Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 18.djvu/170



142 Geo. H. Hikes

was employed by Mr. Bush of the Oregon Statesman until he discovered that Mr. Craig was a Whig politically ; and hence his political principles cost him his job a second time. Then he taught a school on Howell prairie, a few miles northwest of Salem, much of the time during the next year. It was while so engaged that he met Mr. William L. Adams, of Yamhill county, a pioneer of 1848, who invited him to become the fore- man of a paper he proposed to establish at Oregon City, the plant of the defunct Oregon Spectator having been secured for that purpose. This was the first Republican newspaper in Oregon, and its first issue was on April 21, 1855. On April 16, 1859, ^^- Craig became sole owner of this paper, and did much of the editorial work, although Mr. Adams was retained as the nominal editor. On October 24, 1863, the Argus was consolidated with the Oregon Statesman of Salem, and the publication continued under the latter name by the Oregon Printing and Publishing Company, the stockholders of which were J. W. P. Huntington, Benjamin Simpson, Rufus Mallory, Chester N. Terry, George H. Williams and D. W. Craig, with Clark P. Crandall as editor. Two years later Mr. Craig ac- quired a majority of the stock and early in 1866 sold the paper to Benjamin Simpson, and his sons, Sylvester C. and Samuel L. Simpson, became the editors. Simpson sold the plant to W. A. McPherson and William Morgan, owners of The Unionist, late in 1866, and on December 31st of that year the name of the Statesman was dropped. A year and a half later Mr. Huntington obtained control of The Unionist and pub- lished it up to the date of his death in 1869, after which the plant was bought by Samuel A. Clarke and the name of the paper changed to The Oregon Statesman and Unionist on Sept 16, 1869, and the words "and Unionist" were dropped on April i, 1870.

Mr. Craig's next newspaper venture was the publication of the Salem Daily Record, the first daily in the capital city, beginning June 10, 1867, ^^^ ending July 15, 1868.

On July 22, 1872, Mr. Craig became associated with the