Vol. 119 No.1 THE BACK MOUNTAIN'S NEWSPAPER SINCE 1889 January 6 - 12, 2008 The DALLAS POST. SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF THE DALLAS AND LAKE-LEHMAN SCHOOL DISTRICTS NEWSPAPER STILL GOING STRONG The Dallas Post begins its 19th year of publication By DOTTY MARTIN Editor With this issue, The Dallas Post begins its 119th year of publica- tion, covering the Back Mountain community and the Dallas and Lake-Lehman School Districts. In early 1889, A.A. Holbrook re- signed his position with the Wilkes-Barre Times to publish the Dallas Post, the first Back Mountain newspaper. Holbrook opened his publishing business in a small one-room building in Dal- las and, serving as publisher and editor, printed and hand-deliver- ed a two-page broadsheet news- paper. Holbrook continued to publish The Dallas Post until 1895 when W.H. Capwell, editor of the Tri- bune in Nanticoke and Plymouth, succeeded him, printing the pa- per in a small building at the cor- ner of Huntsville Road and Nor- ton Avenue in Dallas. Harry Anderson, of Dallas, be- came publisher and editor of The Dallas Post in the early 1900s and, for a period of time, the newspa- per was located in the building on Main Street now occupied by Dal- las Centre Hardware. Robert Fine and Harry Ander- “I always wanted to do Dallas because | could nev- er do enough on it and it bothered me." Sister Anne Frances Pulling Retired teacher and Sister of Mercy CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK/ FOR THE DALLAS POST Looking through some bound volumes of The Dallas Post, Sister Anne Frances Pulling, a retired teacher and Sister of Mercy, has complied and intends to publish a history of Dallas Borough. Mercy Sister hopes o10 publish history By REBECCA BRIA rbria@timesleader.com She proves you don’t have to be a lifelong native of the area to find its history intriguing. Sister Anne Frances Pulling has written and published a total of 11 pictorial books on the local history of places outside of the Wyoming Valley. Now, she’s fo- cusing on Dallas Borough and Dallas Township. “The town hasn’t been that well-known,” Pulling said of the Back Mountain locale. “I always wanted to do Dallas because I could never do enough on it and it bothered me.” Born and raised in Central Islip Long Island, N.Y., Pulling came from an Irish Catholic family. Both her maternal and her pater- nal grandparents were natives of Ireland. All of her life, Pulling knew she wanted to be a Sister of Mercy so, in 1948, she decided to pursue higher education at Col- lege Misericordia. She entered the convent that same year. Pulling received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Education from College Misericordia and a Mas- ters degree in Education from Fordham University. After col- lege, she taught elementary school for 57 years at Catholic e in Harrisburg, Long Is- land and Cresson, pointing out to this reporter that a Catholic school teacher can always tell whether a person has attended Catholic school because of the way they hold their writing uten- sil. “I can always pick them out,” she said of students who did not attend Catholic school. Pulling also taught a mental aerobics class, a class designed to stimulate and keep the brain healthy through mental activities that help with concentration, re- membering and listening, at Mount Aloysius College. During this interview, Pulling was not wearing a habit and a black dress but, instead, donned a navy blue pantsuit. Her gray, curly hair was completely ex- posed and, while sitting at the pi- ano for a photo, her fingers melo- dically tickled the keys. A librarian approached Pulling years ago and asked her to write a book about the history of Central Islip for an upcoming bicenten- nial anniversary. The result - she wrote “Central Islip: My Home- town.” In another instance, she took a nun who had trouble seeing to a cemetery. Every time Pulling would read names aloud off of See HISTORY, Page 7 V Inside The Post 14 Pages, 1 Section CRUICIR id evict ins 3 Community .....ccceuenenee. 2:.3,6,7 OBIUBRIES ouvir veunrimmbbnsasse rriiiin 7 SCRO0L coeciiiercis vvinniriorsenne B57 SPOILS te rssnsetasnsrsrssvinsinssnpassrie 9 v¥ How To Reach Us News: 970-7440 news@mydallaspost.com 15 N. Main St. Wilkes-Barre, Pa. 18711 Advertising: 831-7303 Subscriptions and Delivery: 829-5000 son were publishers of The Dallas Post in the 1920s with the paper changing ownership again in Ja- nuary 1930 and listing officers as L.A. McHenry, president; G. Ha- rold Wagner, secretary; and Ho- ward Risley, treasurer and ma- naging editor. Risley and his wife, Myra, assumed sole ownership of the newspaper in the latter part of 1930. When Risley died suddenly on December 26, 1962, his wife con- tinued as publisher and editor un- til early 1968 when she sold the paper to Henry Null IV of Clarks Summit, who also owned the Abington Journal. Null continued to publish The Dallas Post and the Abington Journal until January 1972 when he sold both papers to William Scranton, the