Snohomish County, Washington - Chapter 9: Newspaper History, 1926

Snohomish County was not among the first of the Western Washington geographic divisions to contribute to the journalistic output of the pioneer Puget Sound country, but when it did finally offer its initial newspaper to the public, in January, 1876, it was in the form of newspaper literature that challenged the admiration and attention of intelligent people throughout the Territory of Washington, and might well be compared with the best weekly newspaper publications of the same district today. This was the Northern Star, published in the City of Snohomish by Eldridge Morse, the first issue appearing in January, 1876, an admirably printed and edited five-column, eight-page paper, presenting not only the local and territorial news and descriptive matter, but also a wide range of other subjects briefly treated and discussed in a scholarly and entertaining manner. Editor Morse was a highly informed and vigorous writer, and during the earlier months of his publication, the erudite Dr. A. C. Folsom was associated with him in editorial production, the doctor supplying the literary and scientific departments, with which he was more than ordinarily familiar. During the period of the existence of the Star, its talented and progressive editor also assumed intellectual leadership of the Snohomish community and was one of the founders of the famed Snohomish Atheneum of that pioneer time and which succeeded in collecting for public enlightenment the finest natural history museum and scientific library then existing in Washington Territory, but during the hard times period beginning in 1877 this and other community enterprises failed to enlist sufficient support and went by the board, including the Snohomish County Agricultural Society, which he and Dr. Folsom also had helped to found and to maintain. The Northern Star, which was noteworthy and exceptional for the high quality of its news and literary contents as well as for its almost unequaled letter press, although printed on the humble old Washington hand press, ceased publication in May, 1879, having been issued regularly three years and four months. Its failure to continue publication was due mainly to depression in the logging business, at that time the principal industry of Snohomish and its tributary country, and partly to spiteful personal enemies of Mr. Morse, as he intimated in his valedictory, in the last issue of the Star, May 3, 1879, in which the disheartened editor admitted that the circulation of the paper had fallen from 800 weekly to 600, that the community was not yet strong enough to support such a publication and that secret foes had long conspired to cause suspension of the publication. "For the past two and a half years the logging business has been so paralyzed," he wrote, "that nearly all connected with it have lost money, and most of them are bankrupt and financially ruined," adding that a term of years would be required to witness the agricultural development of the Snohomish Valley to restore its former prosperity, which had been based upon the cutting of the timber from its banks. During its entire career the Northern Star rejoiced in but one contemporary publication in all Northwest Washington; this was the Bellingham Bay Maiti (now Puget Sound Mail of La Conner) which was established by james Power at Whatcom, July 5, 1873. Eldridge Morse continued te reside in Snohomish, and divided with S. H. Piles the law practice of Snohomish County for a number of years after the demise of the Star. In later years he contributed more than 3,000 pages of manuscript to the Hubert Howe Bancroft history of the Pacific Coast, and devoted the declining years of his life to intensive agriculture on his farm near Snohomish, and to reading. He had not at first intended starting a paper at Snohomish, but for nearly a year had tried to get someone else to do so, and failing in this, he went to Olympia and bought the old plant of the defunct Olympia Farmer of R. H. Hewitt, shipping it to Snohomish on the steamer Zephyr, at the same time arranging at Portland for the patent newspaper, the first bundle of which was shipped from Portland December 18, 1875.

At the time of the demise of the bright and dependable Northern Star, in May, 1879, there was little advertising or other patronage in sight in the entire county to encourage or support a newspaper of any kind; the settlements were small and widely scattered and peopled by uniformly poor and struggling settlers, holding down claims not yet qualified for final proof; even the proud and ambitious county seat and metropolis, the City of Snohomish, was but a modest village obviously unable to support even a small weekly newspaper, much less so eminently worthy a publication as the Northern Star. So a period of two and a half: years elapsed before the activities of the pioneer builders of this district were again regularly recorded in the columns of a Snohomish County newspaper. Appreciating the likelihood that the homestead and timber claims then maturing to the stage of final proof, which intention to make final proof was required to be published in the newspaper nearest the respective claims, would provide sufficient legal advertising revenue to warrant conducting a small weekly paper, Clayton H. Packard and H. F. Jackson procured a modest printing plant and established the Snohomish Eye, a tiny four-column, four-page weekly, the first issue of which appeared January 11, 1882. Their guess was right, and the little paper prospered and was heartily welcomed by the people; within a year the Eye became a five-column folio paper and in May, 1883, the publishers announced that they were prepared to build a newspaper block of two stories with basement as a permanent home for the busy Eye. About this time C. A. Missimer became identified with the paper and continued with it in association with C. H. Packard until May, 1884, when he disposed of his interest to C. H. Packard, who continued in charge of the publication, and in 1885 increased its size to a seven-column weekly, more than double its original size. In 1888 the Eye absorbed a would-be rival paper, the Snohomish Opinion, started by a man named Matthews, the latter leaving the city, and in the same year the plant was glorified by the installation of a cylinder press with steam power. On July 4, 1891, the Eye appeared as a tri-weekly issued Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, delivered by carriers at $5 a year. Mr. Jackson remained with the paper only a year, when he sold his interest to Missimer. Later Charles F. Packard was a part owner for a year, but then sold his interest to his persistent brother, Clayton H., who remained in charge until the paper suspended publication and was consolidated with the original Everett News in June, 1897, at the windup of the most depressed period of Puget Sound annals. The pathfinding C. H. Packard then became associate editor of the Everett News, of which the dynamic J. W. Connella was editor and ruling spirit. The early days of the Eye were somewhat colorful. In July, 1883, Isaac Cathcart, Snohomish pioneer saloon and hotel man, was held in the

Territorial Court on a charge of assault upon Publisher C. H. Packard, but was acquitted at a jury trial. In September, 1889, J. W. Gunn of the Snohomish Daily Sun had Packard arrested on a charge of criminal libel, but the charge didn't stick, and the offending rival editor remained at large. A red-letter sales day for the Eye came in August, 1892, when the paper contained a lurid report of the republican county convention held in Snohomish, in which the founders and efficient boosters of Everett conspicuously participated; the Eye's report spared no Everett feelings, and its limited edition was quickly out of print at 50 cents per copy, while some were willing to pay two-bits for ten minutes' use of a copy. There were a number of bright writers at different times connected with the publication of the Eye, probably the most brilliant of whom was George E. Macdonald, who was associate editor in 1892 and 1893, and who shortly afterward acquired the Truthseeker, published in New York, of which he has been editor and publisher for many years. In 1885, Benjamin F. Stretch and Isaac Cathcart tried to give the Eye some real competition with a little semi-news, semi-political paper called the Champion, but the Champion went down and out in the following year; it had been sold first to Frank Owen, and by him later to A. D. Austin, and toward the close of its brief existence was edited by William C. and Lydia A. Morris.

