Mr. Brown as editor before the end of the year, and November 18, 1898, he leased the plant, purchasing the paper four years later (February 24, 1902). He continued to edit and publish the Journal until his death in 1923, and the paper was continued by his widow for several years.
The Westerfields were succeeded at the helm by Giles L. French, who purchased the Journal in 1929, beginning a career which, in five years, was to make him the only publisher in Sherman county and a member of the legislature. He is (1939) a member of the state house of representatives.
Wasco.—Sherman county's first newspaper was the Wasco Observer, still published but now a part of the Sherman County Journal at Moro. Publishers were C. J. Bright and R. B. McMillan, who kept the paper independent in politics. The purpose was to do the printing for the new county to be carved out of Wasco county and to carry the other business incidental to the county seat's development. The proposed county had at the time 1400 population and no news paper within its boundaries until the launching of the Observer.
The first issue of the Observer came off the press November 2, 1888 (172). The next April Mr. Bright retired from the firm, having been elected superintendent of schools in the new county. For a short time the paper was edited by D. C. Ireland, then it was sold by Mr. McMillan to J. B. Hosford in February 1890, and in July 1891 Mr. Hosford moved the plant to Moro.
Meanwhile, in July 1891, J. M. Cummins, formerly of the Goldendale (Wash.) Courier, and Dr. H. E. Beers launched the News at Wasco, taking the place of the Observer. In August of the next year the paper was leased to Frank M. Bixby, and in the following November James W. Armsworthy, who had started his newspaper career on the old Observer and was now a printer in Portland, bought the News. He was an indefatigable newsgatherer, and his work was which said Armsworthy was praised by the Times-Mountaineer, jovial and popular.
V. C. Brock became a partner in October 1897, and the partners made the paper a five-column eight-page publication. In 1899 the paper came into the possession of Lucius Clark and A. H. Kennedy. February 13 of the next year Norman Draper took over the Nevus with Brock as editor. Within the next year and a half the paper had three sets of publishers—A. S. McDonald, Pound & Morris, and G. E. Kellogg. J. W. Allen and M. P. Morgan purchased the paper in the spring of 1904, and that fall Mr. Allen became sole proprietor, continuing for several years. He was followed by Day & Walker (1907) and R. R. Flint (1909).
In the 1910 Ayer's newspaper annual, the News is listed as the News-Enterprise, with S. J. Sims as editor. Apparently there had been a consolidation with another newspaper. Under this new name
