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Boethel pointed out that if Ripley had checked a little closer, he would have
discovered that the town also had 13 letters in its name; if it was spelled with
two ts – however, it wasn’t always spelled that way. It seems that the
local newspaper continue to spell the name with only one t until about
1912.
Many
people found it hard to believe that a town of 1300 could support 13 newspapers.
However Boethel determined that Ripley was correct and he wrote the following:
“The five printing shops in the town published one daily, The Daily Booster;
three semiweeklies, Novy Domov, Herald and New Era; five
weeklies, Nachtrichten, Rebel, Habt Acht, Decentralizer,
and Pazor; three semimonthlies, Vestnik, Obzor, and Buditel;
and one monthly, Treue Zeuge.
As for the 13 saloons, Boethel said
it was hard to verify if that number was correct. He claimed, however, that it
was highly probable because there were five on the square and if you counted the
ones near town, such as the “Last Chance Saloon,” it was certainly possible. Many
of the town folk claimed there was one saloon for each newspaper editor.
Boethel
said that the number of churches could be confirmed as he wrote the following,
“The thirteen churches can be verified, considering all the sects and denominations,
black and white, the Christian Science chapel and the Jewish synagogue housed
in the Odd Fellows’ Hall.”
According to the local historian, Ripley should
have left out the part about an empty jail. “The jail was counted among the town’s
churches, for here confessions were made, reformations accomplished and tithes
paid,” wrote Boethel.
© Murray Montgomery
Lone
Star Diary August
29 , 2008 Column
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