JEFFERSON
Madras.—The Madras Pioneer, first paper in the town and in Jefferson county, was born in a tent.
Timothy Brownhill, Oregon newspaper veteran, has the honor of bringing the paper into the journalistic world as publisher August 25, 1904. Having bought the plant from John Cradlebaugh, editor of The Dalles Mountaineer, Mr. Brownhill hauled his outfit by team to Madras, a distance of 75 miles—which was a lot farther then than it is now.[1]
The first plant consisted of an old Washington hand-press and a nondescript collection of type with sufficient other equipment to get out a six-column folio.
The tent had to suffice for quarters until a more substantial home could be obtained. Here the paper was set up by Bill Rutter, a tramp printer enlisted for the work in The Dalles.
After about a year Mr. Brownhill sold the paper to Max Lueddemann, young southerner who had started the Bend Bulletin in 1903. Homestead legal notices and new railroad development had attracted Mr. Lueddemann to the spot, as they had Mr. Brownhill. After about three years the paper was purchased by Howard W. Turner, who continued as publisher until 1915. Mr. Turner's first printer was Sidney Percival, who also helped William Holder at Paisley. Mr. Percival later became county clerk of Jefferson county. Mr. Turner is now a Madras banker.
The next owner (1915) was Vine W. Pearce, of McMinnville, who, with his two sons, George and Lot, both of them practical printers, conducted the Pioneer until 1919.
In that year he sold the paper to William E. Johnson, who conducted it a little more than a year and then sold to George Pearce. In 1923, after three years as cashier of the First National Bank, Mr. Johnson again took over the Pioneer, this time on lease from Vine W. Pearce, and published it until his death, December 31, 1924. On January 1 his widow, who before her marriage had been a high school teacher, began publication of the paper, continuing under lease until the summer of 1925, when she purchased the property.
In 1929 Mrs. Johnson moved the paper into new quarters in a one-story hollow-tile building, space in which is shared with the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company and the Pacific Power and Light Company. For five years of the period of Mrs. Johnson's ownership the mechanical work was handled by W. B. Russell. May 31. 1933, Mrs. Johnson retired from active charge of the paper, and was succeeded as editor by her daughter, now Mrs. Betty J. Welker.
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