Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 38/Oregon Journalism in 1887
OREGON JOURNALISM IN 1887[1]
By ERIC W. ALLEN
HISTORICAL investigation lacks meaning and interest unless one can pose some kind of a question for himself and then direct his research toward an effort to find the answer. The question set up as the theme for this paper is, why was the Oregon Press Association organized in 1887, not sooner and not later? And why was it founded at Yaquina City? The first fact discovered was that 1885 and 1886 were great years for the founding of newspapers, so the former question changes its form into why was this such an active period for the establishment of new papers as to make the editors feel the time was ripe for an association? As background we must consider the fact that there were three streams of immigration into Oregon with somewhat distinct characteristics. In the earliest period the people who came west by wagon were met by others who had come around the Horn or across the Isthmus. Both of these elements in the early period were largely of northern origin. Those who came by sea had a character determined by the fact that the most active ship ping centers on the Atlantic coast were in the northern states, and those that came by land were at first very largely of those northern religious denominations that were represented by the missionaries. They tended to be Whig and later Republican in politics. It was these northerners that named Portland after a city in Maine.
The first or northern stream of immigration did not cease, but was soon joined by a second stream different in character and
origin and much more numerous. This second stream followed the old Oregon trail which crossed the great plains obliquely from southeast to northwest, finding its point of origin in the neighborhood of Independence, Missouri. The people that came over this route in the middle period originated largely in the southern or border states. They were mostly Democrats in politics and farmers by occupation and on arriving in Oregon they tended to settle on farms and not to congregate to any great ex tent in organized communities. This middle period may be said to have lasted until the railroads came through in the middle '80's.
The Northern Pacific railroad made its connection at Wallula toward the end of the year 1883 under the management of Henry Villard, and thus opened a new route for immigration whose point of origin was St. Paul, Minnesota, about 400 miles north of Independence, Missouri. The new stream of immigration which began to flow in over the channels opened up by Henry Villard, himself a northerner, was again very largely of northern origin, as was natural for an immigration that mobilized at St. Paul and Minneapolis. These people tended to be Republican. They had a considerable percentage of city dwellers among them, and it was after this stream had gained some force that Oregon changed from a Democratic to a Republican state. Also, their standards of education and literacy were somewhat higher. They were not contented with the small private schools for the children of the rich and the little red school house for the general public with terms of only a couple of months in the winter-time that had satisfied the agricultural border-state element that set out from Missouri. It was after the arrival of these new northerners that Oregon began to build up a genuine school system, and it was upon their arrival that newspapers suddenly became numerous in Oregon.
Another explanation why so many papers were being founded about this time, so many that the need for an association was felt, lies in the fact that the laws governing the publication of land notices began to be strictly enforced. Andrew Jackson Sparks, land commissioner in Cleveland's first administration, 1885-89, went on a regular crusade for honesty-which finally cost him his job, even under the conscientious Cleveland. There was no great change in the law, but many settlers who had originally squatted on the land, some of them perhaps many years before, were now made to see the advisability of proving up. This would, of course, offer an inviting field for the establish ment of a paper, which could be largely supported by the publication of land notices.
