Scout's Honor! La Mesa Boasted Own Newspaper

The presence of a local newspaper has historically been a source of pride, and legitimacy, for communities.  Local pioneering journalism in La Mesa dates to 1907 with establishment of the La Mesa Scout.  The Scout served as the primary local promoter and chronicler of La Mesa for the next 78 years. As we begin a new journalistic enterprise here in 2010, let's take a quick look back at our historical predecessor's origins.

In 1907, La Mesa Springs, as it was known, was a place of growing suburban hopes and dreams.  This community of a few hundred mostly citrus farmers was centered on the small railroad station and the adjacent Lemon Co. store and packinghouse.

Starting in earnest a year earlier, speculators began subdividing the surrounding orchards into home lots.  These speculators, along with entrepreneurs erecting new businesses along Lookout Avenue (now La Mesa Boulevard), hoped to turn their fledgling development into a new suburban town.

Although the nearby El Cajon Valley News, established in 1889, documented La Mesa-area activities, as did the regional San Diego papers occasionally, what the founding fathers of La Mesa wanted was a paper by and for La Mesans. 

So they looked to some of their pioneering sons—literally.  The Scout's initial staff included 16-year-old editor Wiley Magruder and his friend, 15-year-old publisher/printer Henry Oliver.  Financially supported by their fathers (also local real estate speculators) William Magruder and Frank M. Oliver, the La Mesa Springs Scout made its debut on March 15, 1907.  The 8-by-11-inch four-page monthly cost 25 cents for a year's subscription and featured ads from real estate developers such as the Park-Grable Co. and pioneer businesses such as La Mesa Hardware.

Young Wiley added news along with glowing descriptions of the youthful town and its picturesque landscape of hills and vales —all to help attract new home seekers, businessmen and shoppers. 

The youthful nature of La Mesa's early journalism continued.  In 1908, attorney/publisher Otto Schroeder and family arrived in town and quickly set up a new paper called The La Mesa Eagle.  Schroeder named his 17-year-old son Frank as "publisher and proprietor" of the new weekly.

Since few issues of the early Scout (and none of the Eagles) exist,  details of the battle are somewhat vague, but in late 1909 William Magruder bought out The Eagle and the Schroeders moved onto Los Angeles.  The Magruders had taken full control of the paper the same year when Frank and Henry Oliver moved to Tehama County in Northern California. 

Over the next couple of years, the paper continued as a weekly under the banner of La Mesa Springs Scout and The Eagle.  In addition to ads for real estate and businesses, the paper featured news of local civic events, schools, churches and social activities, including detailed notes of any visitors to town, and travels of local citizens—assuredly mentioning as many subscribers as possible.

The year 1912 brought changes for the young paper and community.  The first included dropping the "Springs" from their names after the City of La Mesa incorporated in February. The paper also dropped "The Eagle" moniker and moved into the new addition to the 1894 Lemon Co. store building across the street from the Depot (a building that still exists).

Veteran printer/publisher Thomas Hancock then joined the Scout as business manager.  The Magruders sold out to Hancock later that year and moved on to found a new paper in Imperial County. Hancock ran the Scout for the next two years until Clement O. Smith, a recent purchaser of the El Cajon Valley News, partnered with Hancock in 1914—buying him out in 1915.

Smith and his sons Carroll and Preston became notable East County journalists and civic promoters by later adding the Lakeside Journal and Ramona Sentinel to their "publishing empire."  The Smiths enhanced the paper's journalistic quality and used it as a vehicle to rally La Mesa and its neighboring communities in support of key civic and social improvements. 

One of the most notable was promoting the $2.5 million bond act allowing the La Mesa, Lemon Grove and Spring Valley Irrigation District (now Helix Water) to buy  the Cuyamaca Water Co. from Col. Ed Fletcher in 1926—securing the region's municipal independence.

The Smiths sold out their interests in the Scout in 1937.  Over the next few decades, the Scout would change hands numerous times, but its owner/publishers would continue their focus on greater La Mesa's news and civic interests.  Additional challenges from other local papers would come and go, but the Scout stayed dedicated to La Mesa. 

Finally in 1985 the new corporate owners shut down the financially struggling paper, ending La Mesa's initial 78 years of dedicated local journalism. 

This column looks to provide a window into the La Mesa of today by illuminating its collective past, so we provide some prophetic words from our initial journalistic forebear:

It is the past that reckons our future to such an extent that we almost have perfect faith in it.  The past of La Mesa has laid a strong foundation for the future. We hope that the future will not disappoint the past. —Wiley Magruder, La Mesa Scout, April 5, 1912

What do you remember about the old La Mesa Scout? What parts of the Scout should be resurrected in La Mesa Patch? Tell us in the comments.