Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/675



In due time the censorship exercised by the Printing Association over his utterances on the editorial page of the Spectator, caused Mr. Curry to resign his position early in 1848.

Mr. Curry was bom in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 2, 1820. From 1824 to 1829 he lived with his parents in Caracas, South America. On returning to the United States, the family settled in Boston. At the age of eleven he was apprenticed to a jeweler. One of his fellow workmen was the late Hon. Wm. D. Kelly, of Pennsylvania. All spare moments were employed in study and read- ing. He developed literary tastes quite early, and read original poems and deliv- ered addresses before the Mechanics' Apprentice Library in Boston, of which he was a member and president for two years. He became a resident of St. Louis in 1843, where he formed an acquaintance with Joseph M. Field, the actor and manager, father of Miss Kate Fields, and with him pubHshed the Reveille. In 1846 he started to Oregon, arriving at Oregon City, August 30th. After leaving the Spectator he bought about 80 pounds of type from the Catholic missionaries, and determined to start an opposition paper.

It was difficult for Mr. Curry to decide upon a name, and he sought advice from Peter G. Stewart, a personal friend. "Why," said the latter, "since you don't want to be muzzled, why not call it the Free Press?" The suggestion pleased Mr. Curry, and the name was adopted. The motto was the following:

"Here shall the Press the people's rights maintain, Unawed by influence, and unbribed by gain."

Having no press, he caused one to be made, mainly out of wood — a rude affair. The type, having been used to print the French language, had but few letter w's. The editor had to write without double u's but the country and its inhabitants were too weird and wild and wonderful, and his own fancy too warm, and his ways too winning for him not to be willing to wield a pen as free and untrammeled as were his surroundings ; so he whittled a number of w's out of hard wood to supply the deficiency. This feature gave the paper an unique appearance, and was really one of its attractions. The first issue of this paper was in March. 1848. It contained four pages, seven and one-half by fifteen inches, two columns to the page. During this month Mr. Curry was married to Miss Chloe Boone, daughter of Col. Alphonse Boone, a great grandson of Daniel Boone. In October, 1848, the paper stopped mainly because of the rush of people to the mines. In 1853 Mr. Curry was appointed secretary of the territory by President Pierce, and soon became acting governor. He was appointed govern- or in November 1854, and held that office until 1859, when the state government was formed. It was during his administration that the Yakima Indian war of 1855-56 was fought. On January i, 1861, he became a partner and editor with S. J. McCormick in the Portland Daily Advertiser, and continued that relation until the paper suspended about two years later. The Advertiser was the second daily in Portland and was issued by S. J. McCormick on May 31, 1859.

The first daily newspaper in Oregon was the Portland Daily News, issued April 18, 1859, by S. A. English and Wm. B. Taylor. Its first editor was Alonzo Lelard, but his services were soon dispensed with, and E. D. Shattuck became the editor. The paper in the beginning had four pages, each ten and one-half by fifteen inches, with four columns.

After the Advertiser died Mr. Curry remained in private life until he died on July 28, 1878, aged fifty-eight years.

The earlist perfect copy of the Oregon Free Press that is known bears the date of August 26, 1848.

On February i, 1848, the Spectator was enlarged to twenty- four columns and Aaron E. Wait a native of Massachusetts, born on December 13, 1813, who had arrived the previous September, became the editor, having been employed by Governor Abernethy. He desired to make the paper a medium of communication