Page:History of Oregon Newspapers.pdf/125

116 Mr. Himes. "He was an able lawyer and had a good practice even while he was editor. He was a striking figure on the streets, in his high topper hat of rough material. I can still see him writing his editorials, as he often did, sitting down in some doorstep on the main street. The back of an envelope would do for copy paper; he seldom used the regular copy paper; and he would take off his high beaver hat and write against the flat top of it.

"His handwriting was clear, and easy to read, and I used to like to set it. His style was concise and compact." Holbrook was less fortunate than his predecessor in handling the local political situation, and his resignation came in 1864 after he had so far offended the Union party that a new paper called the Union was started.

Other editors in this period were John F. Damon and Samuel A. Clarke, who is much better known in connection with the Oregon Statesman and the Willamette Farmer.

Damon had before coming to Portland edited a newspaper in Port Townsend, Wash. Before that he had been a compositor for the publishing house which got out the works of Longfellow, Hawthorne, Emerson, and Thoreau. He was one of the fastest type setters that ever came to Portland; his average speed, hour after hour, Mr. Himes recalls, was 1800 ems. At San Francisco piece rates this would have paid him nearly $3 an hour. He is best remembered by all but the very old-timers as Seattle's marrying parson in the 90's—in which capacity his performance ran into record-breaking figures.

Among others who contributed editorial matter in the short pre-Scott period of the Morning Oregonian were H. W. Corbett, prominent Portland merchant, and Judge E. D. Shattuck, former instructor at the young Pacific University which had just graduated Harvey W. Scott as the only member of its first class.

Judge Shattuck had been editor of the News, Portland's first daily paper, in 1859. Here was another New Englander prominent in early Portland. Born in Vermont December 21, 1824, he was admitted to the bar in 1852. In 1853 he occupied the chair of ancient languages at Pacific University, Forest Grove. This was three years before Harvey Scott entered the preparatory department at Pacific and ten years before his graduation.

Probate judge of Washington county in 1855, Shattuck later served in the Oregon constitutional convention, edited the News in 1859, and in 1862 was elected judge of the Oregon supreme court, serving five years. He was occupying this post when he supplied editorial copy to the Oregonian and recognized the possibilities of young Scott, who was studying law in Shattuck's office.

Holbrook's trouble with the Union party coincided with Pittock's clash with the printers, as told elsewhere in this volume.

Clarke, who had been serving as editor, succeeding Holbrook,