Manteca Bulletin - Early History

Early History

To promote a large-scale water project that was the forerunner to today’s South San Joaquin Irrigation District, two men - F.L. Wurster and A.L. Cowell - joined forces to print the Irrigation Bulletin in November 1908. Originally printed in Stockton, California, the Bulletin was essentially a series of flyers distributed statewide promoting the irrigation of 70,000 acres (280 km2) of sandy loam soil around Manteca.

With the help of the South San Joaquin Chamber of Commerce, the Bulletin expanded into a standard-size weekly newspaper on June 3, 1910, when it was moved from Stockton to Ripon. The paper continued to promote the South San Joaquin Irrigation District, which was founded in 1909, and carried news of the district's bond sales to investors throughout California.

Water began flowing in 1915 and the South County's population boomed. Several newspapers arose to serve this community, among them the Escalon Times, Lathrop Sun and Ripon Record. The Bulletin changed its name to the Manteca Bulletin on November 6, 1914, and merged on March 22, 1918, with the Manteca Enterprise, which had been founded November 1, 1911.

In 1923, George Murphy Sr. partnered with Louis Meyer to purchase the Manteca Bulletin. This began 50 years of ownership by the Murphy family; on April 1, 1972, when George Murphy Jr. sold the Bulletin to Charles Morris and his family-owned Morris Multimedia.

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