In the summer of 1888, the Sun Publishing Company was organized and began publishing the Snohomish Weekly Sun, with Geo. W. Head as editor and manager. At the end of the first year its prosperity encouraged the issuance of a daily edition, the first issue of which appeared in July, 1889, with the names of Judge A. W. Frater and J. W. Gunn at the masthead. In the following year, 1890, a stock company was formed to continue the publication, the members of the company including E. C. Ferguson, C. T. Roscoe, J. W. Frame and A. W. Frater, and J. W. Gunn was retained as editor, succeeded a little later by Frank S. Musseter, who was later editor of the White River Journal at Kent, Wash., and was involved in the Levi Ankeny United States senatorial campaign difficulties of 1895, during which time he left the state. In 1892 the Sun was sold to W. M. Sanger, a staunch republican, who reduced it to a tri-weekly, beginning in May of that year, but even this cautious economy proved ineffectual, and on July 28, 1892, the last issue of the Sun shed its radiance upon the community, to be succeeded immediately by the Snohomish County Tribune, Ed E. Warner proprietor and Geo. W. Head editor. Will M. Sanger retired from the publication, and Jerry Hartnett left for Edmonds intent upon establishing a new paper there. The first issue under the Warner regime appeared under date of August 2, 1892, as the Tribune, which has ever since remained the name of the publication. Early in 1893, Geo. W. Head and M. J. Hartnett were in control of the Tribune enterprise, but in July of that year Head retired and made way again for Ed E. Warner, who, in the issue of September 13, 1893, announced that Mr. Head was no longer connected with the publication or lease of the plant, but that M. J. Hartnett is retained as advertising agent. Little more than a month later, October 19, 1893, the entire Tribune property was purchased by the late Charles W. Gorham, who at once took personal charge of the plant and publication, as well as of the Index Miner, published at Index. Mr. Gorham proved a highly efficient newspaper man, business man and editor. He continued the Tribune in partnership with Mr. Clemens, the two editing the paper jointly until the fitful campaign of 1896 found them on radically opposite sides, Mr. Gorham a gold standard McKinley republican, and Mr. Clemens an uncompromising silver advocate. In this dilemma it was agreed that Gorham should con- duct the editorial policy of the paper and take the consequences, while Mr. Clemens attended to his mining interests, and the partnership was finally dissolved in 1898, when Mr. Gorham became sole owner.

In the issue of July 28, 1899, Mr. Gorham announced the sale of the Tribune property to W. H. Dopp and Richard Bushell, Jr., of Seattle, and at the general election the following year he was chosen as a representative from the Snohomish district, and on November 9, 1900, his name again appears at the masthead of his beloved Tribune, of which he again assumed proprietary and editorial charge, conducting it until after the election of 1904, when he was appointed to the office of state printer, which required his entire time in Olympia, and J. F. Seaman was left in complete charge of the Tribune and the Miner.

In 1908 the Snohomish County Tribune property was purchased by A. M. Dale and J. D. K. Brown, who in 1909 launched the Daily Tribune, with J. D. Brown as editor and F. A. Leonard as business manager, at the same time continuing the weekly edition. However, the daily did not prosper and was soon discontinued. Bruce Watson succeeded Brown in the editorial chair in 1911, and Watson was in turn succeeded by E. M. Stephens, followed by W. P. Wise in 1913, the former leasing the property. In 1915 Stephens & Wilcox were in control and issued the Tribune as a semi-weekly, with Wilcox as editor, but by 1917 they again returned to weekly publication. In 1920 T. J. Cullen succeeded to control of the property and to the editorial and business management.

The present editor and publisher of the Snohomish County Tribune, Thomas E. Dobbs, purchased the establishment .in 1922, and has brought wide recognition to the paper as one of the most commendable and up-to-date weeklies in the entire Pacific Northwest. Editor Dobbs, who is an alumnus of the University of Washington, 1917, spent his summers while attending the university in active newspaper work, which, together with his course at the University of Washington School of Journalism, gave him an excellent preparation for the work which he 1s now accomplishing so efficiently. Mr. Dobbs served during the World War as a second lieutenant, in the campaign of the Argonne forest, and afterward with the army of occupation in Germany. The weekly issues of the Tribune are admirably printed and range from ten to sixteen pages. Circulation, 1,750.

A modest partisan paper called the Republican was launched in Snohomish in 1891-2 by W. B. Shaw, but in March, 1892, it was taken over by J. W. Frame, who promptly changed the name to the Democrat in order to have it conform to his own political faith. The little plant was removed from the England Building to the Burns Block, and its issues bristled with interesting news and comment. J. W. Frame was an industrious and forceful writer and politician, but the management did not appear to be entirely harmonious, for in February, 1893, Mayor B. F. Smythe assumed full charge of the Democrat property, and on March 6 he and Charles Morath obtained a lease of the property, and J. W. Frame retired from the paper. In July of that year Mayor Smythe installed his son, Robert, as editor of the paper, and in September following himself accepted the editorship of the Haller City Times. Meantime the Democrat had installed a motor to operate the presses of its printing plant and was doing a good business until early in 1894, when the consistent and constructive methods and policy of the Eye gradually weaned away the profitable business of the Democrat. In April of that year Editor Robert Smythe gave up the battle, corked his ink pot and journeyed to Washington City, where he went to work in the Government printing office as a journeyman printer. The Democrat property reverted to its owner, the unconquerable J. W. Frame, who has since for many years been a conspicuous and in- Aluential figure in the journalism and politics of Alaska. Mr. Frame, in December, 1894, packed up the elaborate remains of the ill-fated Democrat and removed them to the newly-designated, up-and-coming county seat, Itverett, which was already justifying the soubriquet, "City of Smokestacks." On the eve of this constrained and impending departure of its one-time hectoring rival, the Itye editor racked his editorial brain for fitting invectives to hurl at the surrendering Frame; in this he could not quite satisfy himself that he was competent to do full justice to his exultant though bitter feelings, so he recalled the series of scathing, almost classical excoriations with which the gifted former editor of the Eye had peeled the hide off the rival editor and nailed it ruthlessly into the files of the Kye - the incomparable and vitriolic indictments of George E. Macdonald, who had retired from the Eye only the preceding year. Some of the keenest of these cutting quips were restored from the treasured files of the Kye and served as a parting broadside, to which the subject thereof doubtless did not reply because he was too busy planning his future career in a new and untraditional environment. Although the Democrat was the Eye's only formidable competitor during this depressing year, 1894, the general business of the community and district was already suffering from the effects of the great Eastern money panic, and added to this discouragement came the loss of the county seat, which finally went to Everett in 1897. The only other Snohomish paper worth mention during this gloomy period, was a paper of protest and current political and news comment, called the Snohomish Riverside, a fourcolumn, eight-page sheet, launched by Russell Bros., the first issue dated April 10, 1897, It seems to have been inspired mainly by rancor over the loss of the county seat, and certain of the personal politics and rival community differences thereby aroused, and, of course, its career was short and unimpressive.

