[Editor's note: Historian Pat Meyers submitted this interesting article for re-publication. It amazes me how things have changed just since I've been editor, let alone since the 50s!]
A Cursory History of The Limpkin
By Karl F. Eichhorn [May 1990]
Last spring, as readers will recall, I initiated an effort to put together a complete set of our newsletter, The Limpkin. With the help of several other members, I was able to do so except for two issues (April & May 1973), which we have never found. I still want to locate these two issues, so please keep looking in your overstuffed closets! As a result of this effort, I have learned a number of things about our newsletter which I would like to share with members in this article.
I will divide the newsletter history into two periods which I call call Phase I, from 1956 to 1967, and Phase II, from 1967 to the present time.
Phase I
Although I.R.A.S had its beginnings with a local Cocoa bird club in the early fifties, the first membership newsletter did not appear until January 1956, when Volume 1 No. 1 of The Limpkin was published. I assume that before that time the relatively small membership was notified of meetings and field trips via a telephone chain.
Mr. James A. O'Neil was the first Limpkin Editor and in the very first issue he stated, "This is the first copy of what we hope may be many editions of a bimonthly news and information letter, put out by the officers and members of I.R.A.S." Though he obviously intended to publish six issues a year this rate was never achieved during the Phase I history of the newsletter. He came closest in 1956 when five issues were published in Jan,. Feb., May, Summer and Oct. The January issue contained the results of the 1955 Christmas Bird Count when Cocoa set a new national record with 184 species recorded by 4 observers.
And what about the name for the newsletter? I have no idea where the name, The Limpkin, was chosen, but it appears on the very first issue, which included the following statement: "We have temporarily chosen the name, Limpkin, the "crying bird", for our little sheet. We hope you will like it. The Limpkin is a true Florida bird, the northern limit of its range being southern Georgia." Obviously, the Editor was seeking comments on a name, pro or con, but apparently the members were satisfied with The Limpkin, as there were no further comments in Issue #2 and the name has stuck right up to the present time.
All Phase I Limpkins were printed via a mimeograph (about half legal and half letter size) and the bird logo was re-drawn for each issued. On the first three issues, it looked more like an over-fed Plymouth Rock hen than a Limpkin and in Volume I, No. 4 we find the following entry: "Note: The artistic sensibilities of Lon Ellis winced each time he looked at the overstuffed fowl that formerly reposed at the head of each issue. Being a man of action [sic!], as well as an artist, he has made the drawing that appears here for the first time. The members of the Society will be pleased to have this trim alert bird giving a new look to their favorite newsletter. Indeed, it was a vast improvement!
Another interesting item appeared in issue #3 published in May 1956. It reported that N.A.S. had just opened Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary to visits by the public. There was a warning that the last five miles of the entrance road was passable only via four-wheel-drive Jeep and cautioned visitors about the danger of meeting the Brahma bulls in the open fields! This same issue contains a complete list of members at that time - a total of 71.
In 1957 only four Limpkin issues were published - in January, April, October and December. The January issue contained the tally of the 195 Christmas Bird Count by the Society.
Sometime in 1958 Lon Ellis (the Man-of-Action) became the Limpkin Editor and from that time till the end of Phase I the publication rate went rapidly downhill! Three issues were published in 1958 and only two each year in the years 1959 through 1965. The very last Phase I Limpkin was published in October 1965. During this seven year period the practice was to publish a newsletter in October which would list all Society meetings and programs for the following season. Then in January there was a special issue which contained only the results of the Christmas Bird Count.
Most of these early Limpkins contained interesting bird articles by Allan Cruickshank, conservation notes by Helen Cruickshank, a column called "Outdoors in Brevard County" by Field Trip Chairman, W. Foster White, notes on pelagic birds by Johnie Johnson, field notes by Lon Ellis and comments by President Bill Hueston. In the October '60 issue Allan wrote about Hurricane Donna and its effects on local and migrating birds. In the October '61 issue Foster White describes the arrival of the Cattle Egret in Brevard County. A year later he wrote about the arrival of the Black-Whiskered Viero from the West Indies. In October '63 Foster wrote another article about the Black Whiskered Vireo and Lon Ellis wrote his celebrated article on "Foul Weather Birding", which still comes back to haunt him!
