What’s up with the red chairs?
The Republic was known for its white desks, bright red chairs and simple black and white nameplates with journalist’s names and titles, which were part of the design package when the building opened in 1971 on Second Street.
The red chairs made the move along with the white desks to the North National Road location and the newsroom and other departments throughout the building have retained the black nameplates.
Remembering Harry
Then-Vice President Mike Pence, a native of Columbus, issued the following statement from the White House on the death of retired Republic associate editor Harry McCawley on Sept.28, 2017:
“I was deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Harry McCawley, a true icon in the Columbus community. Harry McCawley was Columbus. His written words, voice, and work as a journalist, historian, and passionate advocate for veterans set a standard of excellence in our community, and he will be sorely missed. Karen and I join the entire Columbus community in keeping Harry’s family and friends in our prayers.”
A ‘once upon a time’ policy
Once upon a time at The Republic, there was a policy known as “Married Women Don’t Have First Names.”
When married women appeared in the news columns, they were not referred to as Jane Doe, but rather Mrs. John Doe. This went on for decades.
The only time a woman was allowed to reclaim the first name she was given at birth was when she divorced the husband or he dropped dead, according to the legend.
Fortunately, the Equal Rights Amendment movement provided an opportunity to give married women their names back. During that era, most women took particular umbrage at anyone who would identify them by their husband’s first name.
OK, we weren’t perfect
The Republic has had its fair share of “oops” moments throughout 150 years – every newspaper does – and that’s why corrections were invented.
One of our biggest occurred on April 18, 1912, when the Columbus Republican’s front page proclaimed, ““Titnaic is at bottom of Atlantic carrying, perhaps, 1,500 souls.”
That’s right … Titnaic” as in the misspelled version of “Titanic.” The Evening Republican and The Columbus Republican were essentially the same newspapers. The latter was a weekly version of The Evening Republican. Editors saved local stories that appeared each week in The Evening Republican (sometimes rewriting headlines) and compiled them into a weekly newspaper which was distributed mostly to former residents who had moved from Columbus or those who lived here but didn’t want to pay for a full week’s circulation.
While the weekly had the typo, the Evening Republican, which published the story on April 16, 1912, had the headline completely correct.
