Newspaper Page Text
★ 1872
E GOOD
VENIN VF
By Quimby Melton
When Good Evening in 1925
bought the Griffin Daily News
from the late Judge C. C.
Givens, who had bought it six
months earlier from Mrs.
Joseph D. Boyd, he did so after
considering for sometime in
what city in the southeast he
preferred to make his future
home and operate the daily
newspaper.
He picked Griffin as his first
choice and began negotiations
with Judge Givens who living in
Kentucky owned and operated
two newspapers there. Judge
Givens had bought the Griffin
paper for his two sons.
We chose Griffin for several
reasons. The chief reason was
we believed Griffin had a bright
future and we liked the people,
many of whom we had known
for years, and others whom we
learned to admire from the first
day we met them.
When Good Evening took over
the management of the paper,
Feb. 1, 1925 and a few months
later moved his family here, he
soon discovered that he not only
liked Griffin but had grown to
love this city and its people.
Today 47 years later we
realize more than ever that we
made a wise choice in coming to
Griffin.
God has been good to Good
Evening;
Griffin has been good to Good
Evening;
And Good Evening is grateful
to both God and to Griffin.
During those 47 years we have
lived in Griffin there have been
good times and depressions,
success and failure, loss of
friends and making new
friends, doubts and fears but
faith and hope to overcome
them.
If Good Evening could turn
back the clock and make it 1925
once more, he would remain in
the newspaper game and would
be in that business in no other
place than Griffin, Spalding
County, Georgia.
If Good Evening in those 47
years has offended anyone, it
was not intentional.
If Good Evening has dis
appointed anyone it was not
intentional.
If Good Evening has done
things or left undone things that
he should have done or not done,
he is sorry.
But he still loves Griffin; and
he still loves God and says to
one and all, “Help us celebrate
the 100th birthday of the Griffin
Daily News with a song of faith
and hope in our hearts and the
determination to make the next
100 years as fine or better than
the past 100 years.
No. 1
many
times
The Griffin Daily News has
been No. 1 many times during
its century of service. These
are samples of its early
"firsts":
★ 1872 - first daily
newspaper established in
Griffin.
★ 1925 - first to advocate
an adequate water supply for
Griffin by "going to the river"
(Flint river) when artesian
wells became inadequate
during drought.
★ 1926 - first daily
newspaper in this part of
Georgia to print a front page
column by its publisher every
day. (Good Evening, 1926 to
date.)
★ 1925 • first to sponsor
Empty Stocking Fund.
•••
Mj|~'
A century of progress
The Griffin Daily News is one hundred
years old today.
Archibald M. Speights founded it and
published its first edition on January 30,
1872. It has been a daily newspaper since
its inception.
The founder wrote in the first issue, “To
gather and disseminate general and local
news; to communicate commercial and
industrial intelligence; to encourage home
manufactures; to urge a greater
development of all resources; to stimulate
a healthful state of public morals; to
inspire our people to be independent in
purse and store, is the mission upon which
the News is started - out.
“In politics, it will think and act
independently, without restraint of any
sort
“The chief aim will be to make it, first r
A reliable NEWS paper; and second: To
make it a useful channel of communication
between business men — between buyers
and sellers. It will make no other bid for
patronage.”
IRfW
“You can’t stancTfor something
worthwhile without some folks
fussing. Congratulations to the
Meltons and the Griffin Daily
News on its 100th birthday.
They may be wrong sometimes,
but they always stand for what
they think is right.”
100 years of service
1 OOth Anniversary Edition
GRIFFIN
daily#news
Daily Since 1872
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Monday, Jan. 31, 1972
The first edition consisted of four pages
which were five columns wide, each page
being about half the size of present ones.
Type for every daily edition was “set” by
taking each letter individually from a type
case and assembling it and others one at a
time into words, sentences and
paragraphs. This procedure continued
until sometime between 1912 and 1914
when the paper installed an improved
Mergenthaler Linotype machine which
assembled a line of type at a time.
The linecasting method was improved
through the years and eventually the
Griffin Daily News was operating five
Linotype machines. Three of them were
used to “set” news matter and the other
two produced larger type which was used
for headlines and advertisements. Each of
the news machines produced about seven
lines a minute when operating at full
speed.
In 1969 the paper replaced these with a
“Compugraphic” which is an advanced
calculator-computer and which pours out
33 lines a minute. The paper now has four
“Compugraphics”. Two operate
automatically and produce reading
matter. The other two are run manually
and produce headlines and material for
advertisements.