In the Puget Sound boom year, 1889, George Morrill, who had been prominently identified with newspaper affairs at Snohomish, removed to Stanwood, at that time the principal settlement of the Stillaguamish Valley, and established there the first newspaper of the Stillaguamish Valley, the Stillaguamish Times, the first issue appearing the last week in September, 1889, at the same time launching a campaign in opposition to the county bonding project of that fitful year. Editor Morrill found, however, that the Stanwood community was not prepared to support such an institution at that time, and as Haller City, further up the river, was launched with every assurance of an upstanding and prosperous future, he removed his plant to that new town and began the publication of the Stillaguamish Times there in 1890. In the autumn of the same year, Dwight and F. S. Stevens moved a small printing plant to Stanwood.and began publication of a modest little weekly, called the Stanwood Post, which eked out a meager existence there for more than a year, but then gave up the ghost, considerably involved. It was taken over by public-spirited local men, Messrs. Pearson, Stockbridge and Meyer, in March, 1892, but the property remained idle during the succeeding years of widespread depression, and it was not till the spring of 1897 that Stanwood again rejoiced in a regular chronicler of its human activities and advocate of its interests and opportunities, when the plant of the Vashon Island Press, south of Seattle, was transported to Stanwood and gave birth to the Stanwood Weekly Press, the first issue of which appeared March 1, 1897, and continued to sparkle under several different ownerships and managements for a period of five years, in the last half of which period O. S. Van Olinda was the owner and guiding spirit. Upon the final subsidence of the Press, in 1902, a new newspaper enterprise was initiated by the firm of Lane & Clemens; they named their product the Stanwood Tidings, the initial issue appearing early in June, 1903, with H. A. Clemens as editor and manager, and the publication home was a neat frame building on Main Street. It was a meritorious little six-column, four-page paper, all home print, and it caught the public fancy and thrived for a number of years. In 1907, George M. Mitchell gained control of the property and edited the Tidings, and the paper remained supreme in its field. In 1915 the property was sold to Geo. B. Astel, and later to Lorin D. Angevine. The original plant was replaced by new equipment and the name of the publication became the Stanwood News, which is its present title. In June, 1926, the property was sold to C. F. Brown, the present able and enterprising editor and publisher, who is making of the News a particularly bright, newsy, independent and in every way commendable publication. The Stanwood News Building is ideally appointed for its purpose, the printing equipment is complete and up-to-date, and both the newspaper and its commercial printing facilities are deservedly popular. The News has grown and expanded and is at this time regularly issued as a seven-column, eight-page weekly, with a bona fide circulation in 1925 of 865, which is close if not equal to the present population of the Town of Stanwood, the Federal census of 1920 giving it 701.

The Arlington Times, for many years one of the more influential weekly newspapers of Western Washington, was originated as an afterthought of Stanwood's first publisher, George Morrill, who began publication of the Stanwood Times in 1889 and soon afterward removed his plant to Haller City and continued its publication there as the Stillaguamish Times until 1891, in which latter year the property was purchased by C. L. Marsh, the present editor and publisher, who has lived to become the dean of Snohomish County editors and publishers, having guided the destinies of the Times continuously throughout the last thirty-five years. Mr. Marsh up to the hour of his purchasing the Times had very little technical knowledge of the newspaper business, but he was an eager and apt pupil, with a background of thorough education and several years of teaching school; since coming to Puget Sound he had taught the pioneer schools of Houghton and later of Haller City. Born March 18, 1873, on his ancestral estate in West Virginia and educated in a private academy there, he spent three years teaching the young idea of the South before coming to Puget Sound in 1890.

Upon taking charge of the Stillaguamish Times in 1891, Editor Marsh gave the paper a more intensive local character and changed the name to Haller City Times. By this time Haller City and Arlington were enjoying a nip-and-tuck battle for supremacy, and on September 14, 1891, Thomas McMahon had platted and boomed McMahon's Addition to Arlington, occupying the area immediately between and this forming a platted connection between the two original towns. By 1893, Arlington, and especially McMahon's strategic addition, had gained sufficient headway to convince the young editor that there would be the future city of the town builders' dreams. According, in that year he bought the site of the present home of the Arlington Times, on Railroad Avenue (now popularly called Olympic Avenue), and erected thereon the building in which the Times has ever since 1893 made its home, at the same time again changing the name of the publication to The Arlington Times, absorbing the little pioneer Arlington paper, the Stillaguamish Star, of which the virile John W. Frame, later distinguished in the newspaperdom of Snohomish, Everett and Alaska, was the founding and master spirit. At first published in a weather-beaten tent amidst the towering evergreens on the banks of the upper Stillaguamish at Haller City, the Times was now as comfortably and adequately housed as any other newspaper in the county, or any other business' establishment at Haller-McMahon-Arlington, and had the entire field of the rich and virgin upper Stillaguamish country to itself. In the beginnings, both Morrill and Marsh received state notarial commissions and each in turn served as United States Commissioner, the modest fees accruing from such service aiding materially in keeping the printshop and paper in the wilderness somewhere near a cash basis. In the earlier years Mr. Marsh had the assistance of Frank B. Davis as a junior partner in the publishing business. Since 1918, the business and advertising management of the establishment has been in the able hands of J. C. Carpenter, the present business manager. Only for a comparatively brief period has the supremacy of the Times in its wide field ever been aggressively challenged; the Arlington Chronicle was established by ambitious rivals and its publishers had succeeded in maintaining the competition over a period of four years and three months, when the inevitable overtook them and the Chronicle property crumbled and was absorbed by the Times, April 3, 1915. Making its first appearance from the bed of an old Washington hand press, the Arlington Times has by degrees steadily kept pace with the modern innovations and improvements of the printing art. Upon removal to Arlington in 1893, the plant was equipped with a new Cottrell cylinder press, and this in 1912 was succeeded by a new Babcock Standard. Mr. Marsh installed a small linotype Mergenthaler typesetting machine in 1912, and this in turn was replaced January 5, 1923, with a Model 14 Mergenthaler linotype machine. Likewise the circulation of the paper has kept pace with the growth and development of the country, growing from the modest beginning of 300 on the subscription list to 1,050 in 1925. Editor Marsh is a studious, entertaining and convincing writer, a really independent republican in politics, and his dependable and thoughtful editorial work has given the Times a much wider influence in the Puget Sound country than is usually true of weekly newspapers.

Both Mr. Marsh and Mr. Carpenter are active and prominent in the progressive community affairs of the Stillaguamish Valley. Mr. Marsh was one of the founders and during the last five years secretary of the Stillaguamish Valley Association of Washington Pioneers, chairman of the Arlington City park commissioners and an active and forceful member of the Arlington Commercial Club from its inception to the present time.

Edmonds had its full share of newspapers in the early 90s, beginning with the Edmonds Chronicle early in 1890. The Chronicle had all sorts of trouble, from mere failure to a disastrous fire. By the end of April, 1891, the publisher had to suspend publication on account of hard times, but by the latter part of July the paper again resumed operations and continued to appear regularly, but modestly. until early in April, 1892, when the entire plant was destroyed by fire, with very small insurance to soften the blow. M. J. Hartnett was at this time editor and manager of the paper, and he succeeded in getting together some kind of printing outfit, and in the last week of August, 1892, resumed publication of the weekly Chronicle. However, three months later the paper again suspended publication, and it was understood that Editor Hartnett took part of his printing plant to Snohomish and joined the fortunes of the Snohomish Democrat, of which J. \W. Frame was master. This ended the career of the Chronicle, but in the following July,

1893, J. Hartson Dowd went to Edmonds and began the publication of a paper called the Edmonds Lyre, a six-column, four-page weekly, which continued to occupy the field for a number of years.

