30th Anniversary Special Edition

Section B - Thursday, October 26, 2017

THE LIBERTY HILL INDEPENDENT

Labors of love

Stories behind Liberty Hill’s newspaper wars

By WAYLON CUNNINGHAM Staff Writer In 1986, Liberty Hill had no newspapers. By the summer of 1987, there were three competing to be the hometown paper -- The Bertram Liberty Hill News, The Outlaw Express, and The Liberty Hill Independent.

Jim “Linzy” Hudgins, the publisher for the newly-established The Liberty Hill Independent, was asked by a visiting reporter years later how it was possible that a town with a single stop sign could be busy enough to need so many newspapers. Hudgins told him that, actually, there was not enough news for even one newspaper.

By the end of 1987, The Independent was the only paper left. It would remain so for 10 years. Then something changed.

In a flurry of succession, a series of alternatives appeared one after another: The Shin Oak Ridge Reporter, The Liberty Hill Bullet, The Liberty Hill Leader — and a website, Radio Free Liberty Hill.

For this 20-year spate, the visiting reporter’s question was relevant again. But the answer had nothing do with whether there was enough

news.

Instead, it was a competition driven by politics, personalities, and heartbreak.

“Your Doodles are the babble of a double-talking idiot!” reads a published Letter to The Editor from 2004. “[It] shows you don’t really know anything about grants. If Donald Trump were in town, you’d be fired!”

The author, a local chiropractor and a power broker in the early City Council, had found himself a frequent target of criticism in a column called “Diane’s Doodles”, written by then-editor Diane Pogue of The Independent. He blasted her for what he called biased and uninformed reporting. “[This] shows why there is another paper in town and why a lot of people do not back your paper or those whom you uncompromisingly defend,” the letter went on to say in its winding, 15-point denunciation of Pogue and her paper.

These were not the kind of charges Pogue was used to receiving.

But heading a newspaper, which until recently was known primar-

See HISTORY, Page 5B

While others might have given ‘a hoot’, only The Independent made the claim

By SHELLY WILKISON came to Liberty Hill looking for a Managing Editor change.

Back in the day, it was self proHudgins wasn’t a novice to the claimed to be the only newspaper news business. He spent his career that gave “a hoot about Liberty working in print and broadcasting, Hill”. and enjoyed covering sports more The owl clip art that shared the than anything. masthead with The Liberty Hill InAfter moving to central Texas, he dependent wrote sports was there for the Berto reinforce tram Liberty the message Hill News, during years then started of multiple a newsletnewspapers ter he called serving the “The Linzy community.

Report”, beLookfore venturing back on ing out to those days 30 start The Inyears later, dependent. the daughter Independent founder Jim “Linzy” Hudgins “He started of found- (right) interviews Liberty Hill head basket- it with $87 ing publisher ball coach Rusty Segler prior to a Panther out of the Jim “Linzy” playoff game in 1988. Hudgins worked out back of his Hudgins says an agreement with a Burnet radio station to car,” Wilher dad “had broadcast the Panthers’ appearance in the l i a m s o n a heart for the state championship and, reverting back to said. “That’s community”, his radio days, served as announcer for the all he had in and went be- broadcast. (James Wear Photo) his pocket yond the role when he of newspaper started.” publisher to help out wherever he Williamson said the early editions could.

Hudgins and his wife, Shirley, See HUDGINS, Page 4B

News@LHIndependent.com

Newspapers of the past made their mark on the community

LIBERTY HILL CYCLONE Historians say this paper was established in the 1880s by the Rev. James King Lane and two business partners. He also served as postmaster of Liberty Hill in 1887. From 1874 until 1890, Lane was a circuit rider, attending to the spiritual needs of Methodists in San Gabriel and Liberty Hill. He was later elected to the Texas Legislature. Longtime Liberty Hill area resident Rex Lane is among his great-grandchildren.

LIBERTY HILL INDEX The Index began in July 1892, and continued until at least 1918.

The paper was published every Friday, and proclaimed that it was “Devoted to the upbuilding of Liberty Hill and surrounding country.” A classic 15-inch broadsheet, The Index’s four pages mostly contained national news and commentary, syndicated opinion columns, sermons, songs, and above all — advertising. Large display ads took up much of the space on the front page, from businesses such as G.W. Adams and Son, which promoted its groceries, feed and seed, as well as First State Bank.

Local news was primarily contained to small tidbits and personals, as seen in these examples from a damaged 1907 issue: - “Harry Burke of Pohusky, I.T. [Indian Territory, modern-day Oklahoma], is here on business.

He reports the Territory prosperous.”

- “Last Sunday afternoon, at the Baptist church, Miss Mills, a young lady of Baylor College, made an interesting talk on Missionary Work in Brazil.”

- “T.I. Simmons is erecting a nice house on his place east of town.”

More specific records are scarce on this newspaper, as well as on its publisher, Wesley J. Earls. His wife was listed as assistant editor.

Scanned images of The Index are available at a website maintained by the University of North Texas Libraries’ Digital Projects Unit, which has established what they call “The Portal to Texas History” that includes documents and photos from the past.

THE LIBERTY HILL NEWS Only two issues of this paper are available on microfilm from the University of Texas at Austin’s archives, which the Library of Congress lists as the only known institution with copies. Both issues are from 1928. Five more are owned as hard copies by The Independent, which received them from the Round Rock Public Library in 2011.

Its editor in these copies is listed as J.H. Kavanaugh.

Like The Index, The News’ local

news was mostly smaller isolated blocks of text, though they were now considerably longer.

- “S.R. Adams has installed at his residence, an all-electric radio set. It is one of the best radios in the country and he got it installed in time to hear Gov. Al Smith’s speech accepting the presidential nomination.”

