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Bill Moses (right) who published The
Tustin News for almost 40 years, is
shown with his son, William A. Moses
III, and his father, William Chauncey
Moses
Amazingly, The
Tustin News which celebrates its 87th year of
publication this month (Nov. 2009), was preceded
by four other weekly publications, none of which
lasted longer than one issue.
Dates are foggy,
but there’s evidence, according to
author-historian Jim Sleeper, that a paper
called The Telegraph printed its premiere and
only issue before 1900. Another publication,
titled Tustin Sentinel, made a brief appearance
shortly after that. Then there was a lull until
the Enterprise appeared in 1911, followed by
William Perry’s Tustin News in 1914.
Eight years later
in November 1922, a tramp printer from Beaver
City, Utah, Timothy Brownhill, printed the first
edition of The Tustin News using equipment he
had shipped from Utah. Brownhill operated a job
print shop in downtown Tustin in conjunction
with publishing a weekly paper which stressed
local events. Warmly welcomed by Santa Ana’s
Daily Register, the new publisher praised
Tustin’s residents and businessmen for their
support, but, despite his supposedly glowing
success, he soon sold out to Rev. John
Winterbourne and his sons Frank and Dale.They
transferred their interest to F.H. Fowler in
1925 and he continued as publisher for 10 years.
Clyde and Gretchen
Simmons, the next owners, also kept the paper
for 10 years. But from 1945 until 1956, when
William A. Moses II and his wife, Lucille,
bought the publication, The Tustin News had five
different owners.
Moses, a Stanford
graduate, was an experienced newspaper man with
service as a war correspondent, a reporter on
the Bakersfield Californian and a religion
editor at the Los Angeles Times. He always
claimed that he bought The Tustin News as well
as a home in the Tustin area because he wanted
to be able to go home for lunch, but it soon
became apparent that both he and his wife wanted
to become an essential part of a small
community.
Moses devoted
almost 40 years of effort to projects bettering
Tustin, helping to form a Chamber of Commerce,
assisting Gerry Beck in establishing the Tustin
Area Woman’s Club, helping to gain an off ramp
from the 5 Freeway at Newport Avenue, and the
victorious vote for sewer bonds on the third
try.
He was the spark
behind the first Tiller Days celebration and was
1958 Tustin Area Man of the Year. Lucille raised
a son, William A. Moses III, better known as
Scooper, and a daughter, Penny, in addition to
writing poetry and a column for the Tustin News.
She was active in the Tustin Area Woman’s Club,
Jack and Jill Guild and Assistance League of
Tustin as well as other organizations.
Moses sold The
Tustin News to The Orange County Register in
1995. Both he and Lucille have passed on, but
their son is a Tustin businessman.
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