The IXdmonds Review was established August 1, 1904, by Richard Bushell, Jr., the son of a clergyman, who experimented with the paper for a few months and then, on January 1, 1905, sold the property to Mrs. T. M. B. Hanna and Prof. F. H. Darling, the latter a pioneer educator of Edmonds and vicinity. Mr. Darling was editor and Mrs. Hanna the business manager, and they proved an unusually strong and effective team, for they consistently made a success of the Review and continued so until 1908, when Mrs. Hanna became sole owner, and in the following year sold the property to W. H. Schumacher, who at once doubled its size and tried to give it some desirable metropolitan airs. In 1912 the name of John M. Bradley appears at the masthead as editor, and R. F. Berschneider as associate editor. In later years another weekly paper was started in Edmonds, the Edmonds Tribune; it managed to get along fairly well for a time, but was a few years ago absorbed by the Edmonds Review, now published and edited by Ray V. Cloud, a clever and experienced newspaper man, who has consistently succeeded in producing a commendable six-column, eight-page weekly under the title Edmonds Tribune-Review. Mr. Cloud has also considerably added to and improved his printing plant, so that it appears to be a periodical habit of his to issue large, special, illustrated editions of the Tribune-Review. Edmonds, during the Hanna-Darling regime on the Review, attracted no little attention from the editorial wits of the state, because that city possessed not only Snohomish County's sole woman newspaper manager, but of the state as well. It was also something new for the editors of Snohomish County, although the Stanwood Post, in 1891, maintained itself for a time by sending a lady canvasser to the big city of Snohomish, and other population centers, in the interests of the Post. It was quite natural, therefore that the first Snohomish County Press Association should have its formative meeting at Edmonds on the 6th of June, 1908. This meeting was held in the home of T. A. A. Siegfriedt, of the Edmonds Tribune, and officers were chosen as follows: C. E. Bissell, president; John A. Swett, vice president; executive committee, Percy E. Coffin, chairman, E. C. Bissell, Mrs. T. M. B. Hanna, W. Maw, and H. D. Matthews. Ten county papers were represented at this meeting, as follows: Edmonds Tribune, T. A. A. Siegfriedt; Edmonds Review, Mrs. T. M. B. Hanna; Snohomish Tribune, J. A. McCormick; Marysville Globe, P. E. Coffin; Labor Journal, J. E. Campbell; Everett Herald, J. M. Scott; Sultan Star, J. A. Swett; Monroe Transcript, H. D. Matthews; Granite Falls Post, Frank Niles.

Early in November, 1889, O. V. Ward came to Snohomish County with a view to engage in the newspaper business. Marysville and vicinity appealed to him most favorably, and he immediately proceeded to form a stock company of $5,000 capital to establish a paper there. The incorporators of this company were Mark Swinnerton, E. J. Anderson, D. J. Dole, D. A. Quinn, C. H. Schager, H. B. Myers, J.S. MclIlhany, and O. V. Ward. The paper appeared all right. It was a weekly edited by Ward and was called the Marysville Leader. During the exciting times of 1890 and early 1891, the new paper seemed to be prospering, but when the wave of the boom began to recede in the late summer and fall of 1891, the Marysville Leader went out with it, and the plant was removed to Snohomish. The next paper that made its appearance in the busy little town of Marysville was the Marysville Globe, established by John W. Hopp, of the Sumas News, the first issue appear- ing Febriiary 2, 1893, and as an indication that Mr. Hopp had well judged the field, the Marysville Globe has not missed an issue since that date. In July, 1892, Attorney John S. Sinclair was one of the editors of the Globe, which was from its inception, strongly republican in politics. In January, 1893, however, Mr. Hopp sold the paper to Stephen Saunders, an enthusiastic democrat, who converted the paper into a rock-ribbed democratic organ. The Snohomish Eye, speaking of Saunders in the fall of 1894, refers to him as "Steve Saunders, the Marysville Globe's strawberry blonde editor,' and adds that Saunders is now assistant secretary of the democratic county committee. Mr. Saunders continued publishing the paper for about eight years, weathering all the troubles incident to the panic of 1893 and the three or four succeeding years, which brought much grief to the struggling press of the Puget Sound country. Richard Bushell, Jr., purchased the property in 1901, conducting it with varying success until May, 1904, when he was succeeded by Frank Tallman, as lessee, for the unexpired term ending the following October. At that time, George D. and O. L. Reynolds took over the property, and they were succeeded four months later by Mr. Anderson and he, in turn, by several others. Dewitt C. Owen, the present able and successful editor and publisher of the Marysville Globe, says that he feels that the Globe is in a class by itself in the matter of variety and multiplicity of ownerships throughout the thirtyfour years of its existence. "I tried seriously some time ago," he said, recently, "to trace all the changes of ownership that have taken place, but after I had passed through about fifteen of them, I gave it up as too much of a job for a busy editor." Mr. Owen bought the paper and property in 1916 from H. D. Maddox, who had, himself, purchased it but a very short time before. The Globe has a good plant and the typography and press work are admirable, thanks to the expert attention given by Mr. Owen to this fine weekly newspaper, which he has been publishing continuously for more than ten years. It is a newsy, six-column, eight-page weekly published Fridays, has no competition in its field and has a substantial circulation of 510.

There were numerous newspaper ventures in the early nineties that failed to weather the blight of 1893-1896. Among them was the Sultan Journal, a capably edited weekly, established by M. J. Hartnett and J. F. Bakeman, the first issue appearing the last week in August, 1890. The Journal had a spotted career, so to speak, so far as editors were concerned, for it had within its short life no less than half a dozen dreamers in the sanctum sanctorum. J. F. Bakeman started off gamely and stayed with it nearly two years, when he was succeeded by J. B. Wilson, in July, 1892. It was a six-column folio paper, and boasted of being neutral in politics. In November, 1893, T. J. Atwood was the editor; his home and all his belongings were burned about the middle of that month and the good neighbors turned in and helped him build a new cottage,.and Rev. A. W. Bower assumed editorial charge of the Journal. In the same year, for a few months, Donald Mc- Kechnie had served as editor, McKechnie & Coley having bought the property in August. But despite the pulling power of all this various editorial talent the bright and shining light of the Sultan Journal grew dimmer and dimmer and finally lapsed into oblivion. It was followed by John A. Swett's Sultan Star in 1905.

At this time, however, Sultan boasts a really representative and substantial weekly newspaper, The Valley News, edited and published by Arthur E. Babcock, which maintains regular hours, is a six-column, four-page paper, which absorbed the old Star and Index Miner, and presents a faithful and well written record of the activities of the little city and the productive district in which it thrives. It is now closing its twenty-third volume. Sultan is also noteworthy in that it possesses the only advertising club in the county, the Sultan Ad Club, of which J. A. Reeves is the energetic fountain head and executive secretary. Sultan may be a small town, so far as census returns may indicate, but it is not as insular or backwoodsy as the geography of Snohomish County might lead the unenlightened to infer. It represents community spirit that mounts close to par.