- “Car Whitted was in with the first bale of cotton on Wednesday of last week. He estimates that the crop will make from a fourth to a fifth bale per acre.”

There was, however, more dedicated local coverage. The July 5, 1928 issue announced in a twoinch bold headline the coming of a religious revival set to begin the following Friday. Accompanying the headline, the visiting preacher from Waco was depicted in a photograph. That, too, was a marked development from The Index.

Archived copies are also available for viewing online at the University of North Texas Libraries’ Digital Projects Unit.

LIBERTY HILL LEADER (1st) There have been at least three newspapers in Liberty Hill that have published under this name over the years. Little is known about the first. First published in 1932, and running through the 1940s, it was purchased by The Williamson County Sun. An April 30, 1948 issue in local historian Gary Spivey’s collection shows a front page dominated by half a dozen local stories, none more than four paragraphs long.

- “The Liberty Hill Bridge Club met at the home of Mr. And Mrs. E. I. Purser Tuesday night. There were five tables of bridge and one 42. A salad course was served to the following guests…”

- “Liberty Hill will have several units in the Centennial Parade at Georgetown Saturday. Two floats, one representing the school, and an Indian float; horseback riders; bicycle riders, Indians; and a real honest to goodness covered wagon, with Mr. And Mrs. Jon Faulks, dressed as pioneers, riding in it.

The time is 2 o’clock.”

There were also, for the first time, local features.

“In the Hopewell Cemetery a mother, father, and daughter lie in a common grave, victims of the last Indian massacre in this part of the county, possibly the last in the whole county….”

THE LIBERTARIAN Established in 1975, with Ellis Posey listed as publisher and editor, this publication was originally published monthly, then later twice a month. It was purchased

by Taylor Newspapers, Inc., in

See TIMELINE, Page 6B

Page 2B

THE LIBERTY HILL INDEPENDENT

Thursday, October 26, 2017

Sports coverage, local news attracted readers to early newspapers

News website offered alternative to Liberty Hill’s traditional print newspapers

In 2009 it was Radio Free Liberty Hill, an online news startup business, that shook the status quo in local news delivery and also changed the dynamic between the two local newspapers, The Liberty Hill Independent and the The Leader.

Instead of focusing on a traditional business model of generating revenue through advertising, then reporting and printing the news, Radio Free skipped all the steps and went straight to the heart of what the creators felt was missing in local journalism.

Those with a professional journalism background could see the local news wasn’t really being reported.

The two existing newspapers had developed along a fault line in the community, and both seemed to have a focus on local sports. The Leader was openly focussed on offense in opposition to much of what was happening in local government, opposing the direction of community leaders and much of what could be identified as the status quo.

The Independent, owned at the time by Dan and Diane Pogue, dug in on the other side and saw itself as the retailer of what it deemed to be legitimate news, openly a “chronicler and cheerleader.” Local readers sometimes observed that certain news events were being reported in totally opposite ways by the two newspapers.

The name for the third local media outlet was a nod to the collection and dissemination of the truth behind enemy lines, like Radio Free Germany during World War 11.

When Radio Free Liberty Hill was launched as an online news source,

the concept was new to Liberty Hill.

There was a noticeable difference in the way the news was presented because of the professional journalistic standards. RFLH didn’t have a cause, a political axe to grind, it didn’t cost the reader anything and for the most part there were very few ads on the site. Word spread quickly that this news page was the real deal. It was not being controlled by an agenda and the articles were factual and balanced.

Equally important, Radio Free Liberty Hill served as a real-time teaching tool for local high school students interested in pursing an education in journalism and website design.

At the time, Liberty Hill High School had no journalism program.

Students wrote stories, took photographs and updated the website -working alongside professionals to learn more.

Without subscription costs to the reader or seeking advertising dollars locally from businesses, RFLH quickly wedged the two newspapers in an unorthodox way. RFLH opened a news office like a traditional business in Liberty Hill just down the street from The Independent.

Shelly Wilkison, now owner/publisher of The Independent, created and managed the website and wrote the majority of stories posted there.

The Wilkisons, who had moved to Liberty Hill in 1999, believed in their idea that real news is part of democracy and citizenship whether you live in Moscow or Liberty Hill.

With a business model aimed more at community service than profi-

teering, RFLH didn’t accept certain kinds of advertising and focused on assisting those in the community who were trying to do good things, especially for children, schools, churches, and those who were attempting to make the community better for families.

The personal investment in a startup that looked like a regular local business but didn’t have a cost associated with it was a big sacrifice and a business gamble for a family, but as RFLH gained viewers and local fans, the demand grew to bring the online publication into print. It was an outgrowth of the idea that more senior members of the community didn’t navigate online publications as well.

The Wilkisons began exploring the idea of going to a print version of RFLH. That would require a retooling of the startup idea. Investors or advertisers would need to become involved if a professional staff were to be assembled to take RFLH into a traditional print publication phase.

Then in 2010 as personal health and financial issues gathered for the owners of The Independent, word spread that the newspaper would be sold to a newspaper chain with no history or knowledge of the Liberty Hill area. The Wilkisons decided to make their own bid to purchase the publication and attempt to convert it to a professional, award winning newspaper.

In October 2010, Free State Media Group purchased the newspaper and kept the Radio Free Liberty Hill website running another year until it was rebranded under The Independent.

Looking for Photos? lhindependent.smugmug.com

By WAYLON CUNNINGHAM Staff Writer An issue from the early years of The Liberty Hill Independent could be reasonably broken down to a script.

The front page usually featured the high school football game.

