Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/678

 s. In the

issue of November 25th, Mr. Schnebly complains bitterly because there is only a semi-monthly mail between Oregon City and Portland. On February 3, 1852, the Spectator became for the first time, a distinctly political journal, and espoused the cause of the whig party. On March 16, 1852, it was suspended, and did not resume business until August 19, 1853. After this date the paper was not well supported, and gradually it grew weaker and weaker, and finally was sold by Mr. Schnebly to C. L. Goodrich, late in 1854, and was permanently suspended in March, 1855.

Soon afterwards the plant was sold to W. L. Adams, a pioneer of 1847, ^or $1,200. He used it in starting the Oregon City Argus, which was issued on April 21, 1855, and was the first distinctively Republican paper in Oregon, if not on the Pacific coast. Prior to this time he had become well known as a teacher, and as a forcible political writer and speaker. He wrote in the Oregonian over the signature of "Junius," and was the author of a locally famous political satire entitled "Brakespear;" or "Treason, Stratagems and Spoils." This was published in the Oregonian of February 14 and 21, and March 6 and 13, 1852, and afterwards printed in pamphlet form and illustrated with a number of rude cartoons — the first attempt of the kind in the territory — which added spice to the text.

The leading democrats of that day, among them Judge Matthew P. Deady, Judge O. C. Pratt, Asahel Bush, editor of the Oregon Statesman, John Orvis Waterman, editor of the Oregon Weekly Times, Colonel Wm. M. King, and General Joseph Lane, were mercilessly caricatured. All were veiled under ficti- tious names, but the pecularities and characteristics of each one were so aptly described that the disguises did not hide their identity.

Mr. Adams was born in Painesville, Ohio, on February 5, 1821, both parents emigrating from Vermont to Ohio when it was a wilderness. On his father's side he is connected with the Adams family of Massachusetts, and his mother, whose name was Allen, descended from Ethan Allen of Ticonderoga fame. He went to school at the academy in Milan, Ohio, for a time, and obtained through his own efforts a classical education at Bethany college, Virginia. He came to Oregon in 1848, and the first thing he did, after locating a claim in Yamhill County, was to join with his neighbors in building a schoolhouse, wherein he taught the children of the settlers, during the following winter.

As a master of cutting invective, he was rarely equaled and never surpassed. His proficiency in this direction, together with similar qualifications on the part of two of his territorial contemporaries, gave rise to what was locally known as the "Oregon style." He was fearless and audacious to the fullest degree and had the pugnacity of a bull-dog, never happier than when lampooning his opponents, and his efiforts were untiring. He was one of the leading spirits in organizing the Republican party in Oregon, and on February 11, 1867, at the "Free State Republican Convention," held in Albany, was appointed chairman of a committee of three to prepare an address to the people of the territory of Oregon. As a reward for diligent efforts as a speaker and writer in the arduous campaign closing on November 6, i860, by which Oregon was carried for Lincoln, by a small plurality, he received the appointment of collector of customs, being Lincoln's first appointee for Oregon. He then retired from the Argus, but during his residence in Astoria, edited the Marine Gazette for a time, and thereafter was a frequent contributor to the press of the state. In 1868-69 he made a trip to South America, and late in the latter year returned to the United States, and delivered a series of lectures. In 1873 he studied medicine in Philadelphia, and in 1875, began its practice in Portland. A few years later he removed to Hood river, where he still (1892) lives, now in his eighty-third year, as full of fire and fight as he was 40 years ago.

Before passing from the Argus, mention should be made of his foreman and allround right hand man — David Watson Craig. He was born near Maysville, Kentucky, July 25, 1830. His mother was Euphemia Early, a second co