One of Mr. Nutting's best news items, albeit condensed in his own good fashion, was the following, which appeared September 7, 1883:
Married—On Thursday evening, Sept. 6, 1883, at the residence of L. E. Blain, by S. G. Irvine, D.D., Mr. Fred P. Nutting and Miss Olive Miller—both of Albany. We congratulate ourselves.
The Democrat started daily, under Mr. Nutting's regime, May 7, 1888, and it has never missed a regular issue since. The opposition Herald, then published by Train & Whitney, had started a daily edition a little while before.
Four sirters—Lily Rideout, on the paper for 25 years; and her three sisters, Mrs. Omer Hendrickson, Mrs. Grant Froman, and Mrs. Mae Dumond,—were among the best-known compositors in the years of Mr. Nutting's regime. One of the early carriers was Willard L. Marks, now chairman of the State Board of Higher Education.
In 1912 Mr. Nutting sold the paper to W. H. Hornibrook, a former state senator in Idaho, having been connected with the paper for 34 years, 30 as publisher. Mr. Hornibrook, one of three Oregon newspaper men to obtain the position of minister to Siam, was publisher of the paper until January 1, 1919, when he sold it to Ralph R. Cronise, his city editor, and William L. Jackson, Albany business man, who continue as publishers.
William Gladstone Steel, Oregon newspaper man who virtually put Crater Lake on the map as a scenic resort and became a leading authority on Oregon geography and on American place-names, came into the Albany picture in 1879 with a strong purpose in mind but no money in pocket. His aim was to start a newspaper in Albany, notwithstanding the two already published there, the Register and the Democrat. Mr. Steel told the story interestingly back in 1923 in an interview with Freda Goodrich.[1]
"I did not even have enough money to pay the freight from Portland on the machinery which had been lent to me without charge," he said. "I only knew that I wanted to start the publication of a newspaper at Albany. I went to Sam Robinson, Portland representative of the American Type Founders' Company, who, fortunately, was a friend of mine, and told him what I wanted. He offered me $250 worth of machinery and equipment if I would pay the freight on it. I could not even do that, so I sought aid from Ed Hirsch, then state treasurer."Ed," I said, "I want to start a paper in Albany, and I haven't any money. Can you lend me some?"
"How much do you want?"
"I told him that $25 would do, and he gasped. But he gave me the $25, and I paid the freight on the machinery."
- ↑ Oregon Exchanges for October, 1923.
