The quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, Vol. 4, March, 1903-December, 1903Oregon Historical Society
History
The quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, Vol. 4, March, 1903-December, 1903
Oregon Historical Society
Oregon -- History -- Periodicals
The _Register_ was resuscitated late in 1860 and run a violent career
for several months, and later was followed by the _Message_, which ran
several years under different management.
In 1874 C. W. Philbrick purchased the press on which the last-named
paper was printed, changed the name to _Puget Sound Argus_, and
succeeded in placing it on a paying basis, a hitherto impossible
achievement in Port Townsend. In 1877 Philbrick, after accumulating
considerable property, sold the _Argus_ to Mr. Allen Weir.
July 29, 1861, the _Overland Press_ was started in Olympia. A short
time before the pony express had been put on the route between the
Missouri River and Sacramento, carrying the news and a few letters,
thus placing San Francisco and New York in communication with each
other in from ten to twelve days. This suggested the name of the
paper. It was enabled to give a brief summary of Eastern news only
three weeks old. Prior to this it had been from six weeks to three
months old when it reached Olympia.
The great Civil War had broken out only a few weeks earlier and the
manager of the _Press_ of Victoria, British Columbia, with commendable
business sagacity, determined to establish a paper in Olympia
containing the latest war news, and have it ready to distribute at all
Puget Sound ports and have a supply to distribute to its own readers
in Victoria and other parts of British Columbia on the arrival of the
weekly mail. The Eliza Anderson, then the crack steamer of Puget Sound
waters, made weekly trips, leaving Olympia early on Monday morning,
arriving at Seattle about 4 P. M., and at Victoria early Tuesday
morning. The paper at once became very popular and gained an immense
circulation for those days.
Early in the fourth volume its name was changed to the _Pacific
Tribune_. Randall H. Hewitt, now living in Los Angeles, owned and
published it for a time, when Charles Prosch acquired it and continued
its publication at Olympia until 1873. By this time his son, Thomas W.
Prosch, had manifested much newspaper ability and had become the owner
of the paper. He moved it to Tacoma, the new railroad town, that year
and continued there until the almost total death of the place forced
another move and he came to Seattle with it. In 1878 Thaddeus Hanford
bought it and merged it with the _Post-Intelligencer_. With but one
change of name it had lived about seventeen years, or longer than any
other of the early Washington papers, with one exception.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account