of Oregon's first newspaper at Oregon City, thirty years after the old Scottsburg Gazette gave southern Oregon its first newspaper, eight years after the start of journalism in Ashland, and six years behind the start of Lakeview journalism.
The first Klamath paper was the Linkville Star, founded by Bowdoin & Curtis. Joseph A. Bowdoin, the only member of the firm who ever came to Klamath, got his first issue off the press May 10, 1884. The plant, previously used in the publication of the weekly Post at Etna, Siskiyou county, California, was freighted over the hills to its new home, for railroad transportation was still far away.
At the end of the first year the partnership was dissolved, and Mr. Bowdoin continued the paper until July, 1889, when his son, W. E. Bowdoin, took charge. (155) The elder Bowdoin died February 14, 1904. The son had no sooner taken charge of the struggling little paper than the little plant was wiped out by fire (September, 1889). After a short interruption waiting for a new plant from the "outside," W. E. Bowdoin resumed publication. A memorable member of the old Star family was Peter J. Connolly, to whom his employer sold an interest in the business in September, 1890, after "Peter the Poet" had acted as Bowdoin's editor for a year. Connolly was not only clever in rhyme and rhythm but could make wood-cut illustrations, which came in handy in those days before the halftone had come into general newspaper use. The elder Bowdoin, though a Democrat, had steered an independent political course in the Star. The new partnership, however, made the paper a Republican partisan.
At the end of four years of harmonious partnership Connolly bought out the Bowdoin interest, September 18, 1894, and turned the paper into a People's Party (Populist) organ. In January, 1895, J. K. Haynes purchased a minority interest. These were hard days for the little paper, which Connolly had rechristened the Klamath Star; it was the heart of a depression, and first Connolly and then Haynes were forced to give up. The Star gave its last twinkle, October 31, 1895. The equipment was used for a time to print Don Carlos Boyd's short-lived Independent.
The Star contributed to local history by printing, April 10, 1891, the first suggestion that the name Klamath Falls be substituted for Linkville. The suggestion was made by Isa Leskeard.
In competition with the old Star for several years was Klamath Falls' second paper, the Express, founded by David B. Worthington who years after leaving Oregon became a successful and wealthy newspaper publisher in Beloit, Wis.
Worthington launched the weekly Klamath Falls Express April 28, 1892, and conducted it for three years, finally selling in June, 1895, to Joseph G. Pierce and George J. Farnsworth.
Worthington, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, had
