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Wednesday, April 16, 2014

N is for Newspaper

My theme for A- Z is the year my book takes place: 1881. I"ll be posting about people, places, and random facts about the year as it relates - however distantly - to my book, West of Paradise.

Today we have N for Newspaper, namely, the Tombstone Epitaph - and yeah, this letter gave me a little trouble since I couldn't find a person, place, or thing (that I found interesting enough) for the letter N - hence my disclaimer of "however distantly related..."





The Epitaph was founded in May of 1880 by John P. Clum (who also has a small role in my tale) after he was "chided by associates who said he would write an epitaph and not a newspaper." This inspired Clum to name his new publication The Tombstone Epitaph.

Previously, Clum was an Indian Agent  for the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation where he "implemented a limited form of self-government on the reservation that was so successful that other reservations were closed and their residents moved to San Carlos." Unfortunately, the Army didn't like Clum's method of treating the Indians fairly as it prevented them from siphoning off the money that was supposed to be used for the aid of the Apaches. Clum soon tired of the Army's meddling and resigned his post in 1877.

After the great silver strike, Clum moved to Tombstone where he started up The Tombstone Epitaph and organized a "Vigilance Committee" in an attempt to bring peace and order to the town. This led to his election as Tombstone's first mayor and his lifelong association with Wyatt Earp.





13 comments:

  1. The government didn't like his fair treatment of the Indians. That's just appalling, isn't it?
    Like the story behind the newspaper's name. Clum had a sense of humor.

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  2. Chum sounds like a great agent for the Indians. Too bad he felt forced to resign.

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  3. Early America is full of Indians... Nice to see that Clum was their advocate and helped.

    What is wrong with caucasians who think they are better than other races and try to degrade and show superiority, when clearly they can't?

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  4. The way the Native Americans were treated is one of my soapboxes. I am forcefully kicking it aside or this comment could go on FOREVER. I agree with Alex. It says truly horrible things about our government that they didn't like Clum because he treated the Indians fairly and prevented the govt from siphoning money. In other news, I don't see anyone protecting our interests while the govt siphons money. And the more things change, the more they stay the same.

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  5. Intriguing info about Clum and his avenue to get the news out.

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  6. Interesting stuff, Miss Marcy. I like reading about stuff I wouldn't normally know about. Thanks and boogie boogie.

    PS: The snow is melting.

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  7. Sounds like a good man doing the best he could in the times he lived in.

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  8. Will be interesting to see him make a cameo… ;)

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  9. Despite the fact that I haven't been around much, I am digging this. I swear. And speaking of 1880...that was the last winter we had here in the mitten that we had close to this much SNOW. I'm just saying...

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  10. As I recall, there was some bad action at the newspaper office...

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  11. Tombstone Epitaph... Great story.

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  12. That is some terrible meddling. Sounds like he had a very interesting life, though.

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  13. Clum sounds like a trail blazer to me. :)

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