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By Whitney Sherrill Contributing writer As stated in the March 10, 1887, edition of The Ellijay Courier , “A news paper is the picture of the place in which it is published.” This year, the Times-Cou- rier reached the milestone of providing a weekly snapshot of life in Gilmer County for 150 years. Publisher Andy Ashurst observed that the local newspaper has “a long and rich tradition” of reporting and plays an integral role in the community. “It is uniquely suited to Gilmer, down to the pro- nunciation of Courier,” he continued, referencing how many locals use a “coo” sound at the beginning of the newspaper’s name and drop the middle “r.” “It is said community newspapers are the first edition of histo- ry. You can see this as you wander through the bound volumes of the Times-Couri- er (archives).” The early years The first issue of The Ellijay Courier — the original name of the local community newspaper — appeared Sept. 1, 1875, and the subscription cost was $2 per year. General Lucian J. Gar- trell, of Atlanta, established the paper after purchasing the equipment from the Norcross Advance , which was closing its doors due to in-fighting among its stockholders. H.A. Lumsden was hired as the editor, and for a time, the newspaper was published in the county courthouse, which at the time was located in a brick building that stood in the middle of Ellijay’s mod- ern-day roundabout. While no known copy of the original issue has been preserved until today, George Gordon Ward reports in his book The Annals of Upper Georgia Centered in Gilmer County , that the four-page edition included information about the death of President Andrew Johnson, the effort to extend the Marietta & North Georgia railroad from Canton, a letter by Jeffer- son Davis, details about a church dedication, infor- mation about the opening of the Ellijay Seminary and other local tidbits. There were advertisements as well, but as Ward observed, they were not very eye-catching as “modern psychology and advertising were scarcely, as yet, on speaking terms.” The Nov. 12, 1885, edi- tion of The Ellijay Courier described north Georgia in the 1870s as “a section ostracized from the great throbbing pulsations of a By Whitney Sherrill Contributing writer Throughout its 15 decades of operation, the Times-Courier ’s publication date has ranged through- out the week. The number of columns on a page and physical size of the paper have changed repeatedly. The process of how the news has gone to press has also been reinvented. Originally, each issue of the local paper was printed in-house on hand presses, for which individual letters had to be selected and load- ed. C.F. Owen switched to a hand cylinder press about 1917. The old Washington hand presses were donated to one of the many scrap iron drives hosted during World War I. Once electrici- ty arrived in Ellijay in 1930, he installed a power press and a typesetting machine. While each change helped to streamline the printing process a bit more, these predecessors to mod- ern printing methods lacked the editing conveniences offered by computers. Quoting The Dalton News , the Oct. 1, 1937, issue of the Times-Courier shared, “An ordinary newspeper (sic) column contains about 10,000 movable letters. There are seven possible wrong positions for each letter, affording 70,000 chances to make errors, and millions of possible transpo- sitions. In the sentence, ‘To be or not to be,’ by trans- position alone, 2,759,022 errors can be made. So if an initial, name, or word occasionally appears in print in error, please skp (sic) it. It might have been wrong in ten million other ways!” Roy A. Cook introduced a flat-bed press to the office in the 1960s. Recalling when his fami- ly took over the publication in 1967, former publisher George N. Bunch III said in a 2015 article, “Dad (George N. Bunch, Jr.) used the on-site old flat bed press for two issues before deciding to convert from hot type to cold type. He contracted with Cartersville Newspapers to print the Times-Courier on a web fed press. Pages were hand pasted at their site, shot by a press camera, which superimposed the image to a metal plate. The plates were attached to a cylinder press, and the week’s issue was off and running. After comple- tion, George Jr. would drive back to Ellijay for distribu- tion of that week’s edition. “Today, it is all digital,” he added. “Pages are sent to the printer … and delivered to us for distribution. The only ink at Times-Courier ’s office today is that which fills our ballpoint pens.” Some subscribers now choose to go paperless and only receive digital issues. Times-Courier archival photos This flat-bed press was used to print the local paper for several years. The last issue it printed was in Sept. 1967. Below, paper flies through a modern press in Chattanooga that once printed the Times-Courier . Newspaper reaches historic milestone Times-Courier