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Newspaper The Indicator (Pueblo, Colo.) 1894-1911

About The Indicator (Pueblo, Colo.) 1894-1911

Bessemer, Colorado, was originally founded in 1880 as the settlement of Steel Works, the company town of the Colorado Coal and Iron Company (CC&I). Officially organized, incorporated, and renamed in August 1886, Bessemer grew alongside and in the shadows of the steel works of the CC&I and later the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I). The town, described as “the great industrial suburb of Pueblo,” was a hub of commerce that included not only steel but also smelting, oil, coal, packing, and agriculture. Its proximity to Pueblo’s railyards made transportation of raw materials and finished products efficient and profitable. Bessemer was made up of a diverse immigrant population from Italy, Eastern Europe, Germany, and Asia, who came to work in the town’s many mills, smelters, and mines. CC&I built the town’s fire station, city hall, hospital, and school. CF&I founded a company-run Sociological Department with the mission of bettering the lives of the workers and their families through education, running a night school where miners could learn English, and establishing a Kindergarten program which taught immigrant children English and the importance of industrial labor. Bessemer remained an independent municipality until 1894, when it consolidated with Pueblo, and was fully absorbed into Pueblo in 1906.

The Bessemer Indicator, with its masthead illustrating the steaming and smoking stacks of the town’s steel mills, was begun in 1889 by J.W. Love and sold to Patrick Byrnes in 1893. The paper changed its name to simply the Indicator in 1906, when Bessemer was absorbed into Pueblo, although the paper had been printed in Pueblo since 1894. Byrnes ran the paper until his death in 1947. His son, William A. Byrnes, continued publishing the Indicator but suspended publication for good in 1950. Over its 60 years of publication, the Indicator changed its political bent from initially Independent (the paper’s banner once read, “Aggressively Independent in Politics. Local in News) to Republican to Progressive. The weekly paper covered local, regional, state, and national news. “Steel Works Sparks” reported issues and events related to CF&I. “Our Denver Letter” and “News of the West” printed dispatches from the state’s capitol and the Rocky Mountain west. “Telegraphic Brevities” and “Washington Notes” rounded out the national and international coverage.

In 1897, Patrick Byrnes was sued for libel by J.F. Thomas, a local businessman and proprietor of the Hub. Thomas that charged Byrnes’ publication questioned his solvency and integrity and damaged his reputation and that of his business by reporting a “false statement of the ownership of the Hub Department store” (Colorado Daily Chieftain). Libel suits aside, the Indicator was a well-respected “thriving weekly… [that reflected] the good will of the business interests of Greater Pueblo… for the advancement of the community” (Salida Record). Both a respected and respectable journalist, Byrnes published the following opinion, “Vulgarity and ribald jokes find no place in a decent newspaper. Any paper which publishes a thing that would bring a blush to the cheek of anybody is not fit to be taken into a home.” Byrnes proudly promoted the Indicator, comparing it to the Denver dailies, “All the Denver papers combined do not publish a tenth part of the news of this city [Pueblo], and not a hundredth part of the news of Bessemer. Don’t be hoodwinked. Take your home paper and keep posted.” Byrnes also used the Indicator as a platform to encourage boosterism of Bessemer, Pueblo, and the state of Colorado, writing “By boosters we don’t mean boomers who would just as soon tell a whooper as the plain truth, but folks who study up on the advantages of their communities and then get up enough energy and local pride to tell what they know… Give us boosters and lots of them and fewer of the tribe of knockers, croakers, and calamity howlers.”

Provided By: History Colorado

About this Newspaper

Title

  • The Indicator (Pueblo, Colo.) 1894-1911

Dates of Publication

  • 1894-1911

Created / Published

  • Pueblo, Colo. : P. Byrnes, 1894-1911.

Headings

  • -  Pueblo (Colo.)--Newspapers
  • -  Colorado--Pueblo
  • -  United States--Colorado--Pueblo--Pueblo

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Vol. 5, no. 42 (Nov. 24, 1894)- ; -22nd year, 39th week (Oct. 28, 1911).
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format from the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  Pueblo indicator (Pueblo, Colo. : 1911) (DLC)sn 90051100 (OCoLC)21137012

Medium

  • v.

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn90051889

OCLC Number

  • 22611438

ISSN Number

  • 2693-8545

Preceding Titles

Succeeding Titles

Additional Metadata Formats

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

The Indicator Pueblo, Colo. -1911. (Pueblo, CO), Jan. 1 1894. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn90051889/.

APA citation style:

(1894, January 1) The Indicator Pueblo, Colo. -1911. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn90051889/.

MLA citation style:

The Indicator Pueblo, Colo. -1911. (Pueblo, CO) 1 Jan. 1894. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn90051889/.