THE PRESS
History of The Newspapers and Journals of Santa Clara County- from 1850 to 1888
(transcribed by Joseph Kral)

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See Research Guide for locating these materials in libraries.

In January, 1851, the San Jose Daily Argus was published during the senatorial campaign.  It was in the interest of John C. Fremont.

San Jose Weekly Visitor.  This was the first permanent newspaper in San Jose.  It was commenced June 20, 1851, by Emerson, Damon & Jones.
At first it was Whig, but in October it changed over to the Democracy.  In August, 1852, its name was changed to the

Register, and was published by T. C. Emerson and Givens George, with F. B. Murdoch as editor.  In 1853, Murdoch having obtained control of
the Register, its name was changed to the

San Jose Telegraph.  In 1860 the Telegraph went into the hands of W. N. Slocum, and in 1861 it was changed to the

San Jose Weekly Mercury, with J. J. Owen and B. H. Cottle as proprietors.  In November of that year the

Daily Mercury was started in connection with the Weekly, but was discontinued in 1862.  In 1869 J. J. Commy came into the firm, and in August of
that year the publication of the Daily was resumed, but discontinued in 1870.  Mr. Commy retired from the firm this year.  In 1871 Cottle sold out
his interest to Owen.  In 1872 Owen, having purchased the Daily Guide again resumed the publication of the Daily Mercury in connection with the
Weekly.  Soon after, Cottle again bought a half interest in both papers, but again sold to Owen, in 1874.  In 1877 it was incorporated under the style
of the Mercury Printing and Publishing Co., Mr. Owen holding the majority of the stock.  In 1884, he sold his interest to C. M. Shortridge,
proprietor of the Daily Times, and the name of the paper was changed to the Times-Mercury.  In 1885 F. A. Taylor entered into the negotiations for
the purchase of the paper, but the transaction was not consummated.  In the meantime the name was changed back to the Daily Mercury.  At this
time it absorbed the Daily Republic.

——

CHARLES M. SHORTRIDGE, the present editor and proprietor of the San Jose Daily and Weekly Mercury, was born at Pleasant Grove, a small
hamlet near Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, on the twently-fourth day of August, 1857.  He came to California when a small boy.  He first stopped at Nevada
City, where he worked until he had saved a few dollars, when he came to San Jose for the purpose of attending the public schools, which had a great
reputation for efficiency.  Not having money enough to support himself while attending school, he hired out to the San Jose Gas Company as a
lamp-lighter, for a salary of $28 per month.

Having completed his course at the public schools with honor, he went to work in the office of the Daily Mercury as general utility boy, sweeping
out the office, running errands, and doing whatever was to be done.  While attending school he had selected journalism as his future profession, and
determined to master the business in all its deparments.  Having no money of his own, and no rich relatives to start him in business, he was obliged
to commence at the bottom of the ladder.  But when he had placed his foot on the first round, he fixed his eye on the top, and never rested until he
was there.  While working as office boy he familarized himself with the details of the composing room and press rooms.  He worked his way into the
business department, keeping the books and collecting the bills, and overseeing the mailing and subscription department, and thence he went on the
local staff.  He continued with the Mercury  for seven years, until 1883.  He was then twenty-six years old, with all the information in regard to the
newspaper business that he could acquire in San Jose, and determined to start for himself.  He had no money, but was full of practical ideas which
he had worked out while with the Mercury.

He severed his connection with this paper, and went into real-estate and insurance business.  This was for the purpose of keeping the "pot
boiling" until he could perfect his plans.  Some of the business men and capitalists of San Jose had watched young Shortridge's career, and had
been favorably impressed with his talent, pluck, and perseverance.  He had many offers of lucrative positions, but he would not turn aside from the
aim of his life.  He succeeded, after some time, in securing financial backing sufficient to purchase the Daily Times, paying $5,500 for it.  He
immediately enlarged it, and, at great expense, secured the exclusive right to the morning telegraphic dispatches for San Jose.  Many of his friends
looked on with dismay at what seemed to them to be the most reckless extravagance, while his enemies and journalistic rivals prophesied speedy
bankruptcy.  But the young man was hewing to the line he had laid down for a guide after careful measurement.  What seemd to his friends as
recklessness was, in fact, the result of the soberest kind of thought.  He was simply exhibiting the nerve necessary to the proper execution of his
plans.  This was in 1883.

