Thursday Night at the Wetzel Republican

By Borgon Tanner

Shop foreman Buss Wise, at left, and Paul Balwanz at an old flathead cylinder press in the office of the Wetzel Republican newspaper in New Martinsville, early 1930's.

Sixty years ago, Thursday night was a time of action in New Martinsville. That night, the finest paper in the county, the Wetzel Republican, was produced by long-suffering shop foreman Buss Wise and three indispensable teenagers. I was the youngest of the trio, but my job was the most important. I operated the mailer.

The Wetzel Republican office, at the time, was well-situated in the center of the downtown business district. Diagonally across from us was the imposing stone structure of the Wetzel County courthouse. At the corner by Main Street stood the towering statue of Levi Morgan, pioneer scout. Diagonally to our left was a beautiful home overlooking the Ohio River and the ferry landing. For several years during World War I, this was the residence of my maternal grandparents.

To our right, on the lower corner of Main Street, was the well-known Bank of New Martinsville. The newspaper office came next, then an alleyway. Beyond that – with a magnificent view of the Ohio – was the historic Brast Hotel, one of the town’s best-known landmarks.

The Wetzel Republican office and print shop occupied one large, ground-floor room, about 40-feet wide and 60-feet long. There were no partitions. A vast array of type cabinets provided internal boundaries. Office space up front extended to a depth of 14 feet. The editor’s desk and filing cabinets were on the river side. The secretary – who was also the social editor and subscription manager – occupied the opposite side with her furniture. The remaining space was filled with type cabinets and printing equipment, large and small.

The Wetzel Republican was a letterpress shop. That was common in the 1940's. Letterpress means using “raised type,” which had been cast in a foundry in a Monotype or similar machine or by the renowned Linotype. All of the type was produced by melting lead and casting raised characters, singly or in lines of type. Illustrations were also made by melting lead and pouring it in special frames. Our letterpress operation, like many others, was located on the ground floor, since there were literally tons of weight in the type cabinets and the machines.

Two large machines dominated the scene in the print shop, towering above the forest of type and galley cabinets and the other scattered equipment needed for the production of the paper and the smaller printing jobs that were done there.

At the edge of the editor’s office space was our large single-cylinder flatbed press. A working antique, it occupied one-third of the length of the room and nearly one-half of the width. The top side of the press was about six feet below the 16-foot-high ceiling. One of the reasons this ancient press loomed so large was that it rested on a platform, two-and-a-half feet high. This press was the chief instrument used in printing the Wetzel Republican. It was handled by only one person – Buss Wise, our shop foreman. In his spare time, he operated the two small job presses, ran the large paper cutter, produced all the printing cuts, and set large type for newspaper headings. (He did not operate the mailer. That was my job.)

Buss was not only versatile and patient, but he used the English language like a craftsman’s tool.

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