# Portland, Oregon: Its History and Builders/Volume 1/Chapter 23

CHAPTER XXIII.
1839—1910.
THE PIONEER PAPER—THE SPECTATOR.
The following sketch of the pioneer newspaper and its immediate successors, and of the men connected therewith, is contributed to this history by Mr. George H. Himes, one of the advisory board, of this work. The article was prepared originally for the Historical Quarterly. Mr. Himes' unequaled and indispensable work as secretary of the Oregon Pioneer Association, and acting secretary of the Oregon Historical Society, and also publisher of the History of the Willamette Valley, qualifies him to treat the subject of this chapter more thoroughly than any other person.
THE HIMES' ARTICLE.
The first press on the Pacific coast, or any of its tributary islands, operated by citizens of the United States, was the Mission Press of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (the foreign missionary society of the Congregational and Presbyterian churches of the United States), which was sent to Oahu, Sandwich Islands, late in 1821. On January 5, 1822, stands for type cases were made and part of the type placed in the cases. On January 7th, the first impression of the first sheet of the Owyhee spelling book was taken. The name of the printer was Elisha Loomis, who was also a teacher, and went from Middlesex, New York, to join the mission party at Boston, which sailed from that port to the islands on October 23, 1819. When the first sheet of the spelling book was printed, the native governor, Tiamoko, several masters of vessels, and others, were present to witness the scene, the first of the kind in these islands. How interesting to those who carried forward their reflections to the future and distant and endless results. On January loth, Mr. Loomis printed the king's name in "elegant capitals" in the two forms, "Rihoriho" and "Liholiho," so that he might settle the question whether "R" or "L" should be used in spelling his name. He chose the former. On January 12th, Mr. Loomis printed a supply of several kinds of approbation tickets, to be used among the school children. The progress of printing was slow, owing to the difficulties in translating the language. At the end of six months, only sixteen pages of a small spelling book had been printed. Later, in 1825, Mr. Loomis made a statement to the effect that up to that date, sixteen thousand copies of the spelling book, four thousand copies of a small scripture tract, four thousand copies of a catechism, and two thousand copies of a hymn book of sixty pages had been printed; and in this ​connection stated that another press and more type was greatly needed. Not long after the above date, a press was established at Honolulu, and by March 20, 1830, the combined plants had issued twenty-two distinct books, averaging thirty-seven small pages each, amounting in all to three hundred and eighty-seven thousand copies.
In a few years the demand for printed matter in the islands assumed such proportions that greater facilities for printing became necessary; hence the first Honolulu press was laid aside.
In 1836, the American board mission among the Indians in Oregon was established; so as a means of encouragement, and with a view to helping on in the work of this mission as far as possible, the first native church of Honolulu decided to send it the unused press. Accordingly, an arrangement was effected with Mr. Edwin O. Hall, who had been one of the printers of the mission since 1835, to take it to Oregon. It was shipped with type, fixtures, paper and binding apparatus, all valued at $500, and arrived at Vancouver, on the Columbia river, about April 10, 1839. An express was sent to Dr. Marcus Whitman at Wai-il-et-pu, six miles west of the present city of Walla Walla, Washington, and to Rev. H. H. Spalding at Lapwai, on the Clearwater, not a great way from the present city of Lewiston, Idaho, notifying them that the press, with Mr. and Mrs. Hall and F. Ermantinger as guide, would leave Vancouver on the 13th with the hope of reaching Fort Walla Walla (now Wallula) on the 30th. Spalding, with his wife and child, started for Wai-il-et-pu on the 24th and reached his destination on the 27th. The next day a note was received to the effect that the press and party before named had just arrived, passage having been made up the Columbia river in a canoe. On May 6th, the press and escort, started for Lapwai, the press on pack animals in charge of Ermatinger; Hall and wife and Spalding and family in a canoe, and all arrived safely at their destination late on the evening of the 13th. On the 16th, the press was set up, and on May 18, 1839, the first proof sheet in the original Oregon territory was struck off. This was an occasion of great rejoicing. On the 23d, it was resolved to build an adobe printing office. On the 24th, the first four hundred copies of a small book in the Nez Perce Indian language were printed. The translation was made by Mr. and Mrs. Spalding and Cornelius Rogers, a teacher in the mission, and used in manuscript form prior to the arrival of the press. On July 10th, the style of alphabet was agreed upon, it having been decided to adopt the one used in the Sandwich Islands. This was done at Kamiah by Dr. and Mrs. Whitman, Mr. Spalding and wife. Rev. A. R. Smith and wife, and Mr. Hall. On August 1st, the printing of another book was commenced in the new alphabet, and by the 15th, five hundred copies were completed. On December 30th the press was packed, with the intention of sending it to Dr. Whitman's station, Wai-il-et-pu, to print a book there. The next day it started on its journey, and that evening the packhorse fell down a precipice, and it was supposed that the press was dashed to pieces. On January i, 1840, Mr. Rogers rode to the scene of the accident, gathered all the material together and returned. By the 17th the press was again set up, and it was discovered that nothing was lost save a few type. By this experience, it was found that it would be easier to send the manuscript to the press than the press to the manuscript. Printing was resumed on the 20th, and on the 28th Mr. Hall having started for the Sandwich Islands, Mr. Rogers, who had been taught to set type and operate the press by Mr. Hall, was employed to take charge of the press and do the printing for the mission for 30 pounds, English money, per year and his board. Thereafter, so long as the mission was sustained, the usual routine of work was pursued.
It is impossible to state accurately the number of publications that were issued from this press in the Flathead, Spokane, Cayuse and Nez Perce languages; but it is believed to have been at least a dozen. It has been my good fortune to secure four copies of these publications for the library of the Oregon Historical Society during the past three years.
​Tramp printers were not common in those early days, and but few found their way to this then unknown region. The earhest one that there is any record of was a man named Turner. One evening in 1839, soon after the press was set up at Lapwai, Mr. Spalding was standing on the banks of the Clearwater, and was surprised to hear a white man on the opposite shore call him. He paddled across the river in a canoe to the stranger, and took him home. The man gave his name as above, that his home was in Canada, and that he had come from Saskatchewan on foot. Spalding, being somewhat incredulous, never learned his history. When Turner saw the printing office, he said, "Now I am at home." He assisted in arranging the plant and in making pads. Mr. Spalding translated passages of the Bible and several hymns for the Sunday school in the Nez Perce tongue, and Turner set them up. He was qviite attentive to his work and remained all winter. Mr. Spalding had planned to have con^idorable printing done, and had arranged to pay Turner wages, but he suddenly disappeared and was never heard of afterward.
The next printers to appear at Lapwai were Medare G. Foisy and Charles Saxton, both coming across the plains from Saint Louis in 1844. But little is known of Mr. Saxton, as he returned to "the states" the following year and published a journal of his trip across the plains, giving a description of Oregon, and dwelling at length upon the importance of the country claimed by the United States upon the north Pacific coast.
Mr. Foisy was a French Canadian by birth, a son of an affluent leather merchant, and was born at Quebec in 1816. After receiving a practical education in the French schools of his native city, at the age of sixteen he was sent to an English school in Vermont for a short time. His father desiring that he should learn the leather business, kept him about the tannery and store for eighteen months. This proving uncongenial, and having a desire to acquire a knowledge of printing, he learned the trade in a French office. Determining to acquire a knowledge of English, he left home early in 1837. and worked in a Cincinnati office a short time, then in the Louisville Journal office two months, and that fall went to St. Louis, where he obtained a situation on the Republican, remaining imtil the close of 1843, when he gave up his job to prepare for the overland trip to Oregon, and arrived at Spalding's mission at Lapwai as above stated. He worked in the mission printing office nearly a year, and in December, 1845, went to French Prairie. The following spring he was elected a member of the legislative committee from Champoeg county—changed to Marion county in 1850. Soon after, he concluded to visit Canada, and started thither by the way of California and the Nicaragua route. On reaching California, his homeward journey was temporarily given up. Here he met the northwestern limits of the Mexican war, and saw considerable active service under Fremont. For a time he was the alcalde of Monterey, and worked on the first newspaper printed in that place. When peace was declared in February, 1848, Mr. Foisy once more started for his home via Central America, but was blockaded in the port of San Bias, Mexico. Soon he was relieved by Captain Bailey of the United States navy, and taken back to Monterey. Here he remained until after the delegates to form a state constitution were elected. In that exciting event, he took an active part against the spread of slavery. The years 1849 and 1850 were, for the most part, spent in the mines, and in the fall of the latter year he gave up his contemplated trip to Canada, and returned to Oregon, bought a farm near the present site of Gervais, and became one of the principal farmers of that region, and was highly respected by all who knew him. He died in 1879.
The next that is known about this mission press is in June, 1846. A number of parties living at Salem, among them Dr. W. H. Willson, Joseph Holman, Mr. Robinson, Rev. David Leslie, J. B. McClane and Rev. L. H. Hudson, desiring to issue a paper, sent Mr. Alanson Hinman, then a teacher in Salem, on horseback to Whitman mission, to secure it for the purpose indicated. Dr. Whitman was willing that it should be used, but referred the matter to Mr. Spalding, at ​Lapwai, where the press was located. Mr. Hinman rode there and interviewed Mr, Spalding. He consented to have the press go to the Willamette valley, but not without the consent of Messrs. Walker and Eells, who were at the Spokane mission. Accordingly Mr. Hinman secured an Indian guide and rode thither and obtained their permission, but was referred back to Messrs. Spalding and Whitman. Returning to Lapwai, Mr. Hinman explained the situation to Mr. Spalding, who made conditions which would give him more control over the paper than the Salem parties were willing to grant, hence they declined to take the plant. However, Mr. Spalding sent the press to Dr. Whitman, and he sent it on to Wascopum (The Dalles), where it remained until after the Whitman massacre November 29-30, 1847. Early in March, in 1848, it was transferred by Mr. Spalding to Rev. J. S. Griffin, who took it to the Tualitin plains, near Hillsboro, and that year issued eight numbers of a sixteen-page magazine called The Oregon American and Evangelical Unionist. As it may be of interest to show the scope of this publication, the following is quoted from the prospectus in the first numbers:
"It is devoted to American principles and interests; to evangelical religion and morals; to general intelligence—foreign and domestic; to temperance and moral instrumentalities generally; to science, literature and the arts; to commerce and internal improvements; to agriculture and home manufactures; to the description and development of our natural resources; to the physical, intellectual and moral education of rising generations; and to such well defined discussions generally as are calculated to elevate and dignify the character of a free people. — Edited by Rev. J. S. Griffin, and printed by C. F. Putnam. Issued once in two weeks."
The editor, in his introduction, says: "Our list of subjects, to which we are devoted, is not so much an expression of confidence in our humble ability to treat them all successfully, as to call the attention of the writers generally, each to his chosen department of interest and investigation, that all through a common medium of communication, may mutually instruct and be instructed."
The first issue was on June 7th, although it was not dated. It is evident that it did not appear as originally intended, from the following apologies: "A train of unavoidables has prevented our first number appearing as early as intended, and its execution is by no means what may hereafter be expected. We have much confidence in the young gentleman, Mr. Putnam, our publisher, who, being disappointed in obtaining his new ink roller as expected, was left in the first number to the daubing use of a past recovery dried ink ball. Those acquainted with the difference in the execution of the two instruments, know how to appreciate the apology. Some typographical improvements, as well as improvements in the general execution, may be looked for."
The following is taken from the prospectus: "Terms, $4 currency, or $3 in cash, if paid within three months; $4 cash, or $5 in currency if not paid at the end of three months; if not paid at the end of six months, discontinued at the discretion of the proprietor. Advertisements at $1.50 per square of 16 lines or less, for first insertion; and 75 cents per square for each subsequent insertion. A liberal discount to yearly advertisers.
