The Hood River Glacier, Hood River, OR., November 11, 1915, page 1
S.F. BLYTHE WAS PIONEER PRINTER
Record Held For Fast Case Work
Retired Dean of His Profession Now Resides Contended and Optimistic at His
Twin Oaks Farm
Retired dean of Pacific coast printers and pioneer newspaper
man of Montana, San Francisco and Portland, Samuel F. Blythe, at the age
of 73 years, may be found today the resident-owner of Twin Oaks farm, one
of the Hood River valley's most beautiful homesites. When Mr. Blythe in the
days of his prime was active in following his profession, those days before
the lino-type machine was introduced, he had no equal in his swiftness and
accuracy at the case. At Virginia City, Mont., in 1867, and in Portland in
later years, working on the old Bulletin, Mr. Blythe made records that have
never been surpassed. Recalling these earlier years as he tills his farm
today, Mr. Blythe is contented, and in all of Hood River there is perhaps
no man more optimistic.
"We have talked of our financial stringencies and our
hard times the past year," says Mr. Blythe, "but the troubles of today are
inconsequential to those of us old-timers who lived through 1873, the year
of Portland's big fire. A panic had seized upon the entire country, and our
calamity added to the depression."
A native of Pennsylvania, Mr. Blythe was living in Ohio
at the outbreak of the Civil war. Answering the call for volunteers he enlisted
in the 22nd Ohio infantry. He saw three years' of active service in the
Mississippi valley. He was with the army of Grant at the battle of Fort
Donaldson, Shiloh and Cornith. He participated in the seige of Vicksburg
and the capture of that city.
When the army was stationed on the Tennessee river Mr.
Blythe was ordered to take charge of a print shop at Trenton and make up
a quantity of blanks for the quartermaster's department.
"Wile I was engaged in this work," he says, a new regiment
that had just joined us became engaged in a battle at a cross roads. One
of the boys, fired with enthusiasm over the new and thrilling experiences
and visited by inspiration, wrote a poem of many stanzas, describing the
battle. He came to me and I bargained to print the poem for him at $2.50
per quire, obtaining paper, writing tablets that were kept for us soldiers
when we wanted to write home, from the sutler. As fast as I delivered the
private poems he sold them at 25 cents apiece to members of his regiment.
Both of us were fast acquiring the small change of that regiment, when orders
came to march.
"While I was working at Trenton a southern girl brought
me a copy of the 'Bonnie Blue Flag,' and I made a number of copies of it
for her. In reply to this bit of bit of wartime southern sentiment a Kansas
officer wrote a poem, copies of which I printed for him."
Mr. Blythe declares that he would be glad to secure a
copy of the reply to the ""Bonnie Blue Flag." The sentiment, he says, called
to the minds of the Confederates that the Stars and Stripes would eventually
again wave supreme above both the north and south, and that the soldiers
of both armies would again be brothers.
Toward the close of the war Mr. Blythe enlisted in Hancock's
Veteran Corps. During the trial of Mrs. Surratt, who was convicted as an
accomplice in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln , the Corps was stationed
in Washington.
"We were in charge of the execution of a woman," says
Mr. Blythe. "My regiment was stationed just outside the enclosure in which
Mrs. Surratt was put to death. We stood there in solid ranks with charged
bayonets, while thousands of people surged up against us. One man, he was
very drunk, as he pushed against me, tried to exchange a handful of greenbacks
for my gun."
No sooner was Mr. Blythe a private citizen again then
he determined to take the advice of Horace Greeley and strike for the west.
He and a companion, Dan Ridenour, arrived at St. Joseph, Mo. Here the companion
became discouraged and turned back.
"We had no money for outfitting," says Mr. Blythe, "and
we had planned on making our way across the plains by driving oxen. As soon
as we saw the teams of animals and how they were managed, we knew we would
never reach the Rocky mountains in this manner. So Dan returned to Ohio and
his sweetheart. I was determined to reach the Rockies before going
back.
"I made immediately for a newspaper office, and was given
work at the office of the St. Joseph Gazette, despite the fact that I was
not a union man; for even then the labor unions were active.
