Editorial -- Progress turning 108

Progress celebrates 108th birthday Friday

We would buy a cake, but at our age, we really need to watch our weight.

Friday will officially mark the 108th birthday

The first edition of The Easley Progress was printed July 23, 1902. The publisher was listed as Maj. D.F. Bradley, a fiery Irishman who was a Confederate veteran. Bradley was a key figure almost three decades earlier in the founding of The Pickens Sentinel, which is now our sister newspaper and proudly the longest continually-operating business in Pickens County.

The business manager of The Progress was J.A. Lathem, who was serving as the mayor of Easley at the time “Easley Publishing Company” was listed as the owners. Although the exact make-up of this business partnership remains unclear, it is assumed that it consisted of a group of businessmen who wished to see the city develop a clear voice with a conscious.

As has happened with many longtime business, the ownership of this newspaper has fluctuated. Easley Publications eventually ceded the newspaper to C.T.Martin, a former Easley mayor whose business interests over the previous quarter of a century included a hotel, a downtown business and The Easley Democrat, which was the city’s first attempt at establishing a newspaper. The often-reported story is that Martin purchased the paper for “$200 and a long-eared mule,” but we have found no solid evidence to support this fact, or to determine which party go the best end of the deal.

Regardless of the ownership of the name “The Easley Progress,” and the tools and equipment necessary to produce a newspaper, one fact has remained consistent. The actual heart and soul of The Easley Progress has had just one owner, and remains off the market for sell today; it belongs to the people of Easley.

In the first edition of the newspaper, Bradley promised that The Easley Progress would strive to remain, “a welcome visitor” in every home. That promise remains important to our staff today. We want to produce a publication that not only reports the local news, but shares the good value and work ethic of the Easley community. We want to celebrate the many triumphs in your life. We want to console you when things go bad. We want to be the kind of friend to the community that our founders envisioned more than a century ago.

So we use this birthday not as an excuse for celebration, but as a reason to renew our dedication to our readers and our community.