Berthoud Weekly Surveyor July 18, 2013 Page 5 The historical society and Mark French are interested in obtaining and copying old photos from Berthoud’s past. Please contact Mark at 532-2147 if you have any photos you would like to share.
A LOOK AT BERTHOUD
Berthoud Bulletin and Berthoud News were town’s tabloids in 1890s
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or a time in the late 1890s the tiny town of Berthoud was served by two newspapers. The town’s 300 residents also supported two department stores, two general stores, two drug stores, Surveyor two novelty Columnist stores, two restaurants and bakeries, two livery barns, one implement store, one jewelry store, one millinery store, one meat market, one lumber yard, one harMark ness shop, one French barber shop, one bank, one machine repair shop, three physicians, two dentists, two carpenter shops, one feed mill, two paint shops, one plasterer, three blacksmith shops, one large hotel, one graded school, three churches, seven fraternal organizations, one mill and elevator company, and one boot and
Wildfire annual streetfest and silent auction Special to the Surveyor Join the party and celebrate with live music, dancers, food and fun at the 13th annual Wildfire Streetfest on Saturday, Sept. 7, from 6 -10 p.m. in downtown Berthoud. The main band, Three Twins, anchored by John Magnie of Subdudes fame, performs from 7 to 10 p.m. Other entertainment includes Keith Hancock & Friends, Drumming; Zach Damburger &
repair shop. The town’s two newspapers were known as The Berthoud Bulletin and The Berthoud News. The town’s first newspaper, The Berthoud Beacon, began publication in 1886, two years after the original settlement was moved from the Little Thompson river bottom to its new site on the southeast corner of Peter Turner’s homestead. In 1887 the Beacon’s publisher, Mr. L.A. Thompson, took his talents to Longmont where he leased The Longmont Press. How long Thompson published The Beacon is unknown, but it is highly likely that the life of the newspaper was less than one year. In 1890 F.H. Davis founded The Berthoud Blade. Three years later, and after several changes in ownership, the name of the newspaper was changed to The Berthoud Bulletin. J. Mack Mills, a local attorney, took the reins of The Bulletin in 1897 only to find himself in competition with George Johnson who had started The Berthoud News. At that time, in January 1897, the Fort Collins Express, noted, “Berthoud requires Friends, HipHop; and Tap Roots, Tap Dancers. A silent auction to benefit Wildfire from 6 to 9 p.m. features local artists, including Pati Pelz, Grace Goodson, Gordon Middleton, and other gifts for sale include Eidelon CDs, B Squared Honey, gift baskets and certificates. Food and libations will be available. The streetfest will be held between Fourth and Fifth streets on Massachusetts Avenue Wildfire, a not-for-profit organization, offers classes, workshops and events for all ages in the greater Berthoud Community and is dedicated to building community through the arts.
another newspaper about as bad as a wagon needs a fifth wheel.” Mills, who also dabbled as a contractor, photographer and attorney, used The Berthoud Bulletin as a political platform for his Populist and People’s Party views. Johnson, who published The Berthoud News, was also a Populist, so it came as no surprise to local residents when the men conducted a running debate through their tabloids. In the 1890s, when Populism was on the rise in Colorado, the collapse of the state’s silver industry and the issue of women’s suffrage were the main topics of discussion. Early in that decade Davis H. Waite of Aspen was elected as Colorado’s only Populist governor, and Colorado — after Wyoming — became the second state in the union to grant women the privilege to vote. The debates between Mills and Johnson, seldom cordial and frequently personal, motivated local readers to subscribe to both newspapers, since The Bulletin was published on Thursday and The News was published on Friday. Mills, who the Fort Collins newspapers described as “fi-
ENGAGEMENT Blair Colsey and Jessi Ryan are pleased to announce their engagement to be married Sept. 21, 2013, at the Dove House in Lafayette, Colo. Jessi is the daughter of Laura Stafford of Grand Junction, Colo., and Mike Ryan and Dorothy King of Berthoud, Colo. She is a graduate of Berthoud High School and Colorado State University. She works as an account manager on the health-risk management team at IMA Corporation in downtown Denver, Colo. Blair is the son of Margaret and Brian Greene of Longmont, Colo., and Alan and Virginia Colsey of Valley Cottage, N. Y. He is a graduate of Longmont High School, Colorado State University and St. Thomas Aquinas College. He works on the corporate finance team at Crocs in Niwot, Colo. They will honeymoon in Europe and make their home in Thornton, Colo.
Blair Colsey and Jessi Ryan
ery,” was particularly disparaging toward Johnson when his competitor backed a local movement to secure a sugar beet factory for Berthoud when the Great Western Sugar Company was establishing itself in Northern Colorado in 1898. Mills’ description of the group’s efforts as “building air castles” was later questioned when a similar effort by a Loveland group secured a sugar factory and allowed that community to prosper. Photo from the 1898 Berthoud News Neither Mills nor George Johnson was publisher of The Berthoud Johnson remained News in the late 1890s. Johnson also managed the in Berthoud for long. Johnson closed the doors Grand View Hotel at the northeast corner of Fourth Street and Massachusetts Avenue during the time of The Berthoud News he resided in Berthoud. in May 1898 and moved to Longmont. After Mills operated The Bulletin for short time passed the bar exam he practiced law before the newspaper passed into in Fort Collins and relocated his famother hands in May 1899. ily to that town. His wife, Belle Mills,