Lewiston Newspaper Golden Age distributed Its First Issue [otd 08/02]

On Saturday, August 2, 1862, the Golden Age newspaper released its inaugural issue in Lewiston, Washington Territory. The Age thus has the honor of being the first newspaper published in what would become, seven months later, Idaho Territory.

The publisher was a man named A. S. Gould. We know very little about him beyond the fact that he had previously run a newspaper in Portland. He expected the Lewiston paper to flourish along with the regional gold rush.

Front page, Golden Age.
Timothy Hughes: Rare and Early Newspaper blog.

But a footnote in Bancroft’s History noted that, “Gould, a Republican, had hot times with the secession element which crowded into Idaho from 1862 to 1864.” When Gould raised the American flag on a pole by his office, “21 shots were fired into it by disunion Democrats.”

In fact, Gould found Lewiston to be generally lawless and violent. Thus, it is perhaps understandable that he stayed with the business for less than a year. John H. Scranton ran the paper for a brief period. Little is known about him beyond the fact that he dealt in real estate.

Then, in August 1863, printer and newspaperman Frank Kenyon took over publication. Born in Michigan around 1842, Frank apparently traveled with the family to California in the early 1850s. He then followed the rush into Idaho.

As the only local publisher, Kenyon became the first official Territorial printer. Even in the first session of the new legislature, representatives from southern Idaho tried to move the capital to Boise City. Although they failed, the proposal created a major division between north and south Idaho. Meanwhile, Kenyon began to question how Acting Idaho Governor William B. Daniels was organizing the new Territory’s administrative operations. This disagreement was apparently separate from the capital location dispute.

Then Kenyon sold a half-interest in the Age to Alonzo B. Leland, and the north-south issue turned white-hot. Leland had been editor of a Portland newspaper when gold was first discovered in Idaho. He became a “true believer” in North Idaho’s promise and moved to Lewiston at the first opportunity.

Lewiston, 1862. Nez Perce County Historical Society.

Leland’s advocacy of keeping the capital in Lewiston exacerbated the friction, and cost them the Territorial printing work. Meanwhile, with so many miners drawn to new gold discoveries in southern Idaho, business in Lewiston nosedived. In late 1864, the legislature did move the capital to Boise City.

A few weeks later, the Golden Age suspended publication. Its equipment eventually ended up in Boise City. Two years later, Kenyon started a newspaper in Leesburg. In fact, Kenyon would start, or try to start newspapers at locations all over the West: Deer Lodge, Montana; Corinne, Utah; Bodie, California; and several Nevada towns.

The North Idaho Radiator began publication in Lewiston during the summer of 1865, a few months after the Age gave it up. However, that died within a few months when the publisher moved the whole operation to the flourishing gold country in Montana.

Lewiston was without a newspaper until January 1867, when Seth S. Slater and a partner established the Lewiston Journal. Slater was one of the original founders of Lewiston. That fall, they sold the paper to Alonzo Leland & Son. That lasted five years, and then was bought out and transformed into the Lewiston Signal.

The Signal gave way to the Lewiston Teller after 1876-1878, again with Alonzo Leland part of the ownership. In various incarnations, the Teller lasted until about 1911. Today’s Lewiston Tribune traces its roots back to a short-lived variant that started in 1892.
                                                                                 

References: [French], [Hawley], [Illust-North], [Illust-State]

Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of Washington, Idaho and Montana 1845-1889, The History Company, Publishers, San Francisco (1890).

Chronicling America: Historic Newspapers, The Library of Congress (online).

“Cochran, Daniels and the Golden Age,” Reference Series No. 373, Idaho State Historical Society (July 13, 1966).

“Idaho’s First Newspaper Born 100 Years Ago Today,” Daily Chronicle, Spokane, Washington (August 2, 1962).

Colonel William Dewey: Mining Investor, Road Builder, and Business Developer [otd 08/01]

Prominent Idaho pioneer Colonel William H. Dewey was born August 1, 1823 in Hampden County, Massachusetts (some sources give the birth year as 1822). Raised on a farm, he presumably followed that line until he moved to Idaho, by way of California, in 1863.

Dewey turned out to be what the Illustrated History called “a born miner.” A relative late-comer to the Owyhee mining regions, he balked at what he considered exorbitant real estate prices. Thus, in 1864 he and some associates started a new town that became Silver City. The county seat of Owyhee County moved there two years later. A new toll road that Dewey helped build along with Silas Skinner and another partner [blog, May 19] spurred the town’s growth.

Wedding photo, Belle seated with her sisters standing.
Canyon County Historical Society & Museum.

During the heyday of the South Mountain mines, 1871-1875, Dewey, to quote the Owyhee Directory, “owned nearly one-half of that prosperous camp.” In 1875, Dewey, then a widower with a young son, married Belle Hagan. Soon after that, he opened the Black Jack Mine, which developed into a most valuable property.

Dewey suffered a severe setback in 1884-1885. He was first convicted of murder for a shooting affray, but a retrial acquitted him on the grounds of self defense. Winning, however, put him heavily in debt for legal fees. Persistence and his skill as a prospector recouped his fortune, and then some.

Colonel Dewey, Illustrated History.

In 1889, the Colonel began selling off mining properties. He was, of course, approaching 70 years of age and perhaps contemplated a well-deserved retirement. However, Dewey’s overall business activity soon picked up again. In 1896, he helped found the Boise, Nampa & Owyhee Railway, which eventually linked Murphy with the Oregon Short Line station in Nampa.

Booneville, located 2-3 miles northwest of Silver City, had been a thriving town in the late 1860s, but then withered away. In the spring of 1896, Dewey purchased the town site and rejuvenated its business and mining operations. That included building the topnotch Hotel Dewey. The Directory asserted that its “appointments and architectural structure are unequaled by any hotel in the state.” The following spring, the town got a post office and the name was changed to “Dewey.”

Dewey also looked further afield. He purchased interests in several  central Idaho mining properties and also organized the Idaho Northern Railway Company. That firm then extended the Murphy-Nampa rail line on into Emmett. Dewey’s railroad projects increased his involvement with the town of Nampa, where he became owner of 2,000 lots through a mortgage purchase deal.

Dewey Palace Hotel.
Canyon County Historical Society & Museum.

The Deweys moved there in about 1900 and the colonel commissioned the construction of the Dewey Palace Hotel. In his description of it, Hiram T. French wrote, “At the time of its erection it seemed to be a structure all out of proportion to the size of the town, for it was a magnificent building.”

When the hotel was completed in 1902, he and Belle moved into an apartment there. Sadly, the colonel had little time to enjoy it. He passed away in May of the following year, after a lifetime of intense effort and incredible accomplishment.

Belle oversaw the Nampa properties for a number of years after his death. Fittingly, a recent redevelopment program in downtown Nampa called the area the Belle District, in honor of Belle (Hagan) Dewey.
                                                                                 

References: [French], [Hawley], [Illust-State]

“Boise, Nampa & Owyhee Railroad (1896-1898),” Reference Series No. 218, Idaho State Historical Society (January 1993)

A Historical, Descriptive and Commercial Directory of Owyhee County, Idaho, Owyhee Avalanche Press (January 1898).

“History of the Belle District,” The Belle District, Nampa, Idaho.