The Superior Express -

The last issue of the Nuckolls County Locomotive-Gazette newspaper included a feature about Susan Rogers, the current Nuckolls County assessor. It was one of a series to better acquaint the newspaper’s readers with their current county officials.

The paper, which was available on the internet Wednesday afternoon, apparently was read by hucksters seeking to lift some easy money out of Nuckolls County.

Before noon on Thursday Mrs. Rogers had received two telephone calls offering to sell her digital copies of her article. Had she agreed, the purchase would have cost her several times what she pays annually for a printed subscription.

By the time the calls were received at her office in the Nuckolls County courthouse, she already had received and read a printed version but many subscribers likely would not have gotten their copy.

Why, she asked, would she want to spend a large sum of money to purchase a digital copy that could be easily damaged and become unreadable, when she already had a printed copy which can last for generations.

This week while straightening up my home office, I filed a newspaper printed nearly 100 years ago and one printed in Superior in April of 1967. Both papers were intact and sparked memories. The 1967 paper was saved because it contained my grandfather’s obituary.

If kept for 100 years, I doubt the proposed digital copy will do the same for Susan’s heirs. The way electronics change, they likely would look at the device holding the digital copy and wonder “what’s this.”

When I bought my first professional quality digital camera, the salesman advised I should also purchase a device called a digital tank. When the camera’s memory card filled up, I was told to transfer the images to the tank. I’ve never done that but while cleaning I came across the tank. It looks like new and I have the original box, but the cable needed to connect the tank to a power source is no longer safe to use. The insulation has cracked and fallen off exposing the wires. If they were still made, I could probably buy more memory cards but those have also changed since the camera was made.

The camera it was bought with still takes photos suitable for newspaper use but the last time I sent it to the camera shop for repair, the technician advised parts for that model were in short supply.

But I have gone down a rabbit trail. I’m supposed to be writing about scams.

If a reader wants a digital copy, they are available at this newspaper office at a reasonable price.

This digital copy scam, apparently is an international operation.

We have heard of similar schemes being tried in other communities. And like in Nuckolls County, the callers are not fluent in the English language which leads to the conclusion they are calling from another continent,

We are not aware of it happening to our subscribers but some newspapers are having trouble with unauthorized people trying to sell subscriptions over the telephone. The rates being charged are higher than the newspaper rates. So the callers not only get to pocket a profit on the sales, they also gain access to the subscribers’ credit card numbers which often leads to unpleasant consequences.

The schemes don’t stop with newspapers. On Monday I received a letter addressed to a deceased uncle. The letter warned he needed to act at once to preserve his medicare insurance coverage.

I recently received a letter addressed to my father. It was from a firm urging him to use the card the firm issued.

Since my father has been dead nearly nine years, he hasn’t been using his credit cards.

Wonder what would happen if someone used the credit card and then failed to pay the bill?

My grandfather and I shared the name of William A. Blauvelt. When I became 16 years old and had an unrestricted driver’s license, he gave me a copy of his Champlin Petroleum Company credit card. He was wiling to use his credit report to get the card but he plainly explained any charges to that card were mine to pay.

I regularly used the card and promptly paid the bills. This year will mark the 137th anniversary of Grandfather’s birth in Hardy. Grandfather died at age 84 but I continued to use the card for 16 additional years. No one questioned why a 100 year old man was buying gasoline. The story ended when the company disappeared in 1984 without discovering the card was issued to a man, if living then, nearly 102 years old.

For many years Champlin Refining Company was the largest privately owned, integrated oil company in the United States. Champlin operated a terminal on the outskirts of Superior that was served by the first pipeline in the United States to carry both gasoline and kerosene,

I was sorry to see the company close but I suspect folks at Enid felt more sorrow. I suspect the company never employed more than a dozen folks in Superior while more than 800 people were employed by the company at Enid.

H. H. Champlin was an entrepreneur. In addition to the oil company, he operated a hardware store in the building which housed the oil company office. He had lumber yards in several Oklahoma communities and a bank. With a vast network of grain elevators, he was the Rock Island railroad’s largest shipper. His bank is the only bank in the United States closed by National Guard troops. During the Great Depression, the governor of Oklahoma ordered all banks in that state to close. Champlin said his bank was sound and refused to honor the governor’s order. As a result, the governor ordered the National Guard to take over and close the bank which they did.