Editor J.C. Estlack Enterprise Archive Photo

1929-1945 

In 1919, J.C. Estlack moved his family to Clarendon from eastern New Mexico where he had operated The Lovington Leader. He went to work for Braswell at The Clarendon News for two years and became Associate Editor. Then in 1921, he went into business for himself and purchased the print shop of former publisher W.P. Blake.

In 1929, a group of more than 750 citizens paid Estlack a year’s subscription in advance as an inducement for him to start a new newspaper. The first issue of The Donley County Leader was published March 12, 1929, and was a county-wide weekly that championed the common man.

The Leader was a family operation from start to finish. Estlack’s wife, Maggie, helped finance the initial start-up, and she even helped set type in the early days. Daily operations involved J.C., his wife, and their five sons – Alfred, Eugene, Phifer, Homer, and George Wayne.

Through the Great Depression, Estlack kept the Leader going by trading subscriptions for garden produce and canned goods and by relying on the hard work of his family. Estlack also was well known for his column, “The Temple of Truth” by the Apostle, which was often quoted by area papers as well as the big dailies in Dallas and Fort Worth.

Like his competitor, Estlack was very active in the area press association. He began attending the conventions of the Panhandle Press Association in 1930, served for a time as secretary, and was PPA’s president in 1936. That same year at the Tri-State Fair, he delivered the principal address to a gathering of the Panhandle Old Settlers Association on the subject of the pioneer press.

In 1942, Estlack turned over daily operations of the Leader to his sons to become Clarendon’s postmaster, but he continued to write for the paper. 

1945-1974 

Also in 1942, Braswell turned daily operations of the News over to the News Publishing Company with Dick Cooke as editor. Cooke had previously worked for the News as an editor. Under his direction the paper began to falter; and in 1944, Braswell finally sold the paper to two local businessmen – O.C. Watson and Joe Goldston. They in turn sold the paper to J.R. Moore. Moore was apparently only interested in the paper for its physical assets. He took possession of all the presses, the Linotype, the type cases, and most other equipment. Then in May of 1945, Moore sold the News and its remaining archives to George Wayne Estlack of the competing newspaper, The Donley County Leader.

Estlack and his brother, Alfred, merged the two papers, and the resulting publication would carry The Donley County Leader & The Clarendon News on its nameplate for the next three decades. The word “Leader” was prominent.

In 1958, George Wayne and his wife, Ruby Dell Estlack, became the sole owners of the paper following the death of Alfred.  Both George and Alfred had been raised with printers ink, having grown up in their father’s printing business in Clarendon.  They and their brothers had learned the newspaper business from the ground up when the Leader began 1929.

Ruby Dell had become active in the paper shortly after she and George Wayne married in 1936. She was assigned the job of collecting on accounts, which she did in person in order to improve goodwill between the paper and its customers. Ruby Dell later would take on the role of Society Editor as well.

George Wayne was very active in the state and regional press associations from the time he was a young man. He served as secretary, vice president, and, in 1960, president of the Panhandle Press Association. During his time as secretary, the Leader did all the printing for the PPA’s Panhandle Publisher on a Kelly B flatbed press. George Wayne was a member of the Board of Directors for the Texas Press Association.  He received first place awards for Editorials on both the PPA and TPA levels for articles which pulled no punches.

Estlack was also involved in community organizations such as the Clarendon Lions Club and helped organize the Clarendon Outdoor Entertainment Association. He was recognized during his career by the Vo-Ag Teachers of Texas, the West Texas Chamber of Commerce, the Girl Scouts, the Boy Scouts, and the Department of Health and Human Services.

The Leader was a seven-column, countywide newspaper printed on the flat bed, hand fed C.B. Cottrell & Son Newspaper Press it had used since it was established in 1929. The publication was upgraded to an eight-column layout with the installation of a used Goss Comet roll fed press in February of 1968. The Comet allowed the Leader to print eight pages at one time, presenting a significant timesaving.

The 1960s were another time of growth for Clarendon and Donley County. During Estlack’s tenure, a reservoir was built on the Salt Fork of the Red River. Opened in 1968, the resulting Lake Greenbelt inundated Clarendon’s original town site and created a source of drinking water for towns as far south as Crowell. In honor of the grand opening of the new reservoir, the Leader and five other area newspapers published a special eight-page tabloid promoting the new Lake Greenbelt and chronicling its origins.

Estlack also was editor during this same contentious period in which Clarendon College separated from the public school district, expanded its tax base from the city to the county limits, and moved to a new campus on the west side of town.

A few years later, G.W. Estlack would preside over another big change in the newspaper’s history. In May 1972, the Leader was printed for the first time using the offset method; and for the first time since 1881, the paper was no longer printed in Clarendon. Like many other community newspapers at the time, the Leader moved to a central printing plant – Oxbow Printing in Childress.

Type was still set locally with the Linotype, and a proof of each page was struck on the Kelly B with ad spaces left blank. Ruby Dell put ads together on graphic paper and then pasted them on to the proof sheets. She then drove the proofs to Childress Wednesday night, aluminum plates were burned there, and the paper was printed on a Harris offset press.

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