"Just when I had saved up $75 four friends, among them
Capt. William Lockwood, reached St. Joseph en route to the west. They persuaded
me to put my $75 in the jackpot and join them. I had just two bits left after
turning that money over to Capt. Lockwood. I spent the last cent of it --
it was one of those old fashioned shin plasters -- for a dozen eggs for our
last feast the night before we started on the long trail."
Mr. Blythe says that he feels sure that no more inexperienced
party ever left St. Joseph. "None of us knew anything about oxen," he says,
"and of course, we were bested in our bargains for teams. We crossed the
Missouri river on May 20, and on the first night one of those severe
thunderstorms struck us. For fear that we could not put the yokes on again,
we had left the oxen tied in pairs to trees. All five of us piled in our
wagon for the night. I shall never forget the lightning, the thunder and
that terrible downpour. The next day we made a farmhouse -- we had progressed
just six miles. The farmer assisted us with our oxen the next morning and
we started on. Fortunately for us we overtook a party with an overloaded
wagon. Mired to the hubs the heavy schooner was stuck. However, the party
had been experienced negro driver. The colored man hitched on our teams and
soon had his wagon out of the mud. The owner of the outfit then made a bargain
with us. He gave us a team of oxen and the negro driver, and put a part of
his freight aboard our wagon. And thus we reached the west, I don't believe
we would ever have succeeded if we had not met with this outfit; for just
about another day of the trials we were having would have disheartened all
of our party."
Members of Mr. Blythe's party filed on claims near Bozeman,
Mont. Irrigation ditches were dug, poles work cut for fencing and ploughing
was done.
"To furnish money buy supplies," says Mr. Blythe, "I
hired out to an old German farmer to work in his harvest fields. He gave
me $3 a day and board. I never bound grain before, and for the first few
days I thought it would kill me, but I stuck to it. When I became tougher
I don't think any man ever enjoyed his meals as I did there at the old German's
home."
The next spring, however, the farms were abandoned. The
homesteaders did not have sufficient funds to purchase seed, of which was
selling for $5 per bushel.
"We lost our cattle, wagon and everything we had," says
Mr. Blythe. "It was then that I determined to go to Virginia City, where
I finally secured work on a newspaper published every other day. The regular
pay was $1 per 1,000 ems. I could easily set 10,000 ems a day. I remained
there for a year. The legislature sat while I was at work in Virginia City
and I secured a job on territorial bill work. This was considered fat, and
during a one week of six days I made one $144."
Later when working on the Bulletin in Portland, Mr. Blythe
set 93,000 ems during a six-day week. However, the Portland price was only
60 cents per 1,000.
After a year the Virginia City plant was removed to Helena,
then the center of mining interests.
"I decided to return to Ohio," says Mr. Blythe, "The
journey was made by Missouri river steamer from Fort Benton. During the year
I had accumulated $1,500.
"I have arrived home at Eaton, Ohio, where my mother
lived, on the night before July 4. The weather was terrifically hot, and
after a year in the high altitude I found that I was not able to stand it.
I left for Chicago, where I worked on the daily newspapers and in September,
this was the year 1868, I left again for the Rocky mountains. At Salt Lake
cty two of us boys who formed the party, purchased cayuses and rode horseback
the entire distance from Utah city to Helena, Mont."
Mr. Blythe the next year left for California. He worked
for a time on the Sacramento Union and journeyed on down to San Francisco,
where he worked on the Call, the Alta, Delta, the Chronicle and the
Bulletin.
In June, 1870, Ben Halladay, planning to start a paper
in Portland, sent James O'Mara to San Francisco to purchase a plant. The
San Francisco Times had just ceased publication, and Mr. O'Mara purchased
the entire outfit of the defunct paper. The foreman for the new Portland
paper, the Bulletin, and the city editor were secured in San Francisco. The
foreman was instructed to select a crew of swift, sober compositors, and
Mr. Blythe was among the printers chosen for the journey north.
"We all came up on Mr. Halladay's boat," says Mr. Blythe.
"There were ten of us in the party. So far as I know, I am the only printer
of that party that survives. Even the pressmen were chosen in San Francisco.