"N. B.—Companies of ten subscribers may pay in merchantable wheat at merchant prices, delivered at any time (giving us notice), at any principal depot for wheat in the several counties, being themselves responsible for its storage and delivery to our order. Due bills issued by solvent merchants taken at their currency value. We will not declare our days of issuing until the next number, hoping some mail opportunity may be secured, and if so, will issue on the day most favorable for our immediate circulation."
Much space in the magazine is given to the history of the Whitman massacre of November 29-30, 1847, by Rev. H. S. Spalding, together with a discussion pro and con of the causes leading up to it. In this discussion, Peter H. Burnett, a ​lawyer of Oregon City, and afterward the first governor of California, took a prominent part.
In No. 3, July 5, 1848, referring to President Polk's message, the editor says: "It manifests more interest about Mexico than about Oregon."
After No. 7 was issued, the paper was suspended for several months. This suspension was caused, so the editor states, by someone opposed to his views on the causes leading to the Whitman massacre, hiring the printer to break his contract and go off to the mines. Early in 1849, another printer, Frank Johnson, an apprentice of the Spectator and afterward of the Free Press, and now (1902) a professor in the University of Chicago, was secured, and on May 23, No. 8 appeared. This was the last number issued. Fully thirty years ago Mr. Grififin placed the press in the custody of the Oregon Pioneer Association, and now it is in the possession of the Oregon Historical Society.
Rev. John Smith Grififin was born in Castleton, Vermont, in 1807; he was educated in various schools in New England and Ohio, finishing his theological course in Oberlin, where he was ordained a minister of the Congregational church. The church at Litchfield, Connecticut, secured an equipment and sent him to Oregon in 1839 as an independent missionary to the Indians. In 1840 he endeavored to start a mission among the Snakes, and failing, he and his wife went to the Tualitin plains in 1841, and began the first white settlement in what is now Washington County. On May 2, 1843, he was at Champoeg, and voted in favor of the first civil government in Oregon. He was pastor of the first church in Washington county for a time. He died in February, 1899.
Charles F. Putnam, printer, was born in Lexington, Kentucky, July 7, 1824. He learned the printing trade in New York city, and in 1846 came to Oregon, settling in Polk County. In 1847 he was married to Miss Rozelle, the eldest daughter of Jesse Applegate, who came to Oregon from Missouri in 1843. When he contracted with 'Mr. Griffin to print his paper, he taught his wife to set type and thus she became the first woman typesetter on the Pacific coast. Mr. Putnam left the Willamette valley for Umpqua valley in the fall of 1849, and settled near Mt. Yoncalla. He is still living (1902) though quite feeble, near the town of Drain.
THE SPECTATOR.
Early in 1844 it became evident to the leading spirits of the infant settlement at Oregon City that its interests would be greatly promoted by a press, and accordingly, after much discussion as to methods of management, the Oregon Printing Association was organized, the officers of which were as follows: W. G. T'Vault, president; J. W. Nesmith, vice president; John P. Brooks, secretary; George Abernethy, treasurer; Robert Newell, John E. Long, and John H. Couch, directors. The press used was a Washington hand press, bed twenty-five by thirty-eight inches. The plant was procured in New York through the instrumentality of Governor George Abernethy, although he was reimbursed by the printing association in due time.
The constitution of the association was as follows: "In order to promote science, temperance, morality and general intelligence, to establish a printing press; to publich a monthly, semi-monthly or weekly paper in Oregon, the undersigned do hereby associate ourselves together in a body to be governed by such rules and regulations as shall, from time to time, be adopted by a majority of the stockholders of this compact in a regularly called and properly notified meeting."
The "articles of compact" numbered eleven; all but the eighth article referred to the method of doing business, and were similar in their provisions to the bylaws of our incorporations of today. The eighth article touched vitally the editor's duties, and is as follows:
​"Article VIII. The press owned by or in connection with this association shall never be used by any party for the purpose of propagating sectarian principles or doctrine, nor for the discussion of exclusive party politics."
The Printing Association was jealous of the editorial control of the paper. Provision was made for amending all articles except the eighth. The shares of stock were $io each, and article X provides for the method of transferring the same; also the distribution of dividends—an emergency that never occurred; and in that respect, the experience of the first newspaper men of the Pacific coast was not unlike that of some of their brethren of these later days. The name selected for their paper was the Oregon Spectator, and it was first issued at Oregon City, on Thursday, February 5, 1846. The motto was: "Westward the star of empire takes its way." The printer was John Fleming, who came to Oregon in the immigration of 1844.
The size of the Spectator page at first was eleven and one-half by seventeen inches, with four pages, four columns to the page, and was issued semi-monthly. The first editor was Col. William G. T'Vault, a pioneer of 1845, who was then postmaster-general of a provisional government. His editorial salary was at the rate of $300 a year. It is believed that he was of Scotch-Irish and French descent, and a native of Kentucky. He was a lawyer by profession, although it is said that he had had some editorial experience in Arkansas. While he was an uncompromising democrat of the Jeffersonian school, and never so happy as when promulgating his principles in the most positive way, the constitution of the Printing Association made it necessary that the editor should eschew politics. However well he may have tried to do this, his efforts evidently did not please the association, because in the issue of April 2, 1846, his valedictory appears. The contents of the first issue of The Spectator are as follows:
First page: Organic laws of Oregon, as recommended by the legislative committee; an act to prevent the introduction, sale and distillation of ardent spirits.
Second page: The editor's salutatory defining the attitude of the paper; to correspondents, stating that no notice can be taken of anonymous communications ; city government, saying that the time has arrived for a thorough organization, urging that it "dig up the stumps, grade the streets, tax dogs, prohibit hogs, and advertise in The Spectator" ; calling on some of the "old settlers" to give an "account of the climate, soil and productions of Oregon," stating that this "would all be news to people away east, in Missouri and other states"; an item deprecating controversies; announcement that Captain Knighton will give a ball on the 24th instant at the City Hotel; item calling attention to F. W. Pettygrove's stock of goods; appointments by the governor—William G. T'Vaul, prosecuting attorney, vice M. A. Ford, and H. M. Knighton marshal, vice J. L. Meek resigned; reference to the "two-thirds law" of Illinois; item relating to a serious accident to Mr. Wallace of the Oregon Milling Company, as a result of coming in contact with a circular saw; an item on "slander"; communication from "new emigrant," whose "heart's desire is," among other things, "that Oregon may be saved from intemperance and that our beloved little colony may continue free and become great and good"; communication by David Leslie, giving a sketch of the life of Rev. Jason Lee.
Third page: A number of clippings, among them Franklin's Advice to Editors ; an original poem on "Love," signed "M. J. B."—Mrs. Margaret J. Bailey; announcement of the postmaster general "To Persons Wishing to Send Letters East;" ship news, giving "The arrivals and departures from Baker's bay, Columbia river, since March 12, 1845," showing nine arrivals and eleven departures; "List of officers of H. B. M. sloop of war, Modeste, now lying at Vancouver, Co- lumbia river ;" death notice. Miss Julia Ann Stratuff, aged about fourteen years ; then advertisements as follows : "Mail Contracts to Let — Route No. i ; From Oregon City to Fort Vancouver, once in two weeks, by water. Route No. 2 ; From Oregon City to Hill's in Twality County; thence to A. J. Hembree's in Yam Hill County; thence to Andrew Smith's by Yam Hill County; thence to N. ​Ford's Polk County; thence to Oregon Institute, Champoeg County; thence to Catholic Mission and Champoeg to Oregon City, once in two weeks, on horseback. The contractor will enter into bond and security, to be approved by the postmaster general," signed by W. G. T'Vault. A Lawrence Lovejoy, attorney and counsellor at law and solicitor in chancery; Masonic notice to secure a charter for a lodge—the first on the Pacific coast; signed by Joseph Hull, P. G. Stewart, and Wm. P. Dougherty, Notice of George Abernethy and Alanson Beers that they had bought the business of the Oregon Milling Company. Administrator's notice of estate of Ewing Young, signed by Lovejoy. City Hotel, H. M. Knighton, proprietor, who says "his table shall not be surpassed in the territory," and that those "who favor him with a call from the west side of the river, will receive horse ferriage free." "The Red House and Portland," heads an advertisement three and a half inches long of F. W. Pettygrove's general merchandise store. This is the first time anything appears showing approximately the date when Portland was so named. John Traverse and William Glaser announced that they have begun manufacturing hats, and will take "wool, beaver, otter, raccoon, wild cat, muskrat and mink skins in exchange." Notice by Pettygrove to the effect that John B. Rutter, Astoria, is wanted to take charge of a box of medicine which was consigned to him from New York. Notice of Abernethy & Beers, stating their terms for grinding "merchantable wheat." Notice by C. E. Pickett that he has town lots for sale on the lower part of his claim, "just at the foot of the Clackamas rapids." Announcement of The Spectator terms—$5 in advance; if not paid until the expiration of three months, $6.
Fourth page; Post office law of the provisional government, approved December 23, 1845; Constitution of the Printing Association; three clippings, one entitled "The Fall of Empires," the other about "Morse's Electro-Magnetic Telegraph," and the last from the St. Louis Democrat speaking of an emigrating party of the father, mother, and twenty children. The editor says "Their destination we did not learn, but think it not improbable the old man is about settling a colony in Oregon."
Colonel T'Vault was a marked character in the early history of Oregon, and he made warm friends and bitter enemies. He was chosen a member of the legislature of the provisional government, June 4, 1846. In June, 1858, he was elected a representative to the first territorial legislature, and was chosen speaker at the special session from May 16, to June 4, 1859. In 1851 he established an express line between Winchester, on the Umpqua river, to Yreka, California. In the years following he took an active part in the trying scenes of the Rogue river war, part of the time being a volunteer aid to Governor Joseph Lane. In 1855, he in company with Messrs. Taylor and Blakely, established the Umpqua Gazette at Scottsburg, the first paper south of Salem, and moved it to Jacksonville soon after. The name was then changed to the Table Rock Sentinel, and it was first issued on November 24. Soon after the paper was started it became noised abroad that T'Vault was tainted with abolitionism. This was too much for the stout-hearted old democrat, so he wrote a personal article over his own signature, denying in the most positive manner all sympathy for, or affiliation with, the abolition idea; and among other things he said that if "I thought there was one drop of abolition blood in my veins I would cut it out." That declaration was wholly satisfactory, and thereafter until the close of his life there was never any question as to his political faith. He was the principal editor of the paper, and his connection with it ceased in 1859, after the name had been changed to the Oregon Sentinel. His next editorial experience was in 1863, when he issued the Intelligencer in Jacksonville from the plant of the Civilian, then defunct. This enterprise failed in a few months, and was his last effort in journalism. He remained in southern Oregon until the close of his life, having something of a law practice, and died from an attack of smallpox early in 1869.
At this point it is not out of place to give the personnel of the other members of the Printing Association, as far as possible. James Willis Nesmith, came to ​Oregon from Maine in 1843, at the age of twenty-three; in 1845 he was elected supreme judge of Oregon under the provisional government; in 1848, captain in the Cayuse Indian war; in 1853, captain in the Rogue river Indian war; in 1855–1856 colonel in the Yakima Indian war; in 1857 he was appointed superintendent of Indian affairs for Oregon and Washington, and held that position two years; in 1860 he was a candidate for presidential elector on the Douglas democratic ticket; that fall he was elected United States Senator; in 1873, he was elected a member of congress. He filled every position with conspicuous ability. He died June 17, 1885.
John P. Brooks taught the first school of any kind in Oregon City under the patronage of the late Sidney W. Moss, in the year 1844–5; when he came to Oregon is not known. In the late forties and early fifties he was in business at Oregon City. He died many years ago, date unknown.
George Abernethy was at the head of the provisional government. He was born in New York (Aberdeen, Scotland) in 1807, and came to Oregon in 1840. He had much to do with large milling and mercantile enterprises, and died in 1877.
Robert Newell was a typical "mountain man," and spent many years of his early life on the frontier in trapping. He was born at Zanesville, Ohio, in 1807. He came to Oregon in 1840, and brought a wagon from Fort Hall to Dr. Whitman's mission—the first to arrive there, and he brought it on to the Willamette valley, making it the first wagon in western Oregon. He was at Champoeg on May 2, 1843, and voted for civil government. He died at Lewiston, Idaho, in 1869.
