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History of the Phillips County
Review History of the Phillips County Review The Phillips County Review has been owned by Ron and Lee Lower since 1988. Before that, the paper was owned by the Boyd family for 81 years. The history of the Phillips County Review began in 1907 when Frank W. and Mamie Alexander Boyd purchased the Phillips Country Post and renamed it the Review. Frank had worked as editor of the Post since 1902, after his graduation from Kanas State Agricultural College (now Kansas State University) in Manhattan. After he and Mamie, also a graduate of KSAC, were married in 1905 and had purchased their own paper in 1907, they worked together and became distinguished partners in Kansas newspaper history. There were four newspapers in Phillipsburg when the Review was first established, and several in other towns in the county. The Phillips County Review was the newest of the group and is the only one of the original papers that remains in publication.
The Boyds' first son, McDill (Huck), was born April 17, 1907. He joined the Review as junior editor in 1928 when lack of finances brought on by bank failures and the Depression caused him to withdraw from college and go home to help his parents. Frank (Bus) Boyd's Frank W. and Mamie's other son, Frank (Bus), was born in 1912. While attending KSAC, he was an outstanding athlete and became captain of the Kansas State basketball team and was a three-year regular in baseball. Following graduation, he took a coaching job at Logan High School. After two years there, he went to Mankato as coach and principal of the high school; three years later, in 1939, he joined the family newspaper partnership and became editor of the Jewell County Record in Mankato. His wife, Mary, continued as editor after his death in 1972. Huck and Marie Boyd Huck Boyd was married to Marie Kreikenbaum in 1930, and in the early years of their marriage, Marie joined her husband in the publication of the Review. After Huck's death in January 1987, Marie and daughters Marcia Krauss and Patricia Boyd, became owners and publishers, and Marcia continued the operation of the Review as general manager until the paper was sold in 1988. Back to the top Many state and national newspaper awards of excellence were won by the Review staff over the years. Huck received the William Allen White Award from the University of Kansas for excellence in writing and the first Victor Murdock award for distinction in journalism and community service. He was also a recipient of the Eugene Cervi Award from the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors for public service through community journalism. The Boyd family is the only newspaper family to have had three of its members inducted into the Kansas Newspaper Hall of Fame: Frank W. Boyd, Mamie Boyd, Bus Boyd and Huck Boyd. Members are chosen three or more years after their deaths. Mamie was especially proud of being the first recipient of the Emma McKinney Award given to the outstanding woman journalist by the National Newspaper Association. Huck Boyd used his writing talents to promote special projects for a better community. He considered his part in helping to establish the Mid-States Port Authority, which purchased 466 miles of bankrupt Rock Island rail lines in 1984 his greatest achievement. Desperately needed shipping service from eastern Colorado, through northern Kansas, to central Nebraska, was then successfully restored by Kyle Railroad, headquartered in Phillipsburg. Huck also was instrumental in obtaining legislative approval for funding the first family practice residencies in Kansas, legislation copied in the rest of the United States. He helped meet the needs of the elderly by seeking first-time approval by the Kansas Legislature for county tax levies to help establish homes for the aged. Back to the top Dick Boyd, son of Bus Boyd and nephew of Huck, is the publisher of the Norton (Kan.) Daily Telegram. Bob Boyd, another son of Bus and nephew of Huck, is co-publisher with Jim Logback, Bus's son-in-law, of the Hill City Times. Both newspapers are located in northwest Kansas. The Huck Boyd National Center for Community Media at Kansas State University has been one way to honor the memory of a man who believed in his family, in newspapering, in his community and in his nation. Back to the top Page last updated on December 8, 2004 |
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