The Weatherly Herald began publication in 1880 as the Carbon Herald, changing its name to the Weatherly Herald on March 16, 1881. On September 4, 1981, its banner merged with the White Haven Journal, a newspaper published since 1879, to become The Journal-Herald.

The Journal-Herald continued to be published in White Haven as a weekly by Ruth and Seth Eisenberg. The Journal-Herald purchased the name and the archives from Cletus Milan but had no interest in the building or equipment.

Milan, wanting to focus on his commercial printing business, opened a printing shop, Milan Printing, behind his home on North Street in East Jim Thorpe. He ran the business for many years until he took an early semi-retirement and sold the print business to his daughter, Judy, and her husband, Dave Miller. Milan continues to help out in the print shop whenever things get busy.

The Weatherly Herald
Weatherly, originally known as Black Creek, was settled by Benjamin Romig in 1825. He built a sawmill to harvest the large stands of hemlock whose tannin deposits gave the creek it black color.

In the 1830s, the Beaver Meadow Railroad came to the area and in the early 1840s, located their shops there.

In 1848, after David Weatherly, a clock maker and Beaver Meadows’ director offered to donate a town clock in exchange for changing the name of the town, Black Creek became Weatherly. In a similar vein, as what would happen to the town of Mauch Chunk a century later, the town changed it name and never received what was promised.

In 1864, Asa Packer’s Lehigh Valley Railroad took over the Beaver Meadow Railroad and in 1867 began a major construction boom in Weatherly. The first newspaper, the “Lilliput,” named after an early steam engine, was briefly published beginning in 1869.

By 1880, with Weatherly established as a railroad boomtown with a population of 2,000, H.V. Mortimer and J.P. Rowland sensed a need for a permanent newspaper and began publishing the Carbon Herald.

It became the Weatherly Herald in 1881 and, in 1886, it was sold to Percy E. Faust. Percy sold the paper to his son, Robert in 1925. Following Robert’s death in 1962, his son James, partnering with Cletus Milan of Jim Thorpe, purchased the Weatherly Herald. In 1976, Milan bought out James Faust.

The Weatherly Herald had been a four-page weekly newspaper. Milan and Faust purchased a used press from the Ephrata Review and began publishing an eight-page paper.

In 1980, a 100th anniversary two-color special edition was published. The following year, Milan sold the paper to the White Haven Journal and opened a commercial printing shop near his home in East Jim Thorpe.

Making of A Publisher
Up to the time he completed service in the Coast Guard in 1954, Clete Milan had never given a thought to entering the newspaper business. He was looking for work and a friend thought the Lehighton Evening Leader, a now defunct daily, was looking for a Linotype operator.

Milan wrote a letter to the publisher, Marion Mortimer, and was invited for an interview with the editor, Wilson Barto. “We don’t need a Linotype operator but we need someone to cover sports and general news,” said Barto.

Milan replied, “I never did that.”

“There’s always a first time,” countered Barto giving Milan his first newspaper job. Milan reported sports and news, and on the side, he learned to operate Linotype. He left the Evening Leader a year later and worked for the Jim Thorpe Times News for seven years.

After the Jim Thorpe Times News became the Times News and relocated to Lehighton, the Evening Leader folded and Milan and James Faust purchased the Weatherly Herald. After he bought out James’ share of the business, Milan operated it with help from his wife, Irene who handled the advertising, and their three daughters and son.

Milan’s love of the printing business was stronger than his desire to continue as a newspaper publisher. He sold the archives and the “Herald” banner. If you need to research old records and stories from Weatherly, the archives are at the Journal Herald in White Haven.