THE CONCHO COURIER

1965 - 1969

The Martin Family started The Concho Courier in Water Valley in 1965 from scratch, because they thought the community needed a newspaper. Soliciting advertising from the County Seat of San Angelo, Texas they lauched their first issue _______, printed by Ben Oglesby's Bronte Enterprise.The girls, DeeLynn, Gregory Danell, Tawnya Raye and Laury Kay looking ofer the first issue of The Concho Courier. The following year, they sold the Water Valley Telephone Company to John Smith of San Angelo Communication and Electronics, and invested the proceeds of the sale into a printing plant they constructed in the neighboring comunnity of Carlsbad, Texas.

The truck driver (l) David (c) and Jerry (r) move in a printing press that was purchased from the newapaper in Lamesa, in the Texas Panhandle.The Linotype machine was bought from an individual in Colorado City. The family bought an existing home facing th highway in Carlsbad and built an extension on the north end to a room that had been a barber shop. The place had been a filing station, a liquior store and a private home. We were told that both a murder and a suicide had taken place in the house. A large brown stain on a carpet and adjacent wall gave credence to this fact. Several incidents during their stay in the house would have freightened most people away. The Martin's didn't believe in ghost. (Cy's paternal grandfather said that if someone went to heaven, they wouldn't want to come back and if they went to Hell, the Devil wouldn't let them come back).

The boys, Jerry and David became accomplished pressmen.Their dad, Cy, did the composing work at night after working as a respiratory threapist and pulmonary laboratory technician in the McKnight Tuberculosis Hospital during the day. This included setting ad and casting mats for advertisments, and making rubber stamps for business customers. The office also had a small job printing trade in sales books and business cards.

Jerry feeds the printing press and David tends the ink wells as the Press Run picks up speed. The old printing press was said to "predate the Mayflower by five years. It was powered by a five horsepower electric motor, with the speed reduced by a series of flat belts and pulleys. The press was started by a lever that shifted the flat belt from a live pulley to an idler pulley.

The bed of the press probably weigh 700 or 800 pounds when the chase (frame containingthe set type) was loaded. Each revolution produced one impression of each of a four page section on one sid of one sheet of newsprint. At the start of a run, the counter was set for half the number of copies needed. These sheets would be run and then turned over and run back throuth the press to print on the opposide side. The process was called "work and turn". on the second run, a cutter was engauged which split the sheet into two f-page sections.

The press runs always seemed to come in the middle of the night, at which time Cy and Wynema would wake up the kid to come do their share of the work. Everyone had assigned duties. Cy and the boys ran the press room. Wynema and the girls handled the Circulation Department duties and folded and labeled all the papers. In order to qualify for Second Class Postage Rates, bundles had to be made made for each postage route. Laury Kaye did her folding on one of the counter tops in the front office.

DeeLynn chose the other counter in the front office.

Tawnya Raye relaxes in front of the addressograph and looks over the latest edition after the paper is folded and bundled for delivery to the post office.

Editor and Linotype operator Wynema takes time out from the heat and the keyboard. Publisher and Compositor stands behind her.

Delivery side of the printing press. Wynema's sister Ouida, her daugher Darci and Martin's daughter Gregory Danell.

Wy's sister Ouida stands on press operator's platform. Cy pulls starting lever to run off a single copy of latest issue. Ouida's daugher Darci and Martin's daughter Gregory Danell look on.

Photo from family albums

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Revised 9-15-97