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SOME SUCCEEDED; MANY MORE DIDN'T MILFORD The first newspaper venture in this Beaver County community was the semi-weekly Sentinel, begun in August, 1880. It was, in fact, the Beaver Watchman with a masthead change. Publisher Joseph Field, decrying the lack of advertising patronage in Beaver, decided to move to the neighboring town because the Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad had established a division point there and prospects seemed brighter. It wasn't true ~ the paper suspended after less than a year. The Milford Times appeared on the scene 22 years later, publisher C. T. Harte describing himself as "the only newspaper publisher in Beaver County" and his product as "the only live paper in southern Utah." He departed in 1903, giving way to the man who probably was connected with more Utah newspapers than any other in history, James T. Jakeman. He, in turn, surrendered the reins to W. L. Elswick and the Times then changed names, becoming the Beaver County News in 1912. Briefly in 1914, Arthur B. Lewis was numbered among publishers of the News and a year later W. L. Elswick reappeared in company with M. J. Westerfield, a Californian. The paper finally gained more stability on March 1, 1916, when Karl Carlton became Westerfield's partner and on May 1, 1917, took total control. A Hall of Fame publisher, he newspapered in both Milford and Beaver until 1933, when his son, Walter, assumed the reins. In more recent years the paper successively became the property of two capable newsmen in one-time Salt Lake Tribune staffer Steve Williams and then, in July, 1970, N. R. (Red) Wilson, a transplanted Iowan. Struggling after Wilson's death, it finally ceased publication, leaving the Beaver Press the only paper printed in the county. Until 1991, that is, when Alice Smith somewhat tentatively launched in Milford the Dodge City News. Encouraged by its acceptance, she re-named it the Milford Monitor and in 1995 was continuing to publish the now five-year old weekly. 71 |