The second page carried publisher Jim Linzy Hudgins’ column, “The Linzy Report,” which often began on a celebratory note about a high school sports team. Page three topped off with an interesting photo and the “second lead” story, which was also sometimes about the high school.

Page four was for letters and editor James Wear’s column, “Hackwriter’s Dilemma.” Page five, obituaries, a vintage photo, and the “Hilltopper,” a column highlighting someone doing good in the community.

News, personals and advertisements filled out the remaining pages.

Though Hudgins’ Independent was sports-heavy compared to its predecessors in Liberty Hill, it followed a cast of topics — schools, picnics, and advertisements—that would have been familiar to the earlier readers of The Libertarian in the 1970s, the first Liberty Hill Leader in the 1940s, or The Liberty Hill Index at the turn of the century.

“To the Patrons of the Liberty Hill Independent School District,” begins a bulletin posted in a 1907 issue of The Index, “We are especially anxious for the early enrollment of every child in this district entitled to free school.”

And below: “The Confederate Veterans met at Leander last Saturday and had a royal good time. Those who went from here report plenty to eat and that Leander left nothing undone to make the day pleasant.”

Within the pages of The Index and the Liberty Hill papers that would follow, most local items filled one or two inch blocks beneath massive walls of text describing events happening elsewhere in the region, the state or the country. Never could a newspaper be just about the town.

Such was the case with country newspapers everywhere, writes historian David Russo, as for many readers it would be their only reliably consistent source of information about developments in the greater world.

For related reasons, Liberty Hill newspapers going into the 1990s gave similarly divided attention between the town and its neighbors.

The early 1980s Sentinel, though based in Liberty Hill, covered Bertram, Andice and Florence in addition. The Outlaw Express later in the decade, also based in Lib-

erty Hill, attempted to devote equal space to Liberty Hill, Florence and Jarrell. The Bertram Liberty Hill News published sports coverage from both Liberty Hill and Bertram.

Hudgins’ Independent then marked a change. Putting aside its brief forays into Florence and Leander, it was the first newspaper dedicated solely to Liberty Hill.

Its motto, “The Only Newspaper That Gives a Hoot About Liberty Hill,” was written partially as a jab at its two competitors, says longtime local reporter and Outlaw publisher James Wear.

Early on Hudgins ran an issue containing an insert made to look like a pica pole -- a ruler often used in newsrooms.

The message was clear, Wear says: there were more inches of Liberty Hill news and advertising than anywhere else.

Wherever Wear could dedicate so many inches to a story about Liberty Hill’s football team, Hudgins could give it twice as much.

“That made it easier to get every dang kid’s name in there,” Wear says, which was “very important.”

It only took a few months for The Outlaw and the Bertram Liberty Hill News, Hudgins’ competitors, to fold.

OPINION Thanks for 30 years

It’s hard to tell your own story, especially if you make a living writing about others.

For weeks, The Independent staff has been working on a research project unlike any we have attempted before. Looking to tell the story of how we survived 30 years to commemorate this anniversary of the newspaper took us back decades to the first edition of The Liberty Hill Independent. But, the story of Liberty Hill newspapers and the important role they have played in our community started long before Jim “Linzy” Hudgins discovered Liberty Hill and started his Independent.

Our place on the Shin Oak Ridge has been served by more than a dozen newspapers since the 1880s.

That’s impressive to those of us who have spent a lifetime in the business and understand the incredible challenges those early publications faced. Even with today’s technology, producing a newspaper every week is a daunting task, and the responsibility that comes with it is one we take very seriously.

We don’t know much about the Liberty Hill publishers of the early 1900s, except that they must have been driven by some of the same things that drive us.

When I became the principal owner of The Independent in 2010, my singular focus was to do what I was trained to do, ask questions and write the news.

Running alongside that was a somewhat unorthodox business model aimed more at trying to help those who were trying to do good things rather than trying to make big profits. I was quickly amazed to discover all the good people doing good works in such a small commu-

staff notebook

Our views and other news and musings from THE INDEPENDENT Staff

nity, and through the years it has been a blessing to be able to make a difference.

Becoming part of a community and growing to know and understand it doesn’t abdicate a newspaper of its responsibility to gain the truth, it only grows that investment.

It’s not true that journalists are just naturally curious people, we’re trained to ask questions and find the facts. Sometimes that makes folks in public positions a bit uncomfortable, and some appear to take it personally when we ask questions they’d prefer not to answer. But that’s our job, just as it was the job of our predecessors.

This 30 year remembrance for The Independent has caused all of us here to spend a few minutes on recollections. With the help of James Wear, Jamie Williamson, Linda Lattanzio, Kate Ludlow, Justin Pogue, Gary Spivey, and Kathy Canady, we have compiled the story of Liberty Hill’s scribblers -- perhaps for the first time.

The story of how we all ended up in this place reporting the stories of our hometown is the sort of small town drama you haven’t seen yet on television, but would certainly make for a good Netflix series.

While some of my contemporaries were fueled by a personal agenda that involved changing the political landscape or just getting even, mine was simply about good journalism. Over time, the interest has

evolved into a sense of service, and we’re proud to be able to host the annual Independence Day Spectacular as well as play such an active role in community events like this year’s Liberty Hill Christmas Festival.

A bonus I didn’t anticipate seven years ago, was meeting the business leaders who take such big chances to invest in our town. Connecting with entrepreneurs by assisting with advertising has been an unexpected enjoyment. Working alongside them to help communicate their messages to our readers has become a rewarding part of the service The Independent provides.

A loyal team of journalists, photographers, graphic designers, marketing experts, and circulation professionals make all the difference here at The Independent. They share a commitment to community and care deeply about bringing you their best every week.

