Tri-Valley Townsman
In May 1947, a small weekly newspaper called The Tri-Valley Townsman was published for the first time in the rural town of Neversink, New York. The paper covered news over a “sprawling and rather sparsely settled territory in the southern Catskills…” where the many separate communities known as hamlets maintained significant social and economic independence from one another. The Townsman was initially founded and run by town leaders including the town doctor (Dr. Carl Messinger), Methodist minister (Rev. Irving A. Marsland Jr.), principal of the union free school district (Mr. Gene Ross), three school teachers (Mr. Fred Cryer, Mrs. Grant Jocelyn and Ms. Inez George Gridley), and an assortment of other volunteers. They received no pay and prepared the paper in a small loft above a general store until “two or three in the morning” most Tuesday nights. In an article she wrote for The American Agriculturalist in 1959, Inez Gridley described how each week "The news we gathered was put on the mats with an ordinary typewriter, ads were lettered and addresses were handwritten and pasted in place. The paper was folded and turned by hand. The weather was hot and humid and the duplicating machine in the hands of inexperienced operators was extremely sensitive to temperature." Despite these difficulties, 300 subscriptions were initially sold at a dollar a year to cover expenses. The founders vigorously campaigned to increase individual subscriptions and gain advertising support from businesses in order to keep the paper precariously afloat week by week throughout the rest of the 1940’s.[1]
The individuals who tirelessly toiled to keep this paper alive were community leaders who held key positions within Neversink and already provided a great service to the community through their time consuming professions. With the busy lives they already led, why would they continue this amateur venture that they themselves viewed as “substandard” when compared to other papers in the area? According to the founders, The Townsman was much more than a hobby that covered “the special needs of our big and scattered population” ignored by larger area papers. They dedicated themselves to this endeavor because of their belief that the Tri-Valley Townsman was the key element needed to prevent the destruction of the town due to the coalescing of multiple threats after World War II.[2] They felt the salvation from these threats depended on the creation of a newspaper that inspired the largely independent hamlets within Neversink and portions of the adjacent towns of Denning and Wawarsing to re-imagine themselves as a single centralized entity linked by the common experiences of reservoir construction, rural history and the devotion to the creation of a single centralized school that was independent of state interference.
Editorials
By far the most important section in understanding the strategies and key events in the fight for a locally controlled school district and its perceived connection to the survival of the town were The Townsman’s editorials. Taken as a whole, the editorials provided a general vision for the town and the steps needed to make that vision a reality. Looked at chronologically, the editorials provided a clear progression of milestones taking the town to a new re-imagined community. In the very first editorial, the editors of the paper explained that they “want this to be your paper, and will welcome suggestions, criticisms, and contributions. We plan no editorial policy. If we had a motto it would be ‘For the Good of the Community.’”[3]
The Town Supervisor, Bruce Denman, wrote the second editorial which built on the initial idea of a single community that would “prosper and become a better place in which to live.” He also reviewed how far the community had come since beginning the fight to save the town by reviewing improvements such as more involved churches, increased support for the town library and the creation of Ladies Aid Societies, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and a community center started by the Local Rod and Gun Club which showed movies, conducted classes and held dances. He also outlined the next steps in community development which included further improvements of the union free school system and the continued struggle to “keep our school system in our town” as well as the development of the fire department and the planned construction of a sewer system and road improvements. Most importantly he discussed the importance of The Townsman and the “wonderful possibilities” and “advantages… [it will provide] to our community and town.”[4] Mr. Denman concluded his editorial by imploring the citizens of Neversink to support the paper in “any way possible” such as subscriptions, advertising and article and editorial submissions
The independence, unique moral character, and the need to see the town as a whole instead of divided hamlets were subjects common to editorials in the newspaper. Subjects such as local option and the proper development of youth in the community were frequent. But these editorials were quickly replaced by pointed opinions and suggestions for individual action during key times in the fight for a locally controlled school. For example, in February 1948 an editorial was written warning against being taken in by the new proposal for an “intermediate school district” that would have a single central school board for all schools in Sullivan County. By this time, the reality of a local high school was still in question and citizens were still very fearful of outside interference and state directives. The editorial warned that under this plan, Neversink would get its own high school but decisions would be dominated by the population centers of Liberty and Monticello. The author compared state plans for the school to a “fasciatic [sic] scheme” or “communist maneuver” and asked, “Have we leaned so far left that we are willing to allow such a plan come to fruition?”[5]
One of the most compelling editorials was written by Justany Boddie in December 1947 where she outlined the need for more civic leadership imploring “more people to be imbued with the spirit of taking the initiative in organizing and directing young and old in social and civic projects.” She also asked citizens to provide more civic pride by supporting the school, community hall, recreational areas and “greater attendance at local functions so that they may be more representative and present more unified appeals for correcting what needs to be corrected.” She concluded her editorial by asking for more civic foresight to “attract more and sound citizens by making plans for such attraction.”[6]
Her theme of the ability of citizens to influence events was continued in an April 1948 editorial that argued “Too many of us belong to that great anonymous army of citizens who have lost faith in their personal worth. Collectively we have a voice strong enough to be heard above the clank of the mightiest political machine, but the great voice is composed of many small ones – yours and mine.” The author talked in generalities but the message was clear given the issues in the town. The editorial concluded by saying “Government responds to the will of the people and the people are individuals like us.”[7] This idea that the community could only be built through a hardworking, caring and participating citizenry is clear in this and many other editorials during this uncertain period.
