The Kennewick Courier-Reporter (Kennewick, Wash.)
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
1,264 issues from 1914 to 1938, published in Kennewick, Washington, digitised for Chronicling America.
Originally inhabited by Wanapum Indians, the naturally arid area that would later become the community of Kennewick, Washington, was avoided by white settlers for much of the 19th century after being described by a Hudson’s Bay Company governor as exceptionally “sterile.” This changed temporarily in the 1880s and again in the early 1890s with the construction of a railroad bridge over the Columbia River and a few failed irrigation schemes. However, Kennewick’s population growth began in earnest when the Northern Pacific Irrigation Company began advertising farmable land in 1902.
The ensuing flood of settlers included Elwyn P. “Pea” Greene, a newspaperman from Milton, Oregon, who began publishing Kennewick’s first weekly paper, the Columbia Courier, on March 27, 1902. From the start Greene eschewed political affiliation while embracing commerce, writing facetiously that “not many of us are here simply for our health.” By cultivating a symbiotic relationship with the town’s fledgling business community, the Courier expanded its readership and promoted Kennewick’s growth. As the population surged from about 50 to 400 inhabitants by 1903, the paper expanded from four to twelve pages. Christian O. Anderson, an attorney and entrepreneur from Arizona, purchased the paper in March 1903. The Courier changed hands again in August 1904 when William J. Shaughnessy bought the paper and began publishing an additional miniature daily edition, which continued until 1906.
Kennewick…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Kennewick, 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