For us, the best recognitions have not been the coveted plaques from the Texas Press Association that we’ve worked so hard to earn. The best days have been when we’ve set with you to learn the great stories of our hometown.

On behalf of The Independent newspaper staff -- past and present -- thanks for 30 years, and especially the last seven. ~ Shelly Wilkison Publisher/Managing Editor

Letters to the Editor

Send letters to us by email: news@lhindependent.com In Appreciation Dear Editor: The Liberty Hill Youth Football & Cheer organization would like to extend a heartfelt thank you for your incredibly generous donation which has made this season so successful. We wouldn’t be able to do it without your willingness to give and help. This makes you and your business an integral part of our lo-

cal community.

With your help this year, we were able to purchase new cheerleading mats, demolish our dilapidated sheds, build a new shed, replace our broken scoreboard, buy new tackling dummies, and helped pay registration fees for children who would have otherwise been unable to participate. We had such a wonderful football season this year!

We know that as a business, you

are asked to sponsor many things.

Please know that we, at LHYFC, are so grateful and are willing do to whatever it takes to show our appreciation. We look forward to continuing to build strong relationships with you and your business in the future.

Please accept our most since thank you for your support!

Liberty Hill Youth Football & Cheer Board Members

THE LIBERTY HILL INDEPENDENT Thursday, October 26, 2017 Section B Page 3

Throwback Thursday From scissors and wax to computers and scanning

Newspaper production has changed since The Independent made its deput in 1987

By JAMES WEAR Columnist for The Independent Things are a bit different than they were some 30 years ago when Jim Linzy Hudgins launched The Independent in October 1987, and while it wasn’t until a few months later that I joined the staff, I can still lay claim to being the paper’s first official editor. Initially, I was a part-time employee with my title in the staff box listing me as “part-time hackwriter,” a title Linzy granted me at my request after I pointed out that he, as publisher, was listed as “chief cook and bottle washer.”

After a few weeks, after more advertising dollars rolled in and Jim was able to justify putting me on full-time, we continued to publish (in tabloid format) a newspaper that claimed to be “the only newspaper that gives a hoot about Liberty Hill.”

Other than Jim and me, our staff was limited to Barbara Sybert, who passed away just recently, and Jim’s wife, Shirley.

We didn’t have a computer. Instead, we set our type on an IBM Selectric typewriter, setting our margins at two inches and our type at 12 points.

Each week, Jim would run over to Georgetown where a printing company would set our headlines, and as far as photos, Jim or I would drive down to 620, where there was a onehour photo place known as MotoPhoto that would develop our black and white film.

Back in those days, we laid out each page on a grid sheet, with scissors and X-acto knife in hand. Adhering our copy to the grid sheets involved very carefully applying hot wax to the back of the strips of paper we’d typed our stories on.

Layout at the time involved the use of a ruler known in printer circles as a pica pole that we’d use to measure copy and see if it was going to fit in the hole where we hoped to place it. If it came up a bit short, it might mean a trip down to Dr. Jerry Casebolt’s office in downtown Liberty Hill where Jerry and wife Pam had the only copier in town that could enlarge or reduce the size of an image. It would sometimes result in an oversized headline that was perhaps out of proportion to the length of story below it, but not often...I’d learned to write headlines at my first newspaper job in Lampasas, and that was back in the days when we had to memorize units of measurement.

A capital “M” for example, was two units, or two picas; while a lower case “J” was only a half a pica.

Back then, for example, a two-column story totaled up 25 picas for the maximum length of a headline, and so while coming up with the proper words to describe the story one also had to consider if the words chosen would add up to 25 picas, or shortly less.

Nowadays, typesetters on computers merely shrink or bump up the

(TOP) Known as a process camera, one similar to this was used in the early days of The Independent to “shoot” page negatives that were taken to a printer in Round Rock where they were used to make plates that would be attached to the printing press. (ABOVE) The Independent staff used a phototypesetting machine similar to this one, known as the Compugraphic 7200, or “headliner”, to produce headlines and type for advertisements back in 1988. (Courtesy Photos) size of type a couple of percentage points and viola! Fits perfectly.

Our trips to the printer in Georgetown and our trips to Moto-Foto ended after I convinced Jim to buy a piece of equipment known as the Compugraphic 7200, which was used to type all “display” type (anything larger than 12-point), and allow me to set up a darkroom so I could develop our film.

The darkroom was a bit of a challenge. At that time, the newspaper had relocated to the Stubblefield building in downtown Liberty Hill and the only space available was an old tin shed behind the office, which also served as Jim and Shirley’s residence...they lived in the upstairs portion and the downstairs was the newspaper office.

The old shed’s roof was full of holes, not big ones, but big enough to allow sunlight to seep through; and as developing 35mm film required total darkness, I had to wait until well after sunset before developing our film. There were days, when we were running behind schedule, that I’d find myself in the darkroom shortly before sunrise, racing the clock to get all the film developed and photos printed before daybreak.

Placing a border around ads and certain news copy (boxing it, we’d say) involved the use of what we re-

ferred to as border tape, and while my personal favorite was two-point, some border tapes were decorative. For example, for an ad focusing on Christmas season, we might fall back on a tape with a series of Christmas bells, or tiny little Santa faces. There were border tapes with patriotic themes and other holiday seasons as well.

During our first few months of operation, we’d drive over to The Leader office in Round Rock and have our completed layout pages converted into what we referred to as page negatives. The printer would then, after stripping up the pages, burn a plate that would be attached to the web press, and within minutes, 1,000 copies of what represented a week’s work would be ready to load and return to Liberty Hill for distribution.

I soon coaxed Jim into buying what was known as a process camera and we then began producing our own page negatives. By this time we’d relocated the newspaper office into a larger building across the street and my concerns over light pollution from pinholes in the roof were over.

