Roy Rogers skirt on that trip and said, “I was sure they were the same people that were on the television show Wagon Train. I was looking for Flint and the Wagon Master.” She was disappointed to learn the television show characters were not among the participants.
Often times, trying to find the requested information is like hunting for a needle in a haystack and I don’t have the patience to do so. However, Gwen knew the year and with a little internet search, I soon found references to hundreds of newspaper stories about that wagon train.
All Nukcolls County newspapers printed stories.
When the group left Independence, they planned to closely follow the Oregon Trail, but they encountered more than 5 inches of rain in this area and instead traveled on improved highways. The route from Fairbury took them past Ruskin. The Ruskin Leader reported the community’s school was dismissed so the pupils could see the travelers. Two busloads of pupils were brought from Davenport to Ruskin to see the travelers.
The Nelson Gazette reported KHAS-TV sent a film crew to Nelson to cover the event. The Gazette reporter praised the coverage and wrote more about the TV crew than the wagon train. No doubt the television station did a good job but where do we go to view the film clip? We can read and I have read the stories printed in The Express, Nelson Gazette, Lawrence Locomotive and Ruskin Leader. At this writing, our plan is to reprint The Express story elsewhere in this issue.
Thanks to Gwen for asking. I enjoyed the excuse to go back through the files. And her timing was right. Her request came on a day when I had the time. In answer to most requests, I say, “Go check the microfilm at the Superior Public Library.”
I enjoy such prospecting for stories. Perhaps, after I retire, I will have more time to do so.
And thanks to the people along the way in May of 1959 who told their community newspapers about what was happening so the papers were able to record the story. For most of the papers, all it took was a telephone call but for the Ruskin Leader someone had to personally tell the editor for it is my understanding The Leader office never had a telephone.
If they hadn’t contacted The Express, most likely we would never of have had the story. We couldn’t have looked out our window and seen the wagons crawling across northern Nuckolls County gone after the story.
For today’s readers, when you learn about something of interest happening, don’t hesitate to tell us. We may or may not be able to get a story but we for sure will never have the story if we don’t know about it.
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