Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1905-02-03
A TaG" rom Early History

which The iirst newspaper in the State
the C"lumiinn-was printed in 1852
AN! which is nov preserved as q
revercd rr.ic ly the State University.
lie rnt.'- lat i was sent to Mexico
from New York in 1884 and WAS u,cd
by the spanish government in printing
p7ocl ,ma,ion- ;h4t it was thercafte,
taken to California. and used IN print
ing tiic Crl,!a"uita, a: Monterey, The
iirs: newspaper in the afterwards Fl
HoraG,
Ia 1916 it was taken to San Fran
cisco aud used in printing the Star
and in Isis. the ara California was
issued from il. Ga ID, cember 4, 1850
the first issue OF the Weekly Oreqoniun
OF Portland, was printed upon it, by
Thomas }. Dryer, its editor, the plant
being owned by w. W. Chapman and
Stephen Coffin. In 1852, the press
was brought to Olympia by I. F. Nc.
McElroy and j. w. Wiley, and the
Columbian, the first paper in that part
OF Oregon north of the Columbia
river, appeared on Sept. 1lth, OF that
year. The name was suggested by the
fact that the bill for creation OF new
Territory from the northern portion OF
Oregon provided for calling it the Ter
ritory CT Columbia. AS the name Of
Washington was substituted, the Co.
iumJian changed its title to Pioneer,
and soon afterwards the Ramage press
was supplanied BY Washington hand
press, about as much OF an evolution
as from the Washington press 10 the
mammoth perfecting press of to-day.
The Ramage press resemblcd very
much the Old.fashioned cheese-pr
1t was constructed principally of wood
only the bed on which the type were
placed and the platen, the plate cover.
ing the bed, and the screw and lever
by which the impression was given,
being of iron. The pages we're printed
one at time, requiring four impress
sions for each of the small sheets % by
% inches in size, that were then more
eagerly road and thoroughly appre-
ciated than the y page newspaper of
to-day.
A few years afterwards, it being
discovered that the public printing OF
the new Territory was juicy plum"
ready for plucking, r. L. Doyle ap-
peared on the scene with a Washing.
ton press and a hat-full" of new type,
to dispute possession OF the prize with
the Pioneer. A prospectus for the
Northwest Democrat was issued, when
Messrs. McElroy and Wiley proposed
combine" which was effected and
the hiscoric press was stood up in q
corner while the Pioneer and Democrat
was printed in new type on the new
press, the wonder OF the frontier set.
| tiers!
The old press remained in seclusion,
sill in the early Cos, when it was taken
from retirement by a. NJ. Poe, agent
of the Victoria Press, and used to
print a weekly paper called the Over
land Press, which. filled the local field
IS we'll as serving as the seventh issue
OF the daily service, at Victoria, being
distributed Immediately on arrival of
the steamer, thus distsncing a compel.
itor-the Colonist. This was rendered
possible by the fact that the telegraph
was then completed no farther north
ward then Portland, from which pony
express was maintained by the Victoria
paper. that delivered q copy of the
Oregonian to Mr.. Poe, every Sunday,
in advance Of the mail and 10 time for
him to print in the Overland couple
of columns of the very latest war news.
Some time afterward, the old press
was taken to Seattle, and used by J.
X. Watson to print the Seattle Gazette,
and afterwards by S. L. Maxwell for
publishing the Intelligencer, the start-
ing point Of the now magnificent P.-L.
The last owners gave the historic press
to tho University classes, for preserva.
ton as one of the most interesting
mementos OF pioneer history of the
whole coast.
The Pioneer and Democrat was con-
tinued till July, 1860, having been
published by the Public Printers, who
were in succession elected by the Leg.
islature, which then met annually.
They were J. w. Wiley, A. M. Berry,
George B. Goudy and Edward Furste.
Although the laws were few and the
volume "thin," in those days, the
printing was exceedingly lucrative.
On bill-work our benign Uncle Sam
allowed $l.5O per thousand ems COM
position, the same "per token"-240
sheets-for presswork, and the use Of
double-pica reglets between the lines
OF the bills, half dozen lines of which
could easily be made into two pages,
by running over" and the best man
in the world for printers, Elisha Whit.
tlesey, Third Auditor OF the Treasury,
did the measuring at Washington, and
on his o. K" the bills were promptly
paid by check from Washington.
The folding, stitching and binding
was an equally lucrative job on the
volume of laws and journals, far az it
went. The price for folding was $3.50
per thousand sheets, and for assem-
bling and stitching in paper covers, a
dollar per volume was the minimum
charge. The printing per session cost
the general government from $40 600