In 1884 he secured control of the stock of the Mercury Printing and Publishing Co., and, in less than two years from the day he walked out of the
Mercury office a poor boy, with scarcely a penny in his pocket, he walked back again as its proprietor.  He combined the Times and Mercury, added
new material and presses, and proceeded to make the new journal twice as good as either of them were before.  His expenses were greatly
increased, but the income was in a much larger proportion.  In 1885 he absorbed the Republic, a morning paper which had been started that year.
This plan of combining forces is one of the peculiarities of Mr. Shortridge's journalistic career.  He wastes no ammunition in fighting competing
journals.  If a paper develops enough importance to become a rival, he absorbs it; but unless it has the importance he ignores it.

During Mr. Shortridge's ownership of the Mercury, more special editions have been issued than during all the former history of journalism in San
Jose.  These specials run from sixteen to sixty-four pages, generally profusely illustrated, and always in the interest of the material resources of
the county.  Mr. Shortridge is now, 1888, thirty-one years of age.  He is a ready speaker, a Republican in politics, devoted to the principle of
protection for American industries, and a firm believer in the future greatness of the Santa Clara Valley, the "garden of the world."

The Semi-Weekly Tribune was issued by Givens George, July 4, 1854.  In 1855 it was published by George & Kendall. In 1859 it was sold to
George O'Dougherty.  In 1862 and 1863 it was suppressed for eight months by order of General Wright.  In 1863 it was purchased by F. B.
Murdoch, who changed the name to the

Patriot.  The San Jose Weekly Patriot was started by Murdoch in 1863.  In 1865 he commenced the publicaton of the Daily Patriot.  In 1875 he
sold out to S. J. Hinds and J. G. Murdoch.  In 1876 it was purchased by the Murphys, and the name changed to the

San Jose Daily Herald, which name it still retains.  In 1878 it purchased and absorbed the San Jose Argus, the weekly being called the Herald
Argus.  In October, 1884, a joint-stock company was formed under the style of the Herald Publishing Company, which purchased the Herald, and
still conducts it.  The officers of the company are: H. H. Main, president; W. C. Morrow, secretary; J. F. Thompson, treasurer.  Mr. Thompson is
editor, Mr. Morrow is city editor, and Mr. Main is business manager.  Under this administration the Herald has thrived wonderfully and taken a
high rank among the journals of this coast.  The Herald is Democratic in politics, having changed its political affiliations when it changed its name
from the Patriot.

——

J. F. THOMPSON, editor of the Herald, was born in Massachusetts, and is now fifty-one years of age.  He entered journalism at the age of
twenty.  He came to California in the '70's, and was engaged on some of the leading papers of the State.  In 1878 he went on the Herald as its
editor, and afterwards leased it from the Murphys and ran it successfully until 1884, when he went into the joint-stock company that purchased it.
He has been its editor continuously for ten years, and his efforts have done much towards placing the paper in its present prosperous and influential
position.  He early became identified with the horticultural and viticultural interests of the county, and his opinions on these subjects are considered
authoritive.

W. C. MORROW, city editor of the Herald, was born in Alabama, and is now thirty-four years of age.  He early developed great literary talent,
and, when a mere boy, wrote many things that provoked favorable comment from distinguished literary men.  He came to San Jose in 1879, and
was immediately engaged as a writer on the Mercury.  While engaged in newspaper work he wrote several charming novels, poems, and short
storied that gave him high standing among the literati of the coast.  His efforts attracted the attention of Eastern publishers, and many of the
productions of his pen found place in the columns of leading magazines and journals of the Atlantic States.  When the Herald was reorganized he
became its city editor, to the profit of the paper and the benefit of the community.
 
H. H. MAIN, the business manager of the Herald, was born in Wisconsin, and is forty years of age.  He taught school for several years in that
State, and came to California for the benefit of his health.  For sanitary reasons, he settled at Los Gatos, and engaged in the lumber and wood
business.  In 1880 he was elected a member of the county Board of Supervisiors, and re-elected in 1883, being chosen as chairman of the Board
during the later term.  He had a natural taste for journalism, being a close reasoner and a ready writer.  He was the projector of the Los Gatos
Mail, and its business manager during the first years of its existence.  He came onto the Herald when the company was incorporated, and his
management has steered it prosperously through the shoals and quicksands which have wrecked so many journalistic barks in Santa Clara County,
and brought it to the open sea and prosperous gales of success.

The San Jose Daily Reporter was started in 1860, by W. Frank Stewart.  It soon changed to a weekly, and was finally discontinued, after a few
months' existence.

The Daily and Weekly Courier was started in 1865, by Geo. O. Tiffany, but lasted only a few months.

The Santa Clara Argus, by W. A. January, commenced publication in 1866 as a weekly.  In 1876 the Daily Argus was issued and ran for two
years, until sold to the Herald, in 1878.

The Saturday Advertizer began publication August 11, 1866.  It was discontinued Frebruary 19, 1869.

The Daily Independent was started May 7, 1870, by a company of printers.  It was the first paper in San Jose to receive news by telegraph.  In
December of that year it was purchased by Norman Porter, who, in turn, sold it to the Guide in 1871.

The Daily Guide was started by Stockton and Hansborough, in February, 1871.  Hansborough sold out his interest to Stockton during the same
year. Stockton purchased the Independent of Porter and absorbed it.  In January, 1872, Porter took the Guide and sold it to J. J. Owen, who
merged it into the Daily Mercury.

The Daily Press was published by J. J. Commy for a few weeks during 1872.

The Reporter was published by H. A. De Lacy, from April to August, 1872.

The California Agriculturist (monthly) was started by Brand and Holloway, in 1871.  S. H. Herring purchased it in 1874, and, after running it a
few years, sold it to the Rural Press, of San Francisco.

The Daily Evening Tribune was published during the campaign of 1872, by Clevenger and Armstrong.

The Daily Independent Californian was published by Herring and Casey during the local option campaign of 1874.

The Daily Garden City Times was started by a syndicate of printers and literary men in 1874.  It lasted about six weeks.

The Daily and Weekly Advertiser was published by B. H. Cottle from May to December, 1875.

The Weekly Balance Sheet, a commercial paper, was started by H. S. Foote, February, 1876, and was sold the same year to the Weekly Argus.

The California Journal of Education was run for a few weeks in 1876, by George Hamilton.

The Temperance Champion was published by A. P. Murgotten, in 1876.  It was discontinued the next year.

The Pioneer, devoted to the interests of the "Men of '49," was started by A. P. Murgotten, in 1876.  It was discontinued in 1881.

The Headlight, an evening daily, was started by a syndicate of printers, in 1879.  Its name was afterwards changed to the Record, and it soon
afterwards retired from the field.

The Daily Morning Times was started in 1879.  The history of this paper is contained in the following biographical sketch of its projector.

