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The history of the Rumford Falls Times

1883 -- Boston newspaperman Edgar N. Carver founded the paper under the name Canton Telephone, establishing it in Canton in 1883, shortly after the railroad from Buckfield to Canton.

1887 -- By now, the railroad extended to Dixfield and Edgar N. Carver moved the printing operation there, publishing the paper under the name of Dixfield Telegraph.

1893 -- Edgar N. Carver moved the paper to Rumford Falls in October, 1893, anticipating the successful development of the paper mill and water company. He also changed the name from Dixfield Telegraph to the Rumford Falls Times, making the paper larger with more pages. A new corporation, the Rumford Publishing Co., was formed to publish the paper and do job printing.

1893 -- Edgar N. Carver also announced the merger of the Dixfield Citizen, the Canton Telephone, and the Rumford Falls Echo. In May of that year, a souvenir issue of 10,000 copies was printed. It is unknown of any of these are in existence today.

1903 -- Edgar N. Carver sold the newspaper to four local citizens in 1903. Tracey Barker, one of the four, served as editor and publisher. Five years later, Barker purchased the paper.

1916 -- As fighting spread in Europe, Rumford residents began gathering outside the offices of the Rumford Falls Times to read the bulletins that appeared every night giving reports of the fighting. Young Rumford men began joining the National Guard as well as the regular military, especially when reports of John J. Pershing's pursuit of Mexico bandit Pancho Villa began appearing in The Times. What was especially exciting to Rumford residents was that some of their own were serving under Pershing with the Second Maine Infantry.

1920 -- Local citizen Tracey Barker kept the newspaper until 1920, then sold it and left the Rumford area. James O'Kane, James O'Brien and George W. Lane bought the paper and formed a new corporation, the Rumford Publishing Co. The Times flourished under the new ownership, as did the town during the booming days of the 1920s. The trio moved the business to the Hotel Rumford building.

1920 -- James O'Kane, who had served in the U.S. Navy in World War I, returned to Rumford where he not only became one of the owners, but was editor of the Rumford Falls Times for many years.

1929 -- In 1929, the Times was forced to temporarily move to the Mechanics Institute (now the Great Rumford Community Center) due to the fire at the Hotel Rumford. During this time, the actual printing was done by The Times' sister publication, the Independent Reporter in Skowhegan.

1940 -- The Rumford Falls Times Stage was originally a hack long used in Rumford and Lewiston. In May, 1940, this unique equipage was purchased by the Times, completely renovated, and with a crew of three, dispatched on a 350-mile "Good Will Tour" of surrounding Rumford. During the five-week tour, personal calls were made on more than 1,000 families. The tour began on May 15,

1940 at the Hotel Harris in Rumford and ended back at the Hotel on June 19, 1940.

1941 -- During World War II, from 1941-45, newsprint became scarce and sometimes the Times' staff was unsure whether they'd be able to print the next week's edition of the paper. Through cutbacks and smaller papers, The Times continued to publish papers without interruption.

1947 -- Several years after WWII, there was an economic boom when Rumford went from 40-cycle power to 60-cycle power. As a result, it seemed like everyone was buying new appliances to replaced those they had used for many years. New stores opened up and advertising revenue to promote new appliances created a strong bottom line for the local media. The population in greater Rumford was close to 25,000 and Oxford Paper Co. and its subsidiaries employed 3,200 people.

1948 -- Albert A. Rowbotham purchased the Times with Melvin L. Stone on April 1, 1948. Rowbotham cut back the staff, then started the Wilton Times, the Rangeley Record and the Westbrook American, printing all the papers at the Times' printing plant. The two men later purchased the Lisbon Enterprise.

1952 -- By now, business increased to the point where the weekly Times converted to the afternoon Daily Times. The weekly had grown to a circulation of 5,600 with a 22-page publication. Stone admitted that it was a mistake to begin a daily paper as circulation was never more than 1,500, but by June of 1954, they started to make a profit from the publication, which included a regular feature section and color comics.

1953 -- The Times was located on the site where Puiia Hardware was later located for many years, with Cummings Garage on one side and H.P. Hood on the other. With the newpaper, the printing plant and the radio station, people referred to the location as Times' Square. Radio station WRUM was established in August, 1953.

1954 -- One Saturday, July 10, 1954, a fire beginning a block away at the Rumford Lumber Co. wiped out the Daily Times' office, including the printing plant and the WRUM radio station. This would be the last time The Times was locally printed. Despite the fire, the paper still had an issue to get out and did so the following Thursday from an office space on Waldo Street. Meanwhile, WRUM, utilizing equipment from other radio stations, was able to get operations going quickly in a vacant grocery store on Spruce Street. Seed money of $5,000 for the radio station resulted from Oxford Paper Co. agreeing to purchase a year's worth of advertising in advance.

1955 -- Insufficient insurance result in large losses, but although the Daily Times ended, the weekly paper was at that time resurrected. Within a short period of time, Rowbotham took over the paper business and Stone took over the radio interests.

1976 -- After 40 years as a newspaper man, Rowbotham sold the Rumford Falls Times to Howard James, who brought with him an extensive background in newspaper experience. James' series of articles, later published as a book, "Crisis in the Court," written for the Christian Science Monitor, where he served as midwestern bureau chief in Chicago, won a Pulitzer Prize.

1983 -- On the occasion of its 100th anniversary, the Rumford Falls Times compiled a tribute of its history, filled with congratulatory advertising from area businesses. The Rumford Historical Society also paid tribute to the Rumford Falls Times with a lecture on the paper's history.

1983 -- When people think of the Rumford Falls Times, they think of Everett K. Martin. And why not, for more than one half of its existence involved Everett. He began as a cub reporter in 1927 and became the Times' editor in 1929. His efforts included reporting on the final days of prohibition, the Great Depression, the Flood of 1936, the Don Disaster of 1941 and World War II, as well as the winter carnivals, athletic events, town meetings, court trials and more. His weekly column, "The Times Carnation," commended local people for outstanding community service.

1987 -- The Times' staff worked overtime to provide coverage of The Flood of '87, in which hundreds of homes were flooded with damage into the millions of dollars. A second printing of the event was made, resulting in a record Times' circulation exceeding 8,100.

1988 -- Rumford Falls Times' reporters Gregory Davis and Bruce Farrin received a first place award from the 1988 New England Press Association for outstanding achievement in writing, reporting and observation in preparing a general news story (Weekly Class I). This award was for their September, 1987 coverage of a controversial visit by the Ku Klux Klan to Rumford.

2005 -- On June 1, 2005, the Rumford Falls Times, along with its sister paper, the Advertiser-Democrat of Norway, was sold by Howard James to the Sun Media Group, owned by the Costello family. Both weekly publications joined the Bethel Citizen in a subsidiary group under publisher Edward Snook.

2006 -- Beginning with the June 7, 2006 issue, the Rumford Falls Times went from the large, seven-column broadsheet pages used for years, to the smaller, six-column size newspaper pages common to other newspapers. When the Times went to the larger size pages more than a decade earlier, it prompted feedback that readers could no longer enjoy the weekly while on the toilet seat or at some of the smaller dining room tables. www.rumfordfallstimes.com
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