Page:History of Oregon Newspapers.pdf/84

Rh was Thurston's idea, the backing came from Thurston, and it was only by a chain of fortuitous circumstances that there came into the picture the man who became the editor and conducted the little paper with courage and skill and power through stormy territorial days into the period of statehood. That man was Asahel Bush. The first issue of the paper carries in the masthead, at the upper left corner of the front page, the phrase "Published every Friday morn ing by Asahel Bush."

But the Statesmen's appearance was preceded by more than the usual pre-natal activity. More than a year before the first issue came damp from the old hand-press, Thurston, who had been chosen delegate in a non-partisan election, the first held in territorial Oregon, had begun work to get himself re-elected, and he conceived the idea of a personal organ. He was a peculiar combination in those days—a Methodist Democrat, for most of the Methodists were Whigs. The support given this stanch Democrat by the Methodists, who were strong in early Oregon, was believed to have insured his election. This made it inadvisable that Thurston be known as the publisher of a Democratic paper. He therefore aimed to keep his ownership secret.

Thurston's diary for January 13, 1850, made the first extant direct reference to his purpose of starting a paper.

"Today (he wrote) I had a long talk with Mr. Fitch of Michigan about going to Oregon to start a Democratic paper."

Then, January 19, 1850:

"During the session I wrote a letter to Mr. Crane of the New York Evening Post (founded by Alexander Hamilton) relative to going to Oregon to start a paper."

March 14, 1850:

"From the 1st to the 14th I was at Springfield, Mass., and going to negotiate for a paper to be started at Oregon City. The parties are A. W. Stockwell and Henry Russell."

March 20, 1850:

"Mr. Stockwell left here today."

Besides Stockwell and Russell, Thurston had also interested Wilson Blain, a United Presbyterian minister who in 1849 was editor of the Oregon Spectator, in the new paper. Blain, however, sold his interest and went to Linn county, where in accordance with a previous intention, he started a parochial school.

Chicopee, Mass., and Bush came into the situation through Mrs.