We now face the question why it was at Yaquina City that several editors were enjoying a vacation, or as they called it, rusticating, and why it was at Yaquina City that the first meet ing of this Association was held. This answer, also, is probably to be found in a railroad and population situation. Colonel T. Egerton Hogg was one of the early railroad promoters of Oregon. He proposed to make Yaquina Bay the principal seaport of the northwest and the terminus of a road across Oregon to connect with the Union Pacific and Central Pacific trans-continental lines and give direct connection with Chicago and New York. Between the years 1885 and 1889 he succeeded in build ing a line of 141 miles from Yaquina through Corvallis and Albany to Idanha in the Cascades. It is easy to imagine why we find a group of editors enjoying the seashore. The Willamette Valley was just discovering the delights of the ocean, which was now for the first time easy of access. Furthermore, the little boom towns of Yaquina City and Newport were stimulated financially by the expenditures and shipments incident to rail road construction and stimulated imaginatively by the sincere belief that they together were about to become the New York of the Pacific coast. Town lots in Newport were expected to be worth $25,000 or $50,000 in a few years. It was in this same August, 1887, the month of our first convention, that the Oregon Pacific put on two new steamers between Yaquina and San Francisco, named the "'Willamette Valley" and the "Eastern Oregon" to reinforce the "Yaquina City" already in service. Through service every other day was offered from Portland via the Willamette River to Albany or Corvallis, then by rail to Yaquina, where facilities by sea were offered to San Francisco. The railroad bridge at Albany had been completed just that spring. And that summer a New York bond syndicate had promised prompt completion of the line to Boise, and contracts to the summit of the Cascades had actually been let. All this gives the explanation why Coll Van Cleve was encouraged to undertake in 1887 the publication of a daily paper at Yaquina City, a ham let which at the previous census had a population of only 217. It is also easy to imagine why these ambitious boom towns were eager to invite the editors, and why the railroad, itself, was prob ably generous with passes, and why the editors were willing to go there and see what was doing, and perhaps why the Portland Press was so poorly represented at the blatant litde city whose ambition it was to wrest the leadership of the northwest away from Portland.
Our next step is to describe the general newspaper situation in Oregon in 1887.
Counting dailies and weeklies published in the same office as separate papers, and including religious and trade weeklies and monthlies, there were 110 publications issued in Oregon as re ported to Ayer's in 1887. Counting only general newspapers, however, and listing as a single unit the weekly paper and its daily edition-this seems more in line with the realities of those days-there were 79 papers. Of these 79 papers existing in 1887, 13 were old-timers established before 1870 and representative perhaps of the first of these three streams of immigration, the northern Republican stream. Of the 13 papers eight were Republican, only three Democrat, and only two Independent. The Republican papers were: Portland Oregonian, 1850; Salem Statesman, 1851; Jacksonville Oregon Sentinel, 18 5 5; The Dalles Times-Mountaineer, 1860; Corvallis Gazette, 1862, now celebrating its diamond jubilee; Eugene Oregon State Journal, 1864, from which the University Press is descended; Oregon City Enterprise, 1866; Roseburg Plaindealer, 1868.
The three Democratic papers that dated from this earliest period were the: Albany Democrat, 1865; Eugene Guard, 1867; Baker Democrat, 1870.
The two Independent papers were: Dallas Itemizer, 1860, (named "Itemizer" December 2, 1873); Portland Sunday Mercury, 1868.
When we come, to the papers established in the '70's, the picture changes. While papers surviving from the older period had been two-thirds Republican, the surviving papers that were founded in the decade of the '70's included, by contrast, only four Republican papers out of the 20 papers that were established. Against four Republican there were seven Democratic and nine that labelled themselves independent or neutral. The four Republican papers were: La Grande Gazette, 1875; Port land Telegram, 1877; Pendleton Tribune, 1878; Marshfield Mail, 1879.
The seven Democratic papers were: Baker Democrat, 1870; Jacksonville Times, 1871; Marshfield News, 1872; Roseburg Review, 1873 or 1876; Pendleton East Oregonian, 1875; Weston Leader, 1878; Salem Vidette, 1879.
The ten papers that claimed no political affiliation or labelled themselves either independent or neutral were: McMinnville Reporter, 1871; Portland Journal of Commerce, 1871; Hillsboro Independent, 1873; Astoria Astorian, 1873; Portland Sunday Welcome, 1874; Ashland Tidings, 1876; Salem Sentry, 1878; Portland Staats Zeitung, 1879; Canyon City News, 1879; East Portland Vindicator, 1879.
Oregon politics ran parallel to this newspaper picture. In the '60's the governors, after Governor Whiteker's term expired, were Republicans, while in the '70's they were all Democrats. Now we come to the papers that were started in the first seven years of the '80's, that is up to and including the birth year of the State Press Association, 1887. Forty-six papers were founded in this brief period, most of, them in the latter part of the period, after the railroads came and just before the Association was founded. Of these forty-six two-thirds labelled them selves as independent, neutral, or non-political. Against these 32 neutral papers there were only eight Democratic papers founded and six Republican. The 46 papers founded in these seven years compare with only 20 survivors representing the entire ten years of the '70's. Of these 46 we will discuss in this paper only the survivors.
