engaged for years, and Irl S. McSherry, young college graduate, as editor. The paper now continued its Republican drift by becoming "independent Republican," also enlarging to eight columns.
In 1925 Mr. McSherry sold his interest to Sheldon F. Sackett, and the paper came into the possession of Mr. Sackett and Harry B. Cartlidge. Mr. Sackett, a McMinnville boy, son of County Judge Sackett, was now making his first big plunge into journalism after having graduated from Willamette, done some school-teaching, and some newspaper work on the Eugene Register. The paper continued under the Sackett-Cartlidge direction until 1928, when Lars E. Bladine, Iowa newspaper man of long experience, purchased the paper. J. B. (Jack) Bladine came on ahead and conducted the paper until his father could wind up his Iowa interests. Mr. Bladine Sr. is owner and publisher, and Jack Bladine editor and manager.
The paper has had a full share of recognition, having won "best Oregon weekly" contests on a number of occasions. Its greatest recognition came in 1939, when it won the National Editorial Association contest and was rated the best country weekly in the United States. Lars Bladine, publisher, has acted as president of the Oregon Press Conference, as president of the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association, and as secretary of the Republican state central committee.
Lafayette.—The Courier and the Oregon Register, Lafayette's earliest newspapers, are discussed in connection with McMinnville, since they are the forebears of the present McMinnville papers. Now for the later days and the sunset of Lafayette journalism. With the Courier and the Register both gone from the town, A. R. Westerfield in 1889 launched the Yamhill County Ledger, a Friday Democratic weekly 24×35 inches (seven columns), for which he charged $2 a year. The town's population had shrunk to something like 500. In 1892 the publishing firm was Carpenter & Westerfield. By 1895 Thad H. Duprey was publishing the paper on Saturdays. It was dead in 1897.
In 1892 G. A. Graves tried the field with the Valley Times and was able to keep going until 1897.
Another paper, the Visitor, J. A. Hart editor and publisher, tried the shrinking field in 1914, but the local field was gone, and the enlarged McMinnville papers were too handy, and the Visitor found the welcomes too few and quit. Apparently this was all, journalistic ally, for Lafayette.
Dayton.—Dayton's first newspaper was the semi-monthly Free Press, started in 1881 by A. L. Saylor, editor and publisher. It faded out by 1885, and that year it was succeeded by the Herald, a Wednesday weekly independent in politics, edited and published by M. M. Bannister. With an occasional interruption the Herald ran through to 1909.
