This exception was and is the Washington Standard of Olympia, the most notable instance of newspaper longevity, with the exception of the Oregonian, in old Oregon. Its first number was largely written, set up and printed by its founder, John Miller Murphy, and now, almost forty-three years later, it is his proud boast that it has never missed an issue, has never changed its name and that not a single one of its weekly issues has failed to have more or less editorial matter from his pen. It was "Union" in sentiment during the war of the rebellion, but espoused the cause of Andrew Johnson in his contest with a Republican Congress, and since then has always been consistently Democratic. Mr. Murphy has always been too proud of his independence to subordinate his will or the expressions of his journal to the control of his party leaders, and has often refused preferment at their hands on that account. He still superintends the mechanical department of his office, as well as attending to his editorial duties. He had achieved a competence but the panic of 1893 and the ensuing period of financial depression made great inroads upon his fortune, so that necessity compels him to remain in the harness, though nearly a half century of continuous work has certainly earned him rest.
The Seattle Gazette was the name under which the first paper published in Seattle appeared, dated December 11, 1863, nearly forty years ago. It was edited, set up, published, and with the assistance of an Indian for roller boy, printed by J. R. Watson. The office was in the second story of one of Yesler's buildings, then standing near the present north line of the Scandinavian Bank Building. The paper consisted of four pages, the printed matter on each page measuring 9½x14½ inches. The type and other material were destroyed many years ago, but the old Ramage[41] printing press is a relic highly prized at the State University. The Seattle Gazette, Puget Sound Gazette, and Puget Sound Weekly continued nearly four years with frequent changes in form and ownership.
Pioneer printers have taken a great deal of interest in regard to the antecedents of this old press. Mr. George H. Himes was an Olympia boy, who served his apprenticeship in the office of the Washington Standard under John Miller Murphy. From there he went to Portland and in time "Himes the Printer" became a household word in Oregon and Washington. He has of late years been prominent in the pioneer and historical societies of Oregon. He has given much time to research regarding this old press, and as a result gives it as his opinion that it was first sent from New York to Mexico, thence to Monterey, California, in 1834, where it was used by the Spanish governor for a number of years in printing proclamations, etc., and on August 15, 1846, the Californian, the pioneer paper of California, was printed on it. Late in 1846 it was sent from Monterey to San Francisco and used in printing the Star, the first paper of that city, issued in January, 1847. These two papers were combined at a later date, and in the fall of 1848 the first number of the Alta California was issued from it. From San Francisco it went to Portland and the first number of the Oregonian was taken off it. In 1852 it and the old plant of the Oregonian was bought by Thornton F. McElroy and J. W. Wiley, who brought it around on the schooner Mary Taylor to Olympia, where the first number of the Columbian was printed on it. In 1863 J. R. Watson brought it to Seattle, and December 10th the first paper, the Seattle Gazette, was printed on it. Again in 1865 S. L. Maxwell used it to print the earlier numbers of the Intelligencer.
There seems to be no doubt that it was used to print the first newspapers on the Pacific Coast, the first in Monterey, San Francisco, Portland, Olympia, Seattle.
Although Seattle's first paper was of much more modest proportions than any of its predecessors or contemporaries, it had the honor of starting the first daily paper in the territory, which appeared April 23, 1866, and continued to August 11th of the same year.
The Western Union Telegraph line was completed to Seattle October 26, 1864, and at 4 P. M. of that date the Gazette issued its "Citizen's Dispatch," giving the first published dispatch coming by wire to this place. It gave the Eastern war news to October 24th, from Kansas City and from Chattanooga of the operations of Sherman against Hood in the Atlanta campaign.
Occasionally telegraphic dispatches appeared in succeeding papers, but not until about July 1, 1872, when the Puget Sound Dispatch was established by Larrabee & Co., Beriah Brown, editor, was any regular publication of the press dispatches undertaken here.
In June, 1867, a suspension took place, and August 5th next S. L. Maxwell sent to press the first number of the Weekly Intelligencer. The plant had come into the ownership of Messrs. Daniel and C. B. Bagley, and Mr. Maxwell was permitted to use the same and pay for it as he could out of the earnings of the paper. The type, rules, press, and much of the advertising matter of the older paper, still standing in the forms, was used in the makeup of the new paper, so that it may properly be considered a lineal successor of the Seattle Gazette. Mr. Maxwell proved to be a good newspaper and business man, and as the town and surrounding country was having a vigorous growth, it did not take him long to pay off the small debt and to add much needed material to the office, which was moved across Yesler Way to a small wooden building, and, later, up Yesler Way to near the southwest corner of Second Avenue South. It gained influence as it grew, made money for its owner almost from the start, and had the local field to itself until the Dispatch was started.
In the latter part of 1878 some of the prominent local office-holders and business men organized a company to start another paper, and November 21, 1878, the Seattle Weekly Post made its first appearance, being made up from the Daily Post, which started on the 15th of the month. Its first quarters were in the two-story wooden building owned by Hillory Butler that stood on the ground now occupied by the southwest corner of the Hotel Butler. In passing it may be added that this building was, from time to time, the home of more early papers than any other in town—Dispatch, North Pacific Rural, Chronicle, Post, Times, Press, and others with single and hyphenated titles long since forgotten.
In the meantime the Intelligencer had been installed in a larger two-story building then standing on the west side of First Avenue where it deflects into First Avenue South, and remained there several years.