The years of this accelerated growth of newspapers were the years of a railroad boom. In 1884, the year after he opened up his new route from the east at Wallula, Henry Villard completed the old Holladay line from Portland as far as Ashland and by 1887, when the State Press Association was formed, Oregon's railroad transportation picture was quite similar in broad out line to what it is now. Portland was by that time connected with San Francisco to the south, Puget Sound to the north, St. Paul to the northeast, and Denver and Kansas City to the south east. The height of the boom, as measured by the establishment of new newspapers, came in 1886. We had here evidently the same phenomenon that was created by the great expectations aroused by the Panama Canal, that is the boom was greater in the period of expectation than in the period of realization which later started as a slight lull. However, after the comparative slack of a few years after 1887 still greater activity in the establishment of new newspapers was ahead.
It was just at this moment in 1887, just past the first crest of the boom, that the State Press Association was founded. It was a period when every city must have been thought of as a future metropolis, every property-owner as a future millionaire, every weekly as a potential daily, and it was a psychological time for newspaper organization with so many new men in the state eager to find out what their colleagues in other communities were doing. The population in this decade grew 82 %o, which is far faster than it has grown at any time since.
Oregon had 15 dailies in 1887. Except for the Portland Evening Telegram everyone of these was the offshoot of a weekly, perhaps even to be counted as a side issue, for in 1887, without exception, the weekly always claimed a much greater circulation than the daily. It should be understood that in 1887 a claim of circulation was very different from our net-paid ABC circulation of today. These figures are cited merely to show what the publishers regarded as right and proper to claim in 1887. (We are giving statistics only for the seven dailies that have survived.) First, the four old established papers: the Oregonian, weekly, 14,500, daily, only 10,500; the Telegram, 5000; the Salem Statesman, weekly, 3000, daily, only 1500; the Astoria Astorian, weekly, 1641, daily, only 768.
As to the three little new dailies, the Albany Herald claimed for the Herald-Disseminator, its weekly edition, 1500, and for the Daily Herald, only 500; the Baker Democrat claimed for its 17-year-old weekly, 960, but made no claims for its daily which had just been born; the Corvallis Gazette claimed for its 24 year-old weekly, 720, but made no claims for the new little daily.
The subscription prices for these papers were: Oregonian, daily, $10, weekly, $2; Evening Telegram, $7.50; Salem States man, daily, $6, weekly, $2; Astoria Astorian, daily, $7, weekly, $2; and the others in proportion. Two dollars was the most common price for a weekly subscription, though $2.50 was not uncommon and there were a few weeklies obtainable at less than $2.
Of the 79 newspapers which reported their existence to Ayer's in 1887 only 29 of the old names still wave at the mast head. This is a survival rate of 3 6% for the half century. Consolidations at Eugene and Albany have reduced the number of actual papers to 27, but 29 names still wave either with or with out hyphens. These 27, together with several other claimants whose title is not quite so cleat or not so fully spread upon the contemporary records, constitute Oregon's semi-centennial newspapers.
In 1887 these names represented eight dailies or daily and weekly combinations and 21 separate weeklies, a total of 29. They now represent 13 dailies and 14 weeklies or semi-weeklies, a total of 27. But it is perfectly possible that several papers not reported to Ayer's in 1887 have good claims to be considered semi-centennial newspapers.
Of the original seven dailies that have remained with us continuously as dailies only four could have considered themselves old, established dailies in 1887. These were: Portland Oregonian, 1850, which had had a daily edition since 1861; Salem Oregon Statesman, 1851, which had established its daily edition in 1861; Portland Telegram, dating from 1877; Astoria Astorian, 1873, which had established its daily edition in 1878. These are the four old-timers.
Besides these there were three brand new little dailies in 1887: Albany Herald, 1885, (weekly, 1879); Baker City Democrat, 1887, (weekly, 1879); Corvallis Gazette, 1887, (weekly, 1862). The one name that appeared in the list of dailies in 1887 but which appears only among the weeklies now is: McMinnville Re porter, 1871, whose daily edition was started by D. C. Ireland in 1886.
