Grove Beginnings...Part 13, The Grove Sun

The Grove Sun, the True Story

By Rose Stauber
The just past owners of the "The Grove Sun'" produced a flawed version
of the history of the newspaper. The newspaper is the best source for the
history of Grove and the people who lived in the town and the
surrounding area. I think it important that the correct story be told about the
newspaper. So here goes.

Some scraps of evidence of early newspapers include a copy of the
front page of "The Grove Cimeter", Vol. I, No. 1, dated November 25, 1898.
It was reproduced in the "The Grove Sun" of April 12, 1952. The page
contained no local news. W.N. Moore was publisher. Of him I know nothing else.

Another fragment of a newspaper was "The Messenger." The reproduction
I have of part of this front page was in the June 30, 2006, "The Grove
Sun." It is given as Vol. I with no issue number visible and dated Jan. 12,
1900. Another reproduction of the top half of a front page of "The Grove
Messenger" is dated June 7, 1900. It is Vol. I, but the number has
been cut off.

Then we have Lula Dale Duckworth Jones reporting that John Gibson and
Gus Ivy have started a newspaper. Nothing more is known of Gus Ivy. Her
report gives no date. The first surviving copy of "The Grove Sun" is the issue
of October 7, 1904, and is Vol. V, No. 32. The issue of March 3, 1905, is
Vol. VI, No. 1. When I do the math, it means that "The Grove Sun" was
founded in March 1899. These early copies carry a masthead with "J.H. Gibson
Editor and Publisher." The newspaper is printed every Friday at Grove, I.T.,
and a subscription is $1 a year.

Last year "The Grove Sun" began a new volume, Vol. 109, No. 1, on Nov.
27, 2006. The Sun claims it began publication in 1898 with an
anniversary in November. This would appear to be based on claiming "The Cimeter" as
the ancestor. I have no evidence to support that assumption.

In the biography of Gibson in the history, "Oklahoma – State and
People," we find this: …
"in 1889 (sic), he founded the Grove "Messenger," and was its editor
until the fall of 1904, when he leased the paper, and later, in 1906, sold
it."
The founding date is obviously wrong, and the dates of lease and sale
are not quite right.

These early copies of the "The Grove Sun" are found on Oklahoma
Historical Society microfilm. OHS has the responsibility for preserving Oklahoma
newspapers, and has microfilmed everything it could find. The Grove
Public Library has microfilm of all existing newspapers published in Delaware
County, and has a standing order for the "The Grove Sun" and "Delaware
County Journal."

Statements have been made that O.E. Butler (Orlando E.) founded "The
Grove Sun". That statement is refuted by O.E. himself who wrote in his
Indian-Pioneer statement that he was born in Siloam Springs, Ark, in
1880. The family, the father Henry M. Butler, moved with their nine children
to Pryor Creek, Indian Territory, in 1897. This was a family of printers.
They were almost interchangeable parts. At one time the names of three
Butlers are on "The Grove Sun" masthead.

O.E. says that he had some newspaper experience in Afton and then in
Southwest City, Mo. The 1900 census of Prairie Township, McDonald
County, was taken by Matthew C. Falkenbury, publisher of the Southwest City
newspaper. In his household as a boarder was Orlando E. Butler, age
19, occupation compositor. He came to Grove in 1905. The issue of March
3, 1905, stated that S.L. Tucker had severed relations with the "The Grove
Sun" and that O.E. Butler from the Pryor Creek "Clipper" was now the
business manager. He was listed on the masthead with J.H. Gibson, editor and
proprietor.

Gibson's name remained on the masthead until May 26, 2005, when O.E.
Butler was listed as editor and manager. Gibson's name seems not to have
appeared on the masthead after that date. The next change is more than a year
later when O.E. is editor and manager and S.J. Butler is listed as publisher
on the Aug. 30, 1907, issue. S.J. is O.E.'s brother Joe.

If the paper was sold, nothing is found in surviving issues about the
sale of the name or assets until the issue of Jan. 1, 1909. An item in the
usual column of local doings reads:

"Wednesday, O.E. Butler purchased J.H. Gibson's interest in the
printing materials of this plant. Consideration $650. We now own a plant
valued at $1500."

Dorothy D. Welsh is author of a hard-to-find book "The Butlers: A
Newspaper Family."
She writes: "Apparently, O.E. took over as editor or had a working
interest in the Sun before the actual purchase." Welsh states as fact but with
no proof that "Sometime in 1900, the "Grove Messenger was started by John
H. Gibson and J.T. Whiteside. Gibson purchased the interest of Whiteside
before 1901 and changed the name of the paper to "The Grove Sun" in
July 1901."
I find that John H. Gibson was, as both he and O.E. Butler stated, the
founder of "The Grove Sun."

In the July 12, 1934, issue, the Butlers marked the 34th year of the
Sun. It was Vol. 34, No. 1. Just when was the paper founded? The founder
made it 1899, the Butlers called it 1900, and the just past owners called it
1898.

O.E. Butler did spend most of the rest of his life with "The Grove
Sun", but he moved at one time to Tahlequah and at another time to Pryor.
His son, Owen L. Butler, became his assistant with the newspaper. Butler
died Aug. 5, 1948. After services in Grove, he was buried at Pryor.

Copyright © 2007 Rose Stauber