"The Bulletin lasted for five years, and I remained with
it. The late Harvey W. Scott became editor. Then the Bulletin and Mr. Scott
became editor of the Oregonian, where he made for himself a national name.
"In 1875 a number of us printers started the Daily Bee.
It ran until 1881. I was with the Bee but 11 months. For a time it was a
popular and progressive paper. It was made unpopular when the business manager
of the publication engaged one day in a street fight with and killed the
business manager of the Evening Telegram.
"In 1873 a Democratic legislature passed what was known
as the Litigant Act. The statute was enacted for the purpose of building
up a Democratic organ in the city of Portland and at the same time aiding
struggling Democratic sheets throughout the state. It provided that all legal
publications be placed in papers designated by the governor.
"The late Judge C.B. Bellinger, who was a federal judge
at the time of his death, organized a company of printers and started the
Daily News. I was one of the printers and remained there a year. Other members
of the joint stock company owning the paper and compositors on the sheet
were J.J. Curry, John S. Hughes and Arthur Gelaney. One of the first acts
of the following Republican legislature was to repel the Litigant Act, and
of course, this killed the Daily News."
In 1877 Mr. Blythe came to Hood River seeking health.
He purchased 22 acres of oak covered land on the old State road west of the
city. Later 22 additional adjoining acres were bought. In 1881 he returned
to Portland and engaged for two years with Ed Casey and H. Paffenburger in
the publication of the Farm and Dairyman, which is now merged with the Pacific
Farmer. In 1884 Mr. Blythe came to Hood River and spent two years on his
farm, returning to Portland in 1886 to work for six months as a postal clerk.
After working as printer at intervals for five years
for John H. Cradlebaugh, who, with Geo. T. Prather, founded the Hood River
Glacier. Mr. Blythe purchased this pioneer paper of the Hood River valley.
A claim against the early publisher for wages as typesetter was applied on
the purchase price. Until 1904, when the Glacier was sold to A.D. Moe, its
present publisher, Mr. Blythe was a leading spirit in the activities of the
Apple Valley. His son E.N. Blythe, now a member of the staff of the Oregonian,
received his early newspaper training in his father's office.
The smell of printer's ink still has its charm for the
former printer-publisher, and on visits to the city he cannot refrain from
entering the plant of his former publication, there to fill his nostrils
with the peculiar print-shop odor.
Mr. Blythe, now adjutant of the Canby Post, is past commander
of the Department of Oregon, G.A.R. He has been has been present at numerous
national encampments of the Grand Army. To the local old soldiers and early
pioneers Mr. Blythe is known as Sam. Let a veteran get sick or find himself
in need and a message to Twin Oaks gets a quick response.
Twin Oaks farm is such a novelty in the Hood River valley
that it has become the mecca for numerous local people, and visitors to the
valley often journey there to witness the pleasing pastoral scenes. While
Mr. Blythe has a productive orchard, he has left much of his estate in a
natural condition. Giant oaks stand in the meadows. Indeed, there are oaks
rearing themselves on every corner of the farm. Their foliage shades the
deep, cool spring, the source of the domestic water supply. The farm name
originated from two oaks, as nearly alike as nature could make them, that
grew side by side in front of the pioneer home.
The old building is now used for a storehouse. Mr. Blythe
has built a handsome and commodious new residence among his oak trees. With
the stores from their gardens in cellar and garrett, with their time taken
in the care of a number of livestock and poultry, Mr. Blythe and his wife
are spending a happy evening-time of life. They were married in Portland
in 1873. Mrs. Blythe's maiden name having been Emma Nation. Mrs. Blythe is
a native English woman. Her family, however, came to America when she was
a small child. They resided in Pennsylvania until 1871, when they journeyed
across the country to Oregon.
Twin Oaks farm has become known throughout the bounds
of the county for the good, old fashioned, rural hospitality with which Mr.
and Mrs. Blythe entertain their guests, and it is not infrequent that parties
of pioneers and veterans and their families assemble there to make merry
and live over in the stories that are told of the long ago.
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© Jeffrey L. Elmer