Chrisman and Ridgefarm Newspapers Sold, 1964

From The Chrisman Weekly Courier April 2, 1964

Kents Sell Chrisman & Ridgefarm Newspapers

Newly-Formed Corporation Buys
Weekly Papers; New Editor Will
Assume Position Here April 20 

Mr. and Mrs. Stanley R. Kent of Chrisman announced this week that they have sold their two newspapers, The Chrisman Weekly Courier and The Ridgefarm Republican, to a new corporation, known as Edgar-Vermilion County Publishers, Inc. The Corporation also owns and operates The Georgetown News, The Westville News, and The Catlin Courier.

The transaction was consummated Tuesday, March 31. but is retroactive to January 1st of this year. Mr. and Mrs. Kent have been operating the two newspapers for the new owners since the first of the year.

President of the new corporation is R. M. Hemphill, who is also the president of an Indiana corporation known as Vermilion Newspapers, Inc., which owns and operates The Dana News, The Cayuga Herald, and The Perrysville Herald in Vermillion county, Indiana.

Mr. Hemphill announced this week that George L. Stuckey will be the editor and general manager of The Chrisman Courier and The Ridgefarm Republican. Mr. Stuckey will assume his new position in Chrisman about April 20.

Mr. and Mrs. Kent have entered into a partnership with Mrs. Kent's mother, Mrs. Charles English, who owns and operates the English Nursing and Convalescent Home at Lebanon, Ind. The Kents plan to move to Lebanon after school is out in May.

Mr. and Mrs. Kent have owned and operated The Chrisman Courier for nearly 18 years, having purchased it in 1946 from the late Donald E. Bradley and the late Fayelle Livingston Bradley.

They have owned and operated The Ridgefarm Republican for nearly three and one-half years, having purchased it in the fall of 1960 from Mr. and Mrs. Donald Smith.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Kent are natives of Indiana. Mr. Kent was born and reared at Topeka, Ind., where his mother, Mrs. Rollin Kent, still resides. Mrs. Kent was born at Waveland, Ind., but was reared at Lebanon, where her mother still resides.

Mr. Kent started his newspaper career in 1936 at The Indianapolis Star while he was a student in Butler University at Indianapolis. He was graduated from Butler in 1938, and continued working at The Star until 1939. From 1939 until 1941 he was director of publicity in Indiana for the Agricultural Adjustment Administration. From 1941 until 1943 he was assistant director of publicity for the AAA in Missouri. He resigned in 1943, and was employed for two years as editor of the Advertiser-News at Lexington, Mo., and the Evening Ledger at Mexico, Mo. In 1945 he became managing editor of The Lebanon Daily Reporter at Lebanon, Ind., where he was employed until purchasing The Chrisman Courier in the fall of 1946.

Mrs. Kent is a graduate of Lebanon High School and a graduate of the Indiana Central Business College at Indianapolis. She was employed in the Indiana office of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration for three years. She has been co-publisher of THE COURIER since 1946.

Mr. and Mrs. Kent have two sons, Rollin Michael, who is a freshman in Butler University at Indianapolis, and Stephen Allen, who is a junior in Chrisman High School.

New Building Replaces Empire Theater, 1964

From The Chrisman Weekly Courier February 27, 1964

Myles Erecting

New Building On

Chrisman Square

Work has been started on the erection of a new building on the south side of the square in Chrisman that will greatly improve the appearance of the Chrisman business district.

Mr. and Mrs. Bernard R. Myles of Chrisman route two have purchased the former Empire Theater lot on the south side of the square from Mr. and Mrs. Stanley R. Kent of this city. The lot has been vacant since the theater was destroyed by fire on March 19, 1959.

Mr. Myles is erecting a concrete block building on the lot that will be occupied by his daughter, Miss Betty Myles, who is the owner and operator of Betty’s Beauty Salon. The beauty shop is now located in the Walter (Buss) Arrasrnith building at 213 West Madison avenue, and will be moved to the new location as soon as the new building is completed on the south side of the square.

The new building will be 25 feet wide by 20 feet long with entrances on both the north and south side. The remainder of the 150 foot lot will be filled in and levelled off to provide parking space for customers of Betty's Beauty Salon.

