Hoquiam town grew with such speed that those who called Hoquiam their home and those who resided in the surrounding areas experienced a large number of newspapers and other published works that tackled varying degrees of local, state and national concerns. It is said that you can gauge a town's maturity based on the news printed on its papers and mature Hoquiam did become.
At the zenith of Hoquiam's love affair with newspapers, the town and the Grays Harbor territory had at least two hundred newspapers and gazettes being published and circulated. These papers started from the late 19th century as Hoquiam was just being recognized as a city until the early 20th century when Hoquiam and the Grays Harbor area was the lumber and timber industry giant of Washington State. The various publications offered different palates of opinion on politics, religious and even ideological discussions to an equally varied public that ate up the editorials and various news and personal commentaries dished out by these papers.
Hoquiam's main newspapers during those times were Gant's Sawyer, the Gray's Harbor Gazette, and of course the Hoquiam American as well as the Gray's Harbor Washingtonian that was established in 1889 which gained much readership and respect.
The Grays Harbor Washingtonian had at its helm an impassioned editor in the person of Congressman Albert Johnson who at the height of his career carried on a personal vendetta against immigrant workers and labor union groups, utilizing effectively the wide distribution of the Washingtonian in delivering his personal opinions on issues that were highly controversial at that time. Congressman Johnson doused with gasoline immigrant hatred and demonized organized labor while fighting for women's right to vote quite effectively.
There were many papers like the Grays Harbor Washingtonian that were mainly used to echo the sentiments of forces and groups that had direct interest in influencing Hoquiam's thinking on several hotly contested issues. Papers like the Home Defender also published by Congressman Johnson continued to cajole and accuse migrant workers and organized labor of connivance and ill intentions against the lumber industry which was at its peak at that time.
The spread of hostile statements and accusations of bad faith and ill intent hounded immigrants and lumber workers through the editorials of these newspapers and these sentiments were pounded and driven into the psyche of the community, in some instances effectively changing public opinion regarding some very important issues.
One good thing about the big number or variation of publications available there was a good availability of dissenting opinions and information that was made available to the reading public and thus were not really handicapped in trying to understand or absorbed relevant and accurate information about certain issues, but of course it was up to the reader themselves if they were not going be satisfied with what they read with one newspaper unless what they were reading was what they wanted to believe in the first place.
The Washingtonian had a run from 1903 to 1951 as a daily newspaper and into a weekly. The last edition of this very opinionated publication was printed in 1957. The newspapers of Hoquiam town and the surrounding Grays Harbor area were a mixture of well founded and some well-meaning organizations and individuals who believed in something that was for them during the different time periods and upheavals were worth writing about and bringing into the awareness of people who were directly or indirectly affected by those events and policies.
The late 19th century and the first three decades of the 20th century proved to be the golden age of Hoquiam and the surrounding Grays Harbor, due mainly to the boom of the lumber industry where Hoquiam once led and was an undeniable industry giant. The whole gamut of papers and whatever they contained contributed to how Hoquiam was and now is and that going to be forever part of Hoquiam's story.
At the zenith of Hoquiam's love affair with newspapers, the town and the Grays Harbor territory had at least two hundred newspapers and gazettes being published and circulated. These papers started from the late 19th century as Hoquiam was just being recognized as a city until the early 20th century when Hoquiam and the Grays Harbor area was the lumber and timber industry giant of Washington State. The various publications offered different palates of opinion on politics, religious and even ideological discussions to an equally varied public that ate up the editorials and various news and personal commentaries dished out by these papers.
Hoquiam's main newspapers during those times were Gant's Sawyer, the Gray's Harbor Gazette, and of course the Hoquiam American as well as the Gray's Harbor Washingtonian that was established in 1889 which gained much readership and respect.
The Grays Harbor Washingtonian had at its helm an impassioned editor in the person of Congressman Albert Johnson who at the height of his career carried on a personal vendetta against immigrant workers and labor union groups, utilizing effectively the wide distribution of the Washingtonian in delivering his personal opinions on issues that were highly controversial at that time. Congressman Johnson doused with gasoline immigrant hatred and demonized organized labor while fighting for women's right to vote quite effectively.
There were many papers like the Grays Harbor Washingtonian that were mainly used to echo the sentiments of forces and groups that had direct interest in influencing Hoquiam's thinking on several hotly contested issues. Papers like the Home Defender also published by Congressman Johnson continued to cajole and accuse migrant workers and organized labor of connivance and ill intentions against the lumber industry which was at its peak at that time.
The spread of hostile statements and accusations of bad faith and ill intent hounded immigrants and lumber workers through the editorials of these newspapers and these sentiments were pounded and driven into the psyche of the community, in some instances effectively changing public opinion regarding some very important issues.
One good thing about the big number or variation of publications available there was a good availability of dissenting opinions and information that was made available to the reading public and thus were not really handicapped in trying to understand or absorbed relevant and accurate information about certain issues, but of course it was up to the reader themselves if they were not going be satisfied with what they read with one newspaper unless what they were reading was what they wanted to believe in the first place.
The Washingtonian had a run from 1903 to 1951 as a daily newspaper and into a weekly. The last edition of this very opinionated publication was printed in 1957. The newspapers of Hoquiam town and the surrounding Grays Harbor area were a mixture of well founded and some well-meaning organizations and individuals who believed in something that was for them during the different time periods and upheavals were worth writing about and bringing into the awareness of people who were directly or indirectly affected by those events and policies.
The late 19th century and the first three decades of the 20th century proved to be the golden age of Hoquiam and the surrounding Grays Harbor, due mainly to the boom of the lumber industry where Hoquiam once led and was an undeniable industry giant. The whole gamut of papers and whatever they contained contributed to how Hoquiam was and now is and that going to be forever part of Hoquiam's story.
About the Author:
Learn more about Wade Entezar and the township of Hoquiam and it's newspapers recognize the past how it got here.
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