[Illustration: Oregon Spectator. "Westward the Star of Empire takes
its way." Vol. I Oregon City, (Oregon Ter.) Thursday, May 28, 1846.
No. 9.]
Medare G. Foisy performed the first Oregon printing in 1845 with type
owned by the Catholic mission at St. Paul. Apparently without the
benefit of a permanent press, he printed at least two official forms,
and there is evidence that he produced tickets for an election held on
June 3, 1845. Foisy was a French Canadian who had worked at the Lapwai
mission press for Henry Harmon Spalding (see p. 63, above) during the
fall and winter of 1844-45.[107]
Later certain forward-looking settlers organized the Oregon Printing
Association, obtained a printing press, hired a printer named John
Fleming, who had migrated to Oregon from Ohio,[108] and founded the
_Oregon Spectator_ at Oregon City on February 5, 1846. This was the
earliest English-language newspaper in North America west of the
Missouri River.[109] The earliest Oregon printing in the Library of
Congress is the ninth semimonthly number of the _Oregon Spectator_,
dated May 28, 1846. It is a small four-page sheet presently bound
with 15 other numbers of the _Spectator_ through May 13, 1847. All
bear the newspaper's motto: "Westward the Star of Empire takes its
way." When this ninth number was printed, the Oregon Country was still
jointly occupied by the United States and Great Britain. Shortly
after, on June 15, 1846, the U.S. Senate ratified the Oregon Treaty,
whereby the Oregon Country was divided at the 49th parallel. News of
the ratification as reported in the New York _Gazette and Times_ of
June 19 reached Honolulu in time to be printed in the _Polynesian_
of August 29, and the information was reprinted from that paper in
the November 12 issue of the _Spectator_, which is included in the
Library's file.
The issue of May 28 has a decidedly political emphasis because of
impending local elections, and among its articles is an amusing
account of a meeting at which several inexperienced candidates proved
embarrassingly "backward about speaking." The difficulty of obtaining
information for the paper is illustrated by a section headed "Foreign
News," consisting of a letter from Peter Ogden, Governor of Fort
Vancouver, in which he gives a brief account of the political upheaval
in Britain over the Corn Law question. He cites as the source of
his information a letter he received via "an express ... from [Fort]
Nesqually." He concludes, "In three or four days hence we shall
receive newspapers, and I trust further particulars." The last page of
this issue is given entirely to the printing of an installment of "An
Act to establish Courts, and prescribe their powers and duties," which
had been passed by the provisional legislature.
In addition to its small volume of issues from 1846 and 1847, the
Library of Congress has an incomplete volume of _Spectator_ issues
from September 12, 1850, to January 27, 1852, when the paper had a
larger format and appeared weekly. Evidence for the provenance of the
earlier volume is the inscription, "J. B. McClurg & C.," on the issue
of December 24, 1846, designating a Honolulu firm which carried this
advertisement in the same _Spectator_:
J. B. McClurg & Co.
SHIP CHANDLERS,
GENERAL AND COMMISSION
MERCHANTS.
JAMES B. McCLURG, }
ALEXANDER G. ABELL, } HONOLULU, OAHU,
HENRY CHEVER. } SANDWICH ISLANDS.
Several issues in the later volume are addressed either to the "State
Department" or to "Hon. Daniel Webster," who was Secretary of State
at the time. The Library's _A Check List of American Newspapers_,
published in 1901, records holdings only for December 12, 1850, to
February 27, 1851, but all of the _Spectator_ issues look as if they
have been in the Library from an early date.
[Illustration: (Rules for House-Wives.)]
[Footnote 107: See nos. 1-2 in George N. Belknap's _Oregon Imprints
1845-1870_ (Eugene, Ore. [1968]).]
[Footnote 108: See _The Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society_,
vol. 3, 1902, p. 343.]
[Footnote 109: See Roby Wentz, _Eleven Western Presses_ (Los Angeles,
1956), p. 27-30.]