According to George Turnbull, in his History of Oregon Newspapers, the Oregonian was established as a weekly paper and published its first edition on December 4, 1850. The first editor, Mr. Thomas Jefferson Dryer, had formerly been with the California Courier at San Francisco, California.
    The Oregonian was a Whig paper, following the early newspaper tradition of remaining strongly associated with a political party. The paper was four pages long with six columns to a page; Subscriptions were $7.00 per year. When the first edition came out there wasn’t a single line of news of any sort and was filled with miscellaneous articles. The opinions of Dryer’s successors was that the greatest thing Dryer ever did was hire Henry L. