The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1922-02-03
VOLUME XI, NO. I

WIN TINS issue Of the Pioneer we
begin the eleventh year of our exist
encc The present editor has been in
charge OF the paper for nine wears
ana three months Of that time. As
we look back over the years that have
passed we can note many changes in
'he county-many who were resi-
dents OF the county at that time arc
now removed to other parts, and some
have passed from this earth
Take Wood, for instance: There
are but four institutions that WIRE in
the town at that time that are still
under the same Management or owner
ship today. These are C. Abourezk.
WHO, when we first came here. did
not operate regular store, but con-
| quoted a peddIcr' wagon, and made
has headquarters here. In these nine
wears hc has built up one of as GOOD
stores here as YOU can find anywhere
III NAL. inland town and has a
branch store at Mission. L. l.. Will
moth, our barber, is still conducting
tie only barber shop in Wood. He
! was mere Acn We came, and while he
mas haa~opposi,ion once or twice dur
Il&>Af past nine years, he has sur
NNed, and IS still holding forth at the
Old stand. Kenneth Melott, who
was manager OF the Green Feed
Barn when We FIRST came here. is
stu manager Of that place, but is
now also the owner. Mrs. Ida Nc
Donald, the field matron at this
place, IS still holding down that post
here, while other government officials
have made several changes.
When we came here and took
charge Of the Pioneer, the office con-
sisted OF nothing but a shell of q
building neither ceiled nor plastered,
with tar paper roof. The equipment
consisted Of a limited quantity OF
type Of doubtful age and antiquity,
3 Vaughn Ideal hand cylinder press,
and an old Washingtn jobber that
looked as though it might have done
duty in Ben Franklin's print shop.
1t was a mighty sorry-looking lay
out, to say the least, jut we took
charge OF the shop and did the best
we could under the circumstances.
We made friends from the start and
prospered, in a way. Our business
grew and we first added little
much-necded type, and in 1917 we re-
built our Office building and doubled
our floor space. We shipped up a
print shop we owned in Kansas and
installed more modern machinery.
We put in a power Diamond cyin-
der press, dtched the old Vaughn
Ideal and the Washington jobber and
replaced the latter with two modern
Gordon jobbcrs, then ditched large
quantity OF type, got new type cab
met and filled it with new and mod
ern type faces, installed an embos-
sing machine and other modern
machinery. This year we have in
stalled model one linotype machine
and We now have an equipment sec
ond to none in this section Of the
state for handling most any kind Of
job.
The Pioneer Office Of today and
the one we took charge of in 1912,
are not TO be compared in any way.
Our business has been increasing
from year to year. and our trade ter
ritoly for modern printing has been
growing larger and larger each year,
and this too, without belly-aching
for our own cause" as practically all
of our business comes 10 us un-
solicited
We had expected to announce some
radical changes in the Pioneer, be-
ginning with this issue, but owing to
tie unprecedented rush of work and
the installing Of our linotype, we are
unable to do so in this issue, but
hope to lave things in such shape in
q few weeks now, that we can print
q newspaper that will come nearer to
our ideal of a real newspaper.
We want to take this opportunity
to thank those who have been send
| mo us the neghborhood news from
their respective localities. We like
to get all the news we can, for the