The paper's next name was the Oregon Republican, given it in March 1870 by R. H. Tyson, editor and publisher, who changed the publication day to Saturday, cut the price to $2 a year, and claimed 500 circulation. When P. C. Sullivan purchased the paper from Tyson in 1872 he called it the Liberal Republican, synchronizing with the Liberal Republican campaign of Horace Greeley, whom the newspaper supported for president. John J. Daly was the editor.
Several changes of ownership followed this disastrous campaign. Henry Sullivan and A. R. Lyle took hold but before long sold out to Reese Clark, later of Woodland, Calif. Clark in turn sold to Casey & Hammond, and Ed Casey soon became sole owner. The name had been changed to the Dallas Itemizer, December 2, 1872, under Hammond, Rubell, and Hedges, editors and publishers. Casey changed publication day to Saturday. Casey's ownership dates from & Williams (Walter) took hold. 1875 to 1877, when Crosson George E. Good became owner the next year. Good changed the name in 1879 to the Polk County Itemizer, which it remained throughout its independent career. The paper struggled financially, owing to the publisher's lack of business enterprise, and the first power press, installed by Good several years before any paper in the larger town of Corvallis made the venture, remained unpaid-for several years later. For one year Good tried to serve both Independence and Dallas with the same paper, printing it all at home but having one side (two pages) set up in Independence under the direction of M. L. Pipes, editor. In 1882 Mr. Pipes moved to Dallas and for more than a year occupied the chair of editor of the Itemizer.
Good sold to Rev. J. S. McCain in that year, and he to V. P. Fiske in 1883. Glass & Prudhomme became the publishers in 1885, and W. A. Wash in June 1888.
Mr. Wash was an interesting editor. Let's take a look at the Itemizer under his direction. Here's the issue of Friday, January 12, 1894. The paper, issued Fridays, had an 8-column, 13-em format. Five columns of ads on the left side of the first page, the rest boiler plate (ready-set) miscellany. On the second page was a column of editorial and the rest nearby correspondence, mostly from Independence and Monmouth; two columns of advertising. Page 3 was almost solid with short items, sized from the top down with the largest at the bottom of each column. No heads adorned the items, which were separated by added space (the printer would say, by slugs). Half a column of advertising. Mr. Wash didn't need much space for set editorials, for he expressed himself and his attitudes in the news columns whenever the spirit moved him.
Sad indeed (he wrote, in the midst of the news items) and unfortunate must be the life of any woman tied to a drunkard or gambler. The moderate drinkers and amateur