With this step, our production costs were once again lowered, prompting the publisher at Round Rock to once remark, “I don’t know anybody that

See PRODUCTION, Page 4B

Page 4B

THE LIBERTY HILL INDEPENDENT

From Liberty Hill newspapers of the past

LIBERTY HILL INDEX, 1907

THE LIBERTY HILL NEWS, OCT. 4, 1928

LIBERTY HILL NEWS, JULY 5, 1928

LIBERTY HILL INDEX, JULY 26, 1918

Hudgins

Thursday, October 26, 2017

Continued from Page 1B

of The Independent focused primar- nosed with cancer at the time and in its third year of publication. was undergoing treatment, said her “I didn’t see Diane or Kathy doing ily on sports.

“At the time, it was nothing more father knew he needed to get out justice to the citizens. It seemed like than a high school newspaper. There of the newspaper business and his they were just fighting with each was nothing here, except the school daughter wasn’t able to take on the other,” Williamson said.

Canady said she started The Bullet and commissioners court. He fo- responsibility.

“We had several conversations. He in 2001 in response to The Indepencused on sports. That was always his knew I couldn’t do it right then, and dent’s repeated attacks and false rething.”

She said the newspaper got its he needed to do it right then. I think porting about her husband, Charles name because her father considered his druthers would have been that I Canady, who was a leader on the himself to be very much of an inde- would’ve taken it over, but I wasn’t city council at that time. ready,” she said.

Williamson said Canady was ready pendent.

Diane and Dan Pogue bought the to relinquish the newspaper. The “He was determined to do things his way. That’s how he came up with the newspaper from Hudgins in 1998, Bullet kept its name for a short time, and Hudgins passed away from a and Williamson ran it from Caname of the paper,” she said.

Williamson said her father produced heart attack in 1999 -- two days be- nady’s Quick Service Garage for a while until the paper the situation by himself “became in the beawkward,” ginning.

Williamson The town said. was small She moved enough that the busihe could ness to her make it house and to all the changed the sporting newspaper’s events himname to self, and he The Liberty took plenty Hill Leader. of photoWilliamson graphs. said she He would doesn’t relater build a call how she small staff, chose the which inname. cluded MeWilliamlissa Pogue, son said she Barbara didn’t believe Pogue’s Independent Sybert, Lisa Crane and James Wear. fore his 65th birthday.

Five years later, Williamson decid- was as neutral as it should have Williamson, who moved to Liberty been.

Hill in 1988, was also part of “I think there was a bias there. the team doing whatever needCitizens deserve not your truth ed to be done. or their truth, but the truth,” Over the years, Hudgins ran Williamson said. the newspaper from three locaShe placed a caricature of her tions -- the Fowler Building, the father inside the masthead of Brand Building and what previThe Leader. ously served as the parsonage Williamson hired James Wear, at the old First Baptist Church who had years of newspaper (now The Grove Church) on experience, which included a Loop 332. He and his wife, stint at her father’s Independent whom he always referred to as and later at his own newspaper, “Sweet Shirley”, lived on site.

Shin Oak Ridge Reporter. Wear The Hudgins and Williamson was named Editor. joined the Liberty Hill VolunWhen Williamson ran for teer Fire Department and made Mayor in 2012, she said Wear, fire calls in their personal vewho was covering council hicles. Williamson said it was meetings, advised against it just one way her father helped the community. He also helped Former Leader Owner/Publisher Jamie Wil- warning of a potential conflict raise money for the volun- liamson served as Mayor from 2012-2014. She as the owner of a newspaper. teer department, organized the spoke at a Memorial Day event at Veterans Park In 2014, Williamson sold the paper to sports writer Chuck Chamber of Commerce, and weeks after her election in 2012.

Licata, who co-owned K-MAC was active in the Liberty Hill (LH Independent File Photo) Development Foundation, which ed she wanted to get back into the Sports -- a sports website. However, newspaper business. She said she within two years, Williamson had owns Lions Foundation Park.

“Most of the time, Dad was behind went first to Diane Pogue and of- taken over production of the paper.

In January 2017, The Leader was the camera. He was fine setting in the fered to purchase The Independent, purchased by current owners of The back seat driving some of this stuff. but was met with a quick no.

She then approached Kathy Ca- Independent and put out of publicaHe was directing from the back seat.

I can’t remember the number of nady, whose Liberty Hill Bullet was tion. people that he would call on and say, ‘there’s a need for whatever’, and Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation (All Periodicals Publications Except Requester Publications) they’d listen,” she said. “We were so small. There was no inside and 0 1 8 9 3 2 10/25/2017 The Liberty Hill Independent outside (the city limits) back then. It Weekly 50 $25, $29, $32 Shelly Wilkison was more community oriented.”

The Liberty Hill Independent, PO Box 1235, Liberty Hill, TX 78642 512.778.5577 Williamson said her parents lived The Liberty Hill Independent, PO Box 1235, Liberty Hill, TX 78642 in Liberty Hilll longer than anywhere else they had been. Before Shelly Wilkison, PO Box 1235, Liberty Hill, TX 78642 he found a home here, the family moved around a lot. She said her dad Shelly Wilkison, PO Box 1235, Liberty Hill, TX 78642 enjoyed starting new things and seeShelly Wilkison, PO Box 1235, Liberty Hill, TX 78642 ing new places.

“He would get a lot of things started and turn them over and go to someMedia & Political Strategies, Inc., dba Free State Media Gr up PO Box 1235, Liberty Hill, TX 78642 thing else,” she said. “But he made Stockholders: Shelly Wilkison, Charles B. Wilkison PO Box 1235, Liberty Hill, TX 78642 good friends here, and I think they finally found a home here.”