One of the most courageous ventures in the art preservative of arts was the establishment of the Monte Cristo Mountaineer by J. H. S. Bartholomew, at a time when all other projects, especially new ones, wilted under the blighting breath of the financial stringency, for the Mountaineer, calmly beholding the gold and silver basins of the jagged gulches of the Monte Cristo mining district, first appeared as a literary harbinger in the wilderness late in the autumn of 1893, at a time when the people of this stricken country, from the Atlantic to the far Pacific, already sensed the biting force and portent of that devastating twelvemonth. However, the Mountaineer could not survive the prolonged period of money stringency, and it struggled along for two or three years mostly on prodigious nerve, and then "petered out" like a vein of wire gold in a volcanic gulch.

Another adventure of hardy printers was the establishment of the Inter- Cascade Miner, a mining weekly, at Galena April 1, 1892. A complete printing plant was taken in by rail as far as Index and from that point by pack horses over the rough trail to the rough little town of Galena. The first number appeared April 10, and the hardihood of the publishers was duly commended by their fellow editors - although they mentioned no names. But in August of the following year, 1893, the editor of the Cascade Miner printed a brief but sarcastic valedictory, packed up his printing outfit and wended his way back over the mountain trail. Galena has not since then tempted any more editors up that way, but the little town is growing steadily and the surrounding country is attracting settlement and productive development.

In March, 1892, W. B. Shay, who had been the first editor of the Marysville Leader, starting in September, 1890, went up to Granite Falls and established the Granite Falls Miner, in association with his brother, Fred. It was a six-column folio weekly, and was edited by the tireless "Billy" Shay with his customary care and high spirit. The paper was generously quoted by its contemporaries, but was by no manner of means a financial success, for early in 1893 the plant was shipped up to Silverton and soon the Silverton Miner appeared in the field, soliciting patronage and booming the silver lodes of that region. Here in December, 1892, W. B. Shay contracted a fatal attack of smallpox, and died there the day after Christmas. He had come West from Massachusetts, being a native of Roxbury, born in 1869. He spent two years editing the Marysville Leader, and then went to Snohomish and established the Snohomish Republican, which he sold to J. W. Frame, who converted it into the Democrat. Fred Shay continued the publication of the Silverton Miner under many discouraging difficulties. He had made preparations for a big boom edition of the Miner to be issued in July, 1893, but said that the demonitization of silver caused him to indefinitely postpone the project. In April of that year he visited Snohomish and told the editor of the Eye that the snow was then four feet deep at Silverton, and he often had to pack his white paper on his back through the deep snow from Getchell to Silverton. The Miner

The Granite Falls Post was established by Frank Niles and A. R. Moore, in a specially erected building on Main Street in that industrial town, July 25, 1903, Mr. Niles being in complete charge of the enterprise. A little later it was taken over by Messner Bros., with Roy G. Messner as editor and manager. In July, 1905, Roy G. Messner and Frank Niles formed a partnership, and Mr. Niles took charge of the editorial department, while Mr. Messner managed the printing establishment. The paper prospered and continued in popular and profitable esteem for a number of years. At this time, 1926, Granite Falls is one of the most prosperous and enterprising communities in the county, the census of 1920 giving it a population of 632, since which time there has been considerable progress and growth. The Granite Falls Post was succeeded by the present excellent weekly newspaper and printing establishment, the Granite Falls Record, a six-column weekly newspaper that is intelligently edited and managed, established in 1922, with a complete modern printing plant. The Record is Republican in political faith, issued Fridays, had 420 appreciative subscribers in 1925, and is ably edited by its publisher and owner, Charles W. Sibley.

The little City of Monroe, fifteen miles southeast from Everett and a near neighbor of the historic City of Snohomish, like Arlington, has been satisfactorily served by one newspaper for many years, although by 1920 the city had reached a population of 1,675, and has been making consistent and substantial growth every year since that time. The Monroe Monitor, one of the foremost weeklies of the old days as well as of the present time, was established by that well-remembered soldierjournalist, Maj. B. F. Smith, January 14, 1898, originally as a four-page, fivecolumn weekly. In the following year the major sold the property to E. C. Bissell, whose editorial and managerial efficiency made it not only a profitable but a highly popular community asset, although the printing plant was small and was equipped with a Vaun's Ideal hand press and two small job presses. The Monitor remained independent politically, and devoted its columns chiefly to the stimulation of constructive development in the Monroe district. When J. J. Reardon came to Puget Sound a few years ago looking for a field for his journalistic talents, the Monroe district attracted his attention as an unusually inviting field for industrial development, for the little city had already shown evidence that it was favored by captains of industry as a logical center for considerable development. Mr. Reardon promptly acquired the Monitor property, vastly improved and expanded its equipment and facilities and remodeled the paper up to its present admirable standard of excellence. Its independence in politics was continued in the scheme of the present publishers, J. J. Reardon & Sons, and its fine community service policy was continued and amplified. 'The Monitor is an attractive, newsy and aggressive weekly, all home print, carrying eight six-column pages, having a sworn circulation in excess of 1,300 in 1925. The printing establishment compares favorably with the most complete of the country weekly and commercial printing offices in this part of the state. Meantime, Monroe has grown steadily and presents a busy scene on the north bank of the Skykomish River, with four operating sawmills, six shingle mills, a Carnation milk condensary and one of the two principal fruit canneries of Snohomish County among its productive activities, and with the state reformatory, the county farm and the famous Stewart forty-acre berry farm among the note- worthy establishments of the neighborhood, so that Editor Reardon finds ample opportunity to make the Monitor an intensely interesting publication.

When the late Charles W. Gorham purchased the Snohomish Tribune in 1893, he conceived the idea of specially stimulating the development of the Mount Index mineral resources, and with this in mind he issued from the Tribune office the weekly Index Miner, a publication which for nearly a decade was the leading publication devoted to mining development in Western Washington, and in fact remained a strong factor in the exploitation of Snohomish County precious metal resources until 1907, as well as promoting the lumber production of the region in the neighborhood of the Town of Index, attractively situated at the forks of the Skykomish River, it being the last and most easterly town in Snohomish County served by the main line of the Great Northern Railway.

George W. and H. P. Head in 1906 launched a weekly paper at Monroe called the Washington Transcript, but it survived only two or three years, although it was a well edited newspaper, republican in politics, and both the publishers enjoyed a wide acquaintance and popularity not only in that locality but throughout the Snohonush Valley in which they had resided and been active for many years, most of the time identified with leading publications in Snohomish City. The Transcript was a six-column, eight-page weekly, the inside pages containing general and telegraphic news, known as "patent insides,' printed in Portland, Ore.