former governor of Pennsylvania, and his family. Gov. Scranton named his son, William W. Scranton III, as presi- dent of the publications. When the younger Scranton announced in January 1973 he was leaving the publishing busi- ness to travel abroad to study transcendental meditation, The Dallas Post continued to publish under Edward Bush, president and general manager; J.R. Free- man, editor-in-chief; and Doris Mallin, secretary-treasurer and editor. The paper continued to publish until December 1972 when Scran- ton announced his decision to close the newspapers duetointer- nal problems and place them on the market. In January 1975, Ray Carlsen, an Ohio newspaper publisher and a former public relations director from Proctor & Gamble, pur- chased the newspapers. In 1979, Carlsen formed a part- nership with Paul “Pete” Eyerly, owner of the Bloomsburg Press and Berwick Enterprise. When Carlsen accepted a position as ex- ecutive director of the Virginia Press Association in September 1980, he sold his interest in the newspapers to Eyerly. The Dallas Post and the Abing- ton Journal were purchased from Eyerly in May 1988 by Ronald and Charlotte Bartizek, who publish- ed the newspapers until selling them to The Times Leader in De- cember 1999. Today, The Dallas Post is own- ed by the Wilkes-Barre Publish- ing Company. Richard L. Connor is president of that company. Dotty Martin, editor of The Dallas Post, can be reached at 970-7440. By REBECCA BRIA rbria@timesleader.com Dallas grad designs handmade invitations art classes. risty Rice was 11 years old and vacationing in a small hotel room with her family. wanted to go to sleep, but Kristy wanted to draw. So, using the bathroom light, she sat on the floor and copied a Garfield comic strip out of the newspaper. The next morning, her mom was amazed and assumed Kristy had traced it. When she found it had been drawn free- hand, she signed her daughter up for Rice, now 30, is an artist by profes- sion and creates handmade wedding invitations and stationery. She runs her business, Momental Designs, out of her Franklin Township home. Within the first six months of tak- ing art lessons with Sue Hand, Rice knew she wanted to do something with art for a living. In high school, she entered art shows, including the Fine Arts Fiesta and the Rossetti Art Show where she won the “triple blue” award - three blue ribbons and a prize three years in a row. While a senior in high school from which she graduated in 1995, Rice worked as a teaching assistant at Sue Hand’s Imagery in Dallas. While in college, she taught art at Hand’s stu- can mean a moment that is impor- tant. Everyone ing. love.” dio during the summers. “I modeled myself after her a lot,” Rice said of Hand, whom she consid- ers her mentor. Rice graduated from Pennsylvania State University in 1999 with a major in art education and a minor in mixed media paint- After commencement, Rice was engaged and moved to Poughkeep- sie, N.Y., where she worked in retail and sales. She created handmade stationery and invitations for her own wedding and fell in love with it. Soon she was making invitations for friends and then friends of friends. At the encouragement of others, she turned her passion into a business. “When I first started the business, money never entered my head,” she said. “I just wanted to do what I Rice worked full-time in both her business and in the retail business and, when she and her husband re- turned to the area in 2004, Momen- tal Designs came with them. A year ago, she left retail to focus on her business full-time. Momental Designs was named as such because the word “momental” tion. live overseas. CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK/ FOR THE DALLAS POST Kristy Rice, a graduate of Dallas High School and Penn State, has established a custom wedding and stationery business in the Back Mountain. Creating memories ON THE WEB: www.momentaldesigns.com “With the stationery that I make, I kind of wanted to freeze that mo- ment for a bit,” Rice said. The sta- tionery reinforces brides’ themes and color schemes. “I tell my brides it’s like a thread through your event,” she said. In addition to invitations, Rice crafts ceremony programs, seating charts, seating cards and envelope addressing. Although weddings are her most popular event, she will cre- ate invitations and stationery for any occasion, using only her own art. Customers can choose to use an ex- isting design or have Rice create a new one for them. To produce the invitations, Rice paints an image with watercolors, scans it onto a computer and prints it on heavy paper. She then adds de- tail with ink by hand on each invita- This year, Rice is making invita- tions and stationery for 135 wed- dings, with three to five orders ship- ping out a week. The majority of her bridal customers live outside of Northeastern Pennsylvania and 20 Eighty percent of Rice’s customers find her web site, www.momentalde- See MEMORIES, Page 7 iy
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers