Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 4.djvu/387

Rh The Western Union Telegraph line was completed to Seattle October 26, 1864, and at 4 P. M. of that date the Gazette issued its "Citizen's Dispatch," giving the first published dispatch coming by wire to this place. It gave the Eastern war news to October 24th, from Kansas City and from Chattanooga of the operations of Sherman against Hood in the Atlanta campaign.

Occasionally telegraphic dispatches appeared in succeeding papers, but not until about July 1, 1872, when the Puget Sound Dispatch was established by Larrabee &amp; Co., Beriah Brown, editor, was any regular publication of the press dispatches undertaken here.

In June, 1867, a suspension took place, and August 5th next S. L. Maxwell sent to press the first number of the Weekly Intelligencer. The plant had come into the ownership of Messrs. Daniel and C. B. Bagley, and Mr. Maxwell was permitted to use the same and pay for it as he could out of the earnings of the paper. The type, rules, press, and much of the advertising matter of the older paper, still standing in the forms, was used in the makeup of the new paper, so that it may properly be considered a lineal successor of the Seattle Gazette. Mr. Maxwell proved to be a good newspaper and business man, and as the town and surrounding country was having a vigorous growth, it did not take him long to pay off the small debt and to add much needed material to the office, which was moved across Yesler Way to a small wooden building, and, later, up Yesler Way to near the southwest corner of Second Avenue South. It gained influence as it grew, made money for its owner almost from the start, and had the local field to itself until the Dispatch was started.

In the latter part of 1878 some of the prominent local office-holders and business men organized a company to start another paper, and November 21, 1878, the Seattle Weekly Post made its first appearance, being made up