The weeklies of 1887 whose names still survive at the mast head of present dailies are the: Ashland Tidings, 1876, W. H. Leeds, editor, (daily, 1920); Albany Democrat, 1865, Stites and Nutting, (daily, 1887 or 1888); Eugene Guard, 1867, Ira L. Campbell, (daily, 1890); Eugene Register, 1884, Hodson and Yoran, (daily, 1894); Grants Pass Courier, 1885, A. A. All worth, (daily, 1910); Oregon City Enterprise, 1866, E. M. Rands, (daily, 1895); Pendleton East Oregonian, 1875, (twice a week, 1882), (daily, 1887); Roseburg Review, 1876, J. R. N. Bell, (daily, 1905).
The weeklies or semi-weeklies which have remained in that classification are the: Dallas Itemizer, 1860, Glass and Prud homme, (named "Itemizer" Dec. 2, 1873); Fossil Journal, 1886, Sloan P. Shutt; Heppner Gazette, 1883, J. W. Redington; Wal lowa Chieftain, 1884, S. A. Heckethorn, then of Joseph, now of Enterprise; Lakeview Examiner, 1880, Beach and Beach; Lebanon Express, 1887, J. H. Stine; McMinnville West Side Telephone, 1885 (twice a week), Talmage and Heath; Milton Eagle, 1887, Charles Besserer; Oregon City Courier, 1883, I. Le Mahieu; Portland Sunday Welcome, 1874, Sutherland and Burnett; St. Helen Oregon Mist, 1883, E. H. Flagg; Silverton Ap peal, 1880, Guild and Adams; Weston Leader, 1878, F. R. Mitchell.
Besides the papers that have been mentioned in the above list taken from contemporary authorities there are a few other papers that apparently should have been mentioned because the old time records could very easily be incomplete, and also because in the limited time at my disposal I have had no opportunity to investigate the history of papers that have changed their name. For instance, the Athena Press was not mentioned in the 1887 Ayer's Annual. The Press now claims that it originated in that year, and the 1896 Ayer's records the Athena Press as having been started in 1885, two years earlier than the paper itself claims.
The Canyon City Blue Mountain Eagle now claims an origin dating from 1868. The Ayer's Annuals for 1887 and also for 1896 give Canyon City only the Grant County News, dated 1879.
Ayer's in 1887 apparently also missed the Forest Grove News
Times which now claims 1886. The 1896 Ayer's gives the Times as having originated in 1889.
The 1887 Ayer's also missed the Woodburn Independent, which started in that year. In the 1896 Ayer's the Independent is given as starting in 1888. The 1887 Ayer's also fails to men tion the Corvallis Times, which later, however, claims an 1882 origin.
These claims are probably good. The writer has not had time to examine the evidence with adequate completeness. So far as this monograph goes, they are hereby admitted to provisional standing as semi-centennial newspapers, making the score 31 instead of 27, that is, 13 dailies and 18 weeklies. But there is also another class that probably should be included among the semi-centennial newspapers. It consists of those publications that have maintained a genuine continuity throughout the half century, but which have for one reason or another, changed their names-cases in which the old name is no longer at the mast-head.
In this category are found the following: The Independence Enterprise which was started under that name only in 1894, but seems to have absorbed the old Independence West Side, was one of the charter members of this association. The West Side used to claim an origin in 1883. The Hillsboro Argus, which was started in 1894, is also entitled to a similar semi-centennial status through its obsorption of the Hillsboro Independent, 1873. The Marshfield Times now claims an origin in 1878. This is probably owing to an absorption of the old Marshfield Coast Mail which, however, is in the old records given an origin in 1879 rather than 1878. The Prineville Central Oregonian now claims an 1885 origin which is apparently the date of the old Ochoco Review. The Portland Western Breeders' Journal now claims an origin tracing back through the old North Pacific Rural Spirit to 1869. The old books give the date of the Rural Spirit as 1879.
