The Walla Walla Union was the next newspaper to attain a permanent standing in Walla Walla. This was the uncompromising radical republican organ and was the natural counterpart of the Statesman. It was founded in 1868 by a group of strong supporters of Congress in the great reconstruction struggle then in progress.
The first number appeared on April 17, 1869. H. M. Judson was the editor, but the policy of the paper was under the control of a committee consisting of P. B. Johnson, E. C. Ross, and J. D. Cook. Within a short time R. M. Smith and E. L. Heriff became the owners of the paper and E. C. Ross became editor. In 1878 Capt. P. B. Johnson succeeded Mr. Ross as editor, and with his entrance into the field of journalism there began one of the most forceful and influential careers in the journalism of Walla Walla. Captain Johnson was a man of intense and dominating personality and possessed much ability with the pen. His politics were those of the stalwart republicans. He had been a soldier and officer of the Civil war, and the great conflict had so burned its traces upon his mind that it was difficult for him to think in terms of patience of any other policies than those which had saved the Union and freed the slave. He acquired the property control of the Union and until 1890 was sole owner and proprietor. In that year he disposed of his interest to Charles Besserer, who had for some time been publishing the Walla Walla Journal. And as soon as we name Charles Besserer old-timers will at once recognize the fact that we have arrived at the uniquest of the uniques. Nature broke her mold at that point and never made another of the same kind. German by birth, though as he once told the author, of Spanish origin, well educated in his home land, a soldier in the Crimea, in the Civil war in this country, and in various Indian wars, fulfilling at various times the functions of manager of a bakery, a distillery, and a hotel, a postmaster, a justice of the peace, a sheep man, a farmer, and finally an editor, Mr. Besserer maintained under all circumstances his characteristic self. He wielded a trenchant pen and though his obituaries were sometimes of a type to add pangs to the thought of approaching death on the part of citizens of old Walla Walla, he had a high conception of the responsibilities of journalism and of the requisites of a well managed newspaper. In 1896 the ownership of the Union passed from Mr. Besserer to Herbert Gregg and Harry Kelso. It was conducted by them as a bed-rock republican paper and disposed of three years later to J. G. Frankland, Lloyd Armstrong and Bert La Due. After conducting the paper with success for a year the firm disposed of it to a group of leading republicans, among whom was D. B. Crocker. J. Howard Watson, well known over the state as a brilliant writer, for some time a correspondent of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, was installed as editor in 1900 and held his place with conspicuous editorial ability until failing health compelled him to retire. He made his home for a time on a beautiful place on Lake Chelan, but finally succumbed to an untimely death from tuberculosis. Mr. Watson was succeeded in 1902 by A. F. Statter, a man of many accomplishments, who conducted the Union with great ability for several years and then became private secretary to Sen. Levi Ankeny, from which post he attained a national position, becoming assistant secretary of the treasury in 1907. Eugene Lorton followed Mr. Statter as managing editor in September, 1903. In 1907 a marked change occurred in the status of Walla Walla newspapers, for in that year the Union and Statesman were brought under the one control and ownership of the Washington Printing and Book Publishing Co., with Percy C. Holland, who had been for some time connected with the Union, as manager. For sometime after the merger, Carl Roe acted as editor of the Union, which continued as a morning paper, while the Statesman, still an evening paper, was edited by Seth Maxwell. During several years following Dr. E. E. Fall became one of the chief owners and the manager of the Union, and there were a number of editorial writers and city editors of variable and some of them of transient careers. Among them was Walter Lingenfelder already mentioned in connection with the Statesman, who has become prominent in the East; Scott Henderson, who subsequently became assistant attorney-general of the state; Wm. Guion, who was known as a capable editor and brilliant writer, and Harold Ellis, now city editor of the Bulletin. While those changes were in progress, a new afternoon daily, destined to be a great factor in subsequent journalistic history, had been launched by Eugene Lorton. This was the Walla Walla Bulletin, and its first number appeared on February 12, 1906. Another stage of importance occurred in 1910. In that year the publication of the Statesman was discontinued. That pioneer paper, a monument to the enterprise and capacity of Major Rees, and later of W. H. Newell and Colonel Parker, having had many ups and downs, but entitled to the leading place among the journals of the Inland Empire, thus closed its career after forty-nine years of active participation in the foundation period of Walla Walla.
