Volume 10 , Issue 4

Pioneer J. Everett Smith - Woodward, OK

J. Everett Smith was born in 1869, in Tippecanoe County, Indiana. After securing his primary education in the public schools, he entered Purdue University and later took a course at the Iowa State Normal School.

After his graduation from the latter institution he entered upon his career as an educator, during which he taught in several states and gained a substantial reputation as an able and thorough instructor.

For four years J. Everett Smith was a member of the staff of the Northwestern State Normal School, of Alva, Oklahoma, where he established an excellent record, and in 1903, entered upon his editorial labors when he purchased the Woodward Bulletin, the pioneer paper of Woodward county, and its printing plant.

Under J Everett Smith's capable management this soon became recognized as a power in molding public opinion, and in 1909 the paper was consolidated with the Woodward News, adopting the name of Woodward News-Bulletin, with Mr. Smith as editor and the firm of Smith & Thomas, publisher.

While it was republican in policy and the official county organ of that party, it was the aim of the editor to place questions before its readers in a strictly impartial manner. Its columns had always been open to the aiding of movements for the welfare of the county and its influence had contributed in no small way to the development of Western Oklahoma. Mr. Smith's efforts had been recognized substantially in the gaining of a large and representative circulation, and he was being generously supported by the business men of Woodward County, who found the News-Bulletin an excellent advertising medium.

J. Everett Smith was a member of the Masonic fraternity, and one of the most enthusiastic and active members of the Commercial Club.

The official organ of the republican party in Woodward County, Oklahoma Territory was The Woodward News Bulletin, one of the alert enterprising, thoroughly and some thought to be one of the reliable newspapers of Northwest Oklahoma Territory. Its steady rise to a position of influence in this section had been brought about by the efforts of its capable and energetic editor, J. Everett Smith, who, was well known in journalistic circles, was formerly and widely, favorably known as an educator. -- A Standard History of Oklahoma, Joseph B. Thoburn, pg. 1611, Vol. 4
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