John H. Couch was born at Newburyport, Massachusetts, February 21, 181 1. In 1840 he brought the brig Maryland into the Columbia river, and up the Willamette to Oregon City. He made a second trip to the Columbia in 1843, and soon after engaged in the mercantile business at Oregon City. In 1845 he located a donation land claim near the then townsite of Portland, all of which was included within the corporate limits of that city many years ago. He was the treasurer of the provisional government, and held a number of places of trust in the city he helped to build. As early as October, 1849, in company with Benjamin Stark, he did a banking business in Portland, in addition to general merchandising. He died in January, 1870.
John Fleming, the first printer of the Spectator, came to Oregon from Ohio. He was appointed postmaster of Oregon City, in 1856, and held that office, until 1860. He died at that place, December 2, 1872, aged seventy-eight years.
In glancing through the pages of the Spectator numerous references are made to the primitive conditions then existing, some of which are here given.
As postmaster general, Colonel T'Vault was compelled to conduct affairs on an economical basis. Fifty dollars was appropriated by the legislature of 1845 to establish a postoffice department. Accordingly in February, 1846, postoffices and postmasters were appointed in the several counties south of the Columbia river, and full instructions published concerning their respective duties. The rates between any Oregon postoffice and Weston, Missouri, were fifty cents for a single sheet. Nine months later the postmaster general declined further responsibility in the matter of mail service, stating that the mail had been carried for three quarters, but the receipts had been insufficient to pay for the transportation of the mail for one quarter.
In the Spectator of April 16, 1856, the name of Henry A. G. Lee appears as editor. He was the choice of the Printing Association at the beginning, but he wanted a salary of $600, and that was considered too high. At this date there were one hundred and fifty-five subscribers, but an editorial item says there ought to be five hundred in the existing population. Lee's connection with the paper ceased with the issue of August 6, 1846.
Mr. Lee deserves more than a passing mention. He was a native of Virginia, and descended from Richard Lee, founder of the old dominion family of that ​name. He was well educated and prepared himself for the ministry, but did not follow that profession because some doubts arose in his mind as to the inspiration of the bible. He came to Oregon in 1843, and spent the first winter at Wai-il-et-pu. He was a man of much more than average ability, but very reticent when speaking of himself or family. In December, 1847, he assisted in raising the first company of volunteers to punish the Cayuse Indians for the murder of Dr. Whitman and others, and was elected captain. Soon after he was promoted to major, and a little later appointed peace commissioner. Not long after that he was chosen colonel of the regiment to succeed Col. Cornelius Gilliam, who lost his life by an accident, but returned his commission because he thought it should be given to Lieut. Col. James Waters. When the war was ended he was appointed superintendent of Indian affairs by Governor George Abernethy, and rendered good service in treating with the Indians. After that duty was performed he went to the California gold mines, and was successful. Upon returning, he brought a stock of goods, and formed a copartnership with S. W. Moss, having already been married to his daughter. In the fall of 1850 he went to New York with a large sum of money to buy more goods, and on his return trip he had an attack of the Panama fever, which caused his death. If he had lived to return he doubtless would have figured largely in the political affairs of the then young territory.
In the Spectator of July 9, 1846, there is a full account of the first 4th of July celebration in Oregon, and probably on the Pacific coast. Thirteen regular toasts were given, and the last one is in these words: "The American Ladies—accomplished, beautiful and useful. If every Oregonian swain was possessed of one, we could exclaim, 'Oregon is safe under the stars and stripes.'" This was really true at the time, the treaty fully making Oregon a part of the United States, having been signed June 15th preceeding; but it was not known in Oregon until November 12th, following; and then the news was brought by Benjamin Stark on a sailing vessel from Sandwich islands. The oration was delivered by Peter H. Burnett, a pioneer of 1843, afterward the first governor of California, elected as such by the vote of Oregonians who had gone with him to the mines, and who held the balance of power there.
On September 17, 1846, reference is made to a memorial prepared by Capt. George Wilkes on the subject of a national railroad between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, presented to congress in December, 1845, asking the legislature to indorse it.
From August 6th to October 1, 1846, John Fleming, the printer, edited the Spectator. Then George L. Curry, fresh from St. Louis by way of the plains, having come by the southern route through the famous Cow Creek Canyon, being with the first immigrant party that ever entered the Oregon territory from that direction, was installed as editor. Among other things he proposed to do was to give the paper a "firm and consistent American tone." In this number the war with Mexico is fore-shadowed.
In the issue of September 5, Mr. Curry speaks in high terms of the many conditions of Oregon society, and among other things says:
"We feel unfeigned pleasure in announcing to the world that the social, moral, political, and religious state of society in Oregon, is at least as elevated and enlightened as can be witnessed in any of the territorial or frontier settlements east of the Rocky mountains."
He admits, however, that the people may be behind hand in the matter of good clothes. To offset this they are congratulated upon having but few real loafers among them.
For the next eleven months but little is known about the paper, except that Mr. Curry was the editor. The printer was changed, John Fleming retiring, and N. W. Colwell, who also came in 1845, taking his place.
In the issue of October 15, 1846, it is announced that a roll of the Spectator's subscribers was called, but as they did not answer paid, according to the neces​sary requirements in every well regulated newspaper office, the sufferings of all connected with the establishments were made intolerable.
On September 2, 1847, Mr. Curry apologizes for the lack of editorial matter by saying that he had gone to climb Mount Hood. Two weeks later it is apparent that the trip was not successful. At this time the printer was W. P. Hudson, who came to Oregon in 1846, Mr. Colwell having retired. He had been the printer for several months, and in addition to printing the paper, printed a spelling book, the first English book issued on the Pacific coast. This bore the date of February 1, 1847. During the fall of that year Mr. Hudson printed an almanac—the first on the Pacific coast—for the year 1848. This was compiled by Henry H. Everts. Through this source it is learned that there were eight counties in the territory—Clackamas, Champoeg, Tualatin, Yamhill, Polk, Clatsop, Vancouver and Lewis—their area being all of the territory now included in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and those parts of Montana and Wyoming, west of the Rocky mountains. This was a publication of twenty-four pages, five by seven inches, and in addition to the twelve usual calendar pages and remarks on astronomical matters, it contained a list of the officers of the provisional government, the members of the legislature, lists of officers for each county, times and places of holding courts, a list of the officers of the United States in Oregon, and in addition the following interesting information: Public debt, October 1, 1847, $3,243.31; population, same date, about six thousand; vote for governor on the first Monday in June, 1847, one thousand and seventy-four immigration now beginning to arrive, about three thousand; estimated annual value of imports and exports, about $130,000; estimated amount of wheat raised in the territory for the last two years, about one hundred and fifty thousand bushels each year.
Mr. Hudson went to the gold mines in the fall of 1848. He soon found a rich gulch from which he dug $21,000. He then returned to Oregon, but did not remain long. He took passage by sailing vessel for San Francisco in December, 1850, and died at sea while on the way thither.
While not strictly connected with the newspaper history of Oregon, it is not out of place to give a brief account of the spelling book above referred to.
It was an abridgement of the old Webster's Elementary Spelling Book, and was about two thirds the size of the original, the long words and quaint illustrations in the back being omitted. As this was practically a foreign country at that time, the printer was not particularly sensitive about violating the copyright law. After this book was printed the question of binding became a serious one, there being no binder in the settlement, so far as known. With the immigration of 1846 there came a bookbinder, who sometime after his arrival went to Oregon City. His name was Carlos W. Shane, and he had learned his trade in the Methodist Book Concern, Cincinnati, where he had been employed a number of years prior to coming to Oregon. Instinctively gravitating toward the printing office, he discovered the unbound sheets and he was awarded the job of binding them. Improvising such implements as he needed, with the crude material at hand, he bound up the edition, numbering 800 copies, which was soon absorbed by the primitive schools then existing. For years effort has been made to secure a copy of this book, but so far without success. I have, however, obtained a fragment of the book, probably twenty pages. These I found in a farmhouse garret near Oregon City about eight years ago, where it had been placed, doubtless, by the original owner of the place, the late M. M. McCarver, a pioneer of 1843, with other old documents, more than forty years before. More than a dozen years ago the whereabouts of a perfect copy was discovered, but upon further investigation, it proved that this book, a number of early newspaper files, a lot of miscellaneous letters, all of undoubted historic value, had been considered "worthless trash," and burned. Mr. Shane taught a number of the very early schools in Clackamas County, was something of a rhymester, and a frequent contributor of verse as well as prose to the press of the early days. He was a man of fine clerical ability, and for many years followed conveyancing. He died at Vancouver, Washington, in 1901.
In due time the censorship exercised by the Printing Association over his utterances on the editorial page of the Spectator, caused Mr. Curry to resign his position early in 1848.
Mr. Curry was bom in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 2, 1820. From 1824 to 1829 he lived with his parents in Caracas, South America. On returning to the United States, the family settled in Boston. At the age of eleven he was apprenticed to a jeweler. One of his fellow workmen was the late Hon. Wm. D. Kelly, of Pennsylvania. All spare moments were employed in study and read- ing. He developed literary tastes quite early, and read original poems and deliv- ered addresses before the Mechanics' Apprentice Library in Boston, of which he was a member and president for two years. He became a resident of St. Louis in 1843, where he formed an acquaintance with Joseph M. Field, the actor and manager, father of Miss Kate Fields, and with him pubHshed the Reveille. In 1846 he started to Oregon, arriving at Oregon City, August 30th. After leaving the Spectator he bought about 80 pounds of type from the Catholic missionaries, and determined to start an opposition paper.
It was difficult for Mr. Curry to decide upon a name, and he sought advice from Peter G. Stewart, a personal friend. "Why," said the latter, "since you don't want to be muzzled, why not call it the Free Press?" The suggestion pleased Mr. Curry, and the name was adopted. The motto was the following:
"Here shall the Press the people's rights maintain, Unawed by influence, and unbribed by gain."
Having no press, he caused one to be made, mainly out of wood — a rude affair. The type, having been used to print the French language, had but few letter w's. The editor had to write without double u's but the country and its inhabitants were too weird and wild and wonderful, and his own fancy too warm, and his ways too winning for him not to be willing to wield a pen as free and untrammeled as were his surroundings ; so he whittled a number of w's out of hard wood to supply the deficiency. This feature gave the paper an unique appearance, and was really one of its attractions. The first issue of this paper was in March. 1848. It contained four pages, seven and one-half by fifteen inches, two columns to the page. During this month Mr. Curry was married to Miss Chloe Boone, daughter of Col. Alphonse Boone, a great grandson of Daniel Boone. In October, 1848, the paper stopped mainly because of the rush of people to the mines. In 1853 Mr. Curry was appointed secretary of the territory by President Pierce, and soon became acting governor. He was appointed govern- or in November 1854, and held that office until 1859, when the state government was formed. It was during his administration that the Yakima Indian war of 1855-56 was fought. On January i, 1861, he became a partner and editor with S. J. McCormick in the Portland Daily Advertiser, and continued that relation until the paper suspended about two years later. The Advertiser was the second daily in Portland and was issued by S. J. McCormick on May 31, 1859.
The first daily newspaper in Oregon was the Portland Daily News, issued April 18, 1859, by S. A. English and Wm. B. Taylor. Its first editor was Alonzo Lelard, but his services were soon dispensed with, and E. D. Shattuck became the editor. The paper in the beginning had four pages, each ten and one-half by fifteen inches, with four columns.
After the Advertiser died Mr. Curry remained in private life until he died on July 28, 1878, aged fifty-eight years.
The earlist perfect copy of the Oregon Free Press that is known bears the date of August 26, 1848.
