The staff for volume 1

The staff for volume 1, number 1, was comprised of L.J. Sulak and Frank S. Bambuch, with occasional assistance from Rev. A.E. Moebus. The little fourpager paper, known in those days as a tabloid, was cranked out on a slow, hand-operated press. It took a full day to grind out that initial edition.

The two-man staff continued despite tribulations, shortcomings and opposition, gradually gaining momentum as the years passed. The late Senator Sulak recalled in later years that many times the paper was ready to go to press, but the stock (paper supply) was in the depot and there was no money to pay the COD charges on it. Nothing remained but for one or the other, usually Mr. Baumbuch, to head for the rural areas to sell a few more subscriptions. With enough money in hand to pay for the paper, it was then press day.

The type was all handset in those days – every letter and figure was an individual metal piece. That prompted Mr. Sulak to reminisce about the time he and the Rev. Moebus were lifting a front page form onto the press. One of them hadn’t tightened the quoins (setup locks that tightly held all the type pieces) sufficiently and the whole mishmash fell to the floor in hundreds if not thousands of tiny pieces.

“It wasn’t very proper for a preacher to be around just at that moment,” Mr. Sulak recalled.

But things changed for the better as the years progressed. A power-driven, four-page press was purchased, and a Model 14 Linotype – the latest in the typesetting field – was installed, enabling The Record to expand to a semi-weekly and later even into a tri-weekly. However, when the Depression clouds moved in and economic times got tougher, it soon became a matter of ‘try weekly,’ and the paper’s frequency reverted to twice a week – a status it has maintained ever since.

It was during the war years that The Record installed a 10page Duplex rotary press. It was a used piece of equipment that caused a lot of headaches, wasted paper and even torrid tempers before its operation was mastered.

The largest single issue ever printed in the plant by the old four-page Cottrell press was a 44-page Century of Progress edition in August 1938. It commemorated Fayette County’s centennial in 1936.

The editor’s son, John L. (Johnnie) Sulak, became managing editor upon his graduating from St. Edward’s University in 1931. When his father assumed editor-emeritus status, Johnnie became editor-in-charge except for Dec. 8, 1942, to September 1945, when he served in the Navy in World War II. Johnnie was editor until his premature death on July 14, 1960.

The duplex press was the pride of Mr. Bambuch, who tended it as faithfully as one would a favored pet. Before it was ‘put to pasture,’ he ground out well over a million newspaper copies on the old monster. Mr. Bambuch had never taken a day of vacation in all the 46 years he was associated with The Record. He retired in June 1968 and passed away in December 1968. L.J. Sulak had served on the University of Texas board of regents from 1928 until 1934, resigning when he was elected to the state senate. He held the senate seat until 1946. Mr. Sulak passed away on Sept. 10, 1967.

The paper’s ownership changed only once in the halfcentury when Bonner and Virginia McMillion of Waco purchased it from the parent company, Farmers Publishing Co., on Sept. 1, 1965. It was under the McMillion ownership that publication was converted in December 1967 to the offset process. It was a faster, more flexible method to reproduce prepared ads and other materials and provided clearer photo reproduction. The Record’s circulation steadily increased over the years, which meant that the staff grew, as well. From that humble beginning of two people, on the newspaper’s 50th birthday there are 10 actively engaged in various departments.

Editor Chas. W. Priebe was employed the longest of anyone in the paper’s first 50 years. He began as a reporter on Sept. 1, 1936, and had been with the paper continuously except for a nine-year period, 1945-1954, when he was in business for himself.

(In total, he was employed by The Record for four decades.)

Fifty years ago, in addition to publisher-manager McMillion were Mrs. John L. Sulak, society and general reporting; Mrs. Lloyd Loehr, circulation and general reporting; Mrs. Paul Walla Jr., bookkeeper; Mrs. John Urban, Frank J. Hanacek, James Roy Wessels, Fred Karcher and Miss Diana Mischer, production. An 11th employee, Mrs. Louis Bertsch, worked part-time in the typesetting department.

The paper also counted on a dedicated staff of community reporters that included: Miss Nancy Koehl at Ellinger; Mrs. Ella Noak at Carmine; Mrs. Alvy Kyle at Fayetteville; Miss Carol Henderson at Round Top; Mrs. Leslie Giese at Warda; Mrs. Dollie Meneley at Muldoon and West Point; and Mrs. James Ephraim at Winchester.

The Record never had a slogan as such, but if it had, it would likely have been “unbiased publication of all the news.”

That continued to be the newspaper’s objective as it completed its first half-century of its service to La Grange and Fayette County readers and advertisers.

That’s still the mission of The Fayette County Record as it ends its first century today and begins our second century Monday, said current editor Jeff Wick