Hudgins, who gave himself the title of “Chief Cook and Bottle Washer” for The Independent, remained active in the daily operations of the weekly newspaper for 10 years until his heart health became an issue.

By 1997 when Hudgins first began having heart problems, Diane Pogue was already on his staff as Editor.

The Liberty Hill Independent 09/28/2017 Williamson, who had been diag1. Publication Title

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Shooting straight from the hip

In 2001, Kathy Canady started The Liberty Hill Bullet as an alternative to what she said was false reporting in The Independent, which was owned at that time by Diane and Dan Pogue (third from left in this Bullet front page photo at right). Pogue’s gesture toward Canady, who was the photographer, was a common occurrence at council meetings, she said.

Production produces a newspaper cheaper than you guys.”

Producing page negatives and turning photos into what we termed as halftones required a bit of know how. From making sure the chemistry was the right temperature so that film didn’t develop too quickly, to pulling a film negative of a photograph from the chemistry and checking to make sure the tiny dots were the right size for optimum reproduction, required a set of good eyes, which in my younger days I was fortunate to possess.

After Jim and I went our separate ways, I don’t know if he continued with our production methods...

Shortly before my departure, I gave a few lessons to a new employee on how the darkroom worked but a few lessons doesn’t add up to the years of experience I’d brought to The Independent and so I suspect the printers at Round Rock once again took over much of the work.

Other than a brief stint at a newspaper in Leakey and the three or four years I devoted to publishing the Shin Oak Ridge Reporter, where we

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Continued from Page 3B used the same production methods as I had used at The Independent, I was away from the newspaper business for several years before taking a position at The Leader some 10 years or so ago.

It was there, the first morning I walked into publisher Jamie Williamson’s office, I had the first inkling I might be on the same path as the dinosaurs when, after I asked where the layout table and scissors and other assorted tools might be found, she looked at me and replied with a chuckle, “We don’t do it like that anymore.”

And so, it was back to school again as I learned new terminology...things like “jpegs” and “tifs” and “pdfs” instead of “halftone negatives” and “register marks” and “masks” and all those things that, when I first enrolled in an offset printing class in 1977, seemed so space age. Of course, I have to admit, I was a bit shocked when I learned in that first printing class that printers at the time had long abandoned Guten- A partial view of the front page of James Wear’s Shin Oak Ridge Reporter berg’s methods. includes the story of the City of Liberty Hill’s incorporation election in News@LHIndependent.com 1999.

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Oct. 26, 2017 in the ________________________ issue of this publication.

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Thursday, October 26, 2017

History

Continued from Page 1B

ily for its high school sports photos, politics was not a topic she was used to covering.

The incorporation of Liberty Hill five years earlier in January 1999, which passed by a vote of 128 to 113, had ushered in something wholly new. The time was “just strange,” said Pogue’s son, Justin Pogue.

“It was the whole emergence of a government when nobody was a politician,” he said. “These were people more used to building fences, but now they gotta talk about sewers and taxes and laws for new buildings. ‘What are we gonna do about signage?’ ‘Should we allow mobile homes?’ We gotta develop all these rules, and— who put you in charge?”

Early city councils were marked by nearly constant upheaval. Elections every year routinely cycled through council members and mayors, often flipping the balance between two voting blocs that had emerged. Investigations were demanded. Accusations were flung. A city attorney was fired. A council session turned violent.

“It was ugly. It was horrible. It was heartbreaking,” said Kathy Canady, whose husband, Charles Canady, played a major role on early councils.

“I just hated to see how it happened,” said James Wear, a reporter who at times wrote for several different Liberty Hill papers, including his own. “Seeing these friends torn apart by politics was just sad.”

No longer could any newspaper for Liberty Hill simply be a community newsletter. Now, beyond covering the high school football games, it had to also serve as a straight record of fact for council politics. It had to act as a forum for public opinion, and do it fairly.

This was a balancing act that did not come naturally to Pogue, says Linda Lattanzio, a former employee.

When Lattanzio joined The Independent staff in 1999, Liberty Hill was still a “quiet, sleepy little community,” she says. Pogue “still had that small town mentality for the newspaper as a feel-good, lift-youup, what’s-going-on-this-week type newsletter.”

They ran a column for local birthdays and vacations, churches and barbecues. High school sports were covered by Pogue’s husband, Dan Pogue, who also served on the

school board. Together, the two attended almost every football game and every track meet.

“They were Mr. and Mrs. Liberty Hill,” Justin Pogue said. “It was Liberty Hill, the kids, and The Independent — that’s all they needed.”

Coverage remained limited to what was positive, recalled several former staffers.

Pogue didn’t focus on the police busts that would later remove so many meth houses from Liberty Hill, even while her competitor The Leader consistently made them front page items.

It was an approach to the news that faced increasing criticism after incorporation.

City council became “so volatile right off the bat,” Lattanzio said.

“She was trying to put a positive spin on things, but well, you can’t when you’ve got all this.”

The conflicts and the controversies were too much, Lattanzio recalled.

Kate Ludlow, a local writer who at times worked for both The Independent and The Bullet, says it was difficult in a community as small and contentious as Liberty Hill was then, to keep her reporting separated from what she thought was right.

Pogue, too, struggled with this, she said.

Wear says he remembers one instance in particular, when a council member was charged with knocking a man down at a meeting.

In the account for his paper, The Shin Oak Ridge Reporter, Wear reported that the council member “emerged” from the chambers after the incident. Pogue meanwhile wrote that he “burst” out.

“To me, that was pouring gasoline on the fire,” Wear says. He thought it strange because Pogue was known as a supporter of this council member.