John A. Swett was active in Snohonush County journalism for many years and bore the distinction of being the only native son publisher. Mr. Swett was born in Snohomish City, February 11, 1877, his father having come to the territory in 1864 from his native State of Maine; the father was the son of a volunteer under Washington in the Revolution, and the mother, Martha Burham Swett, a daughter of Capt. George Burham of the War of 1812. John A. Swett served on the staffs of a number of newspapers before branching out for himself, first on the Snohomish Daily Sun under Will M. Sanger, who had been a journalist in Iowa before - coming to Snohomish; then on the Seattle Times, and later on other newspapers in Everett and Snohomish, and after two years on the Monroe Monitor, the young newspaper man procured a complete printing plant and established the weekly Star at Sultan, at that time already a busy little town, the first issue of the Star appearing September 7, 1905, Editor Swett's idea being to devote the paper to community constructive promotion and to mingle in politics only incidentally, for personally as well as in the role of publisher he was essentially independent in political matters. The Star thrived for a few years, but was unable to weather a period of depression brought on by the "bankers' panic" in the fall of 1907. Mr. Swett is at this time a resident of Seattle, having recently retired from active association in the publication of a newspaper at Auburn, Washington.

The Index News was established at that active Great Northern border town in 1915, by Bert Wilson, and for a time was largely instrumental in stimulating interest and development in that district.

It is an interesting fact that Union Labor had been publishing a weekly labor paper for some time before the Everett-Snohomish Typographical Union was organized. This organization was formed in June, 1894, and started with twenty-five journeymen printers of the two cities. Harvey Jordan was the first president, G. S. McNeely vice president and A. W. Wehner secretary. The Labor Journal first appeared from the presses of the old Everett News Printing Company in 1891. Some years later the paper became a going concern. By 1906 the editor of the

Labor Journal was M. W. Sills, president of the Everett Central Labor Council. Offices were maintained in the Greenberg Building, 2902 Wetmore Avenue, and the paper appeared every Thursday, a six-column, four-page labor news periodical. The Journal has always been conservatively edited. The paper has since been increased to a seven-column folio and is issued on Fridays, Board of Control of the Labor Journal, publisher, Labor Temple, and with Henry -\rends as editor. Its circulation at present is. given as 800. The Northwest Painter, a seven-column, four-page monthly labor paper representing the union painting trades of the Northwest, published by the Northwest Painters' Conference and boasting a circulation of 1,660 in 1925, is published also at the Everett Labor Temple and edited by Henry Arends.

It is extremely difficult to trace the later lives of early Snohomish County newspaper men, most of them going away and leaving neither connections nor trace. R. B. Smythe, who will be mostly remembered through his connection with the Snohomish Democrat, departed for the East in March, 1894, and the following month joined the staff of the Washington, D. C., Times. Frank B. Davis of the old Haller City Times and later of the Arlington Times, and J. H. S. Bartholowmew, who had the hardihood to establish the Monte Cristo Mountaineer upon completion of the Everett & Monte Cristo Railroad at the close of 1893, were admitted to the bar in June, 1895, and thereafter pursued the practice of law. Will M. Sanger, one of the best prepared and most experienced newspaper men and _ printers of the early "90s in March, 1893, left Snohomish for Seattle to confine his newspaper work to the trade of a journeyman printer; he had spent four years actively and prominently in the Snohomish County newspaper field: he remained in Seattle, however, less than two months, going from there to Wallace, Idaho, and within a short time returned to his native State of Iowa, where he later was active and prominent in the political circles of that state. AMI. J. Hartnett, who was prominent in the establishment of several of the early newspapers of Snohomish County, late in 1895 returned to the State of Illinois, and in March, 1896, was doing a thriving business as publisher of the Shawneetown, Iil., News. Frank S. Musseter, once editor and publisher of the Snohomish Daily Sun, was in later years engaged on Chicago newspapers. Fred Shaw, former editor of the Miner, became postmaster of Silverton in 1894, and does not appear to have been active in Snohomish County newspaper work after that time. In 1893 there were but three thricea-week newspapers published in the State of Washington, and two of these were in Snohomish City. A. W. Frater, who served to give assurance of character and responsibility to the Snohomish Sun as one of its publishers, but retired from the publication in September, 1889, because he could not endorse the policies of his partner, J. W. Gunn, later became a leading lawyer of Seattle and served for many years as judge of the King County Superior Court. Maj. H. W. Patton, who bought the Everett Independent and changed the name to Everett Herald, was later editor and manager of the Bellingham Reveille and American, and thereafter lessee and editor of the Hoquiam Morning Washingtonian; he died at Soap Lake, Washington, of pneumonia, in 1924. James M. Vernon, founder of the pathfinding Everett Times, had served as postmaster of the City of [Everett over a period of twenty years, when death overtook him, January 29, 1926. James B. Best, under whose able and skillful management and proprietary direction the Everett Daily Herald has become one of the leading afternoon metropolitan newspapers of the state, died at his home in his beloved home city, March 27, 1922.

One of the most memorable and elaborate annual meetings of the Washington State Press Association ever eventuated was held in the City of Everett in the summer of 1906, one of the big features of the entertainment being an all-day cruise among the islands of the San Juan group on the great pleasure steamer Yosemite, leaving Everett at 8 A. M. and returning at 6:30 P. M. with 900 enthusiastic and delighted holiday passengers. A band and orchestra provided music throughout the day and the dance floor of the ship was given plenty of active service. |

Kverett, like the three other large cities of Western Washington, has had its pick of many newspaper projects during its comparatively short and interesting career, and the two excellent newspapers that have survived to the present time may be said to have been the well-considered choice of the people to serve them when the city "grew up," the Daily Herald and the Daily News, the former a large afternoon daily with leased wire telegraph news service and syndicate features, the latter a snappy morning daily with telegraphic news service and a big Sunday edition. The first Everett newspaper was also named the Everett Herald, but its publication was discontinued before the present Herald was born, although it was in every respect an estimable weekly newspaper. It was established late in 1891 by James M. Bradley, who had but recently been connected with the Tacoma Globe, then defunct, and John E. McManus, and was first issued December 10, 1891, from a small frame building near the east end of what is now Hewitt Avenue, then known as Swalwell's Landing, the name having reference to a small river dock on the south side of the Snohomish River, in Riverside addition. The old Herald was edited by A. M. Bailey, also formerly of the Globe, and the business management was in charge of Arthur E. Grafton, also formerly on the business staff of the Tacoma paper, but in July, 1892, Editor Bailey retired from the publication and James M. Bradley, who had been managing editor of the Tacoma Globe, assumed complete editorial charge himself.

The brilliant George E. Macdonald was at that time, 1891-1892, editing the Snohomish Eye, and his editorial comment relative to the first issue of the Everett Herald is therefore worthy of repetition here: "A second addition to Everett journalism is platted in the form of the Everett Herald, issuing from Swalwall's Landing. It is a four-page weekly, seven columns, of good claim to typographical and grammatical accuracy. Nothing but success can be expected with Editor Bailey at the head, who, though he may sacrifice truth to loyalty, is withal a well-meaning and enterprising young man. The Eye hopes the Herald may do its share in advertising the county, and that the editor's wisdom and prosperity may grow apace."

