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Local News
Newspaper typesetting machine focus of restoration project
By By Joy E. Cressler/Staff Writer
Nov 5, 2005, 10:04

BURLESON — An old machine that helped produce newspapers for decades may become the object of restoration in coming months.

The project focuses on a Linotype built in 1924 by the Mergenthaler Linotype Company in New York. A Linotype (pronounced “line-o-type”) is described as a keyboard-operated newspaper typesetting machine that uses circulating matrices (letters on the side of a metal tab) and produces each line of type in the form of a solid metal slug.

Robert Griffith explains how the matrices (letter keys) work to create words in a newspaper using a Linotype typesetting machine. Mary Norris, left, is a member of the board of the Burleson Heritage Foundation. Staff photo/Joy E. Cressler

In 1951, a local newspaper publisher purchased the Mergenthaler Linotype, which was then put into constant use until the final edition of The Burleson Dispatcher was printed in 1985.

R.G.K. and Hazel Deering operated The Burleson News, later called The Burleson Dispatcher, mostly from the old Interurban building (now the Burleson Heritage Foundation) on Ellison Street from the 1930s until the last day.

“Few families have had such an impact on Burleson as the Deerings,” Burleson Heritage Foundation member Robert Griffith said. “And few machines operated as long, let alone as hard as the Deerings’ Linotype.”

Griffith, 20, is a fifth-generation Burleson resident whose grandfather Wilmer Mercer owned the Mercer Grocery Store across the street from the Burleson Heritage Foundation from 1947 to 1969.

Hazel Deering oversees the final edition of The Burleson Dispatcher in September 1985. Deering and husband R.G.K. owned the newspaper for more than 50 years. Courtesy photo

“A brutal looking thing, a Linotype was the brawn of a newspaper,” Griffith said, “and a newspaper as good as The Burleson Dispatcher needed a real good one to make it work.”

During its run, Burleson grew from a population of about 700 to almost 15,000.

“Their paper, decade after decade, brought the news to many doorsteps all across town,” Griffith said.

Old news clippings relate how the Deerings and their employees never missed a deadline. That work, though, never would have been possible without that reliable Linotype, which stood 7 feet tall and almost as wide, Griffith said.

“This isn’t just the preservation of the old Linotype,” Griffith said. “It’s the preservation of the Deering family’s legacy.”

When Hazel Deering retired in 1985, the Linotype sat idle in the building, collecting dust. Then in 1999, the former Interurban building was gutted and restored.

“The Linotype was hoisted up, hauled out and unceremoniously dumped in the dirt at the old city service center, where it remained, forgotten, until 2005,” Griffith said.

In July, Griffith, who by then had become old enough to be a Burleson Heritage Foundation member, discovered the Linotype and learned its story.

“I began vigorously researching it, its maker and those who operated it,” he said. “The foundation has since become committed to preserving the Linotype, which, though rusted, has endured in remarkable condition.”

Plans are under way for the machine to be restored to near-original appearance, with the hope of placing it somewhere close to its last home at the Interurban Visitors Center on Ellison Street.
Griffith isn’t certain if the Linotype will be housed outside in a special building or with a less-formal covering, but in all likelihood, it will be placed on the east side of the center.

Tentative plans also include placing the restored Interurban railcar on the west side of the visitors center.

“The Burleson Heritage Foundation needs help from citizens and local businesses in preserving this unique and crucial piece of Burleson’s culture,” Griffith said.

For information about the Deerings and the Linotype, or to assist with the Linotype preservation, visit the Interurban Visitors Center, 124 W. Ellison St., or contact Griffith by phone at 817-295-8426 or e-mail at rag451@sbcglobal.net.