The Western Recorder Archive

Located along the line of the Denver & New Orleans Railroad (D&NO;), Elbert, Colorado was the home of the Western Recorder, which was founded in late 1897 by J. Ford Crissinger and M. Scott Chenoweth. The Elbert County Banner, published in nearby Elizabeth, described it as an "eight column folio, ably edited, full of local news, and … an honor to the town in which it is published." The Recorder featured illustrations by Chenoweth which were met with mixed reviews. The Republican Standard enthused that the "cartoons and portraits [are] several bounds ahead of country journalism in general" while the Castle Rock Journal noted that "some illustrations … look like they were cut from a pine board with a table knife." The Record picked up subscribers, noting 28 new subscribers in one day upon their three month anniversary. "Pretty good daily nourishment for an infant three months old," Crissinger and Chenoweth printed. Boosting their "infant" paper, the editors continued, "if a person in the backwoods without any other medium than the Recorder had carefully read the editorials he would have a fair idea of what is going on in the world."

In June 1898, Crissinger and Chenoweth sold the Recorder to J.B. King of the Elbert County Tribune and the Recorder merged with the Tribune, under which title it was issued. The Tribune, itself, was founded in 1884 or 1885. King took over editorial responsibilities of the paper in 1887 and its management in 1889. In January 1901, J.W. Summersett became the editor of the Elbert County Tribune and according to the Idaho Springs Siftings "caused the paper to take a something his name indicates. Editor King did not have the time to devote to it, but Mr. Summersett is filling it with good editorial matter and plenty of advertising." Summersett quickly sold the paper between 1901 and 1902 to John E. Pope. The paper prospered under Pope, doing well enough that Pope invested in a cylinder press, the first one brought to this area of Colorado's central plains. Pope sold the Tribune printing plant, subscription list and the "good will of the business" to F.A. Dotson & Co. in May 1908. However, on January 1, 1909 the Tribune changed hands—again—to Albert Neuman, under whose management "subscribers [were] guaranteed a good, clean, conservative Democratic weekly, such as long has been needed in this section" (Elbert County Banner, December 25, 1908).

The paper continued weekly publication in Elbert under Neuman through the 1910s, but in 1920 Neuman moved the paper to Elizabeth, Colorado, the oldest city in the county. Upon its move to Elizabeth, the Tribune merged with the local Elbert County Banner. The newly formed Elbert County Tribune and Elbert County Banner was managed and edited by Edward J. Phillips. In 1921, the paper retired its unwieldy name and returned to publishing as the Elbert County Tribune until 1924, when it was purchased by L.E. Fry who merged it with the Kiowa County Seat News and changed the name to the Elbert County News-Tribune.