rustlers and it was generally known that a Pendleton newspaper man was head of the Stockmen's Protective Association (vigilance committee). He cared little for hunting or fishing—which made him a conspicuous exception to the general run of the Virginians who had settled around Pendleton, all of whom were outdoor men. Jackson's big-hearted sympathy with those in distress was universally recognized among his old friends at Pendleton.
This was the man, with a taste for printing and a yen for newspaper work but without experience, who now took hold of the East Oregonian, for Mr. Guyer was a silent partner. Like Cox, Turner, Tustin, and others, he was a lawyer (born in Maryland Sept. 9, 1852), and he gave little time to the paper.
Before buying the paper Jackson had done some work for Publisher Cox, who thought well of his writing and had him contribute not only local news but also semi-editorial articles, signed "Sandy Bottom." Fred Lockley, writing of Mr. Jackson, observed that when he sold back the quarter interest he had bought in the paper in 1882, he made $250 profit on the deal—exemplifying another trait of Jackson's, his business ability. The young publisher kept his stage line agency until the railroad reached Pendleton (1884) and the stage line was discontinued.
In acquiring, first, the quarter interest in the paper and later buying all of it, Mr. Jackson followed the simple business method of a small cash payment and a note for the balance.
In the article already quoted, Lockley commented that Jackson prepared himself for the bigger things by familiarizing himself with every detail of his publishing business. "He had no money to hire bookkeepers, editors, circulation managers, or advertising men, so he learned every detail of the publishing business by doing the work himself."
In August J. P. Wager, from Schuyler county, New York (born May 24, 1854) bought a financial interest in the paper and undertook the direction of the East Oregonian's editorial columns, subject to Jackson's general supervision. He was later a news editor on the Portland Telegram.
One of his first moves was to make the paper a semi-weekly, February 3, 1882. It was then a four-page seven-column sheet, issued Tuesdays and Fridays.
Meanwhile the town was growing, the railroad had come in, and Jackson had his heart set on a daily for Pendleton. Finally, March 1, 1888, appeared volume 1, number 1 of the Daily East Oregonian. The semi-weekly, incidentally, has been kept going and is still issued today. For a good many years the paper ran daily, weekly, and semi-weekly, each aimed at a different set of readers.
The salutatory of the new daily ran:
