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101 Issue Acton Ontario Wednesday July 1975 Anniversary IIJPMJP free Press J Present First location for the new paper was in Matthew s Hall now the vacant rooms above Hotchen Bakery The Acton Post Office building is one of early locations for the Free Press The local newspaper was issued from tins location from to 1879 Flipping through the pages of the past 100 years One hundred thousand of pages millions of dozens of people a span of lifetimes of work and human en is thit vlnt of publishing is Reflections of inking times glimpses of new life styles ilteicd community dunging challenges giowth ind progress is that what a of publishing encompasses Today in to the past take time to look back it history as The Acton I ret Press marks its Just twO years after Acton was incorporated as a ullage tin Press was established Joseph Hacking whose vision anticipat jng the vital need for communiti I tionwas matched his resources as he published the first edition on July I 1875 His list of subsuibcis included those who must have agreed a needs its press and were prepared from the outset to provide the encourage Those 5200 issues and seven publishers hae also experienced similar support through thin times and thick through depression and boom through war and peace Just as Acton itself has its newspaper has changed Its technology began in the days of printers laboriously setting each by hand scrubbing the type clean with lye and redistributing the letters in their small separate boxes for use again It has gone through the introduction of the I pace setting linotype that cut the laborious time and it has continued from four page editions printed on hissing steam driven presses It lias been led to the computer age with photo typesetting equipment that today mystifies and confounds thc printer of less than a generation ago Multi unit presses with streams of newsprint imprint the issues with a speed uncommon but ago Just as Acton has grown The Press has grown from the staff of four once quite adequate for its commercial printing work and newspaper publishing to today s full time staff of augmented by part time people It has grown through association with two other newspapers one in Milton and one in Georgetown and it has grown providing essential printing facili ties for others But the change and growth of The Free Press have been simply a tangible expression of the effort of many people over the years who provided the climate for it all to happen Certainly there have been the publishers the editors reporters accountants printers typesetters correspondents and contributors More important there have been the readers and the advertisers who have supported criticized en dorsed protested and continued to use the columns as a vital com mumcation line Flipping back through the pages will reflect controversy and criti as it will confmendation and encouragement If there has been a theme it would be the desire to see Acton a better place in which to live First and foremost the paper through the eyes of its publishers and editors was con immersed in improvements or accomplishments for Acton be cause The Free Press was a com voice The first issue a reprinted copy of which is enclosed with this sec tion as a memento of this sary is still intact to provide the historic roots the accurate record of community as seen through the eyes and heard through the ears of professional diansis with a depth available from no other source They were there and their writing was exposed through their press to make it today an accurate reflection of the times This issue then is a salute to the efforts of those who in the past years have been the custodians H Moore was first associated Albert Moore in ownership of the Free Press and later G A Dills He was with the paper from 1878 to G A Dills apprenticed with the Free Press in 1909 entered partnership with Moore in 1922 and purchased the paper in David and James Dills were associated with their father in the Free Press incorporated as Dills Printing Publishing Co Ltd David had been with the business since his discharge from the Navy in and Jim joined the firm in 1951 after journalism training at Ryerson Institute the stewards of The Acton Free Press To those who persevered through changing ways changing technology and changing economic times to sustain a community voice for Acton and area and to those who saw its importance and supported it while not always agreeing with its views or its approaches It will be impossible to tell the story of Thc Acton Free Press years without dealing with those who have been deeply involved in its week by week publishing opera That should not however overshadow the encouragement and support which made it all omically possible The founder Joseph Hacking operated the paper from to and S published from to 1878 Dr Albert Moore publisher from 1878 to 1879 and Moore assumed ownership from to 1927 A Dills vas publisher from until his death in 19G6 when David Dills succeeded him The Moore and Dills families have accounted for all but the first three years of the century of publishing That under lines the impossibility of the imprint of those families from the history of The Acton Free Press But let us look on let us leaf through the past let us turn back the pages of history to catch a glimpse of evolution that has led to today celebration and in that look back will come into focus the changing town as well as the changing Free Press