the press September 24, 1915. The editor was B. C. Jones, political-minded and energetic, who had his printing done by the Benedictine Press, conducted by the Order of St. Benedict, in charge of Mt. Angel college.
Mr. Jones staved off the wolf for several months, and after him the field was unoccupied until J. M. Eisen established the Mount Angel News September 24, 1921. The News was a four-page seven column newspaper. Nearly every merchant in town carried advertising in the first issue. Mr. Eisen was still at the helm in 1930. The present editor-publisher (1939) is E. B. Stolle.
Though without regular secular newspapers Mount Angel had been the seat of several ecclesiastical publications issued by the Benedictine Fathers as far back as 1888. Established in that year was the St. Joseph's Blatt, a Roman Catholic monthly magazine published in German. The Mount Angel community is made up largely of German families. The publication, however, had been started in Portland and was moved to Mount Angel when Rev. Dr. Alois Sommer, its founder, was called to the chair of medicine at Washington University, St. Louis.4 Dr. Sommer and his nephew Ernst edited, set, and published the paper, then known as St. Joseph's Blattchen. With its pages 5×7¼ inches it was probably the smallest paper in America. The paper appeared at first semi-monthly.
When the paper was moved to Mount Angel College, September 1, 1889, Rev. Leo Huebscher, O. S. B., was appointed editor. In its earlier years until the format was changed, the paper was printed on a foot-driven job press. It took, Father Eugene Medved reports,5 four runs to print the four pages and three men to operate the press—one to feed, one to pedal the machine, and one to ink. Largely under the direction of Brother Celestine Mueller, O. S. B., successor of Dr. Huebscher, the publication has developed. It is now a weekly with a circulation of 15,000.
Another publication of the Benedictine Fathers dates back to 1889, when the Banner, a monthly educational publication, was started. Ten years later it became the Students' Banner and in 1900 was known as the Mount Angel Magazine. It is now an English-language monthly known as the St. Joseph Magazine. Other names have been the Pious Union Monthly and Our Patron. The St. Joseph Magazine is a national Catholic family magazine. The circulation now exceeds 50,000 at $3 a year. A coast edition contains 80 pages; the national edition is half that size.
In 18966 the Armen Seelen Freund, a monthly religious magazine published in German, was purchased from Rev. F. B. Luebbermann, Mt. Vernon, Indiana. This is still issued from the Benedictine Press and enjoys 6,000 circulation at $1 a year. Entirely devoted to religious matters, it contains no news.
Silverton.—The weekly Appeal, Silverton's first newspaper, was
