Lindsay Gazette

First Issue of the Exeter Sun (November 15, 1901) The Exeter Sun was first published in the back room of a little frame building on Pine Street in November 1901. This building was located where the Valley Electric Company was located in 1951. F.G. Griggs, affectionately known to all of Exeter as Grandpa Griggs, had his shoe repair shop in the front of the building. This block was leveled in 1975 and today is the site of the Bank of America. Exeter, as a town, was only 13 years old when the first issue hit the dusty and sometimes muddy streets on Nov. 15, 1901. As they celebrated their first 50 years in 1951, they made a request and offered a reward of $100 for the first edition but it still didnt surface. The first Sun was printed on an old hand operated Washington hand press. Its type was, for the first 20 years or so, hand set. Through the years the business has kept pace with modern progress. In 1951 the shop was among the best equipped in the county, with two typesetting machines, three automatic presses, and a newspaper press that was capable of excellent reproductions from type. Publisher Fred Page sold the paper to Eber Dawson in 1904. Dawson operated the paper until 1906, when he sold to Col. C.F. Train. Train was the publisher until 1908, when he sold a half interest to U.G. Knight of Long Beach, Calif. in December 1909. Knight became sole owner when Train moved to Maricopa. For a time, The Exeter Sun was a daily publication. The period of daily publication came after the city was incorporated in 1911 and there was a need to run the legal noticees of the sale of bonds which reuquired a certain number of publications and there was a deadline to be met. The Sun was a daily until this requirement was met. In 1911, Knight sold an interest to A.B. Sellars and in 1912 became sole owner again. In 1914, E. Brown became Knights silent partner. Brown became sole owner on Aug. 6, 1915 and two weeks later sold to Watt S. Clawson. Clawson made a deal with O.W. Catlin to purchase the building at 120 North E Street ...