to the paper until 1916. R. G. Callvert, later managing editor and associate editor, was then but a short time on the staff; Walter W. R. May, who held several executive posts in both news and business departments, was yet to appear on the scene. Most of the present writers and executives have not yet been much longer than ten years on the paper.
In the business and mechanical department those listed among the old-timers in the 75th anniversary number (1925) included C. A. Morden, manager, who had been on the paper since 1881; David Foulkes, mechanical superintendent, 1887; E. D. Denny, mailer, 1890; H. W. Dewey, foreman stereotyper, 1892; Thomas Milburn, financial advertising, 1894; Nahum Easterbrooks, proof-corrector, 1894; E. B. Piper, editor, 1895; AI Faust, engraver, 1896; Alice Cornwall, bookkeeper, 1898; Ray Clark, makeup, 1898; A. C. Phelps, stereotyper, 1898; W. E. Hartmus, business manager, 1899; A. W. Cochran, plant engineer, 1899; Eric Anderson, engraver, 1899; George A. Flora, foreman, 1900; Thomas Gibson, foreman of the ad department, 1900; Edward Carney, makeup, 1900; Helen Milburn, cashier, 1900. Many of those mentioned are still with the paper.
One of the earliest editorial writers was old Lucius Bigelow, Civil war veteran, picturesque figure, who liked to write editorials about battles and generals but who never would accept a pension, explain ing that he was paid for his services in the war and now had a fairly comfortable salary. He was a fat old Vermonter who, in the memory of such old-timers as Henry E. Reed and Allan Slauson, smoked stogies habitually and kept old papers piled around him, leaving a place on his desk for work not much bigger than Bill Cuddy was reduced to in his last years of non-desk-cleaning.
The brilliance of Mr. Bigelow's writing is attested by Alfred Holman, Harvey W. Scott's oldest editorial associate.[1]
Mr. Holman himself was with the Oregonian almost steadily through the years from 1869 until his departure for San Francisco to become editor of the Argonaut in 1903.
Ernest Bross, who began as a reporter, as noted, also became an editorial writer, finally leaving Portland for Indianapolis, where he became editor of the Star.
All three of these men were among the most brilliant of all the contributors to the Oregonian's editorial page since the beginning.
To M. F. ("Fatty") Blake, reporter for the Northwest News in 1883 and the Telegram in 1884, Henry E. Reed awards the palm for sheer nerve. After crediting him with being pre-eminently indefatigable and ubiquitous, Mr. Reed goes on to illustrate the "nerve" of this newsgatherer who went from the Telegram to the New York Herald in 1884. "A stunt that forever distinguished him," wrote Mr. Reed in the Portland Telegram's semi-centennial number, "was
- ↑ O.H.Q., v. 14, No. 2, page 16.
