Orson Pratt Brown - Life, Times, Family

I SAMUEL LEPAGE RADDON 1858-1948

Website Link Index

Orson Pratt Brown - Family through his sister Cynthia Fife Layton

Samuel LePage Raddon

Born: January 18, 1806 at Smith County, Tennessee
Died: April 24, 1883 Independence, Jackson, Missouri

Compiled by Lucy Brown Archer

"It is the land of my staunch Episcopalian great-grandfather, Samuel Raddon, a founding father of modern Park City, Utah, who at the time of his death was the nation's oldest newspaper editor. Sam Raddon started as a twelve-year-old copy boy for the Salt Lake Tribune. He founded the Park City Record and served as its editor for sixty-seven years."----

"Dad"

Sam Raddon and the Park Record office c. 1920

Sam "Dad" Raddon is seated on the left behind the typewriter, LePage is furthest left, Lynx Langford
is at linotype machine.

"To be sure, there were occasional fights among different ethnic groups, especially around the saloons, and name-calling and teasing were not uncommon. As a group, the Chinese were the least assimilated and, in particular, bore the brunt of racially motivated verbal and sometimes physical assault. The local newspaper tended to perpetuate and mirror the general racism of the day. Sam Raddon, editor of the Park Record, had a bad habit of referring to immigrants by place of birth rather than as individuals by name, and he often defined and identified the Chinese in slang and derogatory language."

"Raddon reportedly mellowed over the 65 years he controlled the paper, but it is easy to detect his views and prejudice in the earlier decades of this century. He was staunchly in favor of the “Americanization” of immigrants and frequently advocated employment preference for naturalized citizens. Raddon was also fiercely Republican and liked to rail against the free-trade policies supported by the Democrats. None of this was particularly novel during this period. Small weekly papers were usually the only source of news in relatively remote mining camps, like Park City. Such papers tended to show an overt political bias and attracted readers with biting editorials and local boosterism. Yet, regardless of whether one agreed with Raddon's politics or biases, his newspaper made interesting reading and helped define the experience, meaning, and history of life in Park City. His views would certainly play a prominent role as Park City's youth marched off to war in 1917, as we shall see shortly." ---http://www.poli-sci.utah.edu/~kl3240/KGLfiles/Disstext/chapter3.htm

Utah's oldest weekly opened its door on February 8, 1880 as the Park Mining Record. James R. Schupbach the first publisher, departed on June 18, 1881 for Butte, Montana, succeeded by Harry W. White. White, in turn, surrendered the chair to J. J. Buser on November 2, 1884..

Sam Raddon was the "Park Record publisher for 63 years, from 1884 to 1947. He re-joined the staff of the Salt Lake Tribune in 1881 as a 23 year old typesetter. On November 2, 1884 Sam returned to the Park Record and became a partner with J.J.Buser. Subsequently he shared ownership with L.E. Camomile and Alf C. Reese; then with his brother W.A. Raddon, and finally, in 1924 with his eldest son, LePage Raddon. It was his son who succeeded him upon his death in 1948 and was publisher of the Park Record when he suffered a fatal heart attack on January 26, 1956. His widow Maie [Isabelle Marie Nimmo Raddon], operated the paper until April 12, 1956, selling to H. C. (Mac) McConaughy. During four years from 1960 until 1964, at a time when Park City was struggling economically, the Park Record was consolidated with the Summit County Bee. It resumed as a single masthead on July 9, 1964, reacting to the business upsurge accompanying the beginning of Treasure Mountain Recreation Area. On October 1, 1976, the paper was purchased by Richard M. and Susan Buys of neighboring Heber City.

The Park Record and Park City's competing publication, The Newspaper, were merged on June 1, 1983
by their respective publishers the Buys and Jan Wilking, Since the Record was far older than the Newspaper the co-publishers decided to retain only its banner. On December 30, 1986, the Park Record was purchased by Diversified Suburban Newspapers, which two years earlier had acquired the Green Sheet group in Murray and the Sentinel papers in Midvale, Utah. The publisher was Peter Bernhard, a minority stockholder in Diversfied, which was principally owned by Dean Singleton. When Berrnhard left Utah, not long thereafter, his younger brother Andy Bernhard became publisher." --http://content.lib.utah.edu/cdm4/document.php?
CISOROOT=/upa&CISOPTR=713&CISOSHOW=51&REC=12

May 31st, 2007 by Ed Firmage [husband of Mary Brown?] [Edwin Firmage 1883-1979, married Susan Miriam Raddon in 1911]

Rich Men and the Eye of a Needle

"(Sam Raddon, Park City, founder of modern Park City a century ago, as editor for 67 years of the Park City Record) mining ventures, so to speak: he's prostituted his knowledge, against his spouse's better judgment, by joining Sam Raddon”s “Ore House”: gold and silver, to which Sam Raddon never belonged. Sam was satisfied to live a life of simplicity. At 12 years of age, he was a runner for the Salt Lake Tribune. By old age he was the oldest editor in tenure in the United States, 67 years as editor, taking pot shots at the wealthy and the Mormon Church (but I repeat myself), as a starchy old Episcopalian, even while writing folksy columns, Pop's Corner, in the Park City Record about his two grandsons serving as missionaries in Scotland and England, trying with some success to make Mormons of what Sam thought were perfectly good Catholics, Episcopalians, and Presbyterians. Sam was not an imperialist. Not everyone had to think like Sam to have a place at the table."---- http://oneutah.org/2007/05/31/rich-men-and-the-eye-of-a-needle/