At the end of 1872, the Griffin Daily News
announced, “The News, daily and weekly,
has a larger circulation than any other
paper published in Griffin.” This was a
scant 11 months after its first issue. Today,
a hundred years later, its circulation
exceeds 10,500 copies a day which is more
than three times the entire population of
Griffin when the paper published its first
issue. (The census of 1870 lists Griffin’s
population as 3,421.)
Symbolizing its confident and optimistic
view of the future, the Griffin Daily News
invited leaders and mascots of Griffin
High School to pose in front of the Griffin
Water Works for the color picture above.
Publisher Quimby Melton, pictured below,
was primarily responsible for the Water
Works being built. He bought the paper in
1925 and there was an extended drought
that summer. He and the paper led the
Ml ■ ______
or**l
F 3 F r M| -e
Vol. 100 No. 1
campaign for the city “to go to Flint river”
for water. Griffin did so, left its old
artesian wells, and subsequently built the
Water Works. The students and mascots
are Mike Zager (c) who is student body
president, and homecoming princesses
Glenda Willis (1) and Tommie Allen (r)
with mascots Lou Ann Norton and Scotty
Martin (1) and Juanitress Morris and
Reginald Tyus (r). — Staff photos.
Your newspaper
starts 2nd century
The Griffin Daily News began
its second century today with
the 100-page edition which you
are reading now. It is the
largest paper ever published in
this town.
The hundred pages symbolize
the hundred years of its
existence, a page for each year.
They are filled with historic
information, and it is suggested
that you save this edition. It will
become a collector's item soon.
The price today is the same as
usual, 10 cents per copy, but no
extra charge to regular sub
scribers. Tomorrow, any copies
which are left over will cost $1
for the rest of the week, and
after this week, $5 each if there
are any. This is because of the
size of the edition and extra
expense involved.
The Post Office advises that
copies can be mailed for 28
cents postage but be sure to
mark them “printed matter”.
One unusual feature of the
edition which you are reading is
reproduction of the original
issue which A. M. Speights
published a hundred years ago.
It is reproduced here almost in
original size, but reduced
slightly to distinguish copies
from tile only original one
known to be in existence.
The original has been in the
Melton family for a number of
years. This week Mrs. Quimby
Melton, Jr., wife of the
President and herself Secretary
of News Corporation which
publishes the paper presented it
as a gift to the Department of
Archives of the State of
Georgia. It is being laminated
for permanent preservation and
will be part of the state’s
1972*
JVo bad
news
There is no bad news on page
one today.
This is a happy occasion and
all the “regular” news is
printed on an inside page.
If you miss the “bad” news,
there p-obably will be some
tomorrow as we resume regular
coverage of it along with the
good.
historic records. One of the
copies of today’s paper will be
placed on permanent file in the
office of the Ordinary of
Spalding County, also for
permanent preservation.
In order to distribute the
extra large paper, today’s issue
went to press hours earlier than
normal. Usual news is printed
cn an inside page, and regular
coverage of news will resume
tomorrow.
Publisher Quimby Melton and
Editor Quimby Melton, Jr.,
joined in a statement as the
paper began its second century
today.
“First, we want to thank our
staff of 33 men and women,”
they said. “There is no better
one on any newspaper or
anywhere else in the world.
They have done an outstanding
job in preparing this edition, but
this is no more than they do
every day. Next, we pledge to
our readers our very best
continued efforts to produce a
rewspaper a day of which the
community may well be proud.
In these hundred pages, we
have looked to the past. Now we
close the book on that and look
to the future. We are proud of
the paper and of the com
munity. We view their future
together with unlimited op
timisn, and with a whole lot of
excitement.
★★★★★★★★
Who
was
who
When the Griffin Daily News
established in 1872, Ulysses S.
Grant was president of the
United States. Schuyler Colfax
was his vice president and
James G. Blain, (R-Me.) was
the speaker of the U.S. House of
Representatives.
James Milton Smith was
governor of the state of Georgia
that year.
There was no lieutenant
governor but L. N. Trammell
was president of the state
senate and next in line of suc
cession to the governor.
The Speaker of the Georgia
House that year was Joseph B.
Cumming of Richmond
(Augusta) County, having
succeeded James M. Smith of
Muscogee (Columbus) who
resigned.
David H. Johnson and Daniel
A. Johnson were the Spalding
representatives to the General
Assembly. A. D. Nunnally was
the Spalding senator.
Erasmus W. Beck was the
Fourth District congressman
when the paper was founded
and Griffin was in that district.
★★★★★★★★