Dr. E. E. Fall still continued as manager of the Union, but in December, 1912, he disposed of his interests to Berton La Due and D, W. Ift, while John H. McDonald acquired the ownership of Mr. Ankeny's share of the paper. In 1916 Mr. McDonald disposed of his share in the company to E. G. Robb. At the date of this publication the Union is therefore the property of Messrs. La Due, Ift, and Robb. Of the many who have been connected with the Union it may be said that Mr. La Due is the dean in service, having been connected with it for eighteen years. Most of the others have had brief tenures. The Washington Printing and Book Publishing Company are not only providing a first-class newspaper in the Union, but do an immense printing business of the best grade.
The Walla Walla Bulletin, founded, as we have seen, by Eugene Lorton in 1906, was acquired by John G. Kelly, formerly of Omaha, Neb., on February 1, 1910. Under his management the Bulletin has become one of the successful and influential daily newspapers of the Northwest. It is an independent newspaper. It has always stood for definite purposes and for the advancement of the general good as against special interests. It has been the leader in many movements for public betterment, notably the commission form of city government for Walla Walla, adopted in 1911, and for state-wide prohibition, which attained a sweeping triumph in both 1914 and 1916. The Bulletin appears every afternoon except Sunday and has the full leased wire reports of the Associated Press. The Sunday morning edition has the full leased wire report of the United Press Association. The independent policy of the Bulletin backed up by its superior news including telegraph, local news and correspondence from nearby towns, together with a splendid distribution service, has brought to it the largest circulation of any publication in Southeastern Washington and Northeastern Oregon. The Bulletin has a strictly modern mechanical plant. A site for a permanent home has been secured at the northwest corner of First and Poplar streets and there a first class modern newspaper building will soon be erected.
The Statesman, the Union, and the Bulletin may be regarded as the leading general newspapers of Walla Walla. But a number of others have been founded with more specialized aims which have played important parts for comparatively limited time, yet are well worthy of a place in a historical record. A brief item about each of these is due to history.
The Spirit of the West was founded by J. M. Ragsdale in 1872. Charles Humphries assisted as editorial writer. He was succeeded in turn by L. K. Grimm and Charles Besserer. Mr. Besserer becoming owner in 1877 changed the name. to Walla Walla Watchman, to be changed in turn to Walla Walla Journal. The Journal in time, as already noted, became merged with the Union, and for a time the paper, known as the Union-Journal, was under the ownership of Mr. Besserer.
Mr. M. C. Harris was for a time concerned in newspaper ventures, publishing the Morning Journal in 1881 and the Daily Events in 1882. In the latter year also appeared the Washingtonian, published by W. L. Black, an accomplished writer, who also conducted Town Talk.
In April, 1894, W. F. Brock started the Garden City Gazette and in the next year J. J. Schick brought out the Watchman. In the Garden City Gazette Mr. Brock undertook the establishment of a distinctively local and social department, which Mr. Schick carried on into the Watchman. In 1900 the owners of the Union, Messrs. La Due, Frankland, and Armstrong, acquired the plant of the Gazette and the Watchman and continued the publication under the name of the Saturday Record.
In 1898 Walter Lingenfelder and C. H. Goddard started the Argus. This paper had the avowed aim of exposing abuses and humbugs and grafts, and fulfilled its mission by causing cold chills on the part of many who were conscious of belonging in those categories. It became ultimately the sole property of Mr. Lingenfelder, but he left it to become associated with Doctor Fall in the Union.
In 1900 A. H. Harris brought out an excellent monthly, maintained for several years, known as the Inland Empire.