An editorial showing how an individual’s vote counts was written in July 1948 one week after the Town of Neversink won a major court case ensuring their right to form an independent central school. In the case, City of New York vs. Horace Porter, as Trustee of School District No. 24, Town of Wawarsing, Ulster County, the City of New York owed local school taxes for the land they owned which would become the Rondout Reservoir. This land was part of Common School District #24 (The Lackawack School). Both the Ellenville School District and UFD#1 (Tri-Valley School) claimed the tax money. Citizens within School District No. 24 voted in 1946 to become part of UFD #1 despite being a part of Ulster County. The state commissioner of education ignored the public referendum and mandated that they be consolidated with the Ellenville School District because they were within Ulster County’s political boundary. The judge in the case ruled that the election of the citizens to become part of UFD#1 was legitimate and the commissioner of education did not have jurisdiction in deciding the matter. Because the education department could not overrule a popular election, this decision created the precedent needed for UFD #1 (Tri-Valley School) to form a high school despite the wishes and mandates of the state education department.[8]
As a result, an editorial was written on 14 July 1948 in the Townsman claiming “A new meaning to the celebration of Independence Day and a reaffirmation of faith in Democratic principles to all of us.” The author reviewed the court decision but concluded by warning, “Let us not be lulled into thinking this is the glorious climax of years of effort. It is just the beginning. It is one thing to vote for noble principles and another and more difficult thing to build those principles into an enduring structure- THAT TASK IS OURS.”[9]
With this victory, editorials after 1948 took on two new prominent themes now that the community legally had the right to build their own school. First, editorials warned of the threat of complacency and the need for hard work and individual sacrifice to create what they now had the right to build (a locally controlled quality high school and a prosperous community). Second, many editorials focused on what it meant to be a rural New York community and the need to preserve the unique rural identity of the community. For example, a July 1948 editorial discussed traditional rural pastimes such as “hay riding parties, picnics, the swimming hole, hikes, berry parties, lawn games, and songfests” and modern rural pastimes such as “horseback riding, movies, swimming pools, tennis courts and boating.” The suggestion to keep these traditions alive in place of “urban” pastimes was obvious.[10] Another editorial in January 1949 summarized a Reader’s Digest article called “A Small Town Wakes Up” about McLouth, Kansas, and its citizens’ efforts to successfully revitalize their town. The editorial concluded that Tri-Valley:
has to a great degree the same potentialities as McLouth, Kansas.… However, it takes something other than an indifference and a ‘let Harry do it’ or a ‘too much work involved’ attitude among its citizenry. It takes civic pride and faith that begins in the heart and mind of each citizen. It takes cooperation- not by a few alone, but by all – a cooperation that isn’t limited by selfish interests and small horizons.[11]
These warnings of hard work and sacrifice continued until July 1949, when in place of an editorial, the newspaper editors posted a public notice about the vote to approve a property tax not to exceed $795,000 to build the new Tri-Valley Central School. The next three editorials were specific in their support for the approval of the taxes to build the new school. The editorials became very technical and detailed but the theme was best summarized in the initial editorial which stated "A good future for an area implies securing and possessing those service factors which contribute to such things as population growth, higher educational, economic and social standards, greater societal and civic consciousness, more satisfying leisure time outlets, and, in general more fruitful life experiences… A good school system is one of the most outstanding contributive factors to a good future."[12]
In August 1949, the proposition to build the new school was overwhelmingly passed and soon after that the state board of education approved the plan and editors of The Townsman believed that the community was out of imminent danger. Congratulatory editorials detailing the building of the school were common in the paper over the next years. A June 1950 editorial was representative of the overall theme after August 1949 when the author wrote:
Watch the new Tri-Valley School rise, brick by brick… They are built of the hopes and dreams of mothers and fathers for the years to come, and the heartaches and heartbreaks of years gone past. Here’s a brick for the kid who couldn’t take the long school day and the endless bus ride… Here’s a brick for the lad with music in his soul, who will never know the imperative bloom, because he lived too far from school to practice with the band. Here’s one for the mother who sat up all night making over dresses for her daughter so she wouldn’t feel out of place in town [Liberty or Ellenville]…”[13]
