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Setting stage for Ruralite’s arrival
After a flurry of journalistic activity in the 1880s and 1890s, when The Webster Herald and The Tuckaseigee Democrat vied for readership, Jackson County typically has had only one newspaper at a time.
For the first quarter of the 20th century, that publication was the Jackson County Journal; for nearly four decades, until the 1981 advent of the Cashiers Chronicle, that newspaper was The Sylva Herald, which began publication 80 years ago next week as The Ruralite. Started by E.E. Brown, formerly the foreman for the Journal, The Ruralite was sold to J.A. Gray and J.M. Bird, who changed its name to The Sylva Herald and Ruralite, the name that continues to adorn this newspaper’s masthead.
The Jackson County Journal was a casualty of World War II. Editor Dan Tompkins’ last employee was drafted in April 1943, and the Journal ceased publication in October of that year. To get a feel for what Sylva was like when The Ruralite arrived on the scene, let’s look back eight decades to the March 23, 1926, issue of the Jackson County Journal.
One item of interest that leaps from that issue of the Journal is that the newspaper’s editor, Tompkins, was mayor of Sylva.
The majority of the front-page news that week revolves around a contract that was awarded for street paving and sewer bonds. The newspaper reported those items by printing the resolutions that authorized them word for word, including the names of Dan Tompkins, mayor, and B. H. Cathey, clerk, at the end.
Sylva board members at the time included Billy Davis, John A. Parris, W.E. Grindstaff, Roy M. Cowan and B.H. Davis. The motions for the sewer improvement bond and street bonds passed unanimously.
Looking at those stories brings one of those “the more things change the more they stay the same” moments, as those of us who make a habit of attending current Sylva board meetings know that streets and sewers are still frequent agenda items.
Back in 1926, newspapers didn’t do a lot of classifying news. Appearing on the front page with the news of the planned infrastructure improvements are a letter to the editor and society news from Shoal Creek. Reading the latter we learn that “Miss Roxie Buchanan, of Webster, visited her sister, Miss Berthan Buchanan, Saturday,” that “Mr. and Mrs. H.G. Ferguson and Mrs. J.L. Ferguson were guests at Mr. York Howell’s, Sunday” and that “Mr. and Mrs. J. M. Hughes visited Mr. and Mrs. Jno. Norton at East LaPorte, Tuesday.”
And, just as readers continue to find in The Sylva Herald, there was court news; however, the two listings that were readable on microfilm in Western Carolina University’s Hunter Library seem to involve property rather than criminal violations. One entry describes Dr. A.S. Nichols and “the state” entering a claim for 10 acres in Canada township on the waters of Tannessee Creek.”
The second court item involved Lawrence Lindsay, minor, and his guardian, J.M. Lindsay, and involved a property sale “to the highest bidder.” on April 5, 1926. That order was singed by D.D. Alley, commissioner of court.
The advertisements of the day also tell stories. They range from the familiar – a grocery ad for the A&P – to the unusual – a promotion for Wild Cherry Tonic by Bear Medicine Co. of Sylva.
In the grocery ad, which refers to the store as “The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co.” on Main Street in Sylva, we see that canned “string” beans are selling for 10 cents a can and the best grade of lard costs 20 cents.
Wild Cherry Tonic is billed as “nature’s system builder extracted from roots, bark and herbs gathered from the virgin forest in the heart of the mountains, and manufactured in the Land of the Sky, the greatest crude drug producing section in America.”
The ad goes on to say that “Hundreds have been benefited by this wonderful medicine” with more than “two-thousand bottles sold in this section.” Cost for the elixir was $1.12, which included shipping.
A surprise was an ad by the local Chevrolet dealer, the Cullowhee Motor Co., which promised its customers “quality at low prices,” and billed its cars as “So smooth, so powerful.” Prices on the cars started at $510 for a roadster and climbed to $735 for a sedan.
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