On February i, 1848, the Spectator was enlarged to twenty- four columns and Aaron E. Wait a native of Massachusetts, born on December 13, 1813, who had arrived the previous September, became the editor, having been employed by Governor Abernethy. He desired to make the paper a medium of communication ​
acceptable to all, of whatever political or sectarian preference. By this time the rule of the Printing Association had been modified to some extent. Mr. Wait edited a democratic paper in Michigan in 1844, during the exciting political cam- paign of that year, and had the power of quickly adapting himself to circum- stances — an indespensable requirement in newspaper work. The first news from the democratic national convention in that eventful year gave the names of Hon. Mr. Blank, and Hon. Mr. Blank as the successful nominees. Mr. Wait wrote the accustomed editorial congratulating the people upon the ability of the chosen standard bearers, and promising his heartiest support and placing the names at the masthead. After the paper had gone to press the news came that Polk and Dallas had secured the nominations. Mr. Wait hurried to the office, caused the latter named to be inserted, and the press was started again. What he had written in the first place answered for the last candidates as well.
In those early days it was common to slur Oregon weather as it is nowadays, for on December 14th, Editor Wait takes exception to it, and among other things, says : "For the year ending November 30th, there have been 240 clear days, 25 days on which it rained or snowed all day, and lOi days on which it rained, hailed, snowed, or was cloudy part of the day."
The only exchanges of the Spectator at this time were one at Honolulu, and two small papers in California, one in San Francisco and the other at Monterey, which were brought semi-occasionally by vessels. Papers and letters arrived from the "States" once a year. Thus, it may be seen, that an editor in those days must have been a man of resources.
On September 7, 1848, the Spectator suspended, the printer, John Fleming, going to the mines. Publication was resumed on October 12th, with S. Bentley, printer. At this date the editor apologizes as follows :
"The Spectator, after a temporary sickness, greets its patrons, and hopes to serve them faithful, and as heretofore, regularly. That 'gold fever' which has swept about three thousand of the officers, lawyers, physicians, farmers and mechanics of Oregon, from the plains of Oregon, into the mines of California, took away our printer also — hence the temporary non-appearance of the Spec- tator."
In 1848 Judge Wait drew the deed by which Francis W. Pettygrove conveyed the Portland townsite of six hundred and forty acres to Daniel H. Lownsdale, the consideration being $5,000 in leather.
With the issue of February 22, 1849, Mr. Wait's connection with the paper ceased. During the Cayuse war, 1847-48, Wait was assistant commissary general. Prior to leaving Massachusetts he had studied law, and was admitted to the bar in Michigan, in 1841. At the first election after Oregon became a state — 1859 — he was elected one of the judges of the supreme court, and was chief justice for four years. At the close of his official career he resumed his law practice and continued until he acquired a competency, when he retired, although still retaining an active interest in public affiairs, and frequently contributing to the press. He lived to the advanced age of eighty-five and died in 1898.
Soon after Mr. Wait's connection with the Spectator was ended, it suspended publication. On October 4, 1849, it again appeared with Rev. Wilson Blain, a clergyman of the United Presbyterian church, as editor, and George B. Goudy printer. On February 7, 1850, the paper was reduced to sixteen columns on account of a shortage in the paper supply. On April 18, 1850, Robert Moore, then proprietor of Linn City, opposite Oregon City, became owner, Blain being retained as editor. In this issue he says:
"We find the opinion that Oregon should be immediately erected into a state much more prevalent than we had anticipated — and we feel impelled to warmly urge it on public attention. — Time was when Oregon enjoyed a large share of public attention — but things have greatly changed in the last two years. Oregon has passed almost entirely into the shade. We rarely see Oregon men ​tioned in
the papers received from the states, while California, Deseret, and New Mexico engrossed a very considerable part of public attention."
On July nth, the size was increased to twenty columns and on July 25th, to twenty-four columns. In this issue appears a prospectus of The Oregon States- man. After stating what it is going to be in religion, in morals, and in politics, which it says will be democratic, — the prospectus goes on to say that "The States- man will be 116 inches larger than The Spectator," and places the subscription price at the lowest mark — $7 per annum, and $4 for six months. It was to be published weekly at Oregon City by Henry Russell and A. W. Stockwell. The Spectator of August 8th, contains the announcement that a whig journal — The Oregonian — is to be published at Portland by T. J. Dryer, a "stump speaker of power and a pungent writer." On September 5th Blain ended his career as editor.
Mr. Blain was born in Ross county, Ohio, February, 28, 1813. He was gradu- ated at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, in 1835. He completed the full course of study at the Associate Reformed Theological Seminary at Allegheny, Pennsyl- vania, was licensed to preach by the first Presbytery of Ohio on April 18, 1838, and was ordained by the Presbytery of Chillicothe, Ohio, October 17, 1839. He had pastoral charge of the congregation at Hebron, Indiana, until May 15, 1847, when he began preparing for the journey to Oregon as a missionary. He started on May 8, 1848, and arrived at Oregon City on November 29th. Soon after- wards he organized a small church — the first of his denomination in Oregon. On June 6, 1849, he was elected to the upper branch of the first territorial legisla- ture. In November, 1850, Mr. Blain removed to Union Point, Linn County, and organized a church over which he was installed pastor in 1853. He was a prime mover in the organization of the United Presbyterian church there. He established an academy at Union Point, in which he was manager and teacher until 1856. These exacting duties, in connection with his ministry, injured his health, and he died on February 22, 1861.
On September 12, 1850, the Spectator was first issued weekly with B. J. Schnebly, as editor, and the subscription price raised to $7 per annum.
On September 26th, the paper was again reduced to 16 columns, and the editor says:
"This is a matter of perplexity to us and a great disappointment to our sub- scribers ; but it is a mater over which we have no control. A large supply of paper is expected soon, as it has been seven months on the way from New York."
On October 17th, the former size is resumed, and the names of John Fleming and T. F. McElroy appear as printers; and on the 31st, the editor, in acknowl- edging the gift of a chair, says that it is the "first one that has been in this sanctum for seven weeks, and that the donors have a few more left at the rate of $30 per dozen."
On November 28, 1850, there appeared an advertisement for a railroad from "Milton and St. Helens to Lafayette," and the enterprise if referred to as a "brilliant chance for investment," and in the opinion of "competent judges," the cost is estimated at $500,000. The advertisement goes on to say that "From the unusual amount of stock taken abroad, and from the fact that every possible arrangement has been made for its speedy completion, it is confidently believed that the work will be finished in six months." The advertisement is signed by W. H. Tappan, St. Helens, and Crosby & Smith, Milton. An "N. B." is added to the notice in which it is stated, in italics, that "It is almost useless to add that the terminus of this road should be at a point that can be reached with safety by large vessels at any season and any state of the river" — a thrust at the preten- tions of the village of Portland to be a commercial point.
Beginning with Vol. VI, No. i, September 9, 185 1, Mr. Schnebly became owner of the Spectator. In November following he secured C. P. Culver as associ- ate editor. At this time T. F. McElroy and C. W. Smith were the printers. A few weeks later T. D. Watson and G. D. R. Boyd became the printer ​s. In the
issue of November 25th, Mr. Schnebly complains bitterly because there is only a semi-monthly mail between Oregon City and Portland. On February 3, 1852, the Spectator became for the first time, a distinctly political journal, and espoused the cause of the whig party. On March 16, 1852, it was suspended, and did not resume business until August 19, 1853. After this date the paper was not well supported, and gradually it grew weaker and weaker, and finally was sold by Mr. Schnebly to C. L. Goodrich, late in 1854, and was permanently suspended in March, 1855.
Soon afterwards the plant was sold to W. L. Adams, a pioneer of 1847, ^or $1,200. He used it in starting the Oregon City Argus, which was issued on April 21, 1855, and was the first distinctively Republican paper in Oregon, if not on the Pacific coast. Prior to this time he had become well known as a teacher, and as a forcible political writer and speaker. He wrote in the Oregonian over the signature of "Junius," and was the author of a locally famous political satire entitled "Brakespear;" or "Treason, Stratagems and Spoils." This was published in the Oregonian of February 14 and 21, and March 6 and 13, 1852, and afterwards printed in pamphlet form and illustrated with a number of rude cartoons — the first attempt of the kind in the territory — which added spice to the text.
The leading democrats of that day, among them Judge Matthew P. Deady, Judge O. C. Pratt, Asahel Bush, editor of the Oregon Statesman, John Orvis Waterman, editor of the Oregon Weekly Times, Colonel Wm. M. King, and General Joseph Lane, were mercilessly caricatured. All were veiled under ficti- tious names, but the pecularities and characteristics of each one were so aptly described that the disguises did not hide their identity.
Mr. Adams was born in Painesville, Ohio, on February 5, 1821, both parents emigrating from Vermont to Ohio when it was a wilderness. On his father's side he is connected with the Adams family of Massachusetts, and his mother, whose name was Allen, descended from Ethan Allen of Ticonderoga fame. He went to school at the academy in Milan, Ohio, for a time, and obtained through his own efforts a classical education at Bethany college, Virginia. He came to Oregon in 1848, and the first thing he did, after locating a claim in Yamhill County, was to join with his neighbors in building a schoolhouse, wherein he taught the children of the settlers, during the following winter.
As a master of cutting invective, he was rarely equaled and never surpassed. His proficiency in this direction, together with similar qualifications on the part of two of his territorial contemporaries, gave rise to what was locally known as the "Oregon style." He was fearless and audacious to the fullest degree and had the pugnacity of a bull-dog, never happier than when lampooning his opponents, and his efiforts were untiring. He was one of the leading spirits in organizing the Republican party in Oregon, and on February 11, 1867, at the "Free State Republican Convention," held in Albany, was appointed chairman of a committee of three to prepare an address to the people of the territory of Oregon. As a reward for diligent efforts as a speaker and writer in the arduous campaign closing on November 6, i860, by which Oregon was carried for Lincoln, by a small plurality, he received the appointment of collector of customs, being Lincoln's first appointee for Oregon. He then retired from the Argus, but during his residence in Astoria, edited the Marine Gazette for a time, and thereafter was a frequent contributor to the press of the state. In 1868-69 he made a trip to South America, and late in the latter year returned to the United States, and delivered a series of lectures. In 1873 he studied medicine in Philadelphia, and in 1875, began its practice in Portland. A few years later he removed to Hood river, where he still (1892) lives, now in his eighty-third year, as full of fire and fight as he was 40 years ago.
