The Ely miner., 1943-06-24
HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
On This
Occasion
a Few Observations ON Matters
Material and Immaterial By
the Editor.
VOL. SO, NO. 1.

Ely and its people. You win notic'
that this is the first number of vol
ume so and means that for the pas
40 years The Miner has been pub
IShed weekly in this charming city
where its editor has his home, raise6
his family and saw the community
develop from mining camp to a rea
metropolitan city.
The editor of The Miner was a cit
izen of this city from 1891 to 1893 a.
publisher of The Ely Iron Home, which
was established here in 1888 by DR.
Fred Barrett of Tower. The Iron Home
office was located where the Shipmar
hospital onw stands and later was
moved and became a part of the Slo-
gar building, used as a livery stable
bowling alley and a store. This Struc-
ture was destroyed by fire several
years ago.
The Ely Iron Home was doing a fair
business, as business was measured at
that time, and several people looked
with envious eyes at the editor and
the paper he operated-they said for
outside intereStS-and it was decided
to have another paper whose profits
should not go to enrich outsiders. The
editor at that time was one of the
favored salary grabbers of Ely and he
was paid a wage Of s18 a week, with
a working schedule of "a hours a day.
Our young wife helped us in the pub
ncation of the paper.
Wages at that time in the mines ran
about s1.8O to $500 per day, and dur
ing the panic of 1893 there were no
wages and men were working on the
roads at so cents per day. As mat
ter of history, it can be said that Ely
was built on a s1.80 to 500 a day
basis. Streets and sidewalks were
constructed, and people erected their
homes, raised and educated their FAM
lies on this basis. How times have
changed!
In 1892 The Ely Times came into
being and went like a house afire,
causing a discrepancy in the financial
affairs Of The Iron Home. In a short
time it was absorbed by The Times.
The writer then went back to Tower
with his family of wife and one son
born here, to our old job on The Yer
million Iron Journal. The new paper
business in Ely did not pan out as
well as expected, and the founders,
Robie and Blumberg, had gotten out
from under, leaving George Wescott,
at attorney, to carry on.
Early in 1895 several Ely business
men who were not satisfied with The
Times as a community builder called
on us at Tower and promised to help
establish a newspaper in Ely. The
proposition looked good to us, and in
1895 The Ely Miner was born with the
printers proverbial handful of type
and a Washington hand press"-a far
cry from the modern machinery and
linotype of the present plant. A few
years later The Times went out of
business, but not until ten different
parties had tried to keep it from fold
ing.
The Miner started right in to keep
the people informed of the good done
by the popuIace of Ely and withheld
ing the sordid details in the lives of
our citizens. In precarious manner
the paper became landmark of Ely
and its editorials were copied by ex-
changes throughout the state--a high
light in the life of every editor In
the meantime we had accumulated a
shop Of our own, small one but a
personal triumph. AS one of our peo-
pie remarked, Every time someone
pays his subscription, Pete Schaefer
adds another foot to his printing CT
flee"
With the growth Of TIE Miner
building, the envy of certain people in
creased, and to date we have weathered
the onslaughtS of IA distinct opposi-
tiors which had come here to run us
out" We could continue this for sew
eral more reams, but, not to tire those
who might choose to read it, We will
say that the present editor has been
in charge of the paper since its
establishment in 1895 AMI our foreman,
Jack Seraphine, started his printing
career with The Miner A years ago.
We have weathered the attendant
slumps in business occaSioned by sew
eral wars and several battles fought
by political parties. We are still do
ing what we can for Ely and its peo-
pie, and for America, first, last and
all the time. With three sons in the
last war in 1918 and our grandson in
this one, we have no patience with the
fifth columnist in Ely or elsewhere,
and because we have not printed their
names is no sign we don't know who
they are and what they are doing. The
F. B. I. viii attend to these matters
when the occasion demands.
The Miner is not as large as the
New York Sun, the Chicago American
or the Los Angeles Times; neither Is
Ely as large as the cities in which
these papers are published, nor are
the establishments of Ely as prosper
Gus and as large as are the establish
ments of Macy's in New York, John
wanamaker in Philadelphia or Mar
shal Field in Chicago. There is vast
difference in the advertising patron
age of several hundred thousand dol
lars year paid these large dailies and
the ct advertised once" Of the small
town merchant. 1t is needless to tel
Ely business that these big establish
ments were made so by advertising.
When The Miner publishes the fact
that someone has a new baby, get:
married, has a death in the family
or enlarges his business, along come
circulars from baby carriage makers
furniture houses and monument max,