There will be plenty of room on the south end of the lot to build an addition to the building whenever it is needed.

Steve Kent Wrecks Family Car, 1963

From The Chrisman Weekly Courier October 10, 1963

3 Chrisman Boys
Escape Serious
Injury In Wreck

Three young Chrisman boys miraculously escaped serious injury last Thursday night about 8:30 0'clock when the car in which they were riding went out of control, skidded, and turned over once or twice on the old ocean-to-ocean highway, about a mile east of Chrisman.

Steve Kent, 16, was driving the 1957 Chevrolet, owned by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Stanley R. Kent, and was accompanied by Michael 15, son of Mr. and Mrs. Norman J. Mooney, and Harold (Curly) Thompson, Jr., 14, son of Mr. and Mrs. Harold Thompson, all of Chrisman.

The boys had driven east of Chrisman to the Gnaw Bone bridge where they turned around and were headed west back toward Chrisman. Steve Kent admitted he was driving too fast as he came around the curve at the Ross township line, and he lost control of the car. The car swerved to the north side of the road, then back to the south side, where it skidded for about 150 feet. The boys said they knew the car turned over at least once, and “maybe twice.” The car just barely missed hitting a highway sign and a utility pole, and came to rest upright against a wire fence on the south side of the road.

The three boys were able to get out of the car and walked to the farm home of Mr. and Mrs. Ora Wyatt, where Steve called his parents. The Scott ambulance was called, and took Steve Kent and Mike Mooney to the Paris hospital.

Michael suffered a deep gash on the left side of his head, which required seven stitches. He also suffered body bruises and a sprained back. He was x-rayed, examined, treated, and released from the hospital that night, but remained in bed at his home until Tuesday.He was taken back to the hospital Tuesday to have the stitches removed from his head, and was able to return to school Wednesday.

Steve suffered a slight cut on the top of this head, a sprained back and neck, and numerous body bruises. He was examined and x-rayed at the hospital and released, but was confined to his home until Sunday. He was able to return to school Monday.

Harold Thompson suffered only minor bruises, and was not hospitalized. He was examined at his home by Dr. W. J. Gonwa, Jr.

The Perrin wrecker towed the Kent car to the Hixon Chevrolet Company garage in Chrisman. The rear end of the car was entangled in the fence so badly that several strands of wire fence had to be cut before the car could be removed. The car was so badly damaged that it was declared a total loss.

Robert William Hoult, city police chief and county deputy sheriff, issued a ticket to Steve Kent, charging him with driving too fast for conditions. He appeared Monday afternoon before Bert H. Ellsberry, justice of the peace. who fined Steve $10 and costs of $5.

Fire Destroys Empire Theater, 1959

From The Chrisman Weekly Courier March 26, 1959

FIRE DESTROYS EMPIRE THEATER 

Raging Inferno Caused By Trash

Fire Last Thursday Morning;

Other Buildings Are Threatened

The Empire Theater on the south side of the square in Chrisman was destroyed by fire last Thursday forenoon (March 19) despite the valiant efforts of firemen and other volunteers from Chrisman, Metcalf, and Ridgefarm.

The fire was discovered at about 8:30 a.m. by Stanley R. Kent, co-owner of the theater. Pushed by a strong southwest wind and hidden under dense clouds of black smoke, the fire was out of control by the time fire departments arrived.

By 11 a.m., all that remained of the movie house was the front wall and about 15 feet of the rear end of the building that housed the air conditioner and a storage room. The 317-seat theater and all of' its equipment for showing movies was a total loss.

The fire was caused by a trash fire in an old oil drum on the east side of the theater building, about 15 feet north of the south end of the building. Sparks from the trash fire ignited dead, dried grass around the building. and the flames spread to the theater building.

Mr. Kent noticed smoke in the building when he went to the theater about 8:30 a.m. to see whether the film had arrived for Saturday night's showing. He summoned Ershel Ward, projectionist, who was in a restaurant two doors east of the theater, and the two men went through the theater to the rear of the building. Grass along the east side of the building was aflame and there was a little fire in the wooden framework of the building, next to the ground, but it did not appear to be a serious fire.

The two men went back through the theater to the front end, and Mr. Ward ran across the street and notified Robert J. Hoult, Chrisman fire chief, who was in the Cook drug store. Mr. Hoult brought one of the Chrisman fire trucks to the rear end of the theater building.

