Robert had come to Vermillion earlier that year to see what this flourishing lake port town had to offer. He returned to his home in Greensprings and told his father, George, that he would like to go into the newspaper business. He spoke well of Vermillion - two railroads, a shipping port. His father had a successful furniture-making business; Vermilion had its advantages over Greensprings in transporting goods.
George, with his wife Becky and six of their seven children, moved to Vermillion with plans to begin their furniture business. (The business never got started until after the selling of The News.) With them came a platen press and type cases purchased in Greensprings. All settled in a building on Grand Street (stood just north of the former police station), the schoolhouse which had once stood on Hanover Square. It was in this building The Vermillion News was born and stayed in the Whitmore famly until 1901.
Robert left the business in November, 1898. His father continued on, naming H.A. Haven as publisher the following month. "H.A." was George's mother, Hattie, and together were proprietors of the weekly newspaper until sold. (George Whitmore was also father to the late Mrs. Fred (Zenobia) Krapp and the late Mrs. John (Hattie) Ries: grandfather of Mrs. Ralph (Mary Jayne Ries) Bard and step-grandfather to the late Mrs. A.W. "June" (Erma Krapp) Heyman.
Until The Vermillion News, there had been other newspapers here; The Vermillion Bugle, 1876-1879, owned by the Amherst Free Press; the Vermillion Times, owned by a Mr. Ruggles, believed to have ceased before the "News" began, and possibly others but there are no records of any.
Vermillion was spelled with two "L's" until 1898 when the United States Post Office decided to change it to one "L" as there were two other Vermillions in Ohio. (Vermillion Townships - Erie and Ashland counties).
Early in 1900 a young Milan man purchased the business for a few hundred dollars. With his wife of one year, Pearl and Bessie Roscoe published their first issue of the Vermilion News in mid-May of 1901.
Bess and Pearl Roscoe moved the News Office and printshop into a new property further south on Grand Street in a building they built on vacant land purchased from John W. Decker on September 19, 1904. The building, with the printshop downstairs and an apartment upstairs, was constructed in 1905.
The beautiful new home of The Vermilion News and the Roscoe Family in 1905. Through the years the building was renovated three times. This picture postcard advertisement preceeds "Star Wars" and shows one the "real force": (left to right) E.T. Bottomely, Hattie Thompson, Bess Roscoe, Bertha Rice, and Pearl Roscoe. Their first big newspaper press is also featured in the photo.
Roscoe on the South side of the News Office
Although starting a millinery shop in the "news" building with two of her sisters, Hattie Whitmore continued on with Roscoes as a linotype operator. The linotype ( a state of the art type-setting machine) premiered in the printshop in 1916. Until that time the paper was entirely set by hand type. The linotypes were "state of the art" improvements.
Business thrived. An addition was built onto the building; more printing equipment was purchased. Besides a weekly newspaper, specialty printing was flourishing; handbills, business cards, business forms, booklets and pamphlets, advertising posters, high school annuals and later the school's newspapers, labels for the packing plant; whatever was needed, they printed.
News and advertising were brought in from surrounding areas - Birmingham, Huron, Brownhelm, Amherst, Ogontz, Berlin Heights, Florence, Ashmont, Ruggles, Lorain. People enjoyed reading where "Mr and Mrs. John Doe" spent the day, what occurred at council and school meetings, and good coverage of court cases. In the beginning a year's subscription to The News cost $1.00, eventually reaching $2.50 by the 1950's.
During the Wars, Pearl and Bessie made sure our service men and women would receive The News from their hometown, and the News Office was one of their first stops upon their return. Passersby would stop in for friendly chats with Bess and Pearl. Their day started early in the morning, ending late into the evening. Newcomers to our town stopped by and were warmly welcomed into the community by the Roscoes.
Many youngsters came in after school to watch the operation of the linotype: the setting of type by hand; and assisted in inking and running the roller across the type on the proof press; watching the lock-up of type in the forms. They were fascinated by the process of putting the newspaper to bed while parents were puzzled as to how their children could get so black on their way home from school.
The Roscoes had other interests too. Bessie later opened a small gift shop in downtown Vermilion known as the "News Gift Store", later located in a building just west of the present Liberty Theater. You found the same friendly atmosphere there. In later years romance bloomed at the gift shop. Jayne Ries, George Whitmore's granddaughter, was employed by Mrs. Roscoe, and next door was the telegraph office and there Jayne met her future husband, Ralph Bard, the telegraph operator.
Pearl was always interested in photography. He fixed up a special area for his darkroom and went into the taking, developing, and printing his own photographs. If a person needed an identification picture they came to Mr. Roscoe. Many were taken outside the building under the afternoon sun. Many of the old photographs of Vermilion were taken by Mr. Roscoe, of which many appeared on penny postcards.
Pearl constructed his darkroom in a staircase closet in the shop. And when Bess had dinner ready she would come to the top of the staircase and bang her high heel on the first step to let him know dinner was waiting.
He didn't miss many meals.
Both were active in church work. Bess was also interested in literary circles. For many years she served on the library board and as president, was one of the members instrumental in the building of the public library on Grand Street where the former Vermilion Police Station was located.
Elizabeth "Bessie" Roscoe at work at The News.
Although busy with their newspaper and gift shop, Pearl and Bessie raised a small family. Their first born, twin daughters, did not live. At this time Bessie's family was here and assisted in the operation of The News. It was said that her father, E.T. Bottomley, flipped the papers for a run; the pages were back to back but upside down.
