If you were in Montreat during the summers of 1936-41, you definitely wanted to subscribe to the Montreat Weekly News. Cost was five cents per week, delivered to your door. Single copies were available in the Montreat stores. You could get information on the current conference as well as the club program and Camp Montreat. Perhaps more importantly, you could discover who had arrived and where they were staying, as well as other relevant personal news of Montreaters.
The first issue appeared on June 6, 1936. It announced the opening of clubs, the latest arrivals, the mail schedule, and two illnesses. It also contained two advertisements and a message from Dr. Robert C. Anderson, president of MRA, commending this initiative and encouraging Montreaters to subscribe.
This newspaper was the brainchild of Kingsley and Tait Elder, ages 14 and 11. Their publishing office was located in the Elder family home, “Mountain Lodge,” on Virginia Road. Three other boys joined them as reporters and delivery personnel – Chester Pearce, George Ennett, and Clarence Legerton. They were busy that first summer. Within two weeks circulation had grown from 25 to 100. Perhaps they could have sold even more, but their publishing equipment, an old gelatin duplicator, could only produce 100 copies before the print faded. With their profits from this first year they purchased a mimeograph machine so that in 1937 they could produce up to 200 copies weekly.
Each year the paper grew in sophistication. The layout resembled a professional newspaper, with many articles beginning on the first page, to catch attention, and then continuing on the inner pages. By 1938 the paper was at least 8 pages each week, with advertisements not only from Montreat but Black Mountain businesses as well.
The paper was not published in 1939 but picked up again with the July 3, 1940 edition, in which Dr. Anderson noted that “Kingsley Elder, Jr., and Kenneth Foreman, Jr., are undertaking again to publish the Montreat Weekly News. These boys will give us an interesting paper and I trust that all of our cottagers will give them full cooperation in what they are doing.” In addition to the usual comings and goings, conference highlights, and weekly events, the editors also included a two-page spread in each issue entitled “Montreat – Past and Present,” which focused on Montreat history. The price was 50 cents for the summer, home delivery included.
1941 marked the final year for the paper. Both Elder and Foreman were away from Montreat that summer; new editors Frank Sanford and John M. Farrior took over. In addition to the usual content of the paper, the editors included a complete list of all the subscribers and several articles on foreign affairs. The final edition for 1941 noted the end of the summer. But the paper never resumed. World War II brought many changes to Montreat, including the demise of the Montreat Weekly News.
Thanks to Nancy Midgette for this glimpse from the past. Stop by the PHC for additional Montreat history and so much more.