“By that time the side of the building was aflame, and I knew we needed more help,” the fire chief said.

Chrisman's second fire truck and 12 to 15 members of the volunteer department responded to the general alarm to battle the morning-long fire.

However, thick clouds of black smoke from burning tar paper hampered the firemen's efforts and allowed the wind to sweep the flames into the interior of the building. “We couldn't even go in with oxygen masks on,” Chief Hoult said.

Calls were put in for assistance from the Metcalf and Ridgefarm fire departments, which soon arrived to add more men and equipment to the battle.

The theater was located between the Chrisman American Legion hall on the west and the Mrs. Katherine Bonwell building on the east. which houses a laundromat, the Toasty Shop restaurant, and apartments above the two stores.

Chief Hoult said the wall between the theater and the Bonwell building was cracked in several places by the intense heat, and probably will require some rebuilding. There does not appear to be any damage to the wall of the Legion building nor to the wall of the I.O.O.F. lodge hall, above the Legion hall. There was considerable smoke and water damage to the Legion hall and some smoke damage to the First National Bank and the Sid Ramey barber shop on the west side of the legion hall. The laundromat, the restaurant, the Yates electrical store, and the apartments were also damaged by smoke.

For a while it looked bad for the entire south side of the square, as the wind threatened to spread the fire to the adjoining buildings. At one time during the battle, Chief Hoult said, nine or 10 hose lines were in use pouring water onto the theater fire and the adjoining buildings. The fire fighters began to pull out their equipment about 11 o'clock after the theater roof collapsed and the fire began to burn itself out.

Following the fire, Mr. Kent said that “the firemen did everything possible to save the theater and should be given lots of credit for preventing the spread of flames to the adjoining buildings.”

The single story frame building was nearly 46 years old, and had served as a movie theater from the time it was built in 1913 in the days of the "nickelodeons."

Mr. and Mrs. Kent purchased the theater in 1955 from George Barber Of Tuscola, who had operated the Empire Theater here from 1932 to 1955. The Kents are also the publishers of THE CHRISMAN COURIER.

For the past 14 months the theater had been open only on Saturdays and Sundays. Projectionists were Ershel Ward and Carroll Calhoun.

Mr. Kent estimated the value of the building and contents at $30,000 to $35,000. The building and contents were only partially covered by insurance, which would not be any where near enough to rebuild the theater after the present indebtedness on the theater is paid off.

During the fire, there was some talk among Chrisman residents watching the blaze to start a community drive to rebuild a movie house for the community.

Mr. and Mrs. Kent said they want to express their sincere thanks and appreciation to everyone who assisted in fighting the theater fire and to everyone who has offered their assistance since the fire. They said they especially want to thank the members of the Chrisman, Ridgefarm, and Metcalf fire departments, to the Cook drug store for providing coffee to the fire fighters, and to City Marshal Otto Nave, State Trooper Drexel Camerer. and the other state troopers who assisted in controlling the traffic during the fire.

The photo is from ancestry.com. The theater owners can be seen at the bottom right, Mrs. Kent in a long coat and Mr. Kent in hat and black jacket.

A new job printing press, 1946

From The Chrisman Weekly Courier November 14, 1946

Courier Office Adds Some New Equipment

During the past week two new pieces of equipment have been added to The Chrisman Courier's office and printing department in order to render more efficient, better, and quicker service to the public.

A new 10 by 15 Chandler and Price job printing press arrived Friday forenoon, and will be ready for use very soon. This press, and the 12 by 18 Gordon press which we already had, will enable The Courier's staff to do more and better commercial printing.

A new combination cash register and receipt machine has also been received and installed in The Courier office. This will enable us to have a complete record of every transaction, whether it be advertising, job printing, subscriptions, office supplies, or miscellaneous merchandise. In each transaction, the customer will receive a duplicate copy of the receipt.

We invite you to come in and  see this new equipment. 

Note: The image is a stock photo of the type of press installed at The Courier and which the Editor learned to operate as a teenager. Note the three rollers which picked up ink from the large plate at the top and rolled down over raised type just before paper was pressed against the type. A long lever (visible just above the wheel) controlled the press operation.