I have written about Ridgeway’s last weekly paper, the Mercury Herald, before, but recently came across several mentions in the other Harrison County papers as well as a little profile of the editors.
The Mercury Herald was the result of the efforts of two Ridgeway high school students, Roger Anderson and Paul Johnson. They started the paper the summer after their junior year in 1949 and raised money for a Hilco mimeograph machine, stencils, and paper by soliciting funds from Ridgeway businesses in exchange for advertising.. Their paper ran to 10 pages and it has been told to me that their headquarters was the home I now live in. Their reporters included teacher Amy Elfrits as well as correspondents from all the local churches. They issued their paper every Wednesday and grew their circulation to about 600. Many of the illustrations were hand drawn.
The little paper was well received by a community that missed having a weekly paper. The Ridgeway Journal had folded eight years earlier with the death of its editor, Celbe C. Cline. Mrs. R. H. McIntosh, “Ridgeway News” columnist for the Bethany Republican-Clipper, wrote on May 17, 1950: “The last issue of the Mercury Herald, our home paper edited by two of our senior school boys, Paul Johnson and Roger Anderson, was mailed out May 3 … Again, we thank these boys for these publications and the desire of all is that we may again have a weekly paper in our town.”
Their paper was used several times by other Harrison county newspapers as a source for their news articles. The Bethany Republican-Clipper cited them in an article about the new state road going east from Ridgeway to Mount Moriah and Cainsville on Aug 8, 1949 and again about the same topic on Nov 16, 1949.
The boys operated the Mercury Herald for a full year, ending publication after their graduation from Ridgeway High School in 1950 as they both planned to attend college. Roger intended to study journalism at the University of Missouri and Paul considered “the study of some type of art work.” (Harrison County Times, May 18, 1950)
If you would like to read the first issue of the Mercury Herald, click here: Mercury Herald, issue 1
