Goodwin's Weekly: A Thinking Paper for Thinking People Archive

When Goodwin’s Weekly first appeared on May 17, 1902, the newspaper promised to bring culture, literature, and refinement to the people of Salt Lake City. Self-anointed as “A Thinking Paper for Thinking People,” the premier edition declared: “There is no ambition behind this publication save that involved in the merchant’s idea of giving good goods for good money; no especial hope save that it will not add to the monotony of journalism.” The weekly largely lived up to its aspirations, avoiding journalistic tedium by filling its pages with news from the world of sports, theater, and high society, along with a regular feature called “Literary Notes.”

Its editor, Charles Carroll Goodwin, was also the father of the newspaper’s owner and manager, James T. Goodwin. And by the time the newspaper debuted, he had already made a name for himself as one of the literary lights of the Old West. Originally from upstate New York, C. C. Goodwin traveled west in the 1850s, settling in California during the Gold Rush and setting up a legal practice. Goodwin later made his way to Nevada, where he won election as one of the state’s first district judges in 1864.

 In addition to his legal duties, Goodwin also served as editor of the Washoe Times, in Washoe City, Nevada, and later joined the Daily Territorial Enterprise  in nearby Virginia City, where he became chief editor. In 1880, Goodwin left Nevada for Utah to become the editor in charge of the Salt Lake Tribune.  His reputation as a skilled journalist was enhanced by a series of well-received books he produced about the Comstock mining boom in Virginia City, including The Comstock Club (1891) and The Wedge of Gold (1893). Goodwin also wrote poetry, stories, essays, and speeches, expounding on favorite topics such as Mormonism’s theological quirks.

 When C. C. Goodwin died in August 1917 at the age of 85, the New York Times  remembered him as “a member of a brilliant coterie of writers that sprang up in California and Nevada in the sixties and seventies. Though he was best known as a journalist, his vocations included schoolteacher, merchant, miner, lawyer, jurist, politician, and orator.” On September 1, 1917, Goodwin’s Weekly eulogized its long-time editor as a “rare man among mortals” and said: “We miss him more than words can tell. He leaves a void in our hearts and a vacancy in our organization that no one can fill.”

Despite the loss of its editor, the “Thinking Paper” continued to bring its literary style of news and opinion to the people of Salt Lake City, changing its name to The Citizen in 1919. The paper succumbed to economic pressures and folded in 1929.