In July, 1893, the Herald became Everett's official paper, and it continued as such for nearly two years. About this time the back-ruck of the panic of 1893 withered many a proud venture in the new city of smokestacks, and in July, 1895, the Everett Herald folded its forms and quit, the Snohomish Eye recording the failure in its issue of July 18, 1895, in this wise: "The Everett Herald has acquired one of those modern accessories which are indicative of 'returning prosperity, and which are generally known in the business world as a receiver."

Eleven days following the first appearance of the original Everett Herald, Col. James M. Vernon, who had but recently arrived in the incipient village from Alabama, issued the first number of the Everett Times, dated December 21, 1891, and this was really the first newspaper published in what is now the waterfront and business center of Everett. At that time this part of the embryo city had not yet been platted and was as yet nameless. Colonel Vernon erected his newspaper building a short distance north of the present Great Northern station, installing therein a complete printing plant which he had shipped out from the East. There was then but one little store in this part of the future city, a few scattered houses and shacks, and the rest was forest and slashings and smoking spots of clearing. The first edition of the Times, however, containing carefully written descriptive matter, consisted of 10,000 copies, or probably ten copies for each man, woman and child then residing in what became the City of Everett. It was an attractive eight-page paper, and the good impression that the enterprise of the publisher at once created favored. the Times with a general welcome throughout the Everett district. Colonel Vernon had formed a publishing company, known as the Times Publishing Company, whose officers were: W. P. Rice, president; J. M. Vernon, vice president, treasurer and general manager, and S. F. Robinson, secretary. The Times for many years was a highly influential element of the young city, Colonel Vernon. being energetically progressive and constructive in his community ideas and advocacy; in politics he was a liberal republican. In February, 1901, Colonel Vernon being then almost exclusively occupied as postmaster of the city, having been first appointed by President McKinley in 1898, sold the Times property to A. W. Bowers and Eugene Lorton, who soon thereafter launched publication of the Daily Times, an evening paper. They later leased the plant to R. A. Grant and assoctates, who continued publication of the daily under the name of the Everett Daily Record. They were succeeded by Paul W. Custer, who conducted the paper for a time as a daily and was then succeeded by Herbert Hunt and Horace Peters, who combined the Times and Record properties, issuing the Times as a weekly and the Record as a daily, the weekly edition, however, being discontinued in May, 1904, thus ending the career of the Times, which had been a mighty influence during the formative years of the city. The daily edition became the Tribune, issued mornings. Editor Herbert Hunt was an unusually bright writer, formerly of the Indianapolis News; he was later editor of the Tacoma Daily News, and in 1916, a few weeks before his death, edited the well known "History of Washington West of the Cascades," in three volumes. Eugene Lorton, who had recently come here from Kansas, was later editor of the Walla Walla Morning Union, and became quite prominent in Washington state politics. His partner, A. W. Bower, was for a time editor of the Sultan Journal.

The Everett News of 1926 was originally the Everett Daily Tribune, which in turn was the outgrowth and successor of the Daily Record, and the Everett Times of 1891. S. E. Wharton, former editor of the present Daily Herald at the time the latter was established, and W. R. Conner, purchased the Daily Record plant at receiver's sale from Receiver B. F. Sherwood, June 17, 1905. The Record plant, just before suspension of the paper, had been badly damaged by fire in the basement of the Colby Building, where the paper was then printed. Mr. Wharton reassembled the plant, added to it and installed it in the new Herald Building at the corner of Colby Avenue and Wall Street. W.R. Conner, who had worked with Mr. Wharton on the St. Paul Globe, mainly financed the new publication venture. They organized and incorporated the Tribune Publishing Company, October 1, 1905, with S. E. Wharton as president, and the new Everett Daily Tribune made its first appearance from the composing and press rooms of the Daily Herald, Manager James B. Best having kindly loaned the equipment for the time being while Wharton went to San Francisco to purchase a new newspaper plant. A little later Tom Dillon and Tom Thurlby, who had also served on the news department of the St. Paul Globe, arrived and formed the news staff of the Morning Tribune. Thurlby later became cartoonist of the Seattle Times, a position he still holds, while Dillon became managing editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and is now managing the Minneapolis Tribune. Wharton's new plant was wrecked by the San Francisco earthquake of June, 1906, but the paper continued issuing regularly. In 1912, Mr. Conner sold his interest to Mr. Wharton and purchased the job printing plants of the Pacific Coast, D. D. Ray and A. J. Morrow Printing companies, consolidating them as the I'verett Printing Company, then and now operating at 2912 Rockefeller Avenue. Mr. Wharton then sold the Tribune property to Alonzo S. Taylor, now of Seattle, and the plant was augmented and removed to the present location in the Wisconsin Block, a building erected by Mr. Taylor. Richard Hatton was placed in charge for a time as general manager, but was succeeded in 1915 by A. R. Fenwick, who had heen managing editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and who now became editor and general manager of the Tribune, a position he still occupies. In 1920 a new company was organized, the News Printing Company, which purchased the Tribune property and changed the name of the paper to the [everett Daily News.

Mr. Fenwick is general manager and head of the publishing house, which occupies two floors of the Wisconsin Block. The equipment includes three linotype machines and a Goss Comet press. Besides Editor Fenwick, those actively in charge of the publication are: S. P. Donohue, city editor; A. C. Saunders, advertising manager ; Carl Pearson, circulation manager, ten years; Miss Elma Hanson, bookkeeper, ten years; Herbert Toole, sporting editor, six years; Mrs. Minnie Ames, society editor. The circulation in 1925 was 4,212.

Late in 1891, James W. Connella, who had started to publish the News at Snohomish and Lowell, joined the stampede and moved his plant to Pacific Avenue, where the News was published for several months, and then removed to Wetmore Avenue, where the aggressive and spiteful Connella got into serious difficulties with Colonel Vernon of the Tinfes, who twice had Connella arrested on charges of criminal libel, but the vituperative editor was acquitted each time. This was in 1893, and it all arose over conflict in municipal affairs. Every month of its existence under the fiery guidance of Connella, who was a cripple, was a stormy one. It all culminated in October, 1898, when the ill-tempered editor shot and killed Ole Nelson, a well known and popular wood and coal dealer. Connella attacked Nelson in the News office for removing a picture of James Hamilton Lewis from a frame hung where the republican convention was about to be held. Connella walked up to Nelson, who was talking with Thomas Fleming, and slapped him, saying that Nelson had lied about him. Fleming grabbed Connella to avoid trouble, and the shooting resulted. Connella was arrested and tried for murder, and acquitted by a jury in the Superior Court of Kitsap County, on the ground that Connella was a lame man and acted in self defense. Fearing violence from the men of Everett, Connella then left the district, and has never since returned. James Logie, who had been with the News seven years, bought the property from Connella, and later removed the plant to Oregon. County Auditor Headlee received the cost bill of the trial, amounting to $966.05, and in reporting the fact stated that about $500 had been paid out by Snohomish County before the case went to Kitsap County.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer told the story of the tragedy, quoting one of the witnesses to the shooting, as follows: "I was passing Haferkorn's cigar stand, when Connella walked up to Nelson who was talking to Tom Fleming, of Lowell,' and said, 'I have been looking for you; what have you been lying about me for? You Norwegian Nelson replied, 'I have not been lying about you.' Connella then struck him in the face, whereupon Fleming caught hold of him (Connella) and shoved him down the street ten or fifteen feet, Nelson taking two or three steps toward him and then sauntering over to the front of the cigar store. Connella again approached him and after further quarreling struck at him again, Nelson then grabbing him by the shoulders and throwing him to the sidewalk, struck him over the body once with his cane. Bystanders pulled Nelson back five or six feet, when Connella rolled over on his side and drawing a blue hammerless revolver shot him in the bowels. Nelson staggered backwards and groaned, 'Oh, I'm killed; I'm killed,' while his slayer got on his feet and coolly faced the crowd with the smoking pistol at his side. Within twenty seconds Deputy Sheriff Dwyer had taken Connella in charge. Nelson died at midnight, and Connella has been bound over without bail to answer for his murder in the Superior Court. People returning from Everett say public sentiment is very strong against him."