STEPHEN W. De LACY was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, May 3, 1843.  Here he learned the trades of ship carpentering and steam
engineering.  In 1863 he removed to New York City, and in the summer of that year sailed via Panama for California, arriving in San Francisco July
2.  Proceeding at once to Santa Clara County, where his parents resided, he first settled in Almaden township, and remained for two years in the
employ of the company then managing the celebrated quicksilver mines.  He then removed to the city of San Jose, and went into the business of
contracting and building, which he followed for several years.  In 1870 he entered the ranks of journalism, as a reporter with the San Jose Daily
Indenpendent, and shortly, in conjunction with his brother, Hugh A. De Lacy, started the San Jose Weekly Reporter.  In 1872 he joined the Daily
Record at Pioche, Nevada, remaining as its city editor for nearly a year.  Returning to San Jose in 1873, he became the city editor of the Daily
Evening Patriot, and continued in the position when the name of that paper was changed to Herald.  Resigining in 1879, Mr. De Lacy began the
publication of the Daily Morning Times, believing that the field was good for an independent newspaper.  In that enterprise he was associated with
J. G. Murdoch, fomerly foreman of the Herald; the editorial department being intrusted to F. B. Murdoch, a veteran journalist, formerly proprietor
of the Patriot, who subsequently became a partner in the newspaper.  The firm name was Times Publishing Company.  Their first issue was on July
15, 1879, and the paper was favorably received.  On the first of January, 1880, Mr. De Lacy became sole proprietor by purchase of the interests of
his partners.  From that time the success of the Times was remarkable.  The aim of the owner and manager was to present a paper which, in its
treatment of local events, should be equally readable and reliable; in general, the implacable foe of  wrong, the inflexible champion of right, and at
all events independent in opinion, and fearless in its expression beyond the possibility of clique, faction, or sinister interest to influence.  In the
realization of that ideal, his success was decisive and permanent.  But at the height of success, Mr. De Lacy conceived the idea that a daily
newspaper founded and conducted on the principles of the Times would flourish in San Francisco.  Accordingly, on the sixth of September, 1883, he
sold to C. M. Shortridge, propietor of the San Jose Mercury, his entire interest in the Times, binding himself not to resume journalism in San Jose
for three years.

On the sixteenth of February, 1884, in connection with James H. Barry, a popular printer of San Francisco, Mr. De Lacy began, under what
seemed favorable auspices, the publication of the Daily Evening Star.  Its principle was—in the expressive phrase of the day—"anti-boss,
anti-monopoly."  But powerful enemies and journalistic rivalry, and especially the spurious fidelity of the industrial classes, in whose interest the
paper was conducted, proved too much for the enterprise.  On the nineteenth of June, 1884, having lost heavily, the Star Company suspended,
promptly discharging all its obligations to a penny.  Mr. De Lacy returned to San Jose and engaged in various businesses.  On the sixth of
September, 1886, upon the expiration of his bond, he pluckily re-issued the Daily Morning Times, meeting with great success in the interprise of
re-establishing it, conducting it upon its original plane, and pushing it up to its former position as a generous advocate of the rights of the people.

Mr. De Lacy married, September 10, 1875, Clara J., daughter of  J. W. Haskell, and has five children: Edith Viola, Walter Haskell, Stephen
Percival, Edward Ralph Merlin, and Clara Estelle De Lacy.

The Daily Evening News was started and run during the campaign of 1882, by W. D. Haley.

The City Item was established by H. A. De Lacy, in 1883.  Its name was changed, in 1885, to the Evening News, which name it still bears.

The projector of this journal, Mr. H. A. De Lacy, was born in New Orleans, September 23, 1845.  He came to California in 1862, and went to work
at the New Almaden mines as engineer.  In 1865 he came to San Jose and engaged in the business of carpenter and builder for several years.  In
1870 he was appointed deputy sheriff, where he developed great skill as a detective officer.  After his term expired as deputy sheriff, he was
appointed on the police force of San Jose, and was afterward elected constable of the township.  In 1872 he published the Reporter, but discontinued
it in order to devote his whole time to his professional duties.  But he had developed a taste for journalism that could not be wiped out, and in 1883
he established the City Item, intending to make it small and do all the work himself.  However, it met with such success that he was compelled to
enlarge it and secure assistance in his work.  Mr. C. W. Williams, a young man of great business abililty, was taken in as a partner and assumed
the business management of the enterprise, Mr. De Lacy confining himself entirley to the editorial department.  This was a strong combination, and
its effect was immediately apparent.  The business rapidly increased, and the paper has been enlarged no less than six times during the five years
of its existence.  In 1885 the name was changed to the Evening News, which name it now bears.

The Santa Clara Valley, a monthly journal devoted to the horticultural and viticultural interests of the community, and to advertising the
resources of the county, was started by H. S. Foote, in 1884.  In 1886 he sold out to Mr. H. A. Brainard, who has conducted the paper ever since,
having added to its name the Pacific Tree and Vine, thus enlarging its field to the entire State, and doing away with its exclusively local charater.