Also, the Arlington Bulletin claims a history running back to 1883. Ayer's in 1887 gives Arlington only one paper called the Times which is recorded as originating in 1886, and in 1896 the same authority gives Arlington only a paper called the Record which originated in 1892. In explanation, W. P. Dunton, publisher of the Arlington Bulletin for two years ( 193 3-3 5 ) assert ed in a brief review of the history of the paper that the Bulletin has come on down through the years as the successor of an old paper started in June 1884, the Riverside Enterprise. The Enterprise was published at Arlington while that town was still known under its old name of Alkali. The original plant, with some enlargements, he said, had been used throughout, though there have been several changes of name. M. C. Harris was the founder of the Enterprise. In 1891 or 1892 W. A. Maxwell, a new owner, changed the name to the Record. H. W. Lang's Independent, started in 1913, is supposed to have used the plant of the old Enterprise and Record. He changed the name of the Independent to the Bulletin in 1921.
The question whether the present Portland Daily Journal of Commerce is continuous with the old Weekly Journal of Commerce reported by Ayer's in 1887 as established in 1871 was not easy to answer in the time of writing this paper. It has been treated as not continuous. But Mr. H. G. Haugsten, the present manager, reports that the present paper is "related" to a Journal of Commerce for which there are files starting April 9, 1853. If all these claims are to be granted on, top of the last named category, (but leaving out the Breeders' Journal as not being a newspaper in the present sense) the amendments will raise the total of semi-centennial newspapers to 36, that is, 13 dailies and 23 weeklies.
The papers started in 1888 are now in their 50th year, and have an appropriate place in a semi-centennial celebration. Those which have survived are the Salem Capital Journal, unique in that its weekly and daily were started at the same time, the Albany Democrat's daily edition, the Dallas Observer, now consolidated with the Itemizer, the Tillamook Headlight, and the Union Eastern Oregon Republican. Also, in 1888 the Pendleton East Oregonian, apparently a glutton for punishment, undertook the publication of three separate editions, a weekly, twice-a-week, and a daily, and kept on under that schedule for at least nine years, probably more. This was the time also, as has been previously stated, when daily editions were started by the Baker Democrat and the Corvallis Gazette, both dating from 1887.
The optimism of 1886, 1887, and 1888 flared up again in the early '90's. Most of these newer papers were non-partisan, the Democratic being down to five and the Republican down to 19 out of a total of 88, for the next seven years, 1888-1895. That is, the number of newspapers doubled in the next seven years. An interesting feature was the development of 17 populist and free-silver papers, only one of which survived, bearing names like the following: Albany Oregon Populist, 1893; Albany Oregon Silver Imprint, 1895; Baker City Epigram, 1893; Cornelius People's Searchlight, 1890; Scio Press, 1889; Enterprise Aurora, 1893; Eugene Broad-Axe, 1894; La Grande Union County Farmer, 1892; Lakeview Rustler, 1895; Lebanon Advance, 1891; Marshfield Sun, 1891, (still published but now Republican); Oregon City Industrial Herald, 1893; Pendleton Alliance Herald, 1891; Pittsburg Sentinel, 1894; Portland Lead er, 1894; Portland People's Party Post, 1874; Portland Daily and Weekly Sun, 1895.
This publishing splurge right on the brink of the depression that followed 1893, carried the newspaper publishing business into communities that dco not at present publish papers such as: Antelope, Barlow, Cornelius, Huntington, Jewell, Lafayette, North Yamhill, Pilot Rock, Pittsburg, and Troutdale.
It was right between these two splurges of profuse founding of newspapers that the State Press Association was established. Some time during the summer of 1887 J. R. N. Bell, of the Roseburg Review, and Martin L. Pipes, of the Corvallis Leader, were enjoying a vacation at Yaquina City near Newport, which was then included in Benton county, and discussed with Coll Van Cleve of the Yaquina Post the desirability of a state press association. A call was sent out to the press and a meeting was held at Yaquina City, August 12, 1887, at which this Association was founded. At the first meeting 15 newspapers were represented of which six have survived. In addition 15 more were accepted as members by mail, and of this 15, eight have survived. The list of 14 surviving charter members of the State Editorial Association divided into six classes, reads as fol lows:
Class A includes just one paper, the patriarch of the Association, the only surviving paper that was represented at the meeting where the idea was proposed, the Roseburg News-Review of today, the successor of the Roseburg Review, represented at the early meetings by J. R. N. Bell.
