This article is excerpted from two articles written by Dr. W. J. Coleman and Dr. D. Raymond Taggart as printed in the Sept. 13, 1944, Covenanter Witness.

One man enlisting in a good work sometimes stirs up another to follow his example.

In the days of the first pastorate of Dr. W. J. Coleman in McKeesport, Pa. (1879–1881), there was in his flock a successful newspaper man, Mr. John W. Pritchard. They were close friends.

When the pastor of John W. Pritchard answered the call of the Synod and became a lecturer for The National Reform Assoc­iation in 1881, Mr. Pritchard believed he ought to engage in the same work. At that time he was the owner and editor of The McKeesport Paragon, an afternoon local daily paper with no Sunday edition.

A year or two later he sold the Paragon and bought a half interest in The Christian Statesman and moved to Philadelphia. He was to be the managing editor of that paper, and the Rev. Dr. T. P. Stevenson had charge of the editorial work.

After a year’s experience, Mr. Pritchard sold back his share of the Statesman to its former editors, moved to Brooklyn, N.Y., and started a weekly paper, The Christian Nation. He was the sole owner and editor.

Mr. Pritchard tried to make it the official organ of the Covenanter Church. Up to this time the Covenanter Church had had two monthly periodicals, The Reformed Presbyterian and Covenanter, and Olive Trees, both privately owned. Mr. Pritchard had little capital and little help, and it· was a wonder that he succeeded. He had an office in the Tribune Building, New York, but the paper was set up in his own house in Brooklyn. Friends helped editorially and financially. He became adept in securing and writing advertisements.

When The Christian Nation was launched on its venturous voyage, there were many weekly religious journals: The smaller denominations had at least one each, and the larger denominations had several each, almost all carried on profitably by private enterprise—an indication of the larger religious reading class of those days, and the support they received from national advertising. But the advertising waned and the religious weeklies starved to death. Mr. Pritchard lived to see one after another of those journals cease publication, merge with other journals, or become monthlies, a process which is still going on. But he fought valiantly that the church might have a paper as long as he lived. It was not until the early 1920s that Mr. Pritchard was driven to appeal to the church for a direct subsidy to help support his important work.

After his death, his wife, Mrs. Harriet Pritchard, became editor, and aided by her daughter, Mrs. Anna Pritchard George (later Mrs. J. S. Martin) and her son, Mr. George Pritchard, as advertising manager, carried the paper on until it ceased publication under the name The Christian Nation in 1928, almost 44 years after its inception. The Synod of that year voted to take over the two privately owned periodicals, The Christian Nation and Olive Trees (the missionary magazine) and to publish in their stead one paper, the Covenanter Witness, with one issue each month to be devoted to the missionary work of the church. The Rev. John H. Pritchard was chosen editor, with Dr. W. J. Coleman, Dr. F. M. Wilson, and Dr. D. H. Elliott as assistant editors.

Dr. J. H. Pritchard and his wife carried the burden of the work together with the pastoral work of White Lake, N.Y., RPC for nearly five years until their deaths in 1932.

In this emergency, Dr. F. M. Wilson, ably assisted by Dr. Walter McCarroll, consented to take the responsibility of the editorship until the meeting of the Synod of 1933, and these two men went the second mile in carrying the paper until the end of July 1933, when the Rev. O. F. Thompson and the Rev. D. R. Taggart assumed their responsibilities as co-editors.

This happy relation continued for five years. Dr. Thompson asked the Synod of 1937 to accept his resignation, but this was not acceded to. On his insistence, the Synod of 1938 elected Dr. Taggart as sole editor for a period of three years, and again in 1941, and in 1944.

In August 1937, the Publication Board purchased a printing plant located in a downtown Topeka basement, and in September began doing the printing—two pages of the Witness at a time. The intangible soul of the Witness took to itself, as it were, a tangible body. In the summer of 1938 this plant was moved to an uptown basement location where larger equipment (already installed) was purchased, including a press that printed eight pages at a time, which was half the weekly Witness. This deal brought with it some outside printing work that helped to carry the expense. In October 1943 the plant was moved to Clay Street in Topeka. The Service Print Shop later was sold.

—W. J. Coleman and D. R. Taggart

National News from the Christian Nation, Vol. I, 1884

The pedestal for the great Bartholdi statue, Liberty Enlightening the World, ought certainly to be completed as soon as possible, and by the contributions of as many Americas as possible. The statue is completed and ready for transportation in a French National vessel as soon as the pedestal is ready to receive it. More than $125,000 is still needed, and work on the pedestal must stop if it is not forthcoming at once.

Edward Weston has just completed and put in active use the incandescent electric lamp upon which he has been working for two years. It was placed throughout the Equitable Building of this city, and made it on Monday night of last week “light as summer noon.” It is less than half the candle-power of the arc light, but because of its diffusive and steady nature is claimed to be a better light at smaller cost. Each lamp is tested to burn 1000 hours without attention.