"Twelfth annual meeting, Monday, January 23, 1905, Kenyon Hotel, Salt Lake City. David P. Felt, Farmington

Child of Samuel LePage Raddon and Clara M. Deighton

Samuel Herbert Raddon

Born : September 30, 1883 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah

Married: Elizabeth Frances Witherow on September 6, 1911 in Salt Lake City, Utah

Died: August 6, 1972 Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah

Children of Samuel LePage Raddon and Louisa Emma Harper Raddon

Louisa Judith Raddon

Born: 21 October 1889 at Park City, Summit, Utah

Child

Died: 21 July 1895 at Park City, Summit, Utah

Susan Miriam Raddon

Born: 8 March 1891 at Park City, Summit, Utah

Married: Edwin Firmage on November 1, 1911 at Park City, Summit, Utah

Died: 3 January 1974 at Provo, Utah, Utah

LePage Harper Raddon

Born: 19 February 1893 at Park City, Summit, Utah

Married: Isabella Marie Nimmo

Died: 26 Jan 1956 from heart attack at Park City, Summit, Utah

Lawrence Harold Raddon

Born: c. 1894 at Park City, Summit, Utah

Married: Emma Sutton on 23 August 1922 Newhouse Hotel, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah

Died: 2 March 1978 at Alhambra, Los Angeles, California

David Elijah Raddon

Born: 29 May 1897 at Park City, Summit, Utah

Married: Carrie Nelson on 5 July 1925

Died: 1976

Mary Catherine Raddon

Born: 1 June 1903 at Park City, Summit, Utah

Married: Elmer Lee on 28 August 1921 (div); (2) Karl Horton 1951

Died: 25 Jan 1954

Eugene Harper Raddon

Born: 13 June 1905 at Park City, Summit, Utah

Died: 22 October 1916 at Park City, Summit, Utah

Raddon House at 325 Park Avenue in Park City, Summit, Utah

Sam Raddon, Samuel LePage Raddon, Sam L. Raddon, Dad Raddon, Samuel L. Raddon

Sources:

PAF - Archer files = Captain James Brown + (7) Phebe Abbott > Orson Pratt Brown
Phebe Abbott Brown + Wiliam Nicol Fife > Cynthia Fife + Joseph Layton < Christopher Layton + Caroline Cooper > Chauncey West Layton + Josephine LePage Raddon < James Henry Raddon + Elizabeth Davis

Photos and information from :

Samuel L. Raddon obituary found at Utah Newspaper Hall of Fame at J. Willard Marriott Library Digital Collection http://content.lib.utah.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/upa&CISOPTR=713&CISOSHOW=
612&REC=14 pages 598-601

Additions, bold, [bracketed], some photos, etc., added by Lucy Brown Archer

GO TO BOTTOM OF PAGE

RETURN TO HOME PAGE

To SEARCH THIS SITE: Use the Google.com search engine
Type....site:OrsonPrattBrown.org "TYPE NAME YOU ARE
LOOKING FOR INSIDE PARENTHESIS"...Press ENTER
A list with the search term will appear.

Click here or click on Refresh to view
the most current version of this website

ORSON PRATT BROWN WEBSITE HOMEPAGE

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF BIOGRAPHIES
... Click to view hundreds of family biographies

OPB FAMILY BLOG SITE
... http://orsonprattbrownfamily.blogspot.com/

PERSONAL ANCESTRAL FILE
... Password Access Only

ADDRESS LIST FOR BROWN FAMILY
... Password Access Only

ORSON PRATT BROWN FAMILY REUNIONS
... Easter 1986 through October 2005

... ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION - BY-LAWS
COMMENTS AND INPUT ON ARTICLES

... Published December 2007:
"ORSON PRATT BROWN AND HIS FIVE WONDERFUL WIVES VOL. I and II"
By Erold C. Wiscombe

... Published March 2009:
"CAPTAIN JAMES BROWN AND HIS 13 WIVES"
(unfortunately the publisher incorrectly changed the photo
and spelling of Phebe Abbott Brown Fife's name
after it was proofed by this author)
Researched and Compiled by Erold C. Wiscombe

... Published 2012:
"Finding Refuge in El Paso"
By Fred E. Woods [ISBN: 978-1-4621-1153-4]
Includes O.P Brown's activities as Special Church Agent in El Paso
and the Juarez Stake Relief Committee Minutes of 1912.

...Published 2012:
"Colonia Morelos: Un ejemplo de ética mormona
junto al río Bavispe (1900-1912)"
By Irene Ríos Figueroa [ISBN: 978-607-7775-27-0]
Includes O.P. Brown's works as Bishop of Morelos. Written in Spanish.

...Published 2014:
"The Diaries of Anthony W. Ivins 1875 - 1932"
By Elizabeth Oberdick Anderson [ISBN: 978-156085-226-1]
Mentions O.P. Brown more than 30 times as Ivins' companion.

... To be Published Soon:
"CAPTAIN JAMES BROWN 1801-1863:
TEMPER BY NATURE, TEMPERED BY FAITH"

Send Comments and Information to:
OrsonPrattBrown@gmail.com