Newspaper Union County Times (Lake Butler, Fla.) 1920-Current

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About Union County Times (Lake Butler, Fla.) 1920-Current

The Union County Times was first published in 1912 in Lake Butler, Florida, and is still published today in digital format. The Times is the longest-running newspaper in Union County, Florida.

In 1934, John W. Bridwell acquired the paper and listed himself as editor and publisher and B.L. (Red) Kerce as associate editor. The Sprintow Publishing Company was also listed. His sister, Enola Bridwell, edited the “Society” section. In addition to publishing the Union County Times, John Bridwell also was justice of the peace in Lake Butler, a city council member, and editor and publisher of the Columbia Gazette in Lake City, Florida. In February 1935 John Bridwell died suddenly, and his widow, Bernice Bridwell, took over as editor and publisher of the Times.

In 1936 F.R. Pound of Mayo, Florida, purchased the Union County Times from Iva Townsend Sprinkle of Ocala, Florida. Sprinkle was Marion County’s first female superintendent of schools and was appointed the state director of education for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) adult education program.

By 1946 Robert Alexis (Lex) Green had acquired the newspaper. Green was a lawyer and politician from Lake Butler who was a U.S. representative from 1925 to 1944. After serving in the Navy during World War II, he returned to his legal practice in Starke, Florida, where he was city attorney and published the Union County Times. In 1947 D.L. Whitehurst, a close friend of Green’s, acquired the Times and ran the paper alongside family members A.E. Whitehurst, the advertising manager, and J.L. Whitehurst, the managing editor. Later that same year Lex Green returned to the paper as publisher and editor-in-chief, with Al Parker as managing editor. Under Green, the Times published more political news, took firmer stances on political issues, and was strongly anti-communist. Green and Parker sold the paper to Mr. and Mrs. Gene D. Robinson of Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1952.

Morty Freedman acquired the newspaper in late 1953 and published it with editor C.S. Lecky until 1957, when Freedman left the newspaper and Lecky took over as editor and publisher. His wife, Marion Lecky, also contributed significantly to the Union County Times. By that point, the Times had been struggling for years with an aging linotype machine last rebuilt in 1917. In 1960 they began publishing the newspaper in a much smaller format using a Vari-Typer machine.

Due to the difficulty and expense caused by the press, C.S. Lecky, Hal Y. Maines, and Lex Green made a lease option agreement to purchase the Times with Tate Powell, Jr. of the Baker County Press as well as with Mr. and Mrs. Phil Bennet and Marjorie Hahn, who ran the press at Macclenny. The lessees had until December 1961 to agree to buy the paper. They began producing the Times at the press owned by the Bennets and Hahn in Macclenny, but that proved unsustainable, and in September 1961 it was announced that they would not exercise their right to purchase the paper. Instead, the lease option was transferred to Tate Powell, Jr’s son, Ray Powell, who was already working with the Bennets-Hahn Co. at the Baker County Press. Ray Powell, an Air Force veteran and a staunch supporter of racial segregation, purchased the paper in December after a successful trial period and the decision to invest in updated equipment. He relied on the help of a number of newspaperwomen, include Rosemary Wolfe, Al Freida Parrish, Mary Jane Brown, and Margaret Crawford as business and advertising managers; Shirley Smith as bookkeeper and office manager; and Enola Bridwell, who remained society editor without interruption from 1934 through at least 1963.

From 1934 until 1963 the weekly newspaper ranged from four to sixteen pages per issue, with the majority of issues being four or eight pages. The paper was devoted to local topics in Lake Butler and Union County. All minutes of the Board of Public Instruction, City Council, and Board of County Commissions were regularly published. The Times heavily covered the development of the extremely rural county in the 1950s and early 1960s, including the paving of Lake Butler roads in 1953, the difficulties of securing and maintaining a town doctor and building a county hospital, the extension of municipal water and sewage lines, and the Rural Electrification Administration’s efforts to expand power lines.

The Union County Times also documented the development and happenings of the Florida State Prison, the largest employer in the area, which today still houses Florida’s death row for male inmates. Formerly called the Union Correction Institution, the prison is located in Raiford, Florida, on the border of Union and Bradford counties. The Times covered such topics as the building and expansion of a prison hospital as well as ongoing problems with underfunding, aging facilities and subsequent overcrowding, prison riots, and frequent escapes.