We've grown along with the Davis community

A few families settle along the banks of a stream to farm the fertile soil, and a community is born. Those families attract more, and a town begins to thrive.

But as the community grows, word of mouth becomes a less efficient way to spread the news, and a newspaper is established. The weekly publication keeps residents up to date on news of their neighbors, and helps connect them to the world outside.

And over the years, the newspaper grows with the community. The weekly becomes daily. A few pages turn into many more, as stores look for a way to advertise their wares.

That's the story behind The Davis Enterprise, which was founded in 1897 to cover community news and is fulfilling the same role nearly 100 years later.

The paper was founded as The Davisville Enterprise by L.A. Eichler. In less than six months, Eichler was able to expand it from a four-page weekly to eight pages.

Eichler owned his newspaper only three years; then William H. Scott, a Yolo County native and local justice of the peace, took over the ownership in 1900 and continued as editor and publisher until 1935.

Soon after Davisville - about to be renamed "Davis" - was chosen as the site of the University Farm, Scott dropped the "ville" from the nameplate.

Like many newspapers of that era, Scott's Enterprise lacked the objectivity required of today's papers. In 1906, a Page 1 headline proclaimed "School Tax Election This Afternoon: Everybody Interested in the Welfare of the Town and School Should Come Out and Vote 'Tax' YES."

The Personal and Local Happenings column on the front page chronicled residents' comings and goings, and told who was at whose tea party.

If you hadn't been invited, you could read it and weep.

Scanning those columns is like taking a walk through city history and encountering our famous city fathers and mothers.

Some examples from 1906:

"Mrs. C.A. Covell was an arrival Tuesday evening after an absence of three weeks spent in Oakland and San Francisco. Her daughter, Miss Mabel Philliber, did not return but will continue her vacation."

"A.J. Tufts was in Woodland Monday."

"The editor and daughter, Miss Cleo and Mr. Wm King, made a flying trip to San Francisco yesterday."

A one-year subscription to The Enterprise in 1906 cost $2, and Scott boasted of "display advertisements at reasonable rates."

Chelso Maghetti, who came to Davis in 1919 and served as postmaster from 1927 through 1936, bought The Davis Enterprise from Scott in 1935 and continued to publish it until 1960.

As the newspaper's circulation was continuing to grow, The Enterprise won an award in 1938 from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for the best front page of any Northern California weekly.

Maghetti also made a major contribution to community historians by preserving the only complete file of The Davis Enterprise in the UC Davis library.

In the 1960s, The Enterprise became an afternoon newspaper published five days a week, and grew to a circulation of about 1,300 under several different owners.

After the McNaughton family purchased the newspaper from the Tibbitts family in March 1967, they constructed a new home for the newspaper at 302 G St. The newspaper continued to grow under Publisher Phil G. Hays III.

The McNaughtons' newspaper heritage was established in 1917 when F.F. McNaughton, who'd been a teacher and high school principal before returning to college at Columbia University for a master's degree in journalism, bought a small weekly paper in Bicknell, Ind., and served as its editor and publisher. Ten years later, the family acquired its flagship paper, the Pekin (Ill.) Daily Times, and for the next 60 years, McNaughton and his wife Ceil McNaughton wrote a daily column for the front page of the paper they edited and published.

The family acquired other newspapers along the way, but Pekin was the home base for their enterprises. McNaughton never left the grass roots of the small-town newspaper industry, although he was awarded a doctorate from Tri-State College where he had done his undergraduate work, and earned a medallion as an outstanding graduate at his Columbia University 50th class reunion.

When F.F. McNaughton died in 1981 at the age of 91, three of his children already had become involved in newspapering. One of them, Dean McNaughton, took over as publisher of the Pekin Daily Times and was instrumental in the family's decision to buy the Fairfield Daily Republic in 1960, the Placerville Mountain Democrat in 1966 and The Davis Enterprise in 1967.

More recently, the family purchased The Winters Express in 1994 and Village Life (El Dorado Hills) in 1996, and launched Cameron Park Life in 1998 and Folsom Life in 2003.

Foy McNaughton, one of Dean McNaughton's sons, came to Davis in the early 1970s to serve an apprenticeship in many facets of The Enterprise's production: composing, press, circulation, bookkeeping and advertising were among them. He was publisher of The Enterprise for several years, then moved up to oversee all four McNaughton papers as chief executive officer. He and his family make their home in Davis.

Foy's brother Burt McNaughton joined the family business in 1981 as an advertising sales representative. He is now publisher of The Enterprise, and lives in El Macero with his family.

Foy's son T. Burt McNaughton began his newspaper career in advertising, then spent three years at the helm of The Enterprise's circulation department. He's now learning the ropes in the business and circulation departments at The Daily Republic.

In recent years, The Enterprise has been the recipient of so many awards that wall space for the plaques is running short. The newspaper has won first-and second-place CNPA awards for general excellence in its circulation category, and winning a number of first and second prizes has become commonplace.

The Enterprise underwent a major expansion with its move in 1983 to a newly renovated, 8,000-square-foot building at 315 G St., site of the former post office. The original plant at 302 G St. has been refurbished to serve as the pressroom, mail room and loading dock area.

The Enterprise's 11-unit press is the largest in Yolo County, and runs night and day, as the press crew prints at least three other newspapers in addition to The Enterprise, doing other printing work as well.

The Enterprise added a sixth day of publication - a Sunday morning edition - in 1987.

The Enterprise took a giant leap forward into the electronic age with the 1991 purchase of an editorial pagination system, which allows editors to design and produce newspaper pages on a computer screen. That, coupled with the purchase of a special color unit for the press, is contributing to a snappier, cleaner, more modern product.

The paper was redesigned in 1999 and again in 2005.

But more important than any physical improvements, says Foy McNaughton, is the pledge that "we will continue to own and operate The Davis Enterprise in an atmosphere where most family-owned newspapers have been sold to large chains.

"As Davis grows, our philosophy of a community newspaper will not change. We are committed to providing community news first, above all else, and we will stay committed to that goal," he says.