In October or November of 1964 (unfortunately many of thee early Limpkins have no dates of them and I have had to figure them out from the contents) a special issue was published which described the great mortality of migrating birds which occurred in the County as the result of Hurricane Hilda. This disaster of 4 October 1964 resulted from high winds, rain and low overcast which followed the close approach of the hurricane. Thousands of migrating birds, 98% of them warblers, collided with radio towers, buildings, gantries, survey towers and the like on the Cape.
In March 1966, long-time President Bill Hueston suffered a stroke and Vice-President Ken West assumed control of the Society. No more Limpkins were published during his tenure - members were notified of meetings and field trips via post cards sent out monthly. This ended the Phase I Limpkin period. The newsletter remained in limbo until the fall of 1967, when I became President of the Chapter and what I call the Phase II history began.
Phase II
Much to my amazement I was elected Chapter President in May 1967 and assumed my duties that September. Betty and I had seen some of the old Limpkins and thought it a shame that it was no longer being published. Though we were both working full-time at the Cape, Betty volunteered to serve as Editor and continued to do so for five years. It was a two-person job - there was no division of labor in those days and no personal computers or quickie photo print shops. We wrote the copy, Betty typed the fragile Ditto masters and we ran them on a machine at the Cape. We made our own address labels, folded, stapled, stamped and mailed the new Limpkins. That first year '67-'68, each issue was three legal sheets with copy on one side. We were putting out about 100 copies per month and that was about the limit for the Ditto process. The next year we realized that we would have to go to some other process since the membership was growing rapidly by that time. During the summer of '68 we purchased a hand-cranked mimeograph machine and used that for Limpkin production for the next four years. We incorporated a President's Message and emphasized general conservation items perhaps to the despair of of the hard-core birders. Old time members will remember some of the tough conservation problems we faced in those days: hard pesticides such as DDT; dredge and fill in the estuaries; alligator protection; the Cross-Florida Barge Canal; the proposed Sanford-Titusville Canal; the Everglades Jetport; the F.C.D Project for the Upper St. Johns River; and the Trident Submarine Base Proposed for Mosquito Lagoon.
I wrote the copy Betty typed the masters, I cracked the mimeograph and we both stapled and folded for mailing. By that time we had qualified for a postal non-profit mailing permit. Each issue consisted of two legal sheets with copy on both sides, so with distribution approaching 500, that meant about 2000 cranks of that copy machine each month - great arm exercise!
Happily since September 1967, your Chapter officials have continued to produce at least nine issues of The Limpkin each season. In September '72 Betty turned over the Editorship to Barbara Steel for the next year. The Editors for following years were:
Jean Lynn Sept. '73 to May '74
Enid Worrell Sept. '74 to May '76
Clarence & Jean Barnes July '76 to May '79
Patricia Blaha Sept '79 to Nov. '82
Priscilla Griffith Dec '82 to May '83
Stephen L. Morgan Sept. '83 to Dec '84
Nedra Sekera Jan. '85 to May '86
Cheryl Chenoweth Sept '86 to May '87
Apryl Kosem Sept '87 to May '88
Sharon & Jack Huffman Sept '88 - present
For several years the newsletter continued to be printed by mimeograph, then was reproduced by a commercial photo-print shop. In 1974, when the job was split up between Editor and Publisher, Bob and Sue Brown became the first Publishers followed by Don Devitt in 1976. Today's Limpkin is a far cry from the earlier publications. It is compiled on a Macintosh computer and printed by a modern laser printer. In spite of their crude appearance, however, the earlier Limpkins remain fascinating reading and constitute a unique running history of the Indian River Audubon Society.
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