archival photos Located in the center of the Ellijay square, the brick building at left served as the county courthouse from 1854 until 1934. At its inception, The Ellijay Courier was housed inside. The Times-Courier has r emaine d close to its roots and has offices downtown on River Street, right. Printing presses through the years A look back at the year 1875 By Whitney Sherrill Contributing writer In the course of history unwinding over millennia, 150 years may seem small, but great changes can be wrought in that length of time. For proof, simply rewind the clock in your mind’s eye to what the world looked like as the first issue of the The Ellijay Courier went to press in 1875. As you take a step back in time, forget about paved roads and trade in your smart- phone with all the bells and whistles for good old-fash- ioned handwritten letters, tintype photographs and the occasional telegraph. Replace automobiles with horse-drawn wagons. Leave behind your antibiot- ics, but do not be alarmed. You can readily stock up on a range of “miracle” patent medicines sold by traveling salesmen. When you picture the world 150 years ago, keep in mind that Alexander Graham Bell would not receive a patent for the electric telephone until the following year. What’s more, Thomas Edison’s “invention factory,” oth- erwise known as a labo- ratory in Menlo Park, NJ, also would not open until the next year. His most widely-known inventions, such as the phonograph, light bulbs and the motion picture camera, were still years down the road. In the realm of fashion, women could be spotted wearing long gowns with bustles on the back, while men sported frock coats, waistcoats and trousers. Hats were a staple. Davis and Levi Strauss patented their famous blue jeans two years before. The same year that the first issue of The Ellijay Courier went to press, Ulysses S. Grant was in his second presidential term. It was a difficult year for him, marked by the Whiskey Ring Scandal. Reconstruc- tion was underway, and the country was still gripped in an economic depression set off by the Panic of 1873. The U.S. consisted of 37 states with Colorado set to become number 38 in 1876. Abroad, trouble was brewing in the Balkan Pen- insula. A series of uprisings and wars in the region that started to bubble over in the Ottoman Empire’s ter- ritories eventually became known as the Great Eastern Crisis and ended with the Treaty of Berlin in 1878. The opera Carmen was first performed in Paris in March 1875, and its com- poser, George Bizet, died suddenly later that year at age 36. The year saw the births of such notables as auto- motive engineer Ferdinand Porsche; Ibn Saud, Saudia Arabia’s founder and first king; and Nobel Peace Prize laure- ate Albert Schweitzer. George F. Green patented the first electric dental drill; French chem- ist Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran discovered the element gallium, which is used in semiconductors; and Swiss chocolatier Dan- iel Peter developed the first commercially sold milk chocolate. Athletics saw several firsts that year as well. Indoor ice hockey got its start in Montreal, Quebec. According to History.com, “In what some may con- sider a predictive moment, the match ended in a bit of a melee.” Aristides, ridden by jockey Oliver Lewis, was the first horse to win Special section includes archival articles The following pages contain real news items gathered from the archives of the Times-Courier . Keep in mind that the information comes from dif- ferent historical time periods and may reflect mindsets and standards that are not in use today. Differences in capitalization, word usage, punctuation and even a few historic typos will also be seen and have been left in their original state. Ellijay, Rt. 4 Jan. 14, 1959 Times-Courier , Ellijay, Ga. I just thought I would write to tell you how long I have been reading the Times-Courier . Ever since I was a small girl about 4 years old my daddy was taking the Times-Courier . When I first remember the Times-Courier I learned how to spell it. How well I remember I would get the paper and spread it out on the floor and lay down on it. I would ask mother to spell Times-Courier and I just kept on until I learned to spell it and I thought I had beat everybody. Mother would make me rock the cradle so I would rock and sing Times-Cou- rier . She would get tired of hearing it and make me hush, but it wouldn’t be long until I would be going again... Well, the 7th day of November I started on my 79th year so you know how long I’ve been reading the Times-Courier . I really enjoy reading it and can hardly wait until Friday comes. Good luck and best wishes to everybody at the Times-Courier office and all the readers of this paper thru the New Year, 1959. From one that does love to read the Times-Courier — Granny Davis. My full name is Alice Smith Davis. An appreciated letter A look back continued on 2 Milestone continued on 9