The Staff of The New Stamford American is excited to be adding The Anson American to our paper.

By Callie Metler-Smith

Hello, Anson. We are proud to introduce The Anson American. With the addition of The Anson American to The New Stamford American, we are adding to our coverage area a town for which we have a lot of respect and admiration. I grew up on a cotton farm half-way between Stamford and Anson, in Corinth, and spent many hours when I was a little girl taking naps in my dad’s tractor as he plowed the fields around Jones County. There was many a time I remember going into Anson to watch the Christmas Parade or to enjoy the booths at Mesquite Days. In the past, I have covered Commissioners’ Court, and there is many a mutual aid fire call I have gone on that had Anson and Stamford both responding.

I was born with newspaper ink in my blood. My grandfather, Alton Richards, owned and operated The Rule Review from 1947 until 1967. Before that, my great-grandparents and my great-great-grandfather were also newspaper people. My mother (Gayle Lovvorn) says she can’t remember her daddy without newspaper ink engrained under his nails and into his fingers until they were black as night. I, myself, will be celebrating my third year as owner and publisher of The New Stamford American on May 1st and my 7th year of having the newspaper ‘bug’ – so the tradition continues.

The addition of Anson to our coverage will continue my life-long love for community and small town newspapers. Let me tell you why. A small town newspaper is unlike any other business. It enjoys a unique status. It is an essential part of the life-blood of a small town. We think of going to “the” store, and we think of reading “our” paper. We look to the local paper to report the happenings, of course, but we do not depend on it much for breaking national and international news. What we do depend on it for is far more personal. We expect our hometown paper to record the big events in our lives and in those of our friends and families – the births, the graduations, the weddings, the anniversaries, and the deaths. In it we share the things we have in common and debate our differences. We inform one another as to what we are doing and the local goings-on – from church, civic, and government projects, to rodeos, fundraisers, club news, and school activities – all in the pages of the newspaper. The small town paper is the town crier and the town common. In its pages we can have a town hall meeting every week and follow our local team even if we couldn’t be at the game that night. It is where we can have a dialogue about big things or chat about little things. A newspaper reflects a town’s mood or helps shape it. It can be an objective chronicler or a biased partisan. It can be the town’s biggest booster or its worst heckler. What a newspaper means to a town depends on both the town and the paper.

Small town newspapers are unique. Maybe more than any other business, the local newspaper is a part of a town’s soul. The town and the paper enter into a relationship. We depend upon each other, as does our quality of life. The Anson American wants to be a part of what makes Anson special, sharing good things with you, being a part of your lives, and contributing in a positive way to the community and its success. We also want you to be a part of The Anson American. Send us your news and share your good things with us. We are glad to be here, and we hope you are glad to have us.Come see us!