But the editors themselves asked a new question in January 1950. The Townsman did not print any editions in December 1949 due to the loss of a key staff member. The remaining staff questioned if the effort to continue the paper was worthwhile since a locally controlled school was ensured which they believed secured the future of the town. They felt that the combination of no major purpose along with a high subscription price, lack of quality copy and amateur journalists made the paper superfluous. They asked for subscribers to mail in votes to decide if the paper should be continued by March 1950. 216 subscribers voted unanimously that it was essential for the paper to continue in the name of “community betterment.”[14] Speaking for all subscribers wanting the paper continued, an open letter to the Tri-Valley Citizens Association was published in the paper. The letter argued that The Townsman was necessary because the community was not yet safe. Predictions of bleak employment opportunities once the reservoirs were completed in the middle of the decade weighed heavily on the minds of citizens and they believed that The Townsman was still as essential in the 1950’s as it was in the 1940’s in order to maintain a united and healthy community.[15]
Influence of the Townsman
While the pages of The Townsman between 1947 and 1951 contained both the opinions of town leaders and a summary of the events that led to a new centralized school for Tri-Valley, it was also the key element that galvanized public support for the school and influenced the creation of a new community identity that was deep and long lasting. Inez Gridley asserted that the paper was “started at a time when important local issues needed to be decided…” and [it] became an institution which “helped give [a single] identification to a lot of small places in this big geographic area.”[16]
Starting in January 1948, part of the paper’s role was as the official newspaper of The Town of Neversink.[17] But it went far beyond acting as just a tool for political leaders of the area. The readers of the paper could see the community re-imagined in its pages. They were invited to participate in the new conceptualization and were given agency in creating a new community as part of a fully involved citizenry.
The most concrete examples of individual agency and the influence of the paper were found in voter turnout. Prior to the establishment of The Townsman, voter turnout deciding school issues was extremely weak due to sparse and inconsistent coverage of the issues in larger area papers such as The Liberty Register. Despite the significance of the event and the potential it represented, only 86 individuals voted in the 1946 referendum that consolidated the 13 common school districts of the area into the Tri-Valley School.[18] The next year, two months after the inaugural edition of The Townsman, voter turnout was even lower. In July 1947, only 75 citizens voted to significantly increase school taxes in order to guarantee teachers a minimum salary and pay for additional transportation needs.[19] But after only a single year of publication, The Townsman was responsible for a 460% increase in voter participation. In June 1948, 350 voters participated in the passage of a referendum that authorized the construction of a new school for all students in the district. Of the 350 ballots, only 30 votes against constructing the school were cast.[20] The robust voter turnout remained constant in the following years. This democratic groundswell could only be attributed to The Townsman. Prior to the paper, town leaders worked tirelessly to gain support for the cause of the school and their new vision for the community. Efforts to use local organizations, pre-existing newspapers, and public meetings were ineffective. Town leaders were only able to gain the support of an involved citizenry who shared their new vision of community after The Townsman was created in 1947.[21]
Citations:
1. Inez Gridley, “Tri-Valley’s Community Hobby,” American Agriculturalist (October 1958): 36.
2. Gridley, 36.
4. “Editorial.,” The Tri-Valley Townsman, 14 May 1947, 2.
5. “Editorial.,” The Tri-Valley Townsman, 11 Feb 1948, 2.
6. “Editorial.,” The Tri-Valley Townsman, 10 Dec 1947, 2.
7. “Editorial.,” The Tri-Valley Townsman, 28 April 1948, 2.
8. “Court Decree Settles District Status.,” The Tri-Valley Townsman, 14 July 1948, 1.
9. “Toward a Brighter Future.,” The Tri-Valley Townsman, 14 July 1948, 2.
10. “Editorial.,” The Tri-Valley Townsman, 21 July 1948, 2.
11. “Editorial.,” The Tri-Valley Townsman, 26 Jan 1949, 2.
12. “The Big Thing.,” The Tri-Valley Townsman, 20 July 1949, 2.
13. “A Dream Growing.,” The Tri-Valley Townsman, 28 June 1950, 2.
14. “Editorial.,” The Tri-Valley Townsman, 17 May 1950, 2.
15. “Open Letter to the Tri-Valley Citizens Association.,” The Tri-Valley Townsman, 15 March 1950, 2. 16. Gridley, 36. 17. “Townsman Now Official Paper.,” The Tri-Valley Townsman, 7 Jan 1948, 10. 18. Coombe, 2. 19. “Annual School Meeting Held.,” The Tri-Valley Townsman,16 July 1947, 1. 20. “Taxpayers Select School Site.,” The Tri-Valley Townsman, 9 June 1948, 1. 21. Examples of these efforts are referenced in a Liberty Register article, 3 May 1945 and in the Tri-Valley 50th Anniversary Supplement.
Daniel Curry
George Mason University
Last Updated 14 May 2014
copyright May 2014