Before passing from the Argus, mention should be made of his foreman and allround right hand man — David Watson Craig. He was born near Maysville, Kentucky, July 25, 1830. His mother was Euphemia Early, a second co ​usin of
Jubal Early, who became a noted confederate general during the Civil war. His parents removed to Palmyra, Mo., in 1839, ^"d to Hannibal, Mo., in 1841. On May 25th, that year, he became an apprentice on the Hannibal Journal. One of the type setters was Orion Clemens, a brother of Samuel L. Clemens, better known by his pen name, "Mark Twain." (Mark himself, learned the printing business in the same office.) Serving an apprenticeship of four and a half years, young Craig went to Illinois, and worked at Quincy, Peoria and Springfield, re- maining at the latter place four years, as an employee of the Illinois State Jour- nal, edited by Simeon Francis, and served in various capacities as compositor, re- porter, editorial writer and telegraph operator. While in Hannibal, Craig began reading law, and his spare moments in Springfield, were thus employed, part of the time in Lincoln and Herndon's office. In due time he passed a rigid examina- tion, B. S. Edwards, John T. Stewart, and Abraham Lincoln being his examining committee, and was licensed on September 15, 1850, the license being signed by S. H. Treat, chief justice, and Lyman Trumbull, associate justice. He practiced law as occasion offered, and performed editorial work on the journal until the latter part of 1852. He then went to Washington, spending the winter, and in the spring of 1853 started for Oregon via the isthmus. He remained at Panama a few months acting as foreman of the Panama Daily Star. He soon went to San Francisco but only remained a little while, when he started for Oregon, and arrived in the Columbia river, November 25, 1853. He soon found his way to Salem, and sought employment of Asahel Bush, then proprietor of the Oregon Statesman, on which paper he worked for a short time. Unable to get per- manent employment with Mr. Bush, he had to seek other fields, and hence began teaching school. It was while thus engaged that Mr. Adams sent for him, to act as his foreman in the spring of 1855. He became proprietor of the Argus on April 16, 1859, retaining Mr. Adams as editor until April 24. 1863, at which time the Statesman mainly owned by Bush and Jas. W. Nesmith. the latter United States senator, and the Argus were consolidated, and the publication continued under the name of The Statesman, by an incorporation known as the Oregon Printing and Publishing Company, composed of J. W. P. Huntington, Benjamin Simpson, Rufus Mallory, Chester N. Terry, George H. Williams, and D. W. Craig, with Clark P. Candall as editor. In time Craig acquired a majority of the stock, and in 1866 sold the paper to Benjamin Simpson, and his sons, Sylvester C. and Samuel L. Simpson, became the editors. Simpson afterwards sold to W. A. McPherson and Wm. Morgan, the owners of the Unionists, and on Decem- ber 31, 1866, it was merged into that paper, the name of The Statesman being dropped. Eighteen months later Huntington acquired control of the Unionist, and published the same up to the time of his death, in the spring of 1869, when the plant was bought at an administrator's sale by S. A. Clark, and the name "The Statesman" again adopted. In the merging of the Argus into the Statesman, in 1863, an extra plant was acquired, most of which, aside from the press, was sold to an association of printers in Portland, who began publishing the Daily Union, with W. Lair Hill as editor. The press was acquired by H. R. Kincaid, who be- gan publishing the State Journal, Eugene, in December, 1863 ; and in this office today, may be found the original press of the Spectator not much the worse for its almost constant use since February 5, 1846^ — fifty-six years. Thus may be seen the connection between the Spectator of February 5, 1846, and with the Oregon Statesman of today.
Before taking up the story of the next paper, in chronological order, a few words may be said about the first election tickets printed in Oregon. In a let- ter recently discovered dated "Oregon City, Willamette Falls, O. T., 27 June, 1845," written to "Samuel Wilson, Esq." reading. "Cincinnati, Ohio. Politeness of Dr. White," it being carried by Dr. Elijah White from Oregon City to the nearest post office, which was in Missouri, J. W. Nesmith, in speakino- of the supreme judge of Oregon, says: "I received the nomination of the Champoeg convention and ran for the office at the election which took place on the first ​
Tuesday of the present month, at which I received the unanimous vote of the w^hole territory, happening to be on all the tickets, two of which I send you en- closed, which were printed for Champoeg County. They are the first tickets printed in Oregon. You should preserve them as curiosities." Now, the ques- tion is, where were those tickets printed ? Not at Oregon City, because the Spec- tator plant had not yet arrived; probably at the mission press at Lapwai, on the Clearwater, about four hundred miles distant by the most direct route of that day.
The second and third papers in the territory of Oregon, the Free Press and the Oregon American and Evangelical Unionist, having already been referred to, I will pass to the fourth. This was the Western Star, first issued at Mil- waukie by Lot Whitcomb, November 21, 1850, with John Orvis Waterman and William Davis Carter, printers, the first of the two being the editor. Those young men were thorough printers, and learned their trade in Montpelier, Ver- mont, from whence they came to California in 1849, ^^d to Oregon early in 1850. Lot Whitcomb was a native of Vermont, and the founder of Milwaukie.
This paper was twenty-four by thirty-four inches in size, with twenty-four columns, with a good assortment of display type for advertising, and job work, and was democratic in politics. In May, 185 1, Portland having begun to lead Milwaukie in growth, the paper was moved away from the latter place between two days, during the last week of the month, whereat Whitcomb and the Mil- waukie people generally were much incensed. At the time it was charged that Waterman and Carter stole the plant, but as a matter of fact, Whitcomb, owing his printers, more than he could conveniently pay, had given them a bill of sale of the whole establishment, and they had a right to do as they pleased with it. They took it away at night on a flatboat to save time, avoid open collision, and all further controversy. In this connection it may be of interest to note that with The Star, Dr. Oliver W. Nixon, for more than twenty-five years past the literary editor of the Inter-Ocean, Chicago, began his newspaper career, by as- sisting in the midnight adventure above described. He was an Oregon pioneer of 1850, and in 1851 taught school at Milwaukie. Afterwards he was a purser on the steamer Lot Whitcomb.
The Star of March 19, 185 1, states that a paper is about to be started at Salem by Joseph S. Smith, to be called the Salem Recorder. On the 27th No. i, Vol. I, of the Oregon Statesman, was received, and in commenting upon it, Edi- tor Waterman says: "We should judge from the style of the leaders that the editor had been dining on pickles and case knives since the adjournment of the legislature."
After going to Portland the name Western Star was dropped and on June 5, 185 1, the paper came out under the name of Oregon Weekly Times. Water- man and Carter were the proprietors until June 13, 1853, when Carter sold to Waterman, who continued it until May 29, 1854. He then sold to Messrs. V. . D. Carter and R. D. Austin, but retained editorial control until November 8, 1856. Some time after that Mr. Waterman was elected probate judge of Mult- nomah County, or Washington, as it was then, and later he practiced law for a time. The closing years of his life were spent in school work, sometimes in teaching and sometimes as county superintendent. He died at Cascades, Ska- mania County, Washington, a number of years ago.
Austin continued the publication of the Times, and on December 19, i860, started a daily, the third in Portland. In 1861 he made it a Union paper, sup- porting the nominees of that party composed of the republican and Douglas dem- ocrats. Austin was not a man given to "diligence in business." He was a "good fellow," hail-fellow-well-met with all, and was passionately fond of playing the violin. On this account he was much in demand at balls and parties. This caused more or less inattention to business, and by the early part of 1864, the paper suspended. Mr. Austin died in Portland about nineteen years ago. Among the editors of the Times in its later years, were the late A. C. G ​ibbs, afterward
the war governor of Oregon, and W. Lair Hill, who became a prominent attor- ney and is now a resident of San Francisco.
The fifth paper in Oregon was The Weekly Oregonian. In June, 1850, W. W. Chapman and Stephen Coffin, leading citizens of Portland, then a village of a few hundred people, and vitally interested in everything pertaining to its well being, had occasion to visit San Francisco, on business, and among other things to ar- range, if possible, for the publication of a newspaper. About July 4th, they met Thomas J. Dryer, at that time city editor of the California Courier, and dis- closed their plans to him. He, having a desire to engage in journalism, on his own account, listened favorably to their proposals. Accordingly, a plan of ope- rations was agreed upon, and a secondhand plant belonging to the Alta, was se- cured and shipped on October 8th, and arrived in the Columbia river in the latter part of November following. Before leaving San Francisco an order was sent to New York for a new plant throughout, to be shipped direct to Portland. The name — The Weekly Oregonian — was suggested by Colonel Chapman. The paper was issued on Wednesday, December 4, 1850, and Stephen Coffin, Col. W. W. Chapman, A. P. Dennison and W. W. Baker took the first paper by the four corners and lifted it from the press. The first number was distributed through the town by Arthur and Thomas, sons of Col. Chapman and Henry C. Hill, a stepson of Stephen Coffin. Colonel Chapman had a man to go on horseback and deliver the first number at various points along the trail as far south as CorvalHs then Marysville, and to cross the river and return on the east side. Thus was The Oregonian given to the world. A. M. Berry was the first printer, and Henry Hill the first "printer's devil."
Mr. Dryer was born in Canandaigua County, New York, January 10, 1808, and was the second son of Aaron and Lucinda Dryer. His paternal grandfather was a soldier of the revolution, and his father served in the war of 1812. His mother was a daughter of Isaac Lewis, who served under Washington. The family removed to Ohio, near Cincinnati, in 1818. Thomas stayed there until 1825, when he returned to New York and remained until 1841. During the next seven years he had a mail contract, shipped beef to New Orleans, and had an interest in a steam laundry in Cincinnati, each in turn, the latter being about the only industry that he had found profitable. In 1848 he went to California to mine for gold, but incidentally became connected with the Courier before men- tioned, as a reporter, where he was found as previously stated. Mr. Dryer was a whig, and an aggressive and spirited writer, with a dash of audacity and fear- lessness which were well suited to pioneer journalism, besides being a born con- troversialist, and an attractive speaker. His attacks on democracy by pen and voice were bold, persistent and denunciatory, to a marked degree. The dem- ocratic journals, particularly the Statesman, replied in kind, and thus consider- able excitement was created throughout the territory among the partisans of the respective journals when they made their appearance from week to week. The new plant of The Oregonian, before referred to, arrived early in April and the printed page was enlarged. The new Washington hand press superseded the Ramage, and that machine, with the old plant of The Oregonian, was bought in 1852, by T, F. McElroy, and J. W. Wiley, and taken around on the schooner Mary Taylor to Olympia and used in printing the Columbian, the first newspaper north of the Columbia river, and was issued at "Olympia, Puget's Sound, O. T., Saturday, September 11, 1852."
Notwithstanding Mr. Dryer's capacity to work hard, it was difficult for him to make ends meet. With considerable ability as an editor, he was also in fre- quent demand as a public speaker. This left him but little time to attend to busi- ness matters, which, as every one knows, who has had any experience in news- paper business, is largely a matter of small details. This feature of journalism was wholly distasteful to him.
About this time, November, 1853, a beardless youth of seventeen appeared on the scene. He had finished his journey across the plains a few weeks before, ​and was seeking employment. He had been taught by his father to set type at the age of twelve, and hence had five years experience. He had applied at the printing office at Oregon City and at The Times office in Portland without success. The job of bartender had been offered him, but this was not to his taste. Finally, he called at the Oregonian office one morning and asked for work. Mr. Dryer was rather brusque in his manner and said "What can you do?" "Set type," was the reply. "Well see what you can do with that," said Mr. Dryer, handing him a composing stick and a piece of reprint copy, and directing him to a case. The article was soon set and proof taken. Mr. Dryer was surprised to find it correct and at once regarded the youth with favor. He said "Have you any money?" "No," was the reply. Tossing the boy a $5 coin he was bidden to call again. This he did and Mr. Dryer soon found him a most industrious workman—always on hand, and willing to work early and late. Before many months elapsed this young man was advanced to the position of foreman. Soon after that he overhauled the subscription books and began introducing more careful business methods. Thus it was that Henry L. Pittock became connected with The Oregonian.
On November 8, 1856, he and Elisha Treat Gunn, an accomplished printer who came from Connecticut and had worked on the paper a number of years, were admitted to partnership by Mr. Dryer. This continued until November 20, 1858, when Pittock and Gunn withdrew. On November 24, i860, Mr. Dryer transferred his interest to Mr. Pittock, but retained editorial control until January 12, 1861. This is how it came to pass that Henry L. Pittock became owner of The Oregonian. In recognition of Dryer's services in assisting to carry Oregon for the republican ticket in i860, on which he was one of the electors, Lincoln appointed him commissioner to the Sandwich islands, whither he went in 1861. A few years later he returned to Portland and spent the remainder of his life to the year of his death in 1879, the principal part of this time holding the office of justice of the peace.
Upon becoming sole owner of The Oregonian Mr. Pittock saw that in order to make his business successful, he must start a daily, although there were two in the field already. Accordingly, the necessary new material was secured, and the Morning Oregonian was first issued February 4, 1861, four pages, each page being eleven and one-half by eighteen and one-fourth inches, four columns each. It is needless to recount the further history of this enterprise at this time.
Since Mr. Dryer, the principal editors of the paper have been as follows: Simeon Francis, long the owner of the State Journal, of Springfield, Illinois, who came as a result of a letter written by D. W. Craig, with the expectation of establishing a paper himself, but finding the field well occupied, he set type and did faithful editorial work on the Oregonian until 1861, when he was appointed paymaster in the United States army by President Lincoln, for many years a warm personal friend; Henry Miller; Amory Holbrook, who was appointed United States district attorney by President Taylor, an able lawyer and a polished and vigorous writer; John F. Damon, Samuel A. Clarke, H. W. Scott, W. Lair Hill, and again H. W. Scott. Mr. Scott's first editorial engagement began May 15, 1865, although he became an editorial contributor several months before. In 1872 he was appointed collector of customs. In 1877 he bought an interest in the paper, and became editor in chief, which position he retained to the day of his death, August 7, 1910. Here ends Mr. Himes' account of the press of Oregon.