Mr. H. A. Brainard is a native of New York, and received a liberal education, icluding the highest classical course in the educational institutions
of that State.  The peculiar tendency of his mind, however, was toward natural science, and he became one of the most accurate engineers and
surveyors of the Empire State.  His work in laying out and superintending the construction of a large section of the West Shore Railroad, is
unsurpassed in the history of railroad construction in the State.  He became also a thorough theoretical and practical botanist, and these two
qualifications he brought to bear in his work on the Santa Clara Valley.  The first he utilized in making accurate and detailed maps for publication in
his journal, and the latter for imparting valuable horticultural information to his readers.  His maps have been found of great value to nearly every
citizen, and his paper has become a recognized authority on the coast, and has been the means of bringing many settlers to this county.  The literary
department is under the direction of Miss Louise E. Francis, a lady of great talent and a graceful writer.

The Enterprise, a weekly paper, was published in Mayfield, by W. H. Clipperton, in 1869-70.  It was afterwards removed to Gilroy, and its name
changed to the

Gilroy Telegram, but it was discontinued after the political campaign of the latter year.

The Gilroy Advocate was extablished at Gilroy, September, 1868, by G. M. Hanson and C. F. Macy.  In 1869 it went into the hands of Kenyon &
Knowlton, and in 1873 to Murphy & Knowlton.  H. Coffin became publisher in 1873, and continued for two years, when he was succeeded by H. C.
Burckhart.  In January, 1876, J. C. Martin took charge, but was succeeded by Rev. D. A. Dryden, in October of the same year.  The paper was
soon afterwards leased to Frank Dryden and J. Vaughn, who conducted it a few months, when F. W. Blake, the present proprietor, having
purchased the majority of the stock, assumed control. During all its twenty years of existence the Advocate has been highly esteemed as a home
paper, and particularly is this the case under its present management.

F. W. Blake is a native of London, England, his father being a leading physician of that city.  Two of his brothers were educated in that profession
and are now in full practice, one in England and another in San Francisco.  The subject of this sketch had no taste for medicine, and he secured a
clerkship in the Department of Customs.  Here he remained for five years, coming in contact with the officers of merchant vessels from all parts of
the world.  When his parents died, he being then twenty-five years old, he accepted the invitation of the captain of a merchant vessel to make a
voyage with him.  He came to New York in 1861, and, after remaining a few weeks, went to Chicago and soon after joined the telegraph expedition
to Salt Lake City.  From there he came to San Francisco.  Here he went into the mercantile business, in which he continued for twelve years.  He
had been liberally educated, and had cultivated a decided literary taste. He was a close and forcible, as well as a graceful, writer.  Retiring from the
mercantile business, he took a position on the Hollister Advance, and soon after purchased the Advocate, as above stated.  In his statement of
events he is terse and accurate, and in his editorials his reasoning is logic.  He has made the Advocate a representative of the people composing the
community where it is published.

The Gilroy Cresent was established in January, 1888, by R. G. Einfalt.  It started prosperously from the first and has maintained its position ever
since.  It is well conducted and thoroughtly meets the demands of its patrons, as its increasing business well proves.  Mr. Einfalt, its publisher, is a
native son of the Golden West, having been born at Weaverville, Trinity County, California, October 23, 1866.  His parents were J. M. and E. J.
(Smith) Einfalt.  His father is a native of Germany and his mother of Missouri, her parents having emigrated from Virginia to that State.  In 1868,
when Mr. Einfalt was only two years old, his parents removed to Gilroy, and the subject of this sketch grew up with the city.

During his course at the Gilroy High School, he suspended  his studies and went into the office of the Valley Record, in 1883, where he remained
two years and a half.  He then returned to school and completed the course, graduating with honor.  During his connection with the Valley Record
he developed great journalistic ability, and, on leaving school, established the Cresent.  He is a member of the Gilroy Palor N. S. G. W., of which he
is secretary.  Although a young man, he is greatly respected, both on account of his worth as a citizen and his ability as a journalist.

