Daily Capital Journal (Salem, Or.)
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
1,086 issues from 1896 to 1899, published in Salem, Oregon, digitised for Chronicling America.
The Salem Capital Journal was defined by moxie and determination. Making its debut on March 1, 1888 as the Evening Capital Journal at a time when Oregon’s capital already had several newspapers, it would outlast all its competitors. Will H. Parry, founder and manager, declared the Journal “the people’s paper.” He also boasted it was the cheapest, priced at one cent an issue. The Capital Journal came out daily, except for Sundays, and was forward about its Republican leanings.
The Journal changed hands several times, with the initial sale taking place just a few months after its founding. William H. Byars, the state surveyor general, and Martin L. Chamberlain of the Land Office bought out Parry. They turned over day-to-day operations to a young pressman, Frederic Lockley, whose instructions included “selecting from a bushel basket of clippings for editorials, writing an occasional local editorial, rustling what advertising I could, and keeping all employees satisfied by paying them as promptly as possible.”
Only months later, the paper was sold to Ernst and Andy Hofer, whose approach tended toward the sensational. One Journal headline blared: “SUICIDE AND FOUL MURDER: Shot and poisoned by her paramour – Dr. Applewhite shoots – The Benton County Adultery Scandal.” Another read, “Policeman is murdered by pervert.” But the result was a lively product, often written in a narrative style packed with details. The four-page broadsheet ran blurbs about real estate transfers,…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Salem, Oregon, 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