HISTORY OF THE OREGONIAN.
The following history of the Oregonian was prepared by its late editor, Harvey W. Scott, entitled "Fifty Years Ago," and printed in the daily Oregonian for December 4, 1900:
"Fifty years ago today the first number of the Oregonian appeared. The population of Oregon by the census of that year was 13,294. The territory that ​
BUILDERS OF THE OREGONIAN
* Thomas J. Dryer, First Editor
* Harry L. Pittock, Founder of Daily
* Harvey W. Scott, "The" Editor ​existed then under the designation of Oregon included the whole region west of the Rocky mountains between the 43d and 48th parallels of latitude. Within this region at the present time lies the states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, part of Wyoming and a larger portion of Montana. Portland, when the first number of The Oregonian was issued, had probably 600 inhabitants. The Oregonian has been a witness and the main chronicler of all the growth of this great region, containing now over 200,000 inhabitants; and Portland remains the most considerable city in it.
The modern state finds a history, or transcript, of its life in the growth of the newspaper. In the olden time there was no newspaper to record the birth and growth of states. The state grew and the newspaper came later. But in the modern time the newspaper appears in the beginning, and its work and its growth are coincident with the progress of the state.
PAPER CAME WITH PIONEERS.
So The Oregonian appeared with the very beginning of development in the Pacific northwest. American pioneers had, indeed, been in the country ten or fifteen years, but their number was too few to constitute an active social organization and living community. But, as Portland began to grow into a village the ambitious men of the place were resolved that there should be a newspaper to make her name known, to record her growth, to advocate her interests, to carry her message to the world. She must have a newspaper, moreover, to set forth her attractions to the country, to represent its possibilities, to prove to all who would read that here was a seat of coming empire. The time had come for Portland to reach out for trade, to exert her position in respect to external and internal commerce; and in the early part of the year 1850 William W. Chapman and Stephen Coffin, two citizens who took a leading part in all undertakings to establish Portland, determined to visit San Francisco on various business of this character, and one considerable part of their purposes was to make arrangements for establishing a newspaper here.
FIRST ISSUE IN 1850.
On this errand they were in San Francisco on July 4, 1850. There, and about that date, Mr. Coffin happened to meet Thomas J. Dryer, a native of Ulster County, New York, who had recently arrived in California. Mr. Dryer had worked on the country press in his state and was a vigorous rather than a polished writer. He had brought with him to California a hand printing press and a small lot of printing material, and was looking for a place where he might start a newspaper. Mr. Coffin introduced him to Mr. Chapman, and the two explained to him that they wanted a newspaper at Portland. Mr. Dryer at once consented to come to Portland. "Now we shall have a paper at Portland," said Mr. Chapman, "and we will call it 'The Oregonian.'"
As soon as practicable, Mr. Dryer's press and material were shipped but did not arrive at Portland until November. Messrs. Chapman and Coffin took great interest in the forthcoming journal; they assisted Mr. Dryer in furnishing a publication office; they sat up all the night preceding the issue of the first number; and there was a series of solemnly amusing ceremonies as the first paper came ofif the press. It was a sheet of four pages, six columns to the page, and was to be published weekly.
On the morning of December 4, 1850, the first number was delivered through the town by Arthur and Thomas, sons of Mr. Chapman, and by Henry Hill, stepson of Mr. Coffin. The subscription price of this little paper was $7 a year. Mr. Chapman hired a man to go on horseback and deliver the first number as far as Corvallis (then Marysville), on the west side of the Willamette valley, with instructions to cross there and deliver it on the east side on his return. Thus The Oregonian was given to the world. The office was at the northwest comer ​of Front and Morrison streets, in a shack that was pulled down a year or two later.
A few months after The Oregonian was started at Portland the Statesman was started at Oregon City, then the capitol of the territory ; and as one was whig and the other democrat, each was a spur to the partisanship of the other. In those days there was no rivalry in the obtainment and publication of news, the rivalry of newspapers was shown in the championship of the claim of their respective localities, and in the rough discussion of local and provincial politics. During the first ten years of the existence of The Oregonian, the territory, and then the state, were controlled by the democratic party, and the opposition was virtually hopeless.
H. L. PITTOCK TAKES HELM.
The paper had been published nearly three years when Henry L. Pittock came to it. He was a practical printer, a youth of steady habits and untiring industry and he it is who has made The Oregonian. He came across the plains with the emigration of 1853, was in Oregon City in October of that year, and about November I, came to Portland to seek work at his trade. He was engaged at once and upon him gradually fell the duty of publishing the paper. Mr. Dryer gave little attention to details and the office needed a man who was steady and methodical. Mr. Pittock was just the man it wanted, and to this day he has continued to shoulder its management, carrying the paper from one stage of improvement to another, and rising continually to meet every opportunity and to fill every new demand of the situation. Nay, more ; he has anticipated possibilities, and has kept the Oregonian at all times ahead of the general development of the country. To him, more than to all others, it owes the triumph of its career.
It was slow business for many years, for growth was hardly possible under the limitations of pioneer life in so small and so spare a community. The earnings of the paper were small and debts accumulated. Mr. Dryer through its columns and through his activity in the small politics of the times, kept himself continually before the people, and was one of the prominent figures of the day; fie was several times a member of the territorial legislature, where he was as aggressive as in the columns of his newspaper, and later he was a member of the convention that framed the constitution of the state. He was not a man of business habits ; yet, as he was owner of the paper, he did what he chose with it, and its fitful methods of work and management were hindrances to business success. Nevertheless, Mr. Dryer was a steady character, the man for the times and the paper under his direction was a positive force in Portland and throughout Oregon.
DRYER GIVES UP EDITOR'S CHAIR.
In 1860 Mr. Dryer was chosen one of the electors of Oregon on a Lincoln presidential ticket. He now looked for official recognition from the administration and obtained it. After an experience of ten years he had found that there were no profits in the way of business in conducting a weekly paper in a sparsely settled state, and the day of the daily newspaper here had not come and could not be forseen. An official position much below the first class was considered better than The Oregonian of that day ; and Mr. Dryer was elated with the offer of the mission of the Hawaiian islands. Owing Mr. Pittock quite a sum for services, which he had no other means of paying, Mr. Dryer gave Mr. Pittock The Oregonian for the debt; and in a short time took his departure for Honolulu, where he remained for several years as the representative of the United States. Afterwards he returned to Portland, where he died in 1879.
OREGONIAN BECOMES DAILY.
Mr. Pittock now had a fine opportunity to publish a paper on his own account. Its fortunes, never promising, were at the lowest ebb. The paper was in debt, ​in debt,
quite an amount of credit stood on its books, little of which was collectible. There were other newspapers in Portland that divided with it the little business there was, and two of these papers, the Times and Advertiser, had begun to issue dailies, Mr. Pittock's first, resolve on coming into possession of The Oregonian was to start a daily also. As yet there was no room or business for a daily paper, how- ever, but Mr. Pittock had to compete with his rivals, or drop out altogether; so February 4, 1861, he issued the first issue of the Daily Oregonian. The weekly had then been published 10 years and two months.
The first number of the daily was a paper of four pages, four columns to the page. As the Civil war was just breaking out, great efforts were made to get news and the energy of The Oregonian under the direction of Mr. Pittock soon put it in the lead of its competitors. The contest was one in which patience, industry, application, and skill had the usual result; and the contest was soon decided in Mr. Pittock's favor. Another helpful thing was The Oregonian's vigorous espousal of the national cause in the crisis of the rebellion. The people began to look to it, not only for the news, but for the expression of the national sentiment of the northwest.
TELEGRAPHIC NEWS OBTAINED.
Then, and for a long time afterward, the news of the world came to Oregon wholly through San Francisco. In 1861 there was a weekly steamer from San Francisco to Portland, which was the main dependence ; so Portland got a week's news at a time. California now had telegraphic communication with the east, and not much later the extension of a line from California to Oregon began. As this line approached Oregon the time was shortened. Brief news reports were taken off at Redding, then at Yreka, then at Jacksonville, and forwarded to Portland by daily mail, then first established. The Oregonian was foremost in getting news by this manner, and as the war news of those days was eagerly sought, the paper quickly took the leading position as a medium of news that it has ever since maintained. In the early part of the year 1864 telegraphic communication was established between San Francisco and Portland, and The Oregonian began to receive regular telegraphic reports, which, however, for a long time gave only a bare outline of the most important news. The rates were high, the resources of the paper were small, there was but a poor system of gathering news at that day, and even the journals of San Francisco were obliged to content themselves with scanty reports, though the news was of the most important character.
COMPETITORS COME AND GO.
Though The Oregonian's competitor, soon after it started a daily dropped out of the field, other papers were started no long time after ; but they, too, were short-lived. It is unnecessary to make any list of them here. In the year 1866 a more pretentious and formidable effort was made. The Oregon Herald, daily and weekly, was started. It was a democratic paper ; backed by a good deal of money, and as time went on was able to invest a good deal more. The Herald was pub- lished nearly 10 years. It was able to get the same telegraphic news as The Oregonian, but it never was prosperous, probably never paid its way, and when its resources were finally exhausted and it was forced to succumb, its various pro- prietors had sunk fully $150,000. Yet, while this competitor was in the field. The Oregonian had still another to meet. In 1870 Ben Holladay started the Oregon Bulletin. This paper he backed lavishly, but it was always a losing business and after a career of a little over five years it too gave up the ghost. In that time it had sunk nearly, or quite $200,000.
A third formidable effort was made to 1880, when the Daily Northwest News appeared. This paper was as unsuccessful as its predecessors. The original pro- prietor, after losing a great amount of money, abandoned it, and it passed from the hands of one to another, until finally after a career of six or seven years it suspended. Its losses had also been very heavy — equal probably to those of either ​of the unfortunate ventures that preceded it. There have been other efforts of like kind, vigorous, yet unsuccessful needless to recount here. These statements are presented as part of the history of The Oregonian, since they tend to show that it does not owe its position and success to absence of competition, or to the fortune of opportunity, but to vigilance, management and hard work.
EDITORIAL MANAGEMENT STRONG.
Of the editorial management of The Oregonian after Mr. Dryer's time, it now remains to speak. During some months there was no regular editor. Mr. Pittock got work done as he could, and superintended it himself. In 1861 Simeon Francis, who had long published the Springfield, Ill., Journal, came to Oregon and took the editorship of The Oregonian.
His successor was Amory Holbrook, an able man, but an irregular worker, who held the position about two years. After him, John F. Damon, now of Seattle, and Samuel A. Clark of Salem, were editors, successively. In May, 1865, Mr. Clark resigned and Harvey W. Scott, succeeded him. Mr. Scott had come to Oregon in his early boyhood and educated himself against great difficulties and was glad of an opportunity to show his willingness to work. In his hands continuous and laborious editorial work upon The Oregonian, by one who had no thought beyond doing his best and his utmost for the paper, began.
With the exception of the interval between October, 1872, and April, 1877, The Oregonian has ever been under the editorial direction of Mr. Scott. During that interval the editor was W. Lair Hill, an able lawyer, well known throughout the northwest, and now a resident of Oakland, California. Mr. Hill came into the paper in consequence of a partial change in the proprietorship; Mr. Pittock had sold to Hon. H. W. Corbett and others, including Mr. Hill, a controlling interest in the paper, but Mr. Pittock retained the business management. In March, 1877, Mr. Scott bought the interest that had been sold to Mr. Corbett, and Mr. Pittock and Mr. Scott together bought the shares that had been sold to the others, and Mr. Scott resumed editorial charge. Since then The Oregonian, as knowTi today, has been created.