The Roscoes were later blessed with two daughters, Ella, who arrived for their fifth anniversary in the News Office, and Alice arriving for their tenth Christmas in Vermilion.
Reading for children reared in the environment of the News Office never seemed much of a problem until starting to school. Up until then reading words from right to left, bottom to top, upside down, was the way. Both girls graduated from Vermilion High School; Ella to continue her education at Sandusky Business School and become a part of the News staff, and Alice at Ohio State University to become a home economics teacher in the Vermilion School System and to assist in the gift shop.
Ella G. Tarrant in front of The News as a young lady.
With World War I over, a young war veteran arrived in Vermilion, a stop-over on a journey out West. His aunt and uncle resided here, The Rev. and Mrs. Howard Lynch (Congregational Church), with whom he stayed. Being short of funds, he needed a job before continuing his venture.
Bill Tarrant measuring copy ~ 1937.
As a boy growing up in Portland, Maine, he had acquired a small printing press, a font of type, and on his own learned the printing trade. What better place for a job - The News Office. The year was 1920. William B. Tarrant's "stop-over" turned into "planting roots". He was hired at The News Office; courted and later married the boss' daughter, Ella, and raised a family of four boys and four girls, William Roscoe, Philip Fredrick, Nancy Alice (named after a favorite horse he had), Albert Caselton, Pearl Elizabeth (Ginny ~Ginger because of the color of her hair), Eleanor Lee (named after Bill's mother, Ellen), Zella Joan (Butch), and Richard Neale .
Roscoe and Nancy Alice (Tarrant) Emery sharing a moment at the news desk.
Both were active in local organizations as well as attending meetings, gathering the news as did the Roscoes. Bill's weekly column was "Fits, Facts, and Fiction ("The Truth, some Truth, nothing of the Truth) by Bill Basil". He helped found the local American Legion Post and became its first commander; was active in other veteran organizations, and Masonic organizations
He enjoyed the out-of-doors and spent many a cold, wintry night camping out with the Boys Scouts, or just taking nature walks with his family.
Ella, being an accomplished musician, served the Congregational Church as organist for many years, as well as playing at St. Mary's and the Evangelical and Reformed churches. It was not unusual to see her darting across Victory Park on Sundays from the Congregational Church, which let out at noon, to play the organ for twelve o'clock Mass at St. Mary's Church.
Vermilion is known as the town of "Lake Captains". When Alice married she added a name to the list, Ferl N. Lindsay. Originally from Michigan, settling in Vermilion, he too gave a hand at the News Office when home during the winter months. Following retirement, he and his wife made their winter home in Stuart, Florida. They had two children, Janet (Hancock) who passed into the hands of God in 1999, and David Roscoe Lindsay who now resides in Texas.
Captain Ferl and Alice Lindsay
Also a retired "Lake Captain" was George Reiber of Vermilion. His wife, the former Ethel Eddy, was employed as a linotype operator at The News Office, and is said at the time of their marriage, a special edition of The News was printed. Front page headlines on one copy of that week's issue.
With Bill working at The News Office and his wife helping out when needed, it was not unusual for the Tarrant children to be seen there; learning the trade. Young Albert would often set up shop behind the type cases, sitting on the floor at his desk, a crate used by the adults to sit on while setting hand type. He spent many a day busy at this little desk, and many a day he'd lay his head down, fast asleep.
"Gramma" or "Granpa" were always busy at their desk, why not Albert. There one day when one of the typesetters should have been sitting on the crate. She was bent over a type case when young Philip decided to take a chunk out of her. "Daddy" warmed his seat. "Gramma was mad at "Daddy" for spanking Philip.
Each of the Tarrant children had their turn at delivering The News to customers in downtown Vermilion and neighboring homes. At the end of publication day when all the work was done and the papers were ready for mailing, the children piled into the car for their weekly trip to the train depot to drop off the mail bags. It was a thrill to see the train whisk away the bags full of The News to go to various parts of the country and our world.
Pearl and Bessie remained in the newspaper business until their deaths. Bessie died on January 7, 1946 after a illness of several months, and Pearl died on April 18th of the same year. He was working, as usual, one evening with Bill, when he became ill, passing away the following day. Their passings were a great loss to the community.
It was then that Bill and Ella took over the operation of The News Office; Alice and Ferl, the gift shop (The store was later sold to Mrs. Eva Wagner.) The Tarrants remained in the business, several of their children joining the operation later.
Young Bill was the first to join. He learned typesetting but mainly operated the presses, the hand-fed jobbers and automatic presses. It was amazing to watch him operate the big flat-bed press; how he could stand there hand-feeding newsprint into the press and read a good western novel at the same time. Nancy became a skilled linotype operator, reporter, advertising sales person and columnist. Eleanor ran the smaller job press printing labels until her marriage. The youngest son, Richard, while still in high school, began his writing career by publishing a weekly column "By Gum" in The News. It was very unique and probably wouldn't go too far in today's journalistic classes. But it was Richard.
Upon the illness of Ella, all the children and their spouses stepped in to help out at The News Office. As she was regaining her health, she helped part-time at the office but cared for her grandchildren while the presses were rolling. In June of 1963 at the age of 57, she became suddenly ill and passed on two days later. With her went much of Vermilion's history. She was in the midst of writing and publishing a weekly column (Yesteryears) and had had an opportunity to visit with the old-timers about Vermilion's past. Although she made notes of her conversations, much was contained in her head and never written. All have passed away.
Today the presses are silent. No more are we to be lulled to sleep with a steady rumble of the big press. The Vermilion News 1897 - 1964, in which history can be found, is now on microfilm at the Ritter Public Library.
