Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/626

Little of all this would have been preserved had not the printing association, just previous to this happy thought of the crew, commenced the publication of the Oregon Spectator, the first American newspaper on the Pacific coast.^[1] This publication was begun just in time to record the occurrences of the eventful year of 1846.

a second performance in May, Love in a Village, The Meek Doctor, and Mayor of Garratt were played. Or. Spectator, May 12, 1846; Taylor's Spec. Press, 247.

1. There had been a small press in California since 1834, but no newspaper was published until after the American conquest, 6 months later than the publication of the Oregon newspaper. The Spectator was a semi-monthly journal of 4 pages, 15 by 11 inches in size, containing 4 columns each, printed in clear type and a tasteful style, by John Fleming, a practical printer, and an immigrant of 1844. The paper was first edited by the president of the Oregon printing association, W. G. T'Vault, after whom several other editors were employed and removed in quick succession for holding opinions adverse to the controlling power in the association. The general aim of the Spectator was, while advocating good morals, temperance, and education, to pursue the Hudson's Bay Company with unremitting, if often covert, hostility; and in this respect it might be considered the organ of the American merchant class against the British merchants. T'Vault was dismissed at the end of 10 weeks for being too lenient. H. A. G. Lee then issued 9 numbers, and was dismissed for publishing some articles reflecting with good reason on the course of the American merchants toward the colonists; and several numbers appeared without any ostensible editor, when in October 1846, George L. Curry, an immigrant of that year, took the chair. He pursued the plan of allowing both sides a fair hearing, and after successfully conducting the paper a longer time than any of his predecessors, was dismissed for publishing some resolutions of the house of representatives of 1849, reflecting on the Methodist candidate for the important office of Oregon delegate to congress. He was succeeded by A. E. Wait, and subsequently oy Wilson Blain. In 1850 the paper and press were sold to Robert Moore, who employed Blain for a time to edit it, but displaced him by D. J. Schnebley, who soon became proprietor, and associated with himself C. P. Culver as editor. In March 1854 the paper was again sold to C. L. Goodrich, and by him discontinued in March 1855. It was published semi-monthly until September 1850, when it changed to a weekly; and was printed on one of Hoe's Washington presses. Its first printer, John Fleming, went from Ohio to Oregon in 1845, and continued to reside in Oregon City till the time of his death, Dec. 2, 1872, at the age of 78 years. He left a family in Ohio, to whom he never returned. He was esteemed in his adopted home as an honorable and exemplary man. He was appointed postmaster in 1856. Associated with Fleming for a time was T. F. McElroy, who after Fleming's retirement from business formed with C. W. Smith a partnership as printers and publishers. These were succeeded in the publishing department by T. D. Watson and G. D. R. Boyd, and they by Boyd alone. Having outlived colonial times and seen Oregon City dwindle from the first town in Oregon to the rank of second or third, the press and material of the Spectator were sold in 1855 to publish a paper under another name, and for political purposes. That paper became finally merged in another at Salem, and the old Spectator press was taken to Roseburg to start a paper at that place, and finally to Eugene City, where it remains. The type and material were carried to Portland to be used in the publication of the Daily Union, for a short time, after which it was taken to Astoria, where was printed on it the Marine Gazette, in which Gray's