The Concrete Herald
The Concrete Herald is a newspaper serving the community of Skagit County in Washington state. The newspaper received multiple awards from Washington Newspaper Publishers' Association, Washington State Press Club, and from other state and local organizations. Herald publications commenced various public projects in the area and played the key role in fighting the industrial pollution in Concrete, Washington. The newspaper serves as a cohesive element for the community of the Upper Skagit Valley. The Concrete Herald was published as a weekly newspaper from 1901 to 1991, then relaunched as a monthly publication in 2009.
The Concrete Herald was founded in Hamilton, Washington in 1901, then moved to Concrete, Washington in 1913. After changing its owners and editors several times, the newspaper entered a 40-year period of stability when from 1929 to 1970 it was owned and edited by Charles Dwelley. During this period, as Dwelley's editorials were picked up by other publications and quoted nationwide, the Herald recognition and subscription base expanded beyond Concrete, into Skagit Valley. After Dwelley's retirement, The Concrete Herald was purchased by Robert and June Fader, both experienced journalists. However, after Robert's premature death in 1985, and June's retirement in late 1989, the Herald was purchased by a local businessman unconnected to publishing business which led to the newspaper's demise in 1991. In 2009, after raising money within local community, local activist Jason Miller has revived The Concrete Herald in both paper and electronic form in a move that surprised the publishing industry.
History
Prior to the Great Depression
The newspaper was founded on November 23, 1901 by F.J. Wilcox under the name The Hamilton Herald in Hamilton, Washington. Wilcox envisioned rapid industrial development of Skagit Valley analogous to the development of the industrial region of Pittsburgh. As of 1902, the newspaper was published every Saturday on four pages and proclaimed Republican political affiliation. The industrialization of Skagit County fell below Wilcox's expectations, and in 1904 he sold the newspaper to an immigrant from Norway, Hans J. Bratlie who became its owner and editor. From the paper's inception, its yearly subscription price remained $1.00, but by 1910 Bratlie raised it to $1.50.Bratlie operated the newspaper in Hamilton until 1913 when he moved it to Concrete, Washington and renamed The Concrete Herald. At that time, Concrete population was growing rapidly boosted by the two recently established Portland cement plants. Another weekly newspaper Concrete Enterprise was already operating in Concrete since 1908. Its editor and owner was a secretary of Washington Newspaper Association, Louis L. Jacobin. The Enterprise also had a Republican affiliation, and its yearly subscription was priced at $1.00.
Bratlie lowered Concrete Herald subscription price to $1.00 and increased its size to six pages. In turn, Jacobin has re-branded his paper as Skagit Valley Enterprise then as Skagit Valley News. The relationship between the two editors deteriorated into a feud.
By the end of 1914, both editors were seeking change. Planning his retirement, Bratlie invited Ralph J. Benjamin to edit and invest into The Concrete Herald with an option to purchase the controlling stake in the paper. On March 9, 1915, however, the newspaper's three-story wooden building and most of its equipment were destroyed by a fire, and Benjamin had to abandon the paper, losing his investment. Bratlie suffered a loss that according to different accounts amounted from $7,000 to $9,000, but saved the paper, salvaged one Linotype machine that survived the fire, and continued publishing, installing W.J.S. Gordon as temporary editors.
Meanwhile, the relationship between the competing editor, Jacobin, and Bratlie's failed replacement, Benjamin, did not go well either. Jacobin reportedly vaunted over the fire victims. In addition, Benjamin authored a series of critical editorials attacking both cement plants of Concrete for dust pollution which led to a loss of advertising revenue for his paper. As a result, in September 1916, Benjamin sold his rebranded Skagit Valley News to Mrs. N.I. Wolbert, and purchased interest in another Washington local paper Wilkeson Record instead. The strains of the World War I and local competition eventually led to the indefinite suspension of Skagit Valley News, making Herald the only newspaper in Concrete by August 1918.
Bratlie continued searching for his replacement, and by May 1917 he engaged a known Everett printer, Jim G. Webster to participate in Concrete Herald publishing. In January 1918, Webster purchased the controlling share of the newspaper. Lawyer by training and elected school superintendent of Concrete, G.L. Leonard became the newspaper's editor and co-owner. Bratlie remained a minority shareholder.
The Concrete Herald has also changed its political affiliation to 'independent' and increased its subscription price to $1.50. Its paid circulation, however, fell sharply from 870 copies in Bratlie's years to 330 copies in 1920. By 1922 the circulation rebounded slightly to 462 copies., and Webster sold his share in the newspaper to A.J. Collins. Bratlie retained his minority share, and Leonard continued to edit the paper.
Collins remained the owner of The Concrete Herald until his premature death during a fire in Concrete hotel. In July 1928, Leonard purchased Collins' share of the newspaper from his widow and became the sole owner of The Concrete Herald, but by 1929 the newspaper was in trouble and could not service mortgages on its building and equipment.
