Riddle. —This little town, on the railroad, takes its journalism in connection with its little neighbor, Canyonville, three miles distant, on the highway. The same paper serves in both communities a population of several hundred.
The Riddle Enterprise seems to have been the town's first paper. W. C. Conner, of Thorp & Conner, Drain and Cottage Grove publishers, started it in 1893, suspending Myrtle Point in 1897.
The field was taken over by the Mite, founded by Claude A. Riddle, former compositor on the Review and later editor or printer on other Douglas county publications. The little paper, started in 1896, gave up the struggle August 1897. It had been well named, for Publisher Riddle had gauged the size of the paper by the size of the field—four pages 6×11 inches, at $1 a year.
In 1909 Mr. Riddle was back with another paper, which is regarded as the actual ancestor of the present South Umpqua News. This was the Tribune, issued Thursdays. With the exception of 1911, when R. K. Trivett held the helm, Mr. Riddle carried on until 1917. Two years later Carl P. Cloud, formerly a Tribune employee, launched the Enterprise and installed a linotype for his little paper, then the smallest Oregon town to boast machine composition, and carried on until 1925, when he sold to A. W. Anderson. The next year Ben E. H. Manning took over, continuing until January 3, 1930, when he was killed in an automobile accident. The paper was then handled by L. M. Kusler owner, with K. C. Gaines editor and publisher. H. J. Wilkins succeeded Mr. Gaines in 1931. L. E. Gaines took charge in 1935. The paper is published (1939) by W. C. Pelham.
For several years after 1904, while Riddle was without a publication, the Canyonville Echo was conducted by Harriet E. Scovill. Miss Margaret Scovill was in charge when publication was suspended in 1909, as the Riddle Tribune took up the battle.
Sutherlin.—The Sutherlin Sun had a comparatively short career (born August 29, 1910); but its editor and owner. Will J. Hayner, with 70 years of printing and publishing and editing experience behind him, was, so far as this writer has been able to learn, the old est newspaper man in experience, if not in personal age, in the state of Oregon and one of the oldest in the country.
With the exception of four months of the eight years he was postmaster under the Wilson administration Mr. Hayner was continuously the Sun's editor and publisher. In that brief period the paper was directed by Lewis M. Beebe, now a California newspaper man, who had been editor of the Springfield News for several years.
Mr. Hayner was assisted by his wife, Mrs. Mary L. Hayner.
