Horace “Huck” Sipes – (1905-2003) pressman for his father's printing business and newspaper, the Frenchtown Star. When William H. Sipes died in 1930, Horace carried on for his father's estate as editor, although he didn't seem to fully embrace the role.
He identified himself as “acting editor” in each week's paper, right above this quotation: “I do the very best I know how, the very best I can, and I mean to keep on doing so till the end; if the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won't amount to anything.” – Abraham Lincoln. It sounds like the defensive credo of an embattled man with many critics.
An appeal for subscribers made the aggrieved plea, “Don't borrow this 3c commodity from your neighbor.” And for several months this slogan appeared at the top of Page One: “News of the Town, County and State, Minus the Daily Paper Scandal.”
I'm guessing Sipes felt unappreciated and beleaguered. His burden was lifted by the sale of the paper in 1932 to Howard and Alex Moreau, who owned the Hunterdon County Democrat. They changed the name to the Delaware Valley News. Sipes kept the presses and continued running them in the back of the News office. His shop was called Master Press.
His equipment included an old hand-cranked press that hadn't been used in decades. Sensing that it was a valuable antique, he offered it to Henry Ford for his museum in Dearborn, Mich. Ford, dealing through his secretary, wanted the press, but would not meet Sipes' price, which was: a brand-new Ford. Sipes figured that Mr. Ford had lots of them and wouldn't miss one. Anyhow, Sipes eventually sold the press to a Dunellen book collector.
Sometime after 1947, he moved his print shop to 26 Kingwood Avenue, to a small one-story building that is now a residence. For many years its stucco exterior was painted pink. He retired in 1969. (His shop has since become a very cute residence and at this writing it's painted dark green.)
Sipes was an enthusiastic life-long fisherman. When his brother Jason wrote home from the trenches of World War I, he asked, “Are Horace and Thomas catching any fish?” When Horace was working in the print shop on Race Street, he would drop a line through a toilet hole in the floor and catch fish in the mill race just below. The privacy of this arrangement could have enabled him to get a head start on trout season.
During my seven years as editor of the Delaware Valley News, the elderly Horace Sipes stopped by the office about five times to be photographed with his latest catch. On one of those occasions, I asked, “Mr. Sipes, is it true that you used to catch fish through the print-shop floor?”
His gruff response was: “Well, if that's the worst thing I ever did, I guess I never did anything very bad.” I took that as corroboration.
Sipes also enjoyed catching snapping turtles and rendering them into delicious soup.
In June of 1983, Erwinna, Pa., merchant Dick de Groot asked for Sipes' help. There was a big snapping turtle in his pond that had been killing his ducks and geese. Using meat for bait, 78-year-old Sipes hooked the snapper. Peter Zirnite reported for the News:
After a long struggle, Sipes had the snapper near shore and was ready to land it, when the hook straightened out under the weight of the turtle.
Not wanting to lose his prize catch, Sipes said he stepped into the water and grabbed the snapper by its tail and tried to bring him to shore, but the turtle started to get the best of him. 'It darn near pulled me under,' Sipes said. 'He could pull near anything under.'
De Groot and a friend were standing close by. They grabbed Sipes by his arm and the back of his shirt and they were able to pull him and the battling turtle back to shore” with the 28-pound creature hissing like a serpent.
“He had a head on him the size of a grapefruit. He could crack a broom handle in half,” said Sipes. “It was a lot of fun, but I was played out. I'm getting too old for this kind of thing.”
Later on he brought that turtle (or one like it) to me at the News office to be photographed.
After Sipes passed away the average live span of our aquatic creatures ticked upward.
From "Rick's Frenchtown Encyclopedia" (a work in progress)
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