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1949-50 Van W. Stewart Ochiltree County Herald

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Van W. Stewart, 72nd president, purchased the Ochiltree County Herald in Perryton just two years after the Panhandle town was started around 1919.

Stewart was born in Hale, Mo., Aug. 18, 1891, and died from a heart attack on May 10, 1953.

He grew up in the newspaper plant of his father, William L., but learned the carpenter trade, which took him to Perryton when he was 30 to where his father had published the weekly Ochiltree Eagle.

About a year after he purchased the Herald, Stewart married Jessie Keith. She was serving as the first woman public official in Beaver County in her second term as court clerk. The couple built a cooperative organization for the Herald.

Stewart also served as president of Panhandle Press Association (1932-33). He also owned a portion of a Utah newspaper and a third interest in Perryton radio station KEYE, which he and associates started in 1948.