Newspapers in Grey County

History of the Markdale Standard Newspaper

The first paper to be established at Markdale in Grey County was the Markdale Expositor by George J. Blyth, in 1875. With the acquisition of this paper by Charles W. Rutledge, in 1880, its name was changed to the Markdale Standard. The first issue was published 17 September 1880. This paper, a weekly, remained concerned primarily with local news, and assumed no political stance. On 16 January 1908, the Standard Printing Company of Markdale, under the control of J.W. Tucker, took over. Rutledge remained in the picture however at least until 5 January 1921 when A.E. Colgan and McIntyre became the proprietors of the paper. The latter person disappeared from the ownership roster on 25 March 1926, leaving Colgan and Son as proprietors. In the 1960's this paper has been edited by R.G. Craig. William Kennedy of the Durham Chronicle purchased this paper in June of 1968. (The previous year the Chronicle had acquired the Tara Leader). The Markdale Standard continues in publication at this time (1969).On September 1, 1961, the Advance was purchased by Royden Johnston, who published it for four years until selling the paper to Godfrey Clark in 1965. Clark re-enlisted Frank Thurston as editor of the paper for two years. In 1968 Walter Walls, owner and editor of the Dundalk Herald purchased the paper. Walls continued to publish the Flesherton Advance in conjunction with the Dundalk Herald from his offices in Dundalk, an arrangement maintained by Matt Walls, the present editor of the two papers. 

In the same county at Chatsworth G.J. Blyth, who had prior to 1880 published the Markdale Expositor (predecessor to the Markdale Standard), commenced in 1885 to publish the Chatsworth News, a weekly. This paper, independent politically, continued in publication under A.C.W. Hopkins and Hugh McCullough for a period, disappearing in 1935. It had a rival from 1896 with the appearance of the Chatsworth Banner, also politically independent and a weekly, published by Nelson Brothers. This paper continued until around 1907, disappearing until 6 May 1927 when the masthead was resurrected by G.W. Collins. On 3 June 1927 it moved from Chatsworth to Markdale. At this point it merged with the Markdale Standard under Colgan and commencing 16 June [1927] it began to appear as pages 3 and 4 of the latter paper. It separated again on 22 December 1927. The issues of the Chatsworth Banner when published as a separate paper from 6 May 1927, date of commencement, to 10 June 1927, and from 22 December 1927 to 9 January 1929, appear in one continuous series on this film following the issue of the Markdale Standard of 27 December 1928. The in-between issues of the Chatsworth Banner are of course included as pages 3 and 4 of the Markdale Standard for those dates. The remaining issues of the Markdale Standard for the period 3 January 1929 to 25 December 1930 follow the last of the Chatsworth Banners. There is no indication on this last appearing issue on film of the Chatsworth Banner for 9 January 1929 that the paper continued, but absence of any information to the contrary leads us to suppose it did, at least for a period.

... For information connected with the Markdale and Chatsworth papers, the author of this introduction has consulted the McKim Newspaper Guides, the Provincial Directories from the Ontario Archives collection, and the History of Grey County by E.L. Marsh et alia, Owen Sound, 1931, pages 349-350.

                                              Adapted from William H. Cooper (1969), Archives of Ontario, Introduction to the microfilm reels of the Markdale Standard.