Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 4.djvu/390

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380
Clarence B. Bagley.

alize the difficulties occasioned by the dual processes of thought thus brought into play. Local news is the life of all newspapers in young communities. This he could not purvey, nor was his business management a success.

Thaddeus Hanford, the eldest of the brothers of that name, in his early boyhood showed ability as a writer and after he had passed through college with honor he returned to Seattle and engaged in newspaper work. For a year or more he was the owner of the Intelligencer, but sold it about 1879 as is noted elsewhere.

One of the most widely known as well as popular of the old-time newspaper men was E. T. Gunn. He worked in the Oregonian office as early as 1851 and was one of its owners for a time. In 1855 he was engaged in newspaper work at Steilacoom. November 30, 1867, he started the Olympia Transcript and its publication was continued regularly until his death in 1883. The Transcript was the neatest and best-printed of all the early papers and for many years exerted much influence in political affairs of the territory. A split in the Republican party occurred in 1867 and was the cause of the Transcript being started, and for about six years while this schism continued it championed the cause of the "bolting wing" of the party. In 1872 an alliance between the bolters and the Democrats resulted in the overwhelming triumph of the fusion party, Judge O. B. McFadden being elected to Congress over Selucius Garfield, the Republican candidate. All the newspapers in Olympia were in sympathy with the fusionists, and this led to the organization of a company which established the Puget Sound Courier.

This company was under the leadership of Elisha P. Ferry, then Surveyor-General, who became Territorial Governor in 1873, and the first Governor of the State of Washington in 1889.

The Daily Courier made its first appearance January 2,