Golden Age Courier Produced 'On the Farm"

(Editor's Note:  We only recently came across this story written last June by Cindy Peters for the Northwest Public Power District newsletter.  We've been reading the Dawes County Historical Society's "Golden Age Courier" for years and always look forward to receiving it.  Thanks to Cindy Peters for allowing us to reprint her story!) 

By Cindy Peters

It’s pretty common to find a copy of the Golden Age Courier lying around in waiting rooms, restaurants and at various businesses every month.  This popular free tabloid began nearly 33 years ago on Sept. 30, 1987.

Ginger Campbell of rural Chadron has returned
 to desktop publishing and laying out the
Golden Age Courier in the comfort of her home.

“The Courier is a product of the Dawes County Historical Society,” noted current editor Ginger Campbell.  Campbell, of rural Chadron, has compiled the Courier for nearly 15 years.

“I worked at The Chadron Record three different times for a total of 14 and a half years altogether and always did the Courier layout,” explained Campbell. “I first worked on the Courier with my aunt, Lucille Redfern, then Belle Lecher and then Ron Wineteer.  I retired from the Record in 2015.”

“My first job in printing was at B&B Printing working for Warren Brooks,” said Campbell.  The couple relocated to Colorado, where the Chadron native’s experience in newspaper production began in Brighton, where she typeset and worked on the legals.  Campbell returned back to the family farm, where she has lived her entire life, with the exception of a few years in Colorado, a year in Montana and a year in Washington.

“I graduated from Chadron High in 1968, then graduated from the National College of Business in Rapid City, which no longer exists. Then went to work at the CNW railroad as a clerk in the Supt's office until I got married,” she explained.  Late last Summer, she was approached by her cousin, Sharon Rickenbach, President of the Board for Dawes County Historical Society, asking her about taking over the Courier, when the late Ron Wineteer stepped down.

“My first issue was in September 2018. I started doing the layout myself at home in October,” said Campbell. This required her to get set up with a graphic design program, called QuarkExpress. It didn’t take her long to get it set up and since then she is happy to report the Courier’s first color issue was in April. “I was familiar with it so it was easy to take on. I sometimes had to find filler for Ron. I just wish I was a journalist so I could write stories, but I'm clueless when it comes to that,” said Campbell.

The Courier has several contributors. She receives articles from several people. “I'm always looking for ideas. Anyone can send me something they'd like to see in it. I don't want to put in too much silly stuff, but that's the most fun. If I see something I think is interesting, either in an email or on facebook or anywhere else, I put it in. I try to stay away from politics. I search through old issues and reprint some things from years ago,” explained Campbell. Campbell said she doesn’t keep track of the time she spends on it.

“It doesn't seem like very much, but it's probably more than I think. It's all volunteer so I guess I don't worry about keeping track,” she explained.  “Ron always had things lined up for three months in advance.  I end up getting it done at the last minute,” she chuckled. Once the pages are complete, she sends them to The Chadron Record and it is forwarded to the Rapid City Journal where it is printed. They have recently increased their circulation.  “We have gone up to 1200 copies and it is distributed around Chadron, Crawford and Hay Springs,” noted Campbell.

The first edition of the Golden Age Courier - September 1987

“There are a few subscribers that I send it out to.  People who have moved away and still want to see it. It is a free publication thanks to the advertisers.  Subscribers pay for the postage to send it,” said Campbell. The original editorial board included Don Huls, retired publisher of The Chadron Record, Lucille Redfern, Ed Davenport, Woody and Audrey Woodward, Mary Kuhnel, Alice Faulk, Jo Fox, and Herb Place. “In looking through old issues I see that Goldie Dawkins and Lloy Chamberlain were editors for a while,” said Campbell.

Pam Littrel currently sells the advertising. Campbell gets some of them sent to her and she sets up part of them. Campbell’s favorite part of her volunteer project is finding fun things to put in it. Although she does most of it herself, her daughter, Jenifer Tidman, and husband Stan helps her with it when he is not working.

“He is a veteran and enjoys talking to veterans for those articles and he helps me distribute it, but Pam does most of the delivery. My grandkids help when they can,” said Campbell.”

She enjoys the fact she can work on it when she gets the chance while staying in her home. She and Stan have been married 46 years. He works at Bomgaars part-time and is in the process of trying to retire. They no longer raise crops or livestock, they rent out their pasture. The couple have two children, and 10 grandchildren, ranging in age from 3 to 20.

“Our daughter, Jenifer and her husband Tim Tidyman moved here four years ago from Hayes Center. They have five children, two in college and three in Chadron Public Schools. Our son, Russ and his wife Gina and their 5 children live in Scottsbluff.” In Campbell’s spare time she enjoys a lot of sewing and crafts. The Campbells live east of Chadron on Redfern Road.

Chadron man remembered as a "Real Character"

(NOTE:  It was 17 years ago this week that Ed Davenport died as the result of a highway accident near our hometown of Chadron, Nebraska.  Ed was a neighbor.  He was a colleague.  He was a friend.  Jim Holland wrote the following piece for the Chadron Record on July 18, 1996.  It does a good job describing this "real character."  Thanks to Ron Wineteer, Editor of the Golden Age Courier, for sharing it with us. -- Larry Miller, Black Hills Journal)

by Jim Holland

Ed Davenport is known by friends and associates as a radio and television pioneer, an antique collector, historian, musician and comedian.  He is remembered mostly as “a real character.”

"Cuzzin Ed" Davenport owned Antique Acres

Davenport , 70, died of injuries received in a morning highway accident east of Chadron.

Davenport was actually several characters during his five decades on radio, television and stage.  He was “on stage 24 hours a day” said Don Huls, Dawes County Extension Agent, and one of several who have played “straight man” to Davenport’s trademark “Cuzzin Ed”.  “He was always developing different characters in his imagination,” said Huls.

