| Notes |
- The History of Western Allegan County, Kit Lane, Project Director
FENNVILLE HERALD T87
The first issue of the Fennville Herald was published on July 2
1892, with Charles E. Bassett as editor. On the front page he promised, "An
effort will be made each week to record all of the news of this section and to
make the Herald a bright, clean paper, such as will be welcome in the home of
every family..."
There was at that time already a newspaper in the Village of
Fennville, the Fennville Dispatch, founded in 1883 by John C. Holmes, formerly
of Union City. Holmes apparently was not liked, and suffered from lack of local
support. The Dispatch died the month after the Herald was born, then Holmes
went off to found a newspaper in Hamilton which didn't do much bette
Bassett was a teacher by profession and had begun the Allegan Record
in 1890, but was unable to compete in the multi-newspaper town of Allegan and
it was sold "under the hammer" in 1891. There was a second attraction to
Bassett in Fennville in the form of Carrie E. Kingsley, the young daughter of
Fennville fruit grower H.J. Kingsley. She and Bassett were married Sept. 1,
1892, and she joined him in the Herald office.
The Herald was originally housed in "a small brown building on the
north side of Main Street". In 1894 it moved to rooms over the bank in the
Raymond, Hutchinson and Dickinson Block, on the south side of Main Street east
of Maple, and was wiped out in the fire of 1895. The paper missed publication
for nearly a month following the fire, and it was then located in a building
on Main Street near the foot of Elizabeth Street, a structure it would occupy
until 1985 when it was moved north to a small building at 204 East Main
Street, in the middle of the downtown area.
The Bassetts ran the Herald for 22 years, selling the paper in 1914 to
the Royal Publishing Co., owned by H.M. Royal of Shelby who installed Ivan C.
Lewis as editor. In 1917 he granted an option to Hardie L. Reynolds, Fennville
storekeeper, and the paper ran large ads to permit him to sell out this stock
before assuming the reins of the Herald.........
Muskegon Chronicle, Michigan, Thursday, March 20, 1913
Leading Fruitgrower As Grange Speaker
Charles E. Bassett of Fennville to Address Muskegon Pomona
Charles E. Bassett of Fennville, will be the principal speaker at the meeting of the Muskegon Pomona grange with Lake Harbor grange next Thursday. Mr. Bassett is secretary of the State Horticultural society and a practical fruit grower. He was for many years publisher of the Fennville Herald and has been prominently connected with the Michigan Press club.
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Bassett Family Association Database
1864 - 1935 (71 years)
d. 25 Nov 1865, Allegan, Michigan