The ''Acton Free Press'' was a

weekly newspaper A weekly newspaper is a general-news or Current affairs (news format), current affairs publication that is issued once or twice a week in a wide variety broadsheet, magazine, and electronic publishing, digital formats. Similarly, a biweekly new ...

Acton, Ontario Acton (population 9,377 in 2021) is a community located in the town of Halton Hills, in Halton Region, Ontario, Canada. At the northern end of the Region, it is on the outer edge of the Greater Toronto Area and is one of two of the primary popul ...

, published from 1875 to 1984. The paper historically served the communities of Acton and Rockwood, and the surrounding townships of

Esquesing Esquesing Township was a municipality within the historic Halton County in Ontario, Canada. It is today a geographic township in the town of Halton Hills in the Regional Municipality of Halton. Territorial development The township of Esquesing was ...

, Nassagaweya, Eramosa and

Erin Erin is a Hiberno-English word for Ireland originating from the Irish word ''"Éirinn"''. "Éirinn" is the dative case of the Irish word for Ireland, "Éire", genitive "Éireann", the dative being used in prepositional phrases such as ''"go h� ...

History

After having published weekly newspapers in

Listowel Listowel ( ; , IPA: �lʲɪsˠˈt̪ˠuəhəlʲ is a heritage market town in County Kerry, Ireland. It is on the River Feale, from the county town, Tralee. The town of Listowel had a population of 4,820 according to the Central Statistics Of ...

and then in

Guelph Guelph ( ; 2021 Canadian Census population 143,740) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Known as "The Royal City", Guelph is roughly east of Kitchener and west of Downtown Toronto, at the intersection of Highway 6, Highway 7 and Wel ...

over the course of several years, Joseph H. Hacking set out to establish ''The Acton Free Press'' in July 1875. On the front page of the first edition, he declared: Hacking would later sell the ''Free Press'' to T. Albert Moore and S.W. Galbraith in 1878, in order to concentrate on his job printing business in Guelph. Galbraith would leave the following year to become a reporter at the ''Montreal Evening Post'', and Moore would then enter into partnership with his brother H.P. Moore. HP Moore 1892

The Moore partnership would dissolve in June 1879, with H.P. Moore becoming the sole proprietor. An editorial in the following week's issue would note: H.P. Moore would own the ''Free Press'' for many years, and became a well-respected member of the community. He was also an influential member of the

Methodist Church Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related Christian denomination, denominations of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John W ...

, and was instrumental in helping to achieve the later formation of the

United Church of Canada The United Church of Canada (french: link=no, Église unie du Canada) is a mainline Protestant denomination that is the largest Protestant Christian denomination in Canada and the second largest Canadian Christian denomination after the Catholi ...

. He would enter into partnership with G. Arlof Dills in 1922, and Dills would become sole proprietor in 1927.

Journalistic reputation

Its reputation as a high-quality newspaper was well known, both in respect to reporting and technical achievement. H.P. Moore himself was selected by his peers to become President of the Canadian Press Association in 1892. It acquired the first

Linotype machine The Linotype machine ( ) is a "line casting" machine used in printing; manufactured and sold by the former Mergenthaler Linotype Company and related It was a hot metal typesetting system that cast lines of metal type for individual uses. Lin ...

Halton County Halton County is a former county in the Canadian province of Ontario, with an area of . It is also one of the oldest counties in Canada. History Halton County is named after Major William Mathew Halton (1746-1823), a British Army officer, who w ...

in 1917, which was still working and used in 1966. That capability would prove useful in April 1918, when the '' Georgetown Herald'' building caught fire, gutting the offices and destroying its records and presses, with the press itself crashing through the top floor into the basement. The ''Free Press'' stepped in to take over the layout and printing, ensuring that the ''Herald'' did not miss an issue. In 1931, the Toronto ''

Globe A globe is a spherical model of Earth, of some other celestial body, or of the celestial sphere. Globes serve purposes similar to maps, but unlike maps, they do not distort the surface that they portray except to scale it down. A model globe ...

'' observed: This would continue in future years. In December 1966, the printing plant was converted to

offset printing Offset printing is a common printing technique in which the inked image is transferred (or "offset") from a plate to a rubber blanket and then to the printing surface. When used in combination with the lithographic process, which is based on t ...

with the installation of a Goss web offset press.

Later years

The ''Free Press'' would remain in the ownership of the Dills family until 1978, when it would be sold to Inland Publishing. Inland would be merged with Metrospan Community Newspapers in 1981 to form Metroland. The newspaper ran until the end of 1984, and has since merged with the ''Georgetown Independent'' to form the ''Independent & Free Press''.

Notes and references

Notes

References

External links

The Acton Free Press (1875-1984) - INK/ODW Newspaper archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Acton Free Press 1984 disestablishments in Ontario 1875 establishments in Ontario Defunct newspapers published in Ontario Defunct weekly newspapers Newspapers established in 1875 Publications disestablished in 1984 Weekly newspapers published in Ontario