Page 147 - Poat_to_Poot_Engels

office on Broadway on the west side of the Town Square. Neighboring
offices included the Dutch Brand Overall Company and Slobe's Grocery and
General Store. (The newspaper moved a few times over the years and is
now located on Main St. on the east side of the Town Square.)

J.W. operated the Dutch language Pella's Weekblad himself, but needed
someone to manage and edit the English language paper, Pella Blade. J.W.
persuaded his son, William F. Poot to run the second newspaper. William
worked as editor of the Pella Blade while completing additional religious
studies. J.W.'s son Abe (Abraham) worked as a compositor (typesetter) for
the papers. J.W. may have previously apprenticed his son Abe into the
publishing business, just as he had done with his oldest son William.
J.W.'s son-in-law Lambert Noordhoff moved from Chicago to help operate
the newspapers. Lambert's main expertise was bookbinding, and the
newspapers now frequently encouraged their readers to bring in papers
and books for binding or rebinding.

Operating a newspaper has never been easy, but J.W. Poot found he was in
for trouble from the very start. John Jansma had worked on the
newspapers for 12 years. Apparently Jansma wanted to own the
newspapers. When that did not happen, Jansma quit just as Rev. Poot
took over the business. He then partnered with his politically connected
brother and they started Jansma Brothers Publishing Company. They
launched a competing Dutch language newspaper named Pella's
Nieu(w)sblad. The Jansma brothers had many years of local friendships
they could call upon to build circulation and attract advertisers.
Unfortunately, much of the Nieusblad's business was taken from the Pella's
Weekblad.

The Poot's made only minor changes to the newspapers. The Church
schedules and important commodity market prices were now placed on
page 1 in the left column. The occurrence of religious holidays was
observed with lengthy commentary. Two international events dominated
the news during the Poot's tenure at the newspapers.

During 1898, the short Spanish-American War established the United
States as a significant world power. The people of Cuba had begun a
revolt for independence, and the U.S.S. Maine was in Havana Harbor to
watch over American business interests. When the Maine was sunk in
February, the U.S. demanded that Spain leave Cuba. Spain responded in
April by declaring war on the U.S., and America responded with its own
declaration of war. Within a few weeks, American ships from China
conquered the Philippines. Havana Harbor was quickly secured by
American ships. Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders easily captured mainland
Cuba. Europe was shocked by the ease of the American victories. The
hostilities ended in August, and in December a formal treaty with Spain
gave the U.S. possession of Guam and Puerto Rico. Cuba and the

(11-2006) - Published in Pella - page 6 -