Mr. Steel bolstered his credit by offering Van Cleve $1500 cash for his paper. The publisher held for $2,000— which, in Steel's opinion, was too much.
"I didn't have 15 cents to offer," said Mr. Steel, "but I knew that the fact that I had made him an offer would circulate quickly throughout the community and prepare the way for my coming."
When he had paid the drayage costs on his machinery, the new publisher was absolutely broke. By adroit use of credit, however, he managed to get the paper going. The first number of the Albany Herald came out October 3, 1879. The new paper provided a 19th century believe-it-or-not when it carried Linn county for the Republicans in the 1880 elections. Mr. Steel left in the next June, without a great deal more than he had brought in, but the paper, left in the hands of partners, was established, and it ran, through various ownerships, until E. M. Reagan, publisher since 1913, sold it to the Democrat publishers, who consolidated the two as the Democrat-Herald, in 1925. Mr. Reagan, now living in Eugene, became interested in oil development in the Southwest.
James Pottinger, who died at his home in Victoria, B. C., in 1932, became publisher of the Herald in 1881. He stayed but a short time in Oregon but also worked for a time on the Oregonian.
His partner on the Herald was Orville T. Porter, formerly of the Harrisburg Nucleus. In 1883 the publishers were Porter & Jones. The next year a combination was made with the Disseminator, moved from Harrisburg, under the title Herald-Desseminator, and a weekly paper was issued Fridays.
In 1884 the semi-weekly Bulletin was started, and Mr. Porter became its editor. He was credited by Editor Nutting of the Democrat[1] with being a "versatile writer, with a very extensive vocabulary." In 1886 the Bulletin became a morning paper, daily except Sunday, continuing the semi-weekly. The next year it had disappeared.
The Herald was established in 1885 by Train (S. C.) & Whitney (J. R.), new publishers, as a morning daily, (except Sunday), Republican in politics. This four-page paper, 18×22, reported a circulation of 750. Mr. Train was at one time Albany postmaster, and Mr. Whitney state printer.
Besides those already mentioned, other owners of the Herald have been C. G. Rawlings, George Westgate, C. C. Page and E. M. Reagan. At the time of the consolidation the Democrat was running as a morning paper, and the Herald was issued in the evening. The Herald had moved from the morning field in 1908. Thomas D. Potwin was editor of the consolidated paper until 1933, when he went to the Oregonian.
One of the distinctive features of the Albany Democrat and, later, of the Democrat-Herald for several years was the Sunday
- ↑ In an article in the 60th anniversary number of the Albany Democrat-Herald, November, 1925.
