Here’s a piece of Washington history you may not have known: The Columbian was the territory’s first newspaper.
But this fact has nothing to do with this newspaper.
Once in a while, we still get confused with one another, like the time the muralist started to paint an image of the wrong Columbian on the side of our building. The other Columbian has been gone for 170 years, but both newspapers had pioneer roots.
First, the Olympia Columbian. According to an article published by the Washington State Historical Society, an Illinois printer named Thornton F. McElroy came west by wagon in 1849, seeking his fortune in the California Gold Rush. Along the trail he and his brother-in-law heard California was “sickly,” so they changed their minds and came to Oregon, where McElroy found a job at a newspaper, the Oregon City Spectator. After two months of working for $6.50 per day, the thoughts of gold were too alluring, so he went to California. He hit a good claim, fell ill and lost his stake. So he returned to Oregon and the Spectator.
When the Spectator closed in 1852, McElroy got work at The Oregonian, where the editor was a man named Thomas J. Dryer. Dryer saw the potential of the new territory to the north, and he sent McElroy and another Oregonian man, James W. Wiley, to start a paper in Olympia. They called it The Columbian, because that was one of the names being considered for the new territory.
Wiley, the editor, “liked to drink as much as he liked to write,” according to McElroy, who was the publisher and a churchgoing man. The first edition, four pages, appeared on Sept. 11, 1852.
Running a newspaper in what had most recently been a wilderness was tough work, but by the end of six months they had 350 subscribers, enough to cover the cost of printing. In December 1853, The Columbian was sold to Wiley and another man, and the name was changed to the Washington Democrat. (By then, the territory had been named for George Washington, and newspapers in those days were often affiliated with political parties.)
McElroy continued there until 1860, and in 1863 was elected as the territory’s public printer, a job with considerable patronage. By the time he died in 1885, he had served as mayor of Olympia, and was one of the richest men in the territory.
Vancouver’s Columbian
Unfortunately, the historical society has yet to write a detailed history of this Columbian, but we have some information about the early days of our business.
Our first issue appeared on Oct. 10, 1890, almost a year after Washington’s statehood. Founded by printer Tom Carolan, it was published on Fridays. Subscriptions cost $2 per year.
Carolan aligned his newspaper with the Democratic party’s views, he wrote, “because we sincerely believe that by their true application the rights and interests of the people can be best protected.” What Carolan didn’t mention is that Vancouver already had a Republican newspaper.
The news in that first issue was boring — it included a long recap of the Democratic platform, and a full page of Grange news — but the ads were entertaining. “For a Cool, Dellicious (sic), Invigorating Drink, Call On George H. Eckhard, Manager in Vancouver, for Henry Weinhard’s Famous Lager Beer,” declared one ad. “This Beer is the Best on the coast, and can be procured in quantities to suit customers… Wines, Liquors, Cigars and Tobacco Kept Constantly on Hand.”
I took inspiration from The Columbian’s “Salutatory,” which appeared on Page 2. It read, in part:
“As a purveyor of local news and a defender of home interests a good local newspaper can be of vast use to its region, and so we intend ours shall be.”
I think that is still a pretty good mission statement, 143 years later.
