Myrtle Point and moved the plant there, starting the Myrtle Point Enterprise November 16, 1895. Mr. Conner, in charge of the paper, published it for about four years, selling to G. M. Short and J. C. Roberts. (126) In October, 1901, E. C. Roberts acquired Mr. Short's interest, selling this in May, 1905, to L. J. Roberts. (The Roberts family looms large in Myrtle Point newspaper history.) In 1909 L. C. Bargelt purchased the interest of L. J. Roberts, selling later to C. M. Schultz. Harold Bargelt, son of L. C., spent many years on the Enterprise, beginning as a boy under his father's ownership of the plant and continuing through to March, 1931, under several regimes.
1917 Schultz sold to W. R. Smith, who, full of war spirit, changed the name of the paper to the Southern Coos County American. J. M. Bledsoe bought the paper from Smith in 1923 and sold it to George E. Hamilton, lately from Enumclaw, Wash., in August, 1925. Mr. Bledsoe, whose health had begun to fail, died February 13, 1926. Mr. Hamilton soon changed the name of the paper to the Myrtle Point Herald, explaining that he had never fancied the name Southern Coos County American, which gave subscribers writer's cramp tracing the name across a check. During his owner ship Mr. Hamilton put the paper into its own building for the first time. He sold in February, 1932, to R. L. and J. L. Tucker, lately from Woodland, Calif., who are still directing the paper.
Coquille.—Coquille's earliest newspaper, so far as records or memories indicate, was the old Herald, started as an independent weekly, in 1881. J. A. Dean was editor and publisher. Seven years later D. F. Dean was associated with him, and two years later (1890) J. S. McEwen had succeeded J. A. Dean. The year after its founding it was listed among the People's party (Populist) papers. It soon swung back into the independent column, but in 1896 the paper was back in the Populist ranks. Its circulation, which had been 880 six years before, had fallen slightly, to 768. Through most of its career it was a four-page paper, for which the publishers charged $2 a year.
Competition appeared for the Herald in 1894, when John M. Losswell launched the independent, non-partisan Bulletin, a Friday weekly. Losswell gave way in 1895 to B. F. Lawrence as editor-publisher. The paper, for the most part a four-page paper 18x24, for which $1 a year was charged, ran through to 1902 under Lawrence's direction, when E. C. Holland became editor. The paper was suspended in 1904.
Meanwhile the Herald (1901) came under the sole direction of D. F. Dean, who established a semi-weekly, Tuesday and Friday, in 1904. Four years later the paper was again made into a weekly. The high mark of circulation was reached in 1907 when the paper reported 1400. Dean remained in charge of the Herald until 1912,
