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Selma Enterprise

newspaper published in Selma

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 5, 2026
Entity authorityQ55665726 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Selma Enterprise is a newspaper which serves the city of Selma, California and surrounding Fresno County. It is published weekly on Wednesdays and its estimated circulation is 5,000.

History

On April 3, 1886, the first edition of the Selma Irrigator was published by Walter T. Lyon. A rival paper called the Selma Enterprise was first published on June 23, 1888. It was founded by editor S.J. Mathews and C.J. Walker, with backing from Jacob E. Whitson, who used it to promote his failed bid for State Assembly. The Enterprise Publishing Company was formed in 1889 and was managed by several people T.D. Calkins and H.E. Farley bought the Enterprise in January 1891. Mrs.V.I. Willis and her husband L.M. Willis bought the paper in October 1891 from H.B. Watson, and were the Enterprise's first long term owners.

In 1892, Lyon and his partner W.L. Chappell retired from the Irrigator and were succeeded at by J.J. Vanderburgh. He went on to publish the Irrigator for over three decades. In 1899, the Willis' leased the Enterprise to John W. Aiken and Frank H. Gill.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Selma Enterprise” is newspaper published in Selma. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Selma, Enterprise and newspaper, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1886, 1888, 1889, 1891—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Selma, Enterprise and newspaper is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “newspaper published in Selma” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q55665726. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1886, 1888, 1889 and 1891.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Selma Enterprise”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Selma Enterprise primary sources, Selma Enterprise archive and Selma research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Selma Enterprise”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Selma Enterprise” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.