Justin Pogue says he remembers his mother often telling him, “‘You can’t make everybody happy all the time.’ And I’m sure Charles was in that position, too.”

Charles Canady—the auto mechanic, the council leader, and the two-time star of the front page of the Austin American-Statesman — did not vote for incorporation.

When the issue passed by roughly a dozen votes, “he sucked his thumb for a while,” his wife, Kathy Canady, remembers, “then he picked himself back up, and when they asked him to run for council, he did.”

THE LIBERTY HILL INDEPENDENT

Page 5B

Canady mostly listened at first, “then he got vocal,” Wear says.

He advocated for an ad valorem tax, nuisance ordinances, parkland, and for the city’s building codes to trump the county’s. He dressed in the same overalls he wore to work and to council, and Canady the freshman politician would walk door-to-door collecting signatures.

“He was good to the people from here,” Kathy Canady says, cradling a picture of him. “But somebody was always mad at us.”

Sometimes it was the people who voted for him, and sometimes it was the people he had been elected to oppose, she says.

Divisions boiled over into the newspapers, where fierce back-andLIBERTY HILL INDEPENDENT FILE PHOTOS forths in the Letters section took the place of the usual thank-you notices.

In “Diane’s Doodles,” Pogue called the nuisance ordinance Charles Canady supported a measure that would turn “neighbors into snitches.”

Ludlow said that to the average reader looking at the newspapers, it might be hard to figure out what exactly happened.

“But as a small town, if you knew the people involved, and who believed what, you could read through the lines,” she said.

Despite Pogue’s insistence to keep coverage positive, Ludlow said the newspapers began to engage in “a little bit of mudslinging.”

Kathy Canady said she did not want to start a newspaper. She had no experience, no education in the business. She had no time, already working two jobs at the Meridell Achievement Center and at her own feed store. She did not even have the money. But none of that mattered in light of what she did have — an indomitable zeal.

The “final straw,” she says, was shortly before Valentine’s Day in 2001, when Pogue printed a story that listed Charles Canady among those who had been indicted by a grand jury.

It was not true.

Kathy Canady used her inheritance and started her own newspaper.

Equal parts hometown newsletter and fire-breathing defender, The Liberty Hill Bullet promised in its WAYLON CUNNINGHAM PHOTO tagline to “Shoot Straight From The (TOP) Owners of The Independent from 1998 to 2010, Diane and Dan Pogue enjoyed covering Liberty Hill Hip Right To The Heart.” sports. The Pogues passed away in 2010. (CENTER) The Chamber of Commerce did a ribbon cutting at the new The first issue was not easy. office of The Independent in 1999, when it moved to the red brick house on SH 29. (ABOVE) Kathy Canady, started The Liberty Hill Bullet in 2001 as a way to defend her husband, the late Charles Canady, from what she See NEWSPAPERS, Page 6B says was false reporting in the Pogues’ Independent.

Page 6B

THE LIBERTY HILL INDEPENDENT

Newspapers

She wrote a rebuttal about a council story. She wrote about four longtime couples in town. She had Wear, who had recently stopped The Shin Oak Reporter, show her where to find the “canned junk,” and how to paste stories onto a layout board.

She stayed up all night on the day it was due at the printing press.

“I was sitting there with this hot wax roller,” she says, motioning to a corner in her Quick Service Garage downtown. “And then I was sitting over here printing stuff off, cutting it, pasting it. It didn’t look right. I cried.”

It was a “pitiful, pitiful” paper, she says, but people bought it. “And we went on and tried to get better.”

Over the next three years she published The Bullet, production did become easier in some ways. She brought in a Christian columnist, news from Bertram, and the occasional release from the volunteer fire department or the Williamson

Timeline

Continued from Page 4B County Democratic Party. Anything to fill the space, she says.

She began other regular features, such as listing off the members of a different local household every week by the masthead. She says it was one of the best parts, “when you could do something that meant so much to someone. That might be the only time they got their names in the paper.”

The Bullet was the first newspaper in Liberty Hill to be printed in color.

It ran a front page story about the blue water markers that had been appearing throughout town. Nobody knew what they were, she said, but her article explained it.

Above the story, a photo showed Council Member Wendell McLeod, who also worked for the Liberty Hill Water Supply Corp., placing the markers. On the page, they were blue.

Her daughter, Kristin Davis, and Ludlow helped with content and

Continued from Page 1B

1976, at which time it became a weekly publication with Carolyn Harper listed as editor.

Sleek mid-century type, a focus on photographs and political cartoons, and a somewhat lighthearted editorial tone set this paper apart from its predecessors. It was the first known newspaper in Liberty Hill to have a crossword.

The year before The Libertarian folded in 1978, subscriptions were $5, though on special, they were only $3.95.

THE PAPER The Liberty Hill Community Advisory Council published The Paper for a short time in 1981, with Dee Dee King as editor. It was mailed free to local postal patrons.

As was the case with other local papers into the 1990s, the overwhelming majority of space was dedicated to school stories. They were broken up, however, by the occasional feature, such as a seven-week series that examined each of Liberty Hill’s seven churches.

The flooding of the North San Gabriel River was covered in the Oct. 1, 1981, issue by a local citizen writing in the first-person, and by a high school essay. “It was certainly not just the adults who were very

frightened,” an editor’s note with the piece said.

THE SENTINEL This tabloid-style paper began its monthly publication in August 1982, with Dee Dee King again as editor. Copies can be found going into 1983. It covered Bertram, Andice and Florence in addition to Liberty Hill.

The Sentinel was less-school based (somewhat) than its predecessor, and more focused on columns.