When the daily Oregonian was started by Mr. Pittock there were three other daily papers already in the field. There were the Commercial Advertiser, which had been published more than one year; The Daily News for some months, and The Daily Times, just started. There was no telegraph in Oregon or the northwest. Exciting as the times were—for it was just at the beginning of the Civil war—news was unobtainable till long after the events of the day; and it was not possible to tell when steamers would arrive from San Francisco, or later, when the stage coaches would get through the seas of mud and mountains of snow between Sacramento and Portland. But vigilance then was a prime factor, even as it is now, and even more so ; and the ceaseless vigilance and industry that directed The Oregonian in those days and after days made the newspaper.
THE EVENING COMMERCIAL.
Besides the hopeful attempts to start newspapers mentioned above there were many others quite as hopeful on the part of their projectors, yet not costing so much money. In about 1868 one M. P. Bull, an earnest, hustling young fellow, launched the first attempt of an evening paper, and called it The Daily Evening Commercial. Bull had very little money to start with and no backers that cared for his paper; although Captain Ainsworth, and probably others, who admired the pluck and energy of the man, did help him in a friendly and wholly gratuitous way. Bull kept the Comercial afloat for about eighteen months, and then had to drop everything for want of print paper that cost hard cash.
THE BEE.
The next adventure in a daily evening paper was made by Don Steams, a wide- awake young man from Omaha. Stearns had some experience on newspaper ​work, probably on the Omaha Bee, and thought he could see an opening for a daily evening paper in Portland, about 1880, that would bring him both fortune and fame. But like Bull with his Commercial, Stearns' capital consisted almost wholly of super-abounding energy, hopefulness and desperate courage. About the same time the Oregonian people started the Evening Telegram. But notwithstanding the hard cash and equipment back of the Telegram, Stearns' Bee was a fearful "buzzer" in the flank of the Telegram, and proved a very thorn in the flesh of the proprietors of the larger papers. And to make the matter more embarassing, Stearns had married a very attractive and brilliant young woman in the person of the daughter of Mrs. Duniway, the sister of the editor and one of the proprietors of the Telegram; and had by this fortunate alliance, secured a very large and enthusiastic circle of friends and supporters in the newspaper world of Oregon. But all to no final success ; the capital of the Oregonian company, and the dead set battle finally wore out Stearns. But not until the plucky little man had got a pretty good foothold in Oregon and Clarke County, Washington, where he pioneered the business of buying up lands, planting them to prunes, dividing into tracts and selling out at a large profit. The real estate operators who are doing that speculation now with apples may think they have started something new. But they have not ; for Don Stearns was thirty years ahead of them, and his prune trees all over Clarke County are money makers today.
AGRICULTURAL PRESS.
Like everything else, the agricultural press of the northwest, started in Portland. A. G. Walling, a son of a pioneer nurseyman, launched the first journal devoted to agriculture and kindred subjects, and called it The Willamette Farmer. Mr. Walling was not a farmer or fruit grower himself, but a job printer and bookbinder. John Minto of Salem, was one of the principal writers on this paper. Simeon Francis, who was afterward at one time editor of The Oregonian, was also a contributor to the paper. The paper ran its course, and suspended publication for want of support in eighteen months. At that time there were not 4,000 people in Portland and not more than 50,000 in all of Oregon.
The next venture in this line was made by Samuel F. Blythe and Edward Casey, with an eight page folio journal called "The Northwestern Farmer and Dairyman," published from 1882 to 1888. This paper secured a general circulation throughout Oregon, Washington and Idaho. Mr. Blythe retiring in 1888, Mr. Casey enlarged the paper under the name of The Pacific Farmer, published by The Pacific Farmer Printing Company, with Joseph Gaston, editor. The paper was fairly well supported and run a job printing office in connection. The journal continued during the life of Mr. Casey, and upon his death was consolidated with the weekly paper published by O. P. Mason and daughter, advocating universal suffrage and being the same journal founded by and published for a quarter of a century, by Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway, the pioneer and heroine of the equal suffrage movement in Oregon. The Masons afterwards sold the consolidated paper to Frank Lee, a granger, from Yakima Valley. Mr. Lee has issued the paper ever since under the title of "The Northwest Pacific Farmer," and secured a large patronage in subscriptions and advertising.
Another agricultural journal thoroughly established is , "The North Pacific Rural Spirit." This journal was founded by W. W. Baker about twenty years ago. Mr. Baker was the first appointee to fill the office of food and dairy commissioner. The office was given him as a political favor, with no expectations that he would render any valuable service to the public, for he had no qualifications for the office. But the salary was ample to live on, and it enabled him to tide his paper over hard times and slender income until it was finally put upon a self-supporting basis as the recognized organ of the horse breeding and sporting interests of the state.
​The Oregon Agriculturist and Rural Northwest is another agricultural journal now firmly established, and devoted largely to the interest of the fruit growers.
THE RELIGIOUS PRESS.
The "Pacific Christian Advocate" of the interests of the Methodist Episcopal church, is the oldest of the religious papers of Portland, being founded about the year 1862. Rev. Thos. H. Pearne, a very able and eloquent preacher was the first editor. Rev. Isaac Dillon was the editor in 1868. Rev. Daniel Rader is the present editor. The paper has a large circulation, and is a powerful influence on all moral and public questions affecting morals.
The Catholic Sentinel comes next after the Advocate in date of founding, and is probably now fully equal to the Advocate in circulation and influence. In a recent account of its tribulations in getting started, much of what it says of itself, would also apply to the Advocate.
The Catholic Sentinel was first published in February, 1870. It was due to the enterprise and courage of H. L. Herman and J. F. Atkinson, that the publication was launched. In the then very sparsely-settled region of the Pacific northwest, it required considerable courage to embark on the uncertain sea of Catholic journalism. Within the vast territory, which the paper might be expected to serve, the several dioceses did not contain as many Catholics as could be found in two or three good sized eastern city parishes. The great extent of territory, made the securing of subscriptions a difficult matter and had not the clergy undertaken to act as loyal agents throughout the northwest, the enterprise must have failed. Indeed, it is not too much to say that all through the paper's history, the generous loyalty of the clergy has been its chief asset.
The Sentinel was established during the Vatican council, and there seems to have been more than a merely fortuitous connection between the establishment of a Catholic paper in the Pacific northwest, and the epoch making gathering of the bishops of the Catholic church. The convocation of the Vatican council by Pius IX, and the announcement that it would deal among other matters with Papal infallibility, let loose a flood of vituperation against the Pope and all things Catholic. In few places, perhaps, was the outbreak of anti-Catholic feeling more bitter than here in the northwest.
Other religious papers established here are the Jewish Tribune, weekly. Rev. N. Mosessohn, editor.
The Pacific Baptist, weekly, Rev. James A. Clarke, editor.
The Presbyterian societies published for a time an elegant monthly, entitled "The Hesperian;" but it was limited mainly to church subjects, and never secured a general circulation even among Presbyterians; and for that reason was discontinued years ago.
PAPERS IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES.
The naturalized citizens from foreign countries residing in Portland are public spirited, or clannish, owing to the angle of vision of the reader, in supporting newspapers devoted to the entertainment and interest of the various nationalities represented.
The Swedes have their "Oregon Posten," F. M. Lonegreen, editor, published weekly. The Scandinavians, generally, have their "Pacific Scandinavian," Independent Weekly, Langhoe Publishing Co., publishers. The Germans have their "Deutsche Zeitung," weekly, devoted to the interests of the German nationalities, A. E. Kern & Co., publishers. And also "The Nachrichten" (German weekly) Edgar Winter, editor.
​The Armen-Seelen Freund, German monthly, The Benedictine Press, Publishers. Oregon News — Japanese daily, N. T. Abe, editor and publisher.
women's journals.
The Western Lady, monthly, Frank Lee, editor and publisher. The Wo- men's Tribune, fort-nightly. Organ of Woman Suffrage, Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby, editor. The World's Advance Thought, Mrs. Lucy A. Mallory, editor.
LITERARY VENTURES
Portland has always possessed one or more sharp witted weeklies, whose trenchant satires on existing fads and follies have been highly appreciated by readers who prize talent and independence, more than circulation and advertis- ing. Among these now doing yeoman service in the cause of justice and com- mon decency, may be mentioned "The Weekly Indaha," by J. A. Horan, editor, and Wm. B. Orr, manager.
"The Lantern," by Jos. B. Fithian, The People's Press, by Geo. K. McCord, editor and manager. "The Sketch," by Murray L. Wade, publisher. The "Spec- tator," by Hugh Hume, editor. "Oregon Citizen" by L. D. Mahon, editor.
TRADE JOURNALS.
Commercial Review, weekly, Leo Peterson, editor. Pacific Builder and Engineer, A. V. Willoughby, manager. 'The "Guide," semi-weekly, directions to every place. J. C. Stuart, manager. Hardware World, hardware trades, T. M. Shearman, manager. Hotel News, hotel intelligence, G. W. Dixon, publisher. Medical Sentinel, Dr. Henry W. Coe, editor.
Northwest Furniture Review, Vincent-Merrick Pub. Co., managers. Oregon Tradesman, by J. P. Chambless, editor and publisher. Pacific Banker, banking interests, Lydell Baker, editor.
The Timberman, monthly, organ of the lumbermen, Geo. M. Cornwall, editor. Pacific Drug Review, monthly, Guy T. Ketcheson, publisher. Retail Grocers Magazine, C. B. Merrick, editor, (now postmaster.) School and Home Magazine, D. N. Cochran, editor and publisher.
FRATERNAL SOCIETY PAPERS.
The Artizan, monthly, Hon. H. S. Hudson, editor and publisher. Pacific Odd Fellow, monthly, W. A. Wheeler, publisher. Portland Olive Branch, monthly, A. Wells, editor,
Portland Labor Press, organ of the trade unions, weekly, and with large circulation, H. J. Parkinson, editor.
SUNDAY PAPERS.
Sunday Oregonian, immense circulation, printing lOO pages, fully illustrated, with magazine articles and special historical and other general literature.
Sunday Journal, on same lines as Sunday Oregonian, with about equal circulation.
Sunday Welcome, oldest Sunday paper, started by John F. Atkinson in 1870, now owned and edited by Morris Senosky.
Sunday Mercury, started by Walter Moss in 1878, and by questionable methods, and personal attacks and intimations against private character attained a large circulation, "commanding" liberal advertising from thin skinned and vulnerable people until the paper was making a thousand dollars a month for its editors. By libel suits instituted by aggrieved persons the questionable methods of the then editors were exposed, the power of the paper broken do ​patronage driven off. It is now published by Mr. C. H. Clute as a legitimate enterprise.
SUBURBAN JOURNALS.
    The Milwaukie Record, Milwaukie, Col. Jas. P. Shaw, editor and proprietor.
    Mount Scott News, Arleta, H. F. Pfeifer, editor.
    Mount Scott Tribune, Lents, Byron E. Crawford, editor.
    Sellwood Bee, Sellwood, Charles I. Price, editor.
    St. John's Review, St. Johns.
THE DAILY PRESS.
The following is a summary of the Daily Press of 1910.
STAFF OF THE OREGONIAN, SEPT. 28, 1910.
    Managing owner, H. L. Pittock.
    Asst. manager, C. A. Morden.
    Managing editor, Edgar B. Piper.
    City editor, O. C. Leiter.
    Sunday editor, N. J. Levinson.
    Night editor, Paul R. Kelty.
    Weekly editor, W. J. Cuddy.
    Telegraph editor, L. K. Hodges.
    Markets editor, J. M. Lownsdale.
    Advertising manager, W. J. Hoffman.
    Circulation manager, A. K. Slocum.
    Superintendent mechanical departments, David Foulkes.
