Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1920-05-10
PRINTING IN
EARLY days
"o,. -
Pioneer Newspaper man
Recalls Journalism Ex-
periences When West
was New.
HAS JUST RETIRED
Celbe C. Cline had First Of
flee in Cherokee
Strip.

Kansas City, Mo, May 1O.-PlOneef
sing days of journalism in the west were
recalled here recently with the retire
ment of Celbe G.. Cline, managing
. editor of the Kansas City Journal. Mr..
Cline began his long newspaper career
in 1881 as Il printers devil on the
Democrat of Leadville, Colo. When
the big rush to the Cherokee Strip
opened in 1850 he was an experienced
editor, and he set out for the Indian
Territory from his parents home in
Kansas in a prairie schooner carrying
Il complete printing plant. Mr.. Cline
recOunted his experiences at a farewell
banquet in his honor.
The vOyaging editor set stakes at
Pond Creek, unloaded his printing
press and got out what he declares was
the first paper published in the Indian
Territory carrying an account OF the
race for land.
First Business.
~ His editorial office and Il saloon, MIR.
Cline says, were the first w business
establishments to spring up i'll Pond
Greek.
In the rush Of events the editor
ssfound himself elected the first mayor
of Pond Creek. He was elected by a
Y majority Of u over his lawyer OPP
pOnent, who was also his boon com
panion. Serious problems soon com
fronted the Hedging municipality.
''The Rock Island, running north and
south, divided Pond Greek into two
towns Mr.. Cline said. The own on
the west side of the tracks-that was
o. xl,n .nSl,,rs1,s ,,,t,1 o., J, tItn .,rIt
ty seat. 1t effected a separate orsa-
~nizatiOn and n separate railroad sta
ton and brought pressure to bear on
the railroad not to stop its trainS at
our station. SO we passed an ordi-
nance making it an Offense for trains to
run through Pond Greek ut Il greater
speed than six miles an hour.
Piles Up Train.
'Of course the ordinance was *
nOred, so we got together and set mp
$40 feet of the railroad track on edge
like a picket fence. The engineer OF
the first train to come along after .iat
seemed to be possessed with the notion
that if he put on speed, he could tlatten
that track-fence down and go over it.
For his effort, he piled his cattle train
III ic uItSA. we ullSStS0 tiV ~" if
exceeding the speed limit"
Z Mr.. Cline told Of pleading with a
crowd Of 5000 for law and order and
Of advising them to release the cattle
from the wrecked cars, which was
done. The following day, he said. one
hundred railroad police descended up.
on Pond Creek.
Arrest Police.
Plainly another ordinance was nee
essary, he continued, so II was forth
coming forbiddipg railroad police to
cnrry arms further than II hundred
feet from the railroad track. The
restaurant was more than one hun
dred feet from the track, and when the
railroad officers went to eat, Il depu-
I TIED crowd swOOped down on them,
captured their stacked arms and, at
the order of the mayor, arrested every
man.
In 1894 Pond Creek had to find a
new mayor, for Mr.. Cline came to
Kansas City, where he did most of his
subsequent newspaper work. He was
managing editor of the Journal for
eleven years. retiring May 1.
In leaving the newspaper business,
Mr.. Cline is following a desire he has
had for a dozen years to devote him
self to fruit farming. He has Il farm
ut Anderson, Mo.