McComas was able to send a big news story to all the important Pacific Coast papers by wire. It was really an interview with the old warrior. The old chief sat, with his fighting men in a circle around him and the two scouts as he told his story of the trouble with the whites. The chief [1] got down on his knees and drew a rough map of northeastern Oregon in the sand with his fingers, drew an inner circle representing the Wallowa valley, and with tears in his eyes, said: "This has been the home of my fathers as long as the oldest Nez Perce can remember. You can take all outside of this valley; but this valley is my home, and I am going to fight for it and my children will fight for it. That is all I have to say." And he motioned the scouts to leave.
It was in this same year of 1877 that a group of Republican business men and property-owners, headed by W. J. Snodgrass and Daniel Chaplin, founded the La Grande Gazette. This paper, whose first editor was "a man named Abbott" [M. H.] who moved the Oregon Tribune plant from The Dalles, continued as the leading paper of La Grande until well into the late 90's. Abbott's successor was Micajah Baker, who had edited the Times in 1868. After a short time Rev. H. K. Hines, president of the pioneer Blue Mountain University, became editor.
Sheddon F. Wilson, a newly-arrived attorney, took over the Gazette in 1879 and changed the name to the Eastern Oregon Republican. In about a year Snodgrass and his business partner (named Minor) had the paper back. In June 1881 E. L. Eckley, young graduate of Blue Mountain University, and E. T. Beidleman, printer, purchased the paper (and changed the name, says Currey, without giving the new name). After a year Eckley became sole publisher until September 1884, when the paper again reverted to Snodgrass. Alonzo Cleaver, the next editor, who died in Portland in 1938, restored the original name, and the Gazette, as a Republican weekly, continued until about 1898.
The year 1884 saw the coming of the railroad, making possible the industrial development of La Grande. The new line missed La Grande by a mile, and Union by two miles. These were considerable distances in those days of small towns and slow transportation. "While Union stormed its indignation, La Grande moved down to the tracks, 'New Town' having outdistanced 'Old Town' before the rails were connected and train service inaugurated."[2]
So when Mr. Eckley gave up the Gazette he had his eyes on the new town growing up around the railroad. He teamed up with Don Carlos Boyd and founded the Argus, the first newspaper in La Grande's present business center. C. H. Finn, an attorney, soon succeeded Boyd and edited the paper until a fire in August 1886 wiped out both the building and the paper.
In the fall of the same year J. O. Kuhn and George H. Owen,