The Valley Record, of Gilroy, was established May 7, 1881, by E. S. Harrison.  In 1884, it was purchased by B. A. Wardell.  He negotiated its
sale to other parties, who changed the name to the Gilroy Gazette, but the conditions not being complied with,the paper reverted to Mr. Wardell,
who is its present publisher and editor.

Mr. Wardell has had quite an eventfull life.  He was born in New York City, January 15, 1830.  He traces his ancestry on his father's side back to
the early settlement of New Jersey in colonial times, the family coming from Wales and lcoating at the beach at Long Branch, which took the name
of Wardell's Beach.  His father was a wholesale merchant in New York City.  His mother's family is one of the oldest in New York.  Her father was
a sea captain engaged in the East India trade.  The subject of this sketch was reared in New York City, and began his business career in a China
shipping house.  The firm sent him to China in 1845, for the benefit of his health.  On reaching Shanghai he accepted the position of bookkeeper in
the house of Wetmore & Co.  In about a year this firm failed and Mr. Wardell went into business with a fellow-clerk at Foochow; at the end of two
years he sold out and established a general shipping house at Shanghai, under the firm name of Howe & Co.  This firm bought the first steamer
from California, the Santa Cruz, to run on the Yang-tse-Kiang.  Afterwards they purchased the John T. Wright in San Francisco and these, with the
steamer Hellespont, purchased in China, consituted the line running from Shanghai to Hongkong.  He closed out his business in China in 1863,
returning to the United States via Europe.  The money he had made in China was dropped in unsuccessful speculations in Wall Street, and in 1872
he started for California, intending to located in Los Angeles.  This was before the boom, and, not being satisfied with the appearance of the
Southern country, he went to San Francisco and accepted the position of cashier in the office of the San Fransicso Chronicle.  He remained there
until 1884, when he purchased the Valley Record, as before stated.  Mr. Wardell is a member of the F. and A. M. in Gilroy, the I. O. O. F. and the
A. O. U. W. in San Francisco, and the O. E. S. in Gilroy.  He was married in California, in 1876, to Miss Pauline Fliess, a native of Vienna, Austria.
Mr. Wardell's business experience and literary ability have emabled him to make the Gazette a flattering success.

The Los Gatos Weekly Mail is a seven-column folio, published by the Mail Publishing Company, the following gentlemen being the officers: Peter
Johnson, president; Wm. P. Hughes, editor and manager.  It is one of the neatest looking and most ably edited country papers in California.
Established in 1884, it met with success from the start.  But after about eight months, the manager, H. H. Main, chairman of the Board of
Supervisors, becoming interested in many other enterprises, found that the Mail or his other business would have to be given up, so he sold to Wm.
P. Hughes, the present editor and manager, and practical proprietor.

Mr. Hughes had a great many disadvantages to undergo, but with energy, perseverance, and intellignece he has made the Mail what it is
to-day—first-class in every respect, and paying handsomely.  Its circulation is large and rapidly increasing, and the people of the section have the
utmost confidence in it.

WM. P. HUGHES, the editor and manager of the Mail, was born in Salem, Marion County, Illinois, on October 14, 1857.  His parents removed to
Dixon, Lee County, Illinois, in 1859, thence to Austin Texas, where Mr. Hughes resided until ten years of age, when he left home, went to San
Antonio, Texas, and engaged with a namesake, Thomas Hughes, to go up the Chism trail, through the Indian Territory, with a herd of ten thousand
cattle.  After arriving in Parker, a town near the border of the Territory, in Kansas, he engaged as an apprentice on the Journal, a cow-boy paper
published there at that time.  After serving about a year he went to Topeka, the capital, and served three years on the Daily State Gazette, when he
left for Quincy, Illinois, where he joined the Typographical Union, of which society he is an honored member to-day.  He then traveled extensively
throughout the United States and Canada, working on the most influential dailies in North America, when he returned to his old home in Austin in
1876.

