Milford chronicle., 1924-06-27

mentS OF the business were Jnen placed IN TN
hands of men who by training were well quail
fed to direct them. Col. Townsend continued a
the editorial writer. G. Marshall Townsend wa
made the managing editor, responsible for al
news items and feature articles appearing in tht
paper other than the editorials. Thomas c
Reynolds was made business manager. The joI
printing department was assigned jointly to Mr.
Reynolds and Marshall Townsend for manage
ment. That briefly is the story of the manage
ment and ownership of the Chronicle since its
birth to the present time
The story of the Milford Chronicle itself is
exceedingly interesting, and its steady and con-
tinuOus growth, in both size and circulation, is
a matter of pride of the publishers. The first
issue, in October, 1878, was printed an old
Washington hand press in the building which
now forms part of the hardware store of J. Har-
ry Humes on Walnut street, at the bridge. All
of the work of type setting, makeup, press work
and preparing the paper for the mails was done
by the owners, Theodore Townsend and julius
E. Scott. The size of the first Chronicle was
four pages, seven columns to the page. The
first edition consisted of over one thousand cop
les, of which seven hundred copies were sent
to bona fde subscribers From the first the
Chronicle was heartily received by the residents
of Milford
The Chronicle was started as an Independent
in politics. The young owners with the first
issue choose a Straightforward course, hewing
to the line presenting the real news fearlessly,
and placed the interests of Milford the county
and State paramount to any other considera-
tions. Articles having for their purpose the
venting of personal spleen were frOwned upon,
and persons trying to make use of the paper
for such purposes were rebuked promptly upon
presentation of items of this character. RecOg-
nizing the right of the readers to expect value
for their money the owners decided upon the
policy of providing interesting news letters from
the towns and districts in both Kent and Sus-
sex counties served by the Chronicle. This pol
icy has been adhered to for over forty-fve years.
At the present time letters are carried weekly
from over forty towns, districts and communi-
ties in lower Kent and Sussex counties. In ad-
dition to these letters, poultry articles, grange
and agricultural matters and other information
of a local, county or state nature are incorpor-
ated in the paper each issue. This, we believe,
has done much to make the Chronicle so well
come a guest in the homes served by it,
In 1880 the Chronicle moved from the build
ing of its birth to the store building now occu-
pied by Charles NJ. Tatman in the Old Windsor
Hotel Block. On August II, 1888 the form of
the Chronicle was changed to a five column,
eight page paper. At that time the Chronicle
combined with the Delaware Farmer" and took
an active part in Grange affairs. When Mr..
Corsa relnguished his interest in the Chronicle,
Theodore Townsend in 1885 again changed the
size of the paper to an eight column four page
publication. In that form it was published reg
ularly until the year,19O1, when its size was /
again changed During the years, 1901, 1902 |
and 19O3 it assumed bundlesome size. 1t was |
printed as a nine column four page paper. That |
the management was dspleased with this form
is attested by the fact that in 1904 another
change was made.
Many competitors had made their appearance
in the field during the years that the Chronicle
had been in existence, and many had failed. Up .
until 1904 the Peninsula News and Advertiser,
established in 1876 as a Republican paper in
Milford, had remained actively in the field. In
hat year the Grier brothers, owners, sold the
News to the owner of the Milford Chronicle who
to give it a decent burial The en-
)loyees of the old News were employed, and two
If them are still employees of the Chronicle.
With the acquisition of the News, Theodore
Townsend made the first real effort to install
abor saving devices in the Chronicle plant An
Id Zoos" gasoline engine (second-handed it is
rue, but an engine nevertheless) was installed
hat year. At the same time a newspaper folder
vas also placed in service in the shop. The
'hronicle thereby became the first weekly news
aper published on the peninsula to be printed
n a press driven by power and to be folded on
folding machine. The size of the Chronicle
vas changed to a six column eight page news
aper. At that time all sembance of advertis-
ng was chased from the first page-and it has
een absent ever since. During all of the time
he paper was entirely set by hand until April,
914, saw the installation of a single magazine
linotype machine.
In 1906, Theodore Townsend built the present
chronicle building and moved into it in October.
When the change from the old quarters to the
ew made, new Cottrell press was install
ed to take care of the paper, and new folding
Machine was put in service. Every indication at
hat time was that the building was large
nough for a long period of years growth; but
n addition had to be built in 1917 to accommo-
ate the increased business. With the incOrpor-
tion of the business in 1910 an active drive to
make the Chronicle a leader in its field was
tarted. At that time the circulation of the pa
er was scarcely 5000 copies each issue. The
dvertising was just about enough to comfort
(