years, until his retirement in 1936. In 1899 the paper was issued as a semi-weekly.
Meanwhile the Criterion, a competing weekly, issued Tuesdays, was established (1898) by W. M. Brown. The next year it was published Wednesdays. A. B. Hoag was at the helm 1901 to 1904, when Mr. Brown resumed control, running a Republican newspaper. D. C. Humphrey took it over in 1905. Taking hold in 1908 was N. M. Newport, who changed publication day to Thursday.
For one year, 1912, the competition was three-cornered, with a weekly called the Tribune in the field. It failed to last out the year. The Criterion, the same year, under W. T. Fogle, changed its name for a year to the Linn County Advocate, then went back to its old name. The name Criterion was re-established by W. C. DePew, formerly of the Amity Standard, who conducted the paper for ten years, finally selling to A. L. Bostwick, who sold the paper to the Express in 1924 and returned to daily newspaper work. He is now on the Oregonian news staff.
The Express had dropped the Advance part of its name in 1912. The circulation battle between the Express and the Criterion was close for several years, the Express finally achieving a good lead (1250 to 869) in 1924. The Express was conducted by G. L. Alexander and H. E. Browne in 1913. By 1915 Mr. Alexander alone conducted the paper. T. R. MacMillan came to the Express in 1920 and remained throughout Mr. Alexander's stay on the paper as his partner. H. W. Fredericks and R. M. Hayden purchased the paper in 1936.
Halsey.—Halsey's newspapers go back to 1889, when Morris & Phelps (Ira A.) started the News as a Saturday weekly. C. Gray (1891) was the next publisher of the News. In 1893 the mast-head carried the firm name Gray & Cross. The paper was styled "independent" in Ayer's for 1895. It was missing from the directories for 1898.
There follows a hiatus in Halsey journalism until 1912, though there is vague gossip to the effect that for a short time the Halsey barber ran a paper as a side line, adding clipping to his shearing and shaving.
D. F. Dean, founder of other Oregon papers, established in 1912 the newspaper which, with occasional short skips because of sketchy support, continued to the recent present.
Information regarding the early life of the Enterprise is scarce. William H. Wheeler, veteran printer-publisher, a later owner of the paper, found the office serving largely as a warehouse for stacks and stacks of old newspapers[1] in which the Enterprise was much mixed with other newspapers from all over the state. They had not been regularly filed, so rather than bother with unscrambling the mass he "let the entire lot go up in smoke." Much of the information
- ↑ C. Genevieve Morgan, paper written for U. of O. journalism class, 1927.