Dwelley's years
Sedro-Woolley Publishing Co. took control of The Concrete Herald by purchasing its debts in September 1929. Frank Evans, the owner of Sedro-Woolley Publishing Co. and the publisher of Courier Times of Sedro-Woolley was a member of the Service Committee of the Washington Press Association,. He was acquiring Washington newspapers, aspiring to become a newspaper "magnate."A month before Black Tuesday, Evans sent his assistant, Charles Dwelley, to Concrete to edit the newly acquired newspaper. The youngest editor in Washington state at the time, twenty-one-year Dwelley worked and lived with his pregnant wife in a wooden newspaper building and operated two 19th century Linotype machines for 9-point and 12-point fonts, so all headings needed to be set by hand. In later years, Dwelley stated that the only reason Evans has chosen him for the job was that he was the only person in Sedro-Woolley office who could operate both machines.
In March 1930, Evans and Dwelley jointly incorporated the newspaper. By 1935, amidst the depression, Dwelley took a mortgage on Evan's share, and became the sole owner of Herald. He took another mortgage on the building of a Ford garage on Main street of Concrete that just failed and gradually renovated it into the new Concrete Herald office, a modern printing office, and an apartment for his family on the second floor. By 1940, Dwelley has paid both mortgages.
Noted as one of very few "remarkable exceptions" to massive newspaper failures in turbulent years of Depression and World War II, under Dwelley, Concrete Herald survived and gradually became "one of the finest edited newspapers in the state." The Concrete Herald subscription base was rising to include all upper Skagit Valley from Lyman in the west all the way to Newhalem in the northeast. Dwelley's editorials were cited on the radio throughout the country, reprinted in nationwide publications such as Reader's Digest and The New York Times, and referred among professional journalists as "Dwellisms". The newspaper and Dwelley personally received multiple awards and recognitions on state and national level.
All these years, until Dwelley's retirement in 1970, the three Dwelley's successive spouses assisted with Herald publication, and Dwelley's son Art worked as an apprentice at Herald shop until September 1951. By this time, Herald operation, one of the smallest of its kind, needed three people, and Miriam McGuire replaced Art as an assistant. A typical issue was 6 or 8 pages, types were set from Tuesday to Thursday, and on Thursdays newly printed newspapers were folded by hand. The newspaper suspended its publication once, from Nov 2, 1944 to May 31, 1945, during the period Dwelley served in US Navy during World War II.
Protecting public interest
Dwelley strongly believed that a newspaper's editor should have and voice his opinion, and Dwelley's editorials often confronted local problems. Since 1929, for 40 years, Dwelley had been fighting the dust pollution of Superior Portland Cement Company. Dwelley claimed that in 1929—1930 of his editorship, he had to withstand pressure from executives of Superior Portland Cement who offered him "help" with editing the paper and insisted that his editorials should be cleared with the company's office prior to publication. The open confrontation about the dust pollution between Superior Portland Cement and the editor of Herald competitor in Concrete Skagit Valley News was a contributing factor in demise of this newspaper in 1916. Eventually, a community group led by Dwelley has successfully involved senator Lowell Peterson, conducted a dust emission study that proved pollution levels more than 10 times over acceptable levels, and eventually pushed for creation of Northwest Air Pollution Authority. Five days after the first meeting of the State Air Pollution Control Board, the plant operator made a decision to close down the plant completely.In 1956, The Concrete Herald was sued for libel by Jacob Koops, a police judge of the city of Lyman, Washington in connection of Dwelley's editorial from July 17, 1955 that alleged financial mishandling of the traffic fines for personal gains by officials of Lyman. At that time, a Washington State Supreme Court decision imposed serious limitations on criticism in newspaper columns. The affair has dragged for three years, making its way to Court in June 1958. Herald supplied witnesses that confirmed its claims, and the court has acquitted the paper.
Eighties and Nineties
Dwelley retired and sold The Concrete Herald in September 1970, just passed 40-year anniversary of his editorship. The new owners of the newspaper, Robert and June Fader were previously involved in newspaper publishing business. For over 20 years, Robert Fader worked and later co-owned a printing shop of Anacortes American, a local newspaper published in Anacortes. June Fader previously worked as an assistant editor of Skagit Valley Herald in Mount Vernon and later as the news editor of Whidbey News-Times of Oak Harbor.June Fader became The Concrete Herald editor. Robert was involved with Washington Newspaper Publisher's Association, and in August 1976, he has elected its treasurer. In 1985, June Fader stepped down, and Anne Bussiere was hired as Herald editor. Dwelley praised Bussiere's editorials in their personal correspondence.
Even though the population of Concrete continued to decline, Herald subscription base continued to rise after Dwelley's retirement, increasing from 1970 to 1988 by 48%. Robert Fader died of cancer in October 1985 at the age of 61. On December 31, 1989, June retired, selling The Concrete Herald to Margaret Walter from Mount Vernon and Mae Falavolito, a Concrete resident who worked assisted with editing the newspaper since 1986. As of 1990, Mae Falavolito was listed as the single owner of the newspaper. June Fader's chief consideration was to leave the newspaper in the hands of local residents, but the local community was reportedly "shocked" perceiving John Falavolito, an opportunistic businessman with background in communications, as the actual owner.
The newspaper started to fail, and the new owners put it for sale in the beginning of 1991. After several months of unsuccessful attempts to find a new buyer, on September 5, 1991, The Concrete Herald stopped publication. In late 1991, The Skagit Argus hired Bussiere and attempted to substitute The Concrete Herald with special "Concrete Argus" edition, but the project was unsuccessful.