White Bluffs Spokesman (White Bluffs, Wash.)
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
881 issues from 1915 to 1938, published in White Bluffs, Washington, digitised for Chronicling America.
In 1826, the Hudson Bay Company established a trading post on White Bluffs Landing on the east bank of the Columbia River in present day Benton County, Washington. At the time, members of the Wanapum tribe resided in fishing camps and villages along the Columbia River from Priest Rapids to Richland. A ferry that crossed the Columbia River here was integral in making White Bluffs a trading hub between British Columbia and the mines in Idaho and Montana. After effective irrigation was introduced to the Priest Rapids Valley in the late 1880s, many farmers flocked to White Bluffs and established farms and orchards. As the population in White Bluffs grew, so did the need for a weekly publication. In 1907, the White Bluffs Spokesman was founded as an independent weekly newspaper, circulating among a population of 300 across Benton County.
The first editor of the newspaper, Angus Cameron Hay, brought his experience as founder and editor of The Hinckley Enterprise in Hinckley, Minnesota in 1894. Hay edited the Spokesman from 1907 to 1914, while also serving as the local postmaster. Seeking a better climate for his health, Hay relocated to Sequim, Washington where he owned and operated the Sequim Press from 1914 until his death in 1931. Following Hay’s departure from White Bluffs, the Spokesman came under the ownership of Elton John “Tom” O’Larey and his wife Jane “Jennie” Martine Blair O’Larey. Like many others, the O’Lareys were attracted to the irrigated farmland in the Priest…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- White Bluffs, Washington, United States
- Language
- English
- Collection
- Chronicling America
- Licence or status
- None stated by the archive
- Rights
- The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety.
- Credit
- Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities
- Who can read it
- Teens profiles and older (placed by Invisible Network from what the archive says; archives give no ratings)
- Archive
- Library of Congress