The Ridge Historical Society didn’t miss World Press Day. The United Nations declared May 3 to be World Press Freedom Day in 1991. The purpose is to raise awareness of the importance of freedom of the press and to remind governments of their duty to respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression.
Beverly and Morgan Park had numerous local newspapers and newsletters in the early years. This was long before computers and the Internet, even before radios and telephones and televisions, even before electricity. News spread by word of mouth or by print. There weren’t any other options.
The churches were a major source of news and some of the bulletins were akin to social newsletters. Some newspapers formed around political opinions and specific issues. It wasn’t unusual for a person who disagreed with a newspaper’s stance to start his own publication in opposition. Some papers dealt only with very specific issues, such as annexation of Morgan Park to the City of Chicago. Many of these papers were short-lived.
Some of the early papers included the Washington Heights Journal, Fernwood Journal, Morgan Park Standard, Morgan Park Reflector, Morgan Park Post, Morgan Park Gazette, Town Talk, The Review, Ridge Record, Bethany Union Reminder and several Blue Island newspapers that folded into the Suburban Star. The editor of the Morgan Park Reflector started his paper because he did not like the editor of the Morgan Park Standard.
The Beverly Review is the only paper that survived and can trace its roots back to the earliest days of Morgan Park. Three early papers merged to create today’s Beverly Review.
First, David Herriott, the Morgan Park postmaster, founded the Morgan Park Post in 1905. Second, The Review was founded as a church newsletter in 1906, and in 1915, Harry Earnest Stroup turned it into a weekly community newspaper. Third, Town Talk was a little newspaper that had several lives, and in 1913 it was revived by David Oberg who was assistant postmaster under Herriott.
By 1917, Herriott was ready to get out of the newspaper business, and he sold the Post to the Review, and Oberg did likewise with Town Talk. The paper changed its name to the Beverly Review sometime before 1937.
So the Beverly Review goes back to 1905. The Ridge communities have had this newspaper for 115 years. It is truly historic – indeed, amazing – to have a local community newspaper survive this long.
Here are some mastheads from the early newspapers, from the RHS collection. The one for the Ridge Record is charming – we liked it so much we used it for the RHS newsletter for a while.