On September 26, 1894, the Independent made its appearance in Snohomish, edited and published by J. W. Gunn and Geo. W. Head. In January, 1897, it was consolidated with the old Everett Herald and Democrat, and reappeared as the Everett Independent, with John W. Frame as editor, and the newly elected secretary of state. Will D. Jenkins, commissioned the retiring editor, J. W. Gunn, as state statistician in the secretary's department. Early in February, 1898, the Everett Independent pronerty was sold to Mr. and Mrs. Rothery of San Francisco, and Editor Frame prepared to join the gold stampede to Alaska. In April, 1900, Maj. H. W. Patton came up from Los Angeles and purchased the Independent property, editing the paper himself while taking care of the business management. F, H. Brownell, McFarland and others had taken over the old Herald, in which Bradley had failed, and Major Patton combined this with the Independent and adopted the Herald as the name of the consolidated weekly.

This situation formed the nucleus of the present Everett Daily Herald in 1901, when S. A. Perkins, publisher of the Tacoma Ledger and News, Bellingham Herald, Olympia Recorder and Olympian and Chehalis Bee-Nugget, entered the Everett field, purchased the Patton Herald, and placed the late James B. Best in charge as general manager and Samuel E. Wharton as editor. Thus ended the old Independent, and thus began the new Daily Herald, the first daily isstie of which appeared on Monday, February 11, 1901, followed by the first issue of the Weekly Herald, February 16, 1901. Without a blare of trumpets or other ado, Everett had a new metropolitan eight-page daily with an Associated Press telegraphic news service. At this time the Herald was published from a brick building at 2816 Rucker Avenue, between Hewitt and California avenues, to which location it had been removed from its original home in a frame structure on Riverside. Hewitt Avenue then boasted a two-plank walk and frame stores at the point now considered the business center of the city; there were two widely separated business centers, one at Riverside, the other on the bay front in the neighborhood of the present Great Northern station. Mr. Best persuaded Mr. Perkins to acquire the property at the northeast corner of Wall and Colby, and in 1904 the present substantial and adequate building was erected there at a cost of $25, 000 - it would doubtless cost double that amount today.

ance to Mr. Perkins, Mr. Best, who had successfully managed the business from its inception and became more and more enthusiastic as to the future of the city and county, felt that Mr. Perkins was not sufficiently enthused over the brightening prospects of Everett and the Herald, so he conceived the daring idea of forming a syndicate of local men to attempt purchase of the property. Accordingly, Mr. Best interested a few of his local friends and Mr. Perkins sold the paper to Mr. Best's new corporation, The Daily Herald Company, for $100,000, most of which obligation assumed the form of bonds against the property, all of which were in due time called in and paid in full. Mr. Best was president and general manager of the company, and Thomas J. Dillon, who had been identified with the Morning Tribune, became the editor of the reorganized Daily Herald, succeeding Editor F. E. Wyman, who had occupied that position since June, 1903. The new company assumed control of the paper September 1, 1905, and has been a prosperous and growing establishment ever since that time.

The printing plant in the beginning included a flat-bed press of an old daily newspaper type and one Mergenthaler linotype machine. The equipment was at once increased to a battery of three linotypes, a double-feed Dispatch and a Miehle book press, and the paper maintained membership in the Associated Press for the afternoon news service and divided with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer the rights to the morning Associated Press news service. The present equipment includes a three-deck Goss press and nine linotypes. In July, 1905, the sworn circulation of the Herald was given as 4,250; in 1925 the national Audit Bureau of Circulation credited the Daily Herald with a paid circulation of 13,557, and the paid circulation at the present time, 1926, is approximately 15,000. Since the death of Mr. Best, March 27, 1922, Mrs. Best has been in complete charge of the entire establishment as general manager and has demonstrated marked aptitude and ability in that exacting capacity. Charles S. Coleman is the editor, and his work is uniformly forceful, scholarly and challenging to the best thought of the community which he Serves.

It would be a difficult if not impossible task to make any account of all the minor newspaper ventures to which the people of Everett have been passive or helpless witnesses or victims. In February, 1896, the defunct Edmonds Lyre printing plant was removed to Everett by its spirited owner, J. Hartson Dowd, and on February 21, 1896, it produced an entirely novel paper, called the Northwest Watchman, which was said to be the organ of the A. P. A. (American Protective Association), then creating a noisy furore along the Pacific Coast. Although the Watchman paid no attention to the news of the day, either locally or nationally, it managed to live almost a year, finally going out of business the first week in February, 1897. In April, 1894, a new populist paper made its appearance in Everett; it was inspired and mostly edited by J. C. Mitchell, former chief of police of Seattle, in association with M. J. Hartnett, but in June of the same year Mitchell gave notice that, owing to disagreement with his partner, The Broadax - that was the cutting name of the sheet - would now have to suspend publication, and it did. In May, 1901, the Daily Herald opened a bureau in Snohomish, with F. D. Carson in charge. In 1893 Editor N. P. Lind of the Nya Tidens, a Scandinavian weekly, made an effort to remove his publication offices to Everett, but the transfer for some reason did not materialize. J. N. Scott & Company in February, 1897, began the publication of a new weekly devoted to the mining interests of Snohomish County, called the Everett Mining Record. Grant S. McNeeley was in charge of the mechanical de- partment, and it seems that J. H. Mitchell was the original editor, but in the succeeding March, Mitchell sold his interest to J. Rush Livermore, who took charge as editor and was still with the publication when it surrendered a few months later. These are but a few of the derelicts of Snohomish County journalism, and 1n this respect this county pairs with most other counties of like resources and opportunities, because the creation of a medium of publicity affords a seemingly irresistible fascination for countless thousands who are, in fact, illy fitted to make a profitable success of a calling demanding an unusual combination of talents and business capacity. It is a profession in which, with rare exceptions, only the fittest can survive in a competitive field.