Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 20.pdf/315



The unveiling of a tablet at Oregon City on August 9th to mark the site where The Oregon Spectator, the first newspaper in American territory west of the Rocky Mountains was issued on February 5, 1846, seventy-three years and seven months before, was an interesting feature of the joint programme of the National and State Editorial Associations at their meetings in Portland on August 8-10, 1919.

At the time The Spectator was started the difficulties confronting such an enterprise were very great. Then Oregon City had a population of less than five hundred. The total population of the "Oregon Country" meaning the area now constituting the States of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and the parts of Montana and Wyoming west of the summit of the Rocky Mountains did not exceed two thousand. The total voting population on June 3, 1845, was five hundred and four. Yet the citizens in and around Oregon City determined to have a newspaper. A subscription paper was prepared that year and enough pledges at ten dollars a share were secured to aggregate approximately twelve hundred dollars. That sum was entrusted to Gov. George Abernethy and forwarded to New York; and through him a hand-press, type, cases and other items needed in a printing plant, including a supply of paper, were purchased and sent to Oregon City via Cape Horn in a sailing vessel. Arrangements were made with John Fleming, a printer from Ohio, who came across the plains to Oregon City in 1844, to do the printing. The size of the paper was 11½ by 15½ inches, with four pages of four columns each, and it was issued twice a month at $5.00 a year. Beginning with September 12, 1850, the paper was issued weekly with D. J. Schnebly as editor, and the subscription price was raised to $7.00 a year.