Mendocino-Sutter County CA Archives Biographies.....Thurston, Earl P. February 5, 1883 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Ila Wakley iwakley@msn.com October 31, 2010, 10:09 pm Source: California and Californians, Vol. IV, Published 1932, Pages 119 - 120 Author: The Lewis Publishing Company EARL P. THURSTON is one of the veterans of the profession of journalism in Northern California, and for many years has been actively identified with the oldest newspaper of Mendocino County, the Dispatch-Democrat, of Ukiah. Mr. Thurston's maternal grandfather, Absalom T. Perkins, helped finance the first newspaper in Ukiah. The Dispatch-Democrat of the present day is in part a descendant of that pioneer newspaper. In November, 1860, E. R. Budd founded the first newspaper in the county, the Ukiah Herald. After being operated for ten years the Herald was absorbed in 1870 by the Mendocino Democrat. The Mendocino Democrat represented a merger of the Constitutional Democrat, which Absalom T. Perkins had founded in 1863, with the Mendocino County Democrat, which had been established in 1865, by Matt Lynch. Lynch started another paper, the Independent Weekly Dispatch, in 1873, and this in 1874 became the Democratic Weekly Dispatch. In April, 1880, the Weekly Dispatch absorbed the Mendocino Democrat, the title of the new publication being for a time the Dispatch and Democrat, and later the Dispatch-Democrat. Mr. Thurston, editor and publisher of the Dispatch-Democrat, was born at Grand Island in Sutter County, California, February 5, 1883. His father, George Chester Thurston, came to California from Dixon, Illinois, about 1853, his father, Nelson Thurston, having opened a hotel at Marysville a short time previously. George Chester Thurston graduated from Santa Clara College, engaged in business for a time and then engaged in ranching at Grand Island. He married Eleanor Perkins, whose father was Absalom T. Perkins, who came to California from Arkansas in 1855, and who, with his wife and children, were the first white family to settle in the limits of what is now the City of Ukiah, early in 1856. Earl P. Thurston was one of a family of three children. He attended grade and high schools in Mendocino County, and even while in grammar school he made up his mind to follow the newspaper profession. With that in view while a student at Leland Stanford University he specialized in English and other courses that would help him in his career. He had several years of apprenticeship experience, working in different departments of various newspapers in the state. Since 1910 he has been with the Dispatch-Democrat, taking charge of the office and general management for J. B. Sanford, then a member of the State Senate. On January 1, 1913, he acquired a half interest in the newspaper, and has been a partner as well as business manager ever since. The widow of the late Senator Sanford is still a half owner. The Dispatch- Democrat has a circulation of 3,300, is published every Friday, and its readers comprise a large part of the population of Mendocino, Northern Lake, North Sonoma and Southern Humboldt counties. All the paper is home print, the staff of workers in the office comprising six, and in addition to getting out the newspaper every week the office is equipped with machinery and facilities for a general commercial printing business. In April, 1928, Mr. Thurston and A. A. Heeser, proprietor of the Mendocino Beacon, acquired the Fort Bragg Advocate and the Fort Bragg News and merged the two as the Fort Bragg Advocate and News. Mr. Thurston is still associated in an equal partnership with Mr. Heeser in this, the leading publication of the Mendocino County coast section. Mr. Thurston married, February 12, 1910, Miss Hattie Schaeffer, a native of California. She also is a member of a pioneer family, her maternal grandfather, Charles Fletcher, having settled at Navarro in Mendocino County, in 1853, where he established a ship-building business. Mr. and Mrs. Thurston have four children: Norma, Jean, Kathleen and Earl. Mr. Thurston is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, is a Democrat and a member of the County Central Committee and its secretary, and is also a member of the State Central Committee of his party. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/mendocino/bios/thurston1089gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/cafiles/ File size: 4.7 Kb