Louise Mclean, wartime editor of The Union Democrat

Early in December 1941, just before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hugh Mclean became the editor and manager of The Union Democrat, following the dissolution of the MinnersSegerstrom partnership.

Editor Raymond Minners had enlisted in the U. S. Naval Reserve and was leaving Sonora for active duty. Business Manager Donald Inch Segerstrom, a student at the College of the Pacific, continued to own the paper. Hugh and his wife, Louise, had previously worked at newspapers in San Diego.

When Hugh Mclean was drafted into the United States Army in February 1943, Louise took over as editor and manager of The Union Democrat.

One of the very popular policies she initiated was to send a copy of the paper to Tuolumne County people serving in the armed forces of the United States. Wherever they were, they were to receive The Union Democrat, without charge. She and her staff addressed, wrapped and mailed 600 papers each week to those in service.

Not surprising, many of those receiving the paper wrote back to thank her.

Those in service were encouraged to send her their new addresses when assigned to a different location. It was sometimes hard to keep up with those who were often sent to secret places.

Lt. Charles H. Partridge wrote in February 1945, sending another new address. He was a co-pilot on a B-24. Having a sense of humor, he wrote: “The B-24 is a big plane and made for big pilots which let me out. Frankly I had a hell of a time. I couldn't reach the controls and on some models I couldn't even see over the instrument panel, had to fly instruments most of the time.” Partridge was 5 feet, 6 inches and weighed 125 pounds.

In addition to sending the paper, the Democrat encouraged members of the service to let them know of their whereabouts and what they were doing and printed their responses in the paper.

Richard Uliana wrote that the only thing he was allowed to say was that he was on an island somewhere in the Southwest Pacific. He also wrote: “Being this is Christmas day though, I'd like to take this opportunity in wishing you and the people of Tuolumne County a Merry Christmas and I'm hoping it is a white one at home. I also wish to thank you, and express my appreciation for the wonderful job you're doing in keeping the fellows in touch with each other, by sending us the paper.”

When Hugh returned from the Army in September 1945, Louise gladly turned management of the paper back to him. In 1983, Louise was formally recognized for her contributions to the community and given the Tuolumne County Chamber of Commerce's Community Award.

Courtesy photo / Kimmie Mclean Hope Louise Mclean at the linotype machine.this was a “line casting” machine. It was a hot metal typesetting system that cast lines of metal type. Linotype became one of the mainstay methods to set type from the late 19th century to the 1970s and 1980s.the name of the machine comes from the fact that it produces an entire line of metal type at once.the operator enters text on a 90-character keyboard.the machine assembles matrices, which are molds for the letter forms, in a line.the assembled line is then cast as a single piece, called a slug, from molten type metal in a process known as hot metal typesetting.the matrices are then returned to the type magazine from which they came, to be reused continuously. (Source: Wikipedia)