Founded jointly by J.D. Mills and R.A. Hamilton, the pages of The Recorder devoted many columns each week to correspondents in Mountainside, Ninga, Killarney, Turtle Mountain, Minto, Harmony, Elgin, Wassewa, Wakopa, Whitewater, Rayfield and Fairfax.

The stories which made up The Recorder’s first issues were usually colourful but often lacked in great local significance. For example, the following story appeared in The Recorder on October 12, 1899.

“Last week, J. Bailey had a valuable cow die under such peculiar circumstances that a post-mortem was held. It was found that she had taken tailoring seriously to heart, a needle having penetrated through the stomach to the outer covering of the heart.”

The news content of the early Recorders, it seemed, changed with the seasons. The cause of the roller coaster operations and policies of the early Recorder can only be attributed to the high turnover of publishers.

Mr. Hamilton retired from The Recorder after only eight issues. Mr. Mills stayed on until July 19, 1900 when I.A. Wright became publisher.

Mr. Wright’s position was also short-lived and he was replaced by W.W. Peel on January 31, 1901.

Mr. Peel was editor-publisher until January 30, 1902 and A.S. Barton took over February 6, 1903.

On June 29, 1905, editor-publisher Barton quit The Recorder and W.V. Udall began his long relationship with the paper.

During The Recorder’s first six years, the Boissevain Recorder had experienced the services of five editor-publishers.

Although the reason for the high turnover of publisher-editors is not clearly defined in their individual valedictory statements, the high cost of maintaining a newspaper and a degree of unfamiliarity with them could be the cause.

It was during Mr. Udall’s term that The Recorder contained its first comic strip section.

June 27, 1907 marked the publishing of a two-week comic series entitled “The Adventurers of Peek’s Bab Boy”. This strip apparently was not as popular as the current “Andy Capp” series and was subsequently replaced by another ill-fated comic strip called “The Adventures of Handsome Hawtrey and Faithful Fritz.” This strip also appeared in only two issues.

Although Mr. Udall briefly left The Recorder in 1911 and was replaced by Fred Cardis, he returned shortly after. Mr. Udall was to remain involved with The Recorder until his death in 1962.

During his relationship with The Recorder, Mr. Udall always stressed that the policy of the paper has, and will continue to be, “A Community Builder.”

On December 30, 1920, after months of pleading in print for residents to shop in Boissevain, Mr. Udall began devoting full pages to what he called his “Buy at Home” campaign.

Also in 1920 The Recorder’s subscription rate jumped for the first time from $1.00 to $1.50 per year.

Advertising is an integral part in almost all newspapers because it brings the capital required to cover printing costs. For this reason, modern-day advertisers argue to publishers that “without me you couldn’t exist” and therefore they demand that their ads be given a prominent position in the newspaper.

However, in the early days of The Recorder, there was seldom an orderly layout of ads and newscopy. Ads often appeared in the same type size as newscopy and it was difficult to distinguish between the two. As a result, advertisers often devised their own gimmicks to attract the reader.

For example, buried among a page cluttered with news copy appeared the block-lettered headline ‘Manslaughter in Second Degree.’ The headline brimmed with promise of brutality and bloody murder but upon reading further the anxious reader learned that it is only a headline for a vivid description for Putnam’s Corn Extractors.

Another favorite Putnam’s ad was headlined “His Flesh Horribly Burnt” and this was followed by an account of the unfortunate results of a person buying a corn extractor that wasn’t Putnam.

As the years progressed The Recorder’s format changed considerably.

The newspaper began to shift away from the use of excessive advertising, jokes and international news (taken either from a news service or the two Winnipeg dailies). Instead the publishers began using more photographs and more local news.

Another move that gave The Recorder the appearance of other Manitoba newspapers was the adoption of larger print and the use of seven columns on each page. Previously, there were five columns in each page and exceptionally tiny print had proven an eyesore.

On May 1, 1945 The Recorder management experienced yet another change when Una Philipps took over. Mr. Udall was retained as associate editor.

Mrs. Philipps later married and became Mrs. Una Gillespie, then on December 1, 1955 W.R. Jones and R. Jasper became the new editor-publishers.

At this time, Mrs. Gillespie and Mr. Udall were both named associate editors.

A Lake Max boating accident claimed the life of Mr. Jasper on August 25, 1963.

In 1964, two years after  the death of Mr. Udall, Mrs. Gillespie and Mr. Jones left the paper.

On January 6, 1966 editor-publisher Miles G. Phillips printed his first issue of The Recorder.

This was the start of a 33 year career as a newspaper man, a feat only outlived at The Recorder by Udall’s 40 years at the helm.

Phillips was always known for his opinionated style and willingness to ‘stir the pot’. He continued building The Recorder into a strong community newspaper.

Twice during those years under Phillips’ direction The Recorder was named Manitoba’s top community newspaper.

In 1999, as the paper was nearing its’ 100th anniversary, long time editor Miles Phillips decided it was time to leave the editor’s chair.

But the paper didn’t leave The Recorder family. After 19 years a Phillips’ employee, Lorraine Houston, along with her husband Les, bought the paper in April 1999.

Houston, originally from Deloraine began working at The Recorder in 1980. When Phillips purchased the Deloraine Times and Star in 1982, she spent a year at the sister paper as managing editor. This was where she got her first taste of editorial writing.

In her 45th year working at The Recorder, and 25 years as Editor - Publisher, she has indicated she is ready to retire and is looking for a transition of ownership.

October 6- 12 is National Newspaper Week, a chance to highlight the importance of newspapers.

We invite you to share photos on social media of yourself or family reading The Recorder, on print or online, or send us a note telling us why your newspaper matters to you.