This seems to be the proper place to insert such mention of Harvey Whitefield Scott, who was for forty-three years editor of the Daily Oregonian, as I am capable of making. I first met Mr. Scott in the editorial room of the old Oregon Statesman in 1866. He had come to Salem to call on the young lady he afterwards married. And as he entered the old sanctum he towered above the surroundings as a giant. His stature and strength were prepossessing. I was then the editor of the Statesman, which had a larger weekly circulation than the Oregonian, of which Mr. Scott was the editor. He was then as ever afterwards as positive in his political views, and as ready to express them, as at any time in his life; and we soon got into a warm argument over the respective merits of the then "greenback" currency, and the strictly gold and silver currency, the advocacy of which distinguished Mr. Scott's editorial career. But from that time we remained friends throughout life, although often differing widely about men and measures.
The main characteristics of Harvey W. Scott were his great capacity for work; for long continued strenuous mental combat for what he deemed right, and against what he deemed wrong; for his courageous advocacy of his opinions; for his great comprehension of all the factors influencing the progress of society and the welfare of mankind; for his intimate knowledge of the history of peoples and governments; and his ability to enlighten his readers on a vast number of subjects. Other men might surpass him on one thing or another; but on the whole curricula of human knowledge, opinion and philosophy he never had his equal in Oregon, or among his contemporaries in the United States.
Many persons have thought him to have been unsympathetic. But there never was a greater mistake. Under the bluff exterior the tender heart was there; and all that was needed to arouse its instant action was the honest purpose; the meritorious object.
​I personally know of an instance where an innocent man was sent to the states prison on a charge of which he was not guilty; and after great efforts by George H. Williams and many of the leading citizens had failed to secure a pardon, the facts were stated to Mr. Scott. He took an active interest in the man at once—a poor man without money or position—and wrote such a letter to the governor as secured immediate action and prompt pardon. Many other instances of real sympathy and prompt assistance might be given.
Harvey Whitefield Scott was the greatest mental, moral and political force the state of Oregon, or the Pacific coast ever produced.
The annual meeting of the Oregon Historical society adopted the following memorial of Mr. Scott, December 17, 1910:
"August 7, 1910, Harvey Whitefield Scott died at a hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, as the result of a surgical operation. As he was the first president of this society, and was re-elected twice, thus serving for three years, it is fitting that something more than a mere reference to him should be inscribed upon our records.
"Mr. Scott was born in Tazewell County, Illinois, February i, 1838, hence was 72 years, six months and seven days old at the time of his death. He started to Oregon with his parents a few weeks after he was 14 years old, and had the great misfortune to lose his mother, who was buried in a nameless grave midway across the continent. Upon arrival here the usual experiences of pioneer life confronted him. All conditions of this character were met resolutely and with a cheerful spirit. That was the habit of the great majority of pioneers. Those disposed to shirk or complain did not get here.
DETERMINED SPIRIT WINS.
"During the years that he worked at manual labor upon the farm, and the months that he was in the volunteer service fighting Indians, the desire to acquire a classical education was uppermost in his mind. This he secured at Pacific university, without aid other than that afforded by his own strong arms, supported by a determined spirit. After graduation he studied law and was admitted to the bar. The practice of law, however, was not to his liking. The opportunity to enter the profession of journalism presented itself. It was seized, and in the forty years of his connection with The Oregonians that paper has achieved an eminence second to no other in our nation.
"Mr. Scott's unusual knowledge of world history—he was always a student—enabled him to reason from cause to effect in such a way that led many to regard him as utterly dogmatic, when the fact was that he simply reproduced in concrete form the experience of the past and placed the same before the people of his time. He was essentially a leader, yet unconsciously so for the most part.
"In his death his family, this city, the Pacific coast, and particularly this society, has sustained a great and irreparable loss. In his example, however, there are many compensations. His industry as a lad, his willingness to do with all his might whatever he found to do, his determination to secure an education within himself, his belief in the gospel of hard work as the principal stepping-stone to success—so well exemplified in his own experience—his devotion to principle as he understood it, his loyalty to his adopted state—all these qualities and many more deserve emulation in the highest degree by the young people of the present day."
Three other daily papers are now printed in the city; but their managers were found indisposed to give out any information for record in this history.
The Evening Telegram, already referred to and published by the Oregonian Publishing Company, has been issued regularly for a quarter of a century, and is firmly established. Circulation unknown.
The Daily Evening Journal was started nine years ago by Mr. C. S. Jackson, who came to Portland from Pendleton, Oregon, with some money, some ​newspaper experience, and a large equipment of energy and persistence. Mr. Jackson has been successful in establishing his paper in the face of the active competition of the Telegram; and it has now a circulation of 40,000 copies of the daily edition, and a large and growing circulation of the weekly and Sunday issues.
The Daily Evening Press, the latest venture in a daily — was started three years ago as a penny paper, and has steadily increased its circulation and advertising, especially among the working classes ; and seems to be firmly established.
A REBEL SYMPATHIZER AND MOB VIOLENCE.
An editor and his paper, which attracted much attention and criticism in their day in Portland, but which have now practically disappeared from the remembrance of men and the thoughts of this day, was Beriah Brown, the second editor of the Daily Herald of Portland. Mr. Brown was an amiable, kind hearted, Christian gentleman of the old school; but nevertheless so conscientiously (some people would say, so much of a bigot) attached to his political principles as to be willing to die as a martyr if need be.
Mr. Brown secured his malodorous fame in San Francisco where he published a paper before coming to Portland. He did not believe in prosecuting the war to suppress the rebellion of the southern slaveholders; and in his San Francisco paper he openly said so, and to the full extent of his ability and the circulation of his paper opposed the war and bitterly assailed President Lincoln. This did not suit the hot-blooded patriots of the Golden Gate city, and they gathered in mass, stormed his printing office, wrecked the whole concern and threw his type and press into the street. Thoroughly alarmed for his life, Brown fled to Mexico where he remained for a year; and then came to Oregon and took editorial charge of the Herald.
True to his religious and temperamental disposition Mr. Brown took his loss and public condemnation with more fortitude and equanimity than those would have taken it that had destroyed his property.
THE WEST SHORE.
The first illustrated paper published west of the Rocky mountains, was started in the city of Portland in the year 1875, by L. Samuel. It was a risky enterprise at that age of the city ; and was made a success only by the most intense energy, untiring persistence, and rare qualifications for the work possessed by Mr. Samuel. At that day, illustrations for magazine articles had to be engraved on stone, which was a very slow and expensive work as compared with the half-tone engraving of the present day. But the work on "The West Shore" was well executed, and some of Mr. Samuels old pictures are serving as copies for illustrations of this book.
"The West Shore" was the first publication to attract attention to the grand natural scenery of Oregon, and advertise the great resources of this country; and in this respect rendered a service to Oregon which cannot be estimated in dollars or thousands of dollars. The magazine was published continuously for fifteen years and attained a circulation of 15,000 copies on regular issue.
But the large expenses involved for good illustrations, and good paper, with the limited advertising, the city could, or would then give, limited the net income to an amount that did not recompense the labor, brains and push necessary to keep the journal up to the high standard of excellence the publisher aimed at. And so Mr. Samuel made a milestone of his magazine foundling, on his journey through life; went into the life insurance business, and founded the Oregon Life Insurance Company, which has proved a great financial success, and given the erstwhile magazine publisher a larger field to do good to his fellowmen.
THE HISTORICAL QUARTERLY.
The historical magazine entitled, "Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society," is the outgrowth of the Oregon Pioneer Association and the Oregon His​torical Society. The Pioneer Association took definite shape in the year 1873, and thereafter the address delivered at the annually recurring meetings of the association formed the ground work from which the historical society and its literature proceeded.
The Historical Quarterly has already accomplished a great work in securing and preserving the original facts and old records of the history of the northwest, as well as the history of Oregon. Ten volumes of the work has already been issued, making the most interesting and instructive reading that any person interested in this country can obtain. Prof. F. G. Young, professor of history in the State University is also secretary of the Historical Society and editor of the Historical Quarterly, and has rendered most efficient and invaluable service to the state, and especially to the rising generation, in his management of this very important branch of popular education.
And in this connection the services of {{author:George Henry Himes|Mr. Geo. H. Himes]], the assistant secretary of the Historical Society, and the secretary of the Pioneer Association for twenty-five years, cannot be overlooked. It is no more than justice to say that Mr. Himes has not only done more than any other one person, but he has done more than all other persons (leaving out the work of Mrs. Victor) to gather up and preserve the history of Oregon. He was an accumulator of historical facts, a gleaner of material, long before any other persons thought of, or at least before they took action to preserve the history of Oregon, for the use of the state. And upon Mr. Himes' work was prepared the history of the Willamette valley, published in 1885 and edited by H. O. Lang.
H. H. Bancroft of San Francisco copyrighted his history of Oregon in 1884. But Bancroft is not entitled to the slightest credit for it. Mrs. F. F. Victor had been gathering up material for a history of Oregon long before Bancroft conceived the idea of his series of histories of the Pacific coast. But when he found Mrs. Victor had this material, he offered her employment on his works, on condition that she turn over her material to him; with the hint, that if she did not do so, he would forestall her proposed history of Oregon with one of his own. And being a poor woman, she was forced to give up her brains and literary property to the selfish demands of a wealthy publisher.
THE PACIFIC MONTHLY.
Many efforts to establish a monthly magazine on the Pacific coast have been made, and no small amount of capital lost in such ventures. The "Overland" monthly of San Francisco was the most protracted effort in that line, but when the day of profuse and expensive illustration came in, the Overland fell behind. The two leading monthlies on the coast now published are the Pacific Monthly of Portland, Oregon, and the "Sunset Magazine" of San Francisco. "The Sunset" has the advantage of unlimited capital if necessary, furnished by its owner, the Southern Pacific Railroad Company ; while the Portland monthly has won whatever of success it has achieved by dint of the energy, push, and talents of its founders and owners.
The founding of the Pacific Monthly was a work of evolution, commencing in a limited way, and gradually growing up on the labors of love of the founders. The first work in this direction commenced in July, 1897, and took the shape of an announcement through the press, and by means of a circular letter to the public from the promoters, that a periodical would be issued at an early date "which should be the literary expression of the Pacific northwest." The name of the proposed monthly was to be "Drift," the first number of which was to be issued September 1, 1897, and the following persons to be the interested sponsors therefor: C. E. S. Wood, John Gill, B. B. Beekman, Luella Clay Carson, Frances Gotshall and Lischen M. Miller.
But for various reasons the publication of "Drift" was deferred until the next year; and in the meantime Mrs. Miller and Miss Catherine Cogswell (now ​Mrs. Frederic Thorne of Tacoma) became the editors and owners of the onetime suffrage paper, "The Pacific Empire." After a brief period, Miss Cogs- well resigned her interest in the weekly paper, and Miss Gotshall took her place in the publication. The Pacific Empire, however, was at no time after passing under Mrs. Miller's control, the organ of the suffragists, the last number of which was issued on July 7, 1898; and in September of the same year, the first number of "Drift" was published.
During this same period mentioned, Mr. William Bittle Wells had been planning to issue a monthly magazine to be called "The Pacific Monthly"; and for which he had been raising means and making arrangements for advertising to support the same. And on the appearance of "Drift" he proposed to the proprietors thereof that good business policy for all interested, suggested that they combine their efforts in one single publication. And after careful consideration, Mrs. Miller on behalf of "Drift," agreed to Mr. Wells' proposition and joined him in the work of founding the Pacific Monthly, and rendered editorial services thereon from 1898 until she went to Alaska in 1901. Mr. Wells having the business management and outside push to the venture.
The magazine was not established without long-continued and very exacting labors, and it was exceedingly fortunate to have a man with the temperament, business ability, perseverance and energy of William Bittle Wells to carry it along for years through all the stress of a scanty magazine reading population, and an advertising support that had to be educated up to the point of believing Oregon could support a first-class magazine, and display costly advertising to a wealthy subscription list able to buy the most costly merchandise. To Mr. Wells is due the credit of establishing the Pacific Monthly on prosperous foundations and making it the first of first-class magazines on the Pacific Coast, and the equal of any illustrated magazine in the whole country.