The other Dallas publications were the Valley Transcript, the News, and the Oregon Woodman. The Transcript was established by A. V. R. Snyder November 1, 1892, and continued until June 1, 1895, when it was moved to McMinnville. During those years the small Polk county seat of government had three newspapers—the Transcript, the Itemizer, and the Observer. The Woodman was a weekly fraternal paper, conducted by V. P. Fiske from March 1896 to March 1908. It was printed in the Itemizer office. The News was a Friday weekly conducted by E. C. Pentland, formerly of Independence, which was born and died within the same year of 1899.
Monmouth.—Prof. T. F. Campbell, who was president of Chris tian College, Monmouth, from 1869 to 1883 and the father of Prince L. Campbell, president of the University of Oregon from 1902 to 1925, was the founder of the first paper founded in Monmouth, the Christian Messenger, which also was the first paper started by the Christian church (Campbellite) on the Pacific coast.43 Almost all its space was devoted to Coast news and very little to local. The first number came off the press October 8, 1870. The paper was established by Mr. Campbell to help him publicize and build up the college. He had come from Missouri in 1869 to be president of the college, and the paper was started at the beginning of his second year as head of the institution. The equipment included a steam press, which was one of the first in the Willamette valley. The printing was done by a printer named Dellinger, who happened along at the time. His successor, when he moved after a few weeks, was Robert Foulkes, a printer recently from Wales, who had settled at Falls City. When the publisher sought to interview him, the newcomer could not speak English and Mrs. Foulkes acted as interpreter. Mr. Foulkes remained with the paper as long as it was published in Monmouth (it was moved away a few years after President Campbell went back to Missouri to head a Christian college there.)
Robert Foulkes later moved to Portland, where his son David, who set his first type on the Messenger in 1884, became a journey man printer, working for George H. Himes, then went to the Oregonian in 1889, working up to be head of the entire mechanical department of the paper, in which position he remained until 1934.
One of Mr. Campbell's employees in 1879 was Mary Stump, business manager and proofreader. She later became the second wife of President-Publisher Campbell. Other helpers on the paper were Armilda Doughty and her brother Charles. Charles later founded the Polk County Observer in Monmouth (1888) and moved it the next year to Dallas, where, as part of the Itemizer-Observer, it has come down to the present. Young Prince L. Campbell used to come in Thursdays with John Stump to help fold the papers and swap the latest good stories. Miss Maggie Butler of Monmouth was another helper.