In the spring of this year he joined the Frontier Battalion of the State of Texas, known as the Texas Rangers, and served with honor and credit to
himself and State until November 30, 1877, when he received an honorable discharge.  He was the youngest member ever in that service.  He then
foremanized on various papers in Texas, and went to New Orleans in the fall of 1878, where he worked on the Democrat.  In the spring of 1879 he
took a trip up the Mississippi River, visiting Vicksburg, Memphis, Cairo, and St. Louis, thence to Kansas City, and finally to Denver, where he
remained until August, when he went to the then "booming" mining camp of Leadville, where he resided for nearly two years, working on the
Chronicle and dealing in mining property.

In the fall of 1881 he went to Laramie City, Wyoming Territory, where he took the position of foreman on the Evening Times, which he held for
about a year when he came to California.  After residing in San Francisco and Sacramento about six months, he returned to Laramie, at the urgent
request of the proprietor, to resume charge of the composing room of the Times.  Here he fell a victim to Cupid's darts, and married his present
wife, the daughter of P. B. Murphy, one of the best-known and most highly respected ranchers in the Rocky Mountains.  He and his wife then went
ot Denver and Pueblo, Colorado, where they resided until 1883, when they went ot Eureka, Nevada.  Mr. Hughes held a responsible position on the
Sentinel until December, 1884, when he removed, with his family, to San Francisco.

In January, 1885, he purchased the controlling interest in the Los Gatos Mail.

He is a young man, thirty years old, and is possessed of that force of character which always places a man in the front rank, and yet has that
control over his temper, smoothness of disposition, courteous and urbane nature, which make him universally esteemed.

The Los Gatos Weekly News was established July 2, 1881, by W. S. Walker, who went to Saratoga, on the advice of friends, to start a newspaper
enterprise in that town, but, passing through Los Gatos, saw that it had a bright future before it, and at once commenced the publication of the
News, a five-column quarto, with "patent inside."  He afterward increased the size of the paper to a six-column quarto, still using "ready prints."
By his enterprise, and a constant advocacy of Los Gatos' splendid claims, the town received new life, and Mr. Walker had a liberal patronage for
his pioneer paper of the foot-hills.  In April, 1885, Mr. Walker sold out the News to Messrs. W. H. B. Trautham, C. C. Suydam, and G. Webster.  In
March, 1886, Mr. Webster sold out his interest ot W. H. B. Trautham and C. C. Suydam, the present owners and publishers of the paper.

The paper has been, and is yet, independent in politics, and is devoted to the horticultural and viticultural interests of the upper part of Santa
Clara Valley; and it has been a powerful factor in the onward march of that section.  In March, 1887, the publishers cast aside the "ready prints,"
and improved the typographical appearance of the paper, which has had a liberal patronage from its founding.

The editor of the News, W. H. B. Tautham, was born in Greene County, Missouri, March 16, 1847.  The early part of his life was spent on a farm
in his native county.  After a solicitous life incident to the battles in and near Springfield, he entered the district schools, and soon made a teacher of
himself, but not being content with the education attained, commenced a course of study in the Missouri University in 1868, and graduated from
that institution in 1872.  At the close of his college life, Mr. Trautham became the principal of the Varona, Missouri, public schools, which position
he held for two years, when he was unanimously called by the Board of Education of North Springfield, Missouri, to the head of that institution.  At
the end of four years, his health having somewhat failed, he resolved to give up teaching and bought a half interest in the North Springfield
Southwester, but the Board of Education of the city of Springfield prevailed on him to take charge of their High School, which positon he gave up
the spring of 1878, to give his undivided attention to the journalistic venture.  The paper was improved, and a daily inaugurated.  Poor health, in the
spring of 1884, made another change necessary, when the Southwester news and job offices were sold out, and Mr. Trautham came with his family
to Los Gatos, where he has entirely regained health, and where he has been constantly connected with the News since 1885.

In 1885 a weekly paper called the Courier was published at Mountain View, by George Wagstaff.  It was in existence but a few months.

The Mountain View Weekly Register commenced publication in April, 1888, under the auspices of the Register Publishing Company, with Harry
Johnston as editor and F. W. Bacon as manager.  The paper is well conducted, newsy, and a staunch representative of the community in which it is
published.  The business management shows an intelligent energy that will insure success, while the editorial and literary departments are of a
character that would do credit to many other more pretentious journals.