By Times Chronicle Staff
When two brothers arrived in Oliver 85 years ago with a bunch of printing equipment, a community newspaper was born.
It began with The Oliver Echo, created by Bert and Tom Berryman.
Early issues of four to six pages carried the slogan “In the heart of the Cantaloupe Valley.”
In 1939 the name was changed to the Oliver Chronicle and Osoyoos Observer. Bert, the editor, died in 1955, and his nephew Dave Berryman took over the business and changed the name to simply Oliver Chronicle.
Dave and his wife Mary produced the paper until 1959 when Don Somerville purchased it.
The paper was almost a one-man show for advertising and reporting while Richard Schaffrick, known as a walking historian, handled the typesetting and the presses. If anyone had a question, Richard would have the answer.
Don’s son, Robert, helped in the shop after school.
The first full-time reporter was Al Sieben in 1965. Later, he briefly published the Oliver Observer.
Martha Lundy began writing her popular social column in the mid-1960s.
Advertising manager Ford Clark arrived in 1970, bookkeeper Carol Howes in 1975, news editor Frank Stariha in 1976, and writer Sue Morhun in 1978.
Romance bloomed for shop employee Teresa Somerville (Evans) who took a fancy to young Rob Somerville. They soon married. Rob, as many know, ran Oliver Printing out of the newspaper office.
Production methods changed greatly over the years. Until 1975, “hot metal” was utilized with the typeset by linotypes and placed directly on the press. It was known as hard, brutal, dirty and expensive work, and every issue was a fight with tired and dirty equipment (and people).
Phototypesetting equipment entered the scene and a new era dawned, with a big sigh of relief. Type became words spewed out on paper by a machine, photographed and “burned” onto a thin, flexible plate for the press.
Fast forward many years and now we have digital pagination – no more dirty presses and glue rollers.
Another milestone was the merger of the Oliver Chronicle and the Osoyoos Times in 2020, bringing both communities closer together.
Original front page of The Oliver Echo published on August 25, 1937.
