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Still
Serving, Still Trusted
TimesIndicator
has served the area since the 1870's
The TimesIndicator has been the chief
historian for the Fremont and Newaygo County area for more than a century, surviving
fires, floods, wars and economic hardship along with the people of the county. The TimesIndicator traces its lineage to the
1870's and the turn of the century, when at least three weekly newspapers were published
in the town that was then called Fremont Center. A 1966 historical review in the
TimesIndicator called it the oldest business in Fremont. According to newspaper files, the first
Fremont Indicator was run off on a hand press by Civil War veteran Walter S. Platt in
1876. In the early 1890's, Platt sold the Indicator to John W. Eagon, who was already
publishing the Fremont News. R.C. Eisley purchased the Fremont News-Indicator shortly
after the turn of the century. In 1911, Don VanderWerp and O.G. Cederquist
established the Fremont times, after purchasing a paper called the Fremont Review from
Publisher Frank M. Ketchum. The partners took over the News-Indicator in November of that
year and began publishing the Fremont Times-Indicator. the newspaper has been published at the same
address, 44 W. Main in downtown Fremont, since VanderWerp and Cederquist began publishing
the Times there in 1911 and soon took over the News-Indicator. In 1917, Cederquist sold his interest in the
paper to VanderWerp, who published the paper until 1950. In 1943, the Newaygo County news
was absorbed by the Times-Indicator, making Fremont a one-newspaper town. Vidian L. Roe purchased the Fremont
Times-Indicator from VanderWerp in 1950 and published the newspaper for 16 years, before
he sold it to Robert and Phyllis Hostetler of Bay City in august of 1966. The Hostetler family published the newspaper
for 20 years, with Douglas Hostetler and his wife, Judy, taking over from his parents for
the last five years, from 1981 through 1986. The TimesIndicator became the county's only
locally published newspaper in 1980, when it absorbed the Newaygo County Sun, a newspaper
which had been formed by the merger of three other newspapers, the Newaygo Republican, the
White Cloud Eagle and the Grant Independent. Tony Komlanc, publisher of a weekly newspaper
in Morrison, Illinois, purchased the Times-Indicator from Doug and Judy Hostetler in
January of 1987. Richard Wheater, a Times-Indicator reporter for nearly four years, was
appointed Editor and Publisher. Research into nearly 12 decades of
Times-Indicator files indicates that the newspaper has been published continuously,
without missing a weekly issue, since at least 1878. The record includes the June 27, 1957 issue of
the newspaper, which was published on schedule despite a Sunday morning fire which gutted
the Times-Indicator office. that week's issue was typeset and composed in White Cloud and
printed in Reed City, thanks to the generous assistance of colleagues in the newspaper
business. More recently, in December of 1989, fire
destroyed the video store adjacent to the Times-Indicator office. firefighters managed to
confine the flames to the video store, but smoke damage drove the newspaper staff down the
street to an unfinished store that later became home to the J.c. Penney Store and Wyse
Office Supply. Volunteers helped carry computers down the street so that the
Times-Indicator could be published on time. The newspaper operated out of its temporary
quarters for nearly three months, until the complete remodeling job was finished at the
office. The TimesIndicator has covered the community's
big stories and the smaller but no less important events, news items ranging from the 1986
floods to the 1947 blizzard, and from church socials to several generations of births,
deaths, weddings and anniversaries. The news files include moonshiners arrested in 1934
and underground marijuana cultivators uncovered in 1998. The newspaper has also played an important
role in the economy of the Newaygo County area. Local merchants advertised a "Great
Slaughter of Shoes" (50 cents buys any shoe in the house regardless of cost, 1906 at
Rutherford's Reliable Grocery House), fine men's suits ($3.75 at R. VanderWerp, 1914), the
screening of "You'll Like My Mother" (starring Patty Duke) at the Oz in 1972,
and the debut of the economical '59 Rambler at Heyboer Motors. The history of Fremont and the surrounding
communities are captured in the thousands of pages of newspaper files that have been
preserved in bound volumes. Those volumes resided in the basement of the Times-Indicator
office until the 1989 fire, when they were evacuated and entrusted to the Newaygo County
Society of History and Genealogy. These historical volumes have also been duplicated and
preserved on microfilm, which is available for viewing at the Fremont public library. A few examples of local newspaper history,
including copies of the Times, the Indicator, the News-Indicator, the Newaygo County News,
the White Cloud Eagle and the Grant Herald-Independent, are displayed in the front lobby
of the TimesIndicator office at 44 W. Main in downtown Fremont. Moving into the new century, the
TimesIndicator is bigger and more widely read than ever. A growing number of readers
continue to trust Newaygo County's Newspaper for reliable, accurate and interesting news
and features, delivered every week with the same dedication and commitment that readers
learned to trust in the 1800's.
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