Eastern Utah Advocate Archive

Price, Utah, was named for William Price, a Mormon bishop who explored the area in the 1860s. With its stark, barren cliffs and arid landscape, this area attracted few settlers until coal was discovered in the 1880s. The small town grew, attracting workers from around the world to Utah's expanding coal industry. In 1883, the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad built a station in Price. One year later, residents erected a meeting house that served as a church, school, and courtroom. Price became quite diverse, featuring more religions, ethnicities, and political persuasions than most small towns in Utah.

The Eastern Utah Advocate was a descendent of Price's first newspaper, the Eastern Utah Telegraph, which was launched by attorney S. A. King. On February 7, 1895, S. H. Brownlee and Dexter Smith took over operations of the Telegraph and changed its name to the Eastern Utah Advocate. Smith and Brownlee became newsworthy themselves when the co-publishers were accused of setting fire to their office to collect insurance. The Park Record of October 5, 1895, said: "Messrs. Brownlee and Smith, editors and proprietors of the Eastern Utah Advocate, published at Price, are under arrest on the charge of arson. It seems that their cupidity was attracted by the big Democratic campaign fund and they planned to get hold of a snug portion of it, and set their office on fire, which was damaged about $50 worth. The scheme was exploded, and instead of getting a cash assistance, got run in for arson." The Vernal Express for March 26, 1896 continued the interesting story: "S.H. Brownlee, editor of the Eastern Utah Advocate, published at Price, has come up missing, and it is believed that he has skipped for 'greener fields and pastures' and left his bondsmen in the lurch. It will be remembered that Mr. Brownlee was arrested for criminal libel, found guilty, and sentenced to six months in the county jail." Brownlee ultimately went to jail, but finding it to his disliking, escaped and skipped to Colorado.

Following the exodus of Brownlee and Smith, the Advocate went through a series of publishers and editors, and in spite of a somewhat checkered past, was well patronized and respected. Robert Crockett and his brother John leased the Eastern Utah Advocate in 1898. Beginning on August 18, 1898, the masthead would show the "Crockett Brothers" until July 13, 1913. At that time it was leased by Fred L. Watrous of Myton, Utah. Robert Crockett remained on the editorial staff for two more years when the Advocate was merged with the Carbon County News, becoming the News-Advocate.