“One of the problems facing residents of Liberty Hill has been the lack of law enforcement,” read King’s column from May 1, 1983.

“Recently, the Cultural Affairs Council sent a letter to Williamson county Officials asking for increased police patrols on the weekends.”

Next to it, the “Shinoak [sic] Ridge Philosopher” column lamented the passing of winter.

FLORENCE FREE PRESS LIBERTY HILL LEADER In 1986, Liberty Hill’s news coverage was limited to a weekly column in a nearby county newspaper and occasional coverage by two other out-of-town newspapers.

The Florence Free Press, which

production.

Ludlow recalls that every Tuesday night, before print time, they would drive to the gas station at Seward Junction for coffee, powering the all-nighter they would inevitably have to take.

“Diane was a little better at it,” she said. “But you could drive by that red brick building (on SH 29) at night and see them working, just like us.”

There were, however, some differences with The Independent.

Early editions of The Bullet included some commentary among the Letters and council coverage, sometimes pasted in the middle of the story, and often bolded or italicized. With more experience, Canady move away from that.

“I would’ve sacrificed anything to help him (Charles Canady),” Kathy Canady says. “And that’s what this paper was about.”

In 2004, she gave the paper to Ja-

mie Williamson, the daughter of The Independent’s founder Jim “Linzy” Hudgins. Williamson had become another critic of the Pogues. Shortly after obtaining the Canady newspaper, Williamson changed its name to The Liberty Hill Leader.

Handing the paper off to Williamson was a decision Kathy Canady said she would quickly come to regret. But publishing The Bullet? It was worth it, she says, just for what it did for her husband and the community.

Charles Canady passed away in 2014, four years after Dan and Diane Pogue.

The Leader was purchased by the current owners of The Independent in January 2017, and put out of publication.

Today, Liberty Hill has only one newspaper -- but several stop signs.

Waylon@LHIndependent.com

began earlier that year, expanded its coverage to include Liberty Hill, taking on the mantle of the 1932 paper.

Its publisher, Peggy Jo Ross, worked with Editor James Wear to produce the news for the two towns — but only for a short period.

In 1987, Wear split off, taking the “Liberty Hill Leader” portion with him. Ross continued the paper as The Florence Press.

verge of a breakthrough in growth, The Burnet Bulletin expanded its coverage into the town in 1984.

Three years later, former staff member Ed Schaeffer split off to form The Bertram Liberty Hill News, which centered on short, punchy features and large photos.

In a second split, sports writer Jim “Linzy” Hudgins left The Bertram Liberty Hill News to establish The Liberty Hill Independent — the first issue was published Oct. 29, 1987.

A month or so later, James Wear discontinued The Outlaw Express to join Hudgins. The Bertram Liberty Hill News lasted only a few more months.

A large part of The Independent’s early success, Wear says, was that it was the only newspaper dedicated solely to Liberty Hill. Hence its slogan, “The only newspaper that gives a hoot about Liberty Hill.”

OUTLAW EXPRESS James Wear, now a columnist for The Independent, started this paper in 1987 after dissolving his partnership with the Florence Free PressLiberty Hill Leader. The Outlaw Express covered Liberty Hill in addition to Florence and Jarrell.

Before shutting down in November 1987, the paper underwent some changes. Its bi-weekly schedule became weekly, and its tabloid format became a broadsheet.

The Outlaw had a distinctly selfaware country style, and was named so, an editor’s note read, because “Everyone says we look like a bunch of outlaws, anyway.”

BERTRAM LIBERTY HILL NEWS Believing Liberty Hill to be on the

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SHIN OAK RIDGE REPORTER James Wear left The Independent in 1989, after feeling that he and Jim Linzy had grown apart in how they saw the paper’s future. In 1997, Wear and his wife, Paula Wear, began publication of the Shin Oak Ridge Reporter.

A four-page broadsheet, coverage was still mostly focused on high

school sports (written without adjectives, mostly). Its other focus was the Liberty Hill Volunteer Fire Department, where Wear was a volunteer.

“I could provide a lot of information because I actually witnessed it,” Wear said about the accident scenes he would cover.

The paper continued for four years before shutting down operations.

LIBERTY HILL BULLET After the Shin Oak Ridge Reporter closed its doors, Kathy Canady began The Liberty Hill Bullet in 2001.

Contrary to rumor, it was not a continuation of the Reporter.

Canady, though she had no newspaper or writing experience, produced the paper for three years as an alternative to The Independent’s coverage of city council.

The Bullet was characterized by its fiery editorials and commentary, written to defend Canady’s husband on the city council, but equally by its folksy newsletter-style features.

“Welcome to the Home of…,” for instance, listed a different household in town every week.

In 2002, it became the first Liberty Hill newspaper to print in color.

Thursday, October 26, 2017

THE LIBERTY HILL LEADER The third paper in Liberty Hill with this name, The Leader began after Jamie Williamson obtained what remained of The Bullet in 2004.

Williamson published a few issues as The Bullet before changing the name.

Like its predecessor, The Leader was known for its strongly-worded op-eds, but it also covered hard crime and vehicle crashes at a time when Pogue’s Independent would not. Its front page often featured arrest mug shots from the week, which began as a way to chronicle the ongoing methamphetamine busts law enforcement officers were making at the time. Later the mug shots expanded to include individuals arrested for other offenses.

Williamson, who is the daughter of The Independent’s founder Jim “Linzy” Hudgins, remained Leader publisher while she served as Liberty Hill Mayor from 2012-2014.

She sold the paper in 2014 to sports writer Chuck Licata, but 18 months later she returned to help with production.

In January 2017, the newspaper was purchased by The Independent and put out of publication.

Compiled by Waylon Cunningham and James Wear