Class B also consists of just one paper, the only paper in the state that holds two charter memberships in this Association, the Albany Democrat-Herald. The Herald was represented at the organization by S. S. Train and the Democrat by F. P. Nutting. Class C includes three papers which were represented in per son at the organization meeting, the Corvallis Gazette, represented by Will H. Parry; the Oregon City Enterprise, represent ed by E. M. Rands; and the Eugene City Guard, represented by Ira L. Campbell.
Class D includes seven papers which were not represented at the organization meeting, but which were admitted to membership by mail. They also count as charter members and are the Lakeview Examiner; Oregon City Courier; Astoria Astorian, J. F. Halloran; Silverton Appeal, H. G. Guild; Salem Statesman, R. J. Hendricks sending regrets to the first meeting, but E. B. Piper attending second two months later; Portland Catholic Sentinel, 1869; Portland Sunday Welcome.
Class E has just one paper, which will be explained later, the Independence Enterprise.
Class F contains only one paper, as will be explained later, the Portland Western Breeders' Journal.
There were also present at the first roll call three men who were not mentioned in the printed record as representing any papers at that time. They were Robert Johnson, of Corvallis; Frank Hodgkin, of Salem, assistant secretary of state and correspondent for the Oregonian; and W. A. Wash, of Dallas. Mr. Johnson many years later said that at this first meeting he was representative of the Corvallis Times. If Mr. Johnson's memory was correct the Corvallis Gazette-Times should be moved up one notch and placed alongside the Albany Democrat-Herald as possessing two charter memberships in this Association. At the 1888 meeting of the Association, which was held in Salem, Mr. Wash did not appear, but a letter of regret is credited to him as representative of the Dallas Itemizer. So perhaps the name of the Dallas Itemizer may be added to the list of charter members.
The charter member papers which have not survived, at least under the same name, were the Corvallis Leader, represented by Martin L. Pipes, who was elected president of the Association; the Yaquina Post, Coll Van Cleve; the Salem Sentry, J. S. McCain; the Newport Yaquina Mail, E. C. Phelps; the Newport News (which is not the present News printed at Newport which claims only from 1893. The News that was represented at Yaquina in 1887 was edited by J. H. Aldrich, the father of E. B. Aldrich at Pendleton, and he was present in person); the Port land World, represented by J. B. Fithian; the Jacksonville Post, claiming the largest weekly circulation in the state outside of Portland, 2,040, and represented by Charles Nickell, who was elected secretary of the Association; the Monmouth Herald, re presented! by D. T. Stanley, but this is apparently the Christian Herald and not the present Monmouth Herald which claims only from 1907. The last of the surviving papers recorded as represented in person was the old Independence West Side through which the present-day Independence Enterprise is entitled to claim charter membership in this Association, in spite of its change of name. In 1887 this paper was represented at the organization meeting by one of the best and noblest men that the state has ever produced, Prince L. Campbell, who was later, for 23 years, president of the University of Oregon.
In addition eight papers which have not survived, at least not under their original names, were admitted to membership by mail, the Baker City Sage Brush, the Roseburg Plaindealer, the Portland West Shore, the Canyon City Grant County News, the Astoria Pioneer, printed at that time by D. C. Ireland, the Portland Pacific Farmer, the Portland Rural Spirit, represented by W. W. Baker. The Rural Spirit was afterwards absorbed in to, or became by change of name, the Portland Western Breeders' Journal.
It was this little meeting attended by representatives of 15 papers that led to the continuous existence of one of the most vigorous Editorial Associations in the United States, an Association that has always met at least once a year and about half of the time has met twice, and whose meetings nowadays usually attract the actual attendance of representatives of something like 100 newspapers.
- ↑ Delivered before the semi-centennial convention of the Oregon Newspaper Publishers' Association on June 18, 1937, at La Grande.