Alden’s newspapers

Welcome Alden Echo to the long line of newspapers that have served Alden. The first one known was the Oddaographic published in 1875. Next was the Alden Trumpet. That was followed by the Alden Gazette, then the monthly paper the Chaff, and then came the Alden Union published by Benjamin and Evan Morey from 1892 to 1901. Ill health forced the Moreys to sell the paper to the Depew Herald.

In 1914, James Childs, a printer and publisher of the Akron News, installed a press in what is now Marie’s Diner, and began the publication of the Alden Advertiser. The Advertiser had several owners in the ensuing years, many from Lancaster, until 1932 when Benris Bensley, president of the Alden State Bank, asked Joseph Weisbeck to consider purchasing the Advertiser, with help from the bank. It was known that Weisbeck had learned printing while working for the Moreys as a teenager. Thus began the Weisbeck family’s ownership of the Advertiser from father to son to grandson, from 1932 to 2025.

The Alden Historical Society has in its archives at least one copy of each of the old papers. Issue #2 of the Chaff, dated July, 1887, is eight pages long, cost 3 cents a copy (the introductory rate of 35 cents per year; in September to go to 5 cents a copy and 50 cents a year). The issues were mailed to subscribers.

This issue contains items of local interest, including a map of the newly opened Kellogg St. addition with the proposed building lots and a fine pen & ink depiction of the Alden Grade School (now ACTS) on Church Street. There are ads from Webb & Son Coffins & Caskets, Eddy & Co. Job Printers, Wahl & Gifford’s General Store (now Alden Medical Supply), and H.P. Patrell Hardware (13179 Broadway). The reader learned that there were three new bicyclists in town—Rev. Porter, Dexter Eastwood, and Ed Siehl and the Board of Education had hired an entire new corps (3) of teachers for the coming year.

The editor expressed his opinion that “one of the things this village needs is a good large hall. There is now no place to hold public meetings, socials, parties, theatrical entertainments, or anything of that nature.” He proposed forming a stock company and building the hall. That idea appears to have gone nowhere, but the dream of such a building became a reality in 1908 when the women’s Liberal Club purchased the closed Alden Baptist Church (now Legion Hall) and turned it into just the place Chaff’s editor envisioned.

The editor of Chaff also expressed this opinion: “We know of no one thing that helps make a town more than a good local paper, and while Chaff may not be as good as a weekly in some respects, still we think it’s a great deal better than no paper…Subscribe for it yourself and ask your neighbor to do so.”