Floyd Stephan and paper boy Fred Hunter at Peoples News in the early 1950s. (Photo provided by Stephan family)
Peoples News on Putnam Street in the 1960s was always busy. Everyone read newspapers and magazines then. One local reporter described Peoples News as “one of the nerve centers of Marietta.” I stopped there daily to get the Cleveland Plain Dealer and devoured news about Cleveland sports. The store is quieter now; fewer people buy newspapers. Peoples News is now 95 years old – not bad for a business that started in 1929 as the Great Depression loomed.
Floyd Stephan began carrying papers at age 9. His sisters Janet and Charlotte had paper routes; the only girls delivering papers then. They hustled papers on streets and at train stations. That family tradition turned into a business. Marietta Times in January 1929: “Carl Wilson and Earl H. Smith have sold their newsstand on Putnam Street to Laura Stephan (Floyd’s mother).” The store was in her name because co-owners Floyd and Janet Stephan were minors.
Floyd was an entrepreneur in perpetual motion. At age 16 in 1931, he went to Pittsburgh for the summer to sell magazine subscriptions to Pennsylvania Dutch farmers who didn’t speak English. According to a family history, “He often took chickens and eggs for payment. At summer’s end, he had $140!”– over $1,000 today. After high school graduation, he drove a taxi while still delivering papers.
All that was in addition to Peoples News. It began in a tiny 5×10 foot storage area next to the Hippodrome Theater. In 1932 it moved to its current location at Third and Putnam Streets, though from 1966 to 2018 it occupied the space next door.
The business is a family operation. Today, run by Dan Stephan Jr., it’s in the fourth generation of Stephans. Floyd’s mom Laura minded the store at first. Aunt Mae helped out, too. “She was all business,” Floyd said. Sister and co-founder Janet looked after Peoples News “very efficiently” in the 1930’s.
Sister Charlotte Stephan Ritter managed the store for 50 years starting in 1947. In a newspaper article, Floyd praised Charlotte’s role: “I don’t think I could find anyone better” to run the store. She returned the compliment, “I like to work for my brother; he treats me nice.” Other employees became like family. Evelyn Schneider – my wife’s aunt – was a dependable long-term employee.
Floyd worked hard to expand the business. In 1936, he won exclusive rights to sell the Parkersburg News in Marietta. That gave them a Sunday paper and occasional extra editions to sell. Floyd’s son Dan recalls the end of World War II in Europe on May 8, 1945. He was 10 years old. There was an extra edition that day; “My sister and I sold papers for a nickel until we ran out.” In 1948, Floyd bought Valley News in Parkersburg. Later he and then Dan added stores in places like Belpre, Vienna, Clarksburg, and St. Marys… “People were hungry for news,” Charlotte explained.
Dan Stephan Sr. took over the business in 1987 when Floyd passed away. By the early 2000’s, Cable TV and the internet became a major source of news. Local news stands became less important. Today, Peoples News has a smaller footprint.
The Stephan family has always served customers and the community. Dan Sr. spent nearly twenty years helping restore Peoples Bank Theatre. A few weeks before the theater opened, he discovered his father Floyd Stephan’s name written on a dressing room wall. Floyd had performed in a 1933 student-run minstrel show. Seeing his father’s name brought the theater to life in a new way for Dan. He recalled, …“people (today) are enjoying the music, arts, and interaction that I (and his father) did there growing up.” Job well done, Stephan family.
Thanks to Sharon Stephan Reagan for sharing information about this article.