From that imagination came a plethora of Cuzzin Ed’s ersatz kin, including, “Uncle Hiram”, “Aunt Matilda”, “Aunt Bertha”, “Cousin Elmo”, “Aunt Ralph (of San Francisco)”, and a one-sided perpetual love interest named “Esmeralda Poofdangle.”

            

“He was one-of-a-kind,“ said Huls.  “He enjoyed people.  He wanted people to laugh with, and at him.  He had a natural, easy humor.”

            

An early interest in all things mechanical and electrical led Davenport into a career in communications.  He made his first radio appearance on station KOBH, later KOTA in Rapid City in 1939, playing piano accompaniment while his father, George, played and talked about the violin he built as a hobby.

            

Davenport was inducted into the U.S. Army in 1945, serving first as a military policeman, then as battalion radio repairman.  After his discharge in 1947, he enrolled in the Electronics Radio and Television Institute in Omaha, obtaining his Federal Communications Commission first class radio telephone license that fall.

            

In 1948, he owned Davenport Radio and TV service on Chapin Street in Chadron.  He began his on-air radio career as an engineer-announcer with KCOW in Alliance in 1949.  “Cuzzin Ed” made his radio debut as a humorous sidekick to announcers Harley Hanson, Gene Taylor, Verne Sheppard and Art jones on “The Country Store” on KOTA in 1954.

            

He and KOTA moved into the television era in 1955.  Davenport helped engineer a new transmitter and tower for the first TV broadcasts in western South Dakota.  Davenport was seriously injured in 1957, falling 17 feet when a Rapid City tower, being dismantled for a new radio station in Pierre, S.D., collapsed.  After months of recuperation from a broken back and hip, Davenport moved to Pierre to help the new station, KCCR, begin broadcasting.

            

He sold his interest in that station and returned to Chadron in 1960.  Later that year he was chief engineer for KDUH TV in Hay Springs.

            

In 1961, he started Antique Acres, a museum featuring vintage automobiles and several collections.  “He loved to hit all the garage sales,” said Huls.  “On a Saturday he could make it to 10 sales before 10 in the morning.  He was always looking for the hot buy.  He could see a little bit of value in just about anything.”

            

He was chief engineer for Chadron’s KCSR radio station in 1970.  Pat Benton, a then-KCSR colleague who also played straight man to “Cuzzin Ed” remembers his partner’s homespun sense of humor.  “It was real cornball humor.  He was Hee-Haw before there was Hee-Haw,” said Benton.  “He was local flavor, par de luxe,”  The ‘Cuzzin Ed Show” was also carried on stations in Torrington and Valentine.  “Even with his cornball style, he drew a sophisticated audience,” Benton said.  “We could barely be picked up in Rapid City, but I can remember hearing about doctors up there craning their ears trying to listen to the show.”

            

Benton respected Davenport’s engineering know-how in those early days.  “He was such a wiz at keeping the station going with tubes and tape, alligator clips and paper clips.”  Although semi-retired in his later years, Davenport continued his engineering duties at KCSR until his death.  He helped install a new broadcast control room at the station, said owner Dennis Brown.

            

Raymond Eaton, who grew up with Davenport, recalled Davenport’s natural musical ability.  “He could play just about anything, but he was really good at the piano.  We could name any tune, and he could play it.  He played by ear.  I doubt if he could even read music.”

            

Belle Lecher, of the Dawes County Historical Society, praised Davenport’s dedication to the Society.  “His engineering expertise and ability to utilize and improvise often made the difference between spending funds we did not have to spend,” said Lecher.  “I still recall the time we needed to move the old Chadron Record linotype machine (which weighed a ton) from the original museum to the Card Farm addition.  With a set of blocks and rollers, he managed to relocate the machine practically single-handed in a matter of minutes.  Davenport donated the Alpha Schoolhouse, a Fordson Tractor, a wagon from the Chadron Brickyard and countless smaller items to the Museum,” said Lecher.  He also provided his own column of witticisms, “Cuzzin Ed’s Almanac” for the senior publication, Golden Age Courier.

            

He helped form the Northwest Vintage Car Club and was active in the Chadron Prep Alumni and the Veterans Honor Guard of Chadron.  He served as Master of Ceremonies for a couple of Chadron’s annual Ugly Pickup Contests.  Former Chadron Record Publisher, Les Mann, founded the contest in 1987.  Mann heard reports that Davenport was at the wheel of a well-used 1964 Ford pickup at the time of his fatal accident.  “He was an ugly pickup owner to the end,” said Mann. 

The Great Race: Still running after all these years!

While it may have started as something of a novelty, the "Chadron to Chicago Horse Race" spurred lots of interest across the region 120 years ago this month.

"Billy the Bear" Iaeger and Dawes County Sheriff James Dahlman were among the folks who finally put together something of a real race. Seems that newspaperman John Maher had floated the myth of such a race, but thanks to some local determination, it really came about.

The horse race story still has legs. We enjoyed a rather lengthy piece put together by David Hendee of the Omaha World-Herald, and you can find it, replete with photos and maps, by clicking on Chadron-to-Chicago Race.

Hendee worked with Belle Lecher and others of the Dawes County Historical Society in putting this feature story together.  It was interesting to connect Billy Iaeger with Chadron Fire Chief J.O. Hartzell. Hartzell is attributed with firing the pistol that started the 13-day race across the plains.  

The names Hartzell and Iaeger were prominent, too, in the creation of a 1916 movie about Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok.  Made in Dawes County, it never won an academy award, but it's fun to learn about the entrepreneurial and promotional activities of some of the old timers!