Published in the June 26 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Marty Cheek
Marty Cheek
When George Edes trekked into the tiny farm village of Morgan Hill in 1892, the printer arrived with a dream of starting a newspaper. On April 12, 1894, the first edition of the Morgan Hill Sun reached readers. Edes’s enterprise was a four-page, seven-column weekly journal of community news, local anecdotes and opinion pieces that served as the glue of information to unite residents.
Five years later, on June 7, 1899, a new 12-page weekly newspaper was launched in the town. The Morgan Hill Times focused on state, county and local news. Its higher quality and professional standards helped it to grow quickly to more than 1,000 subscribers. Unable to face the competition and declining ad sales, Edes saw The Sun’s twilight hour approach. On Feb. 1, 1901, he sold his newspaper to local entrepreneur George Lynch. It soon merged with the Morgan Hill Times.
Over the course of decades, the farm village of Morgan Hill grew and evolved into a city. Today, it is a community with a high quality of life, good schools and residents who actively involve themselves in making Morgan Hill even better. Our city has achieved a healthy balance. We play an important part of Silicon Valley’s high-tech world while still retaining our traditional agricultural heritage. Edes would not recognize our modern twenty-first century city of nearly 40,000 people, compared with less than 500 when he first moved here. But no doubt he would understand the importance of having a reliable and trustworthy source of local news, information and opinion in a small-town community.
Because we care about our community, Robert Airoldi, the former editor of the Morgan Hill Times, and I, are now building a new media enterprise called Morgan Hill Life to inform local residents about the latest news in Morgan Hill and the South Valley region. We are long-time, active residents of Morgan Hill who personally understand why our town is such a great place to live.
With the launch of Morgan Hill Life, we intend to provide our fellow residents with news and information that will help them enjoy the high quality of life our community is known for.
We’ll provide both a printed and website source of news that will help us build our families, our arts and culture, our local businesses and our local economy.
We want our media enterprise to serve our community by providing a fun and easy-to-use source of quality news and information for residents to enhance their personal and professional life experience. We care deeply about the quality of our schools and want Morgan Hill Life to help young people receive the best in their education years to become productive citizens and effective leaders. We care about our senior citizens and want Morgan Hill Life to help them enjoy their active retirement life. We care about our community and all the people who live and work here. We hope you will enjoy being a part of our newly-forming media family.
There’s an irony in how history replays itself. At the turn of the last century, in the days of George Edes, Morgan Hill had two newspapers … the Sun and the Times. Now, the sun is rising on innovative times for local journalism in the print and web pages of Morgan Hill Life. Welcome to the dawn of your new Life.
If you have any questions or thoughts, call (408) 782-7575 or visit www.MorganHillLife.com. We’d love to hear from you.
