| Show UTAH PRESS ASSOCIATION the Council Bluffs Pressyear later then moved in 1859 to the tiny community of Shelton not far from Ft Kearny in what is now central Nebraska There he began publishing The HuntsmanEcho continued blacksmithing operatedranch bakery andsaloon On September 27 1861 Johnson and his family arrived in Salt Lake City with that seasonfinal emigrant company In the following year he moved to Spring Lake midway between present-day Payson and Santaquin for reasons disagreed upon Dby historian Anna Moore and Cecil Alter Miss Moore quotes Johnsonautobiography saying he moved there to work on The FarmerOracle which Johnson described as small agricultural sheet Alter on the other hand credits Johnson with creating The Oracle on May 1863 In any event the publication was the first country newspaper in the territory Johnson wastrifle pessimistic at the outset We have commenced the Oracle under circumstances rather discouraging to the dollar-and-cent interests of the publisher many will argue since they have got along first-rate without it they can continue without it Its publisher also established in Spring Lake what Miss Moore explained was very pretentious drug store the stock comprising practically every existent patent medicine and known home remedy The latter were largely prepared and bottled or packaged by Johnson himself and bore his name It was also significant that members of the family were known as florists and farmers for articles on the front page of the early Oracle were on such subjects as growing early celery onion culture cheese-making how to kill lice on calves andtreatment for kicking cows Advertisements included assorted flowering plants and feeding of sheep on the bearing Johnsonname As the founder had feared the Spring Lake succeed and he moved his press to St George after closing the file on The FarmerOracle His first St George paper Our Dixie Times shares both venture didnearly in 1868 was renamed three times before February 24 1877 when Johnson unveiled the Silver Reef Echo daily servingbooming mining camp 174 Digital image 2005 Marriott Library University of Utah Al rights reserved |
