Page:History of Oregon Newspapers.pdf/214



Oregon City.—The honor of starting two of Oregon's daily papers which have come down from the pioneer days to the present belongs to D. C. (DeWitt Clinton) Ireland, who had been printer for Schuyler Colfax at Mishawaka, Ind.; compositor for Horace Greeley; one of the founders of the Pioneer Press in St. Paul; breeder of thoroughbred horses; compositor and pioneer city editor of the Morning Oregonian.

Ireland left the Oregonian to found the Oregon City Enterprise, having in mind promoting the interests of Oregon City in connection with the railroad then projected but not built, which has become the main line of the Southern Pacific through the Willamette Valley.

The new publisher had in mind also, of course, the idea of making an independent living and getting out of the employee class. Throughout the greater part of his career he enjoyed exceptional financial success, clouded by one or two misadventures, one of which was not in journalism but in salmon-canning. But that is another story.

The first issue of the Enterprise, a four-page, seven-column paper, appeared October 27, 1866.

Ireland announced that the paper would be published every Saturday morning. The price was $3 a year, $4 "if delayed." For advertising the rate was $2.50 a square of 12 lines for the first and $1 for each subsequent insertion. A special offer of a column a year of 52 issues for $100 was made.

In his salutatory Editor Ireland announced his policies to the extent of about 350 words, putting himself on record as one of the first of the news rather than political type of editor. What politics he played, however, were Democratic. He said, in part:

"The establishment has been purchased by an association of gentlemen and given into our hands, and, as has been the case with us for the past few years of our connection with the leading paper of the state, we shall constantly aim to deserve well of the public. . .."

The first issue of the Enterprise devotes an editorial nearly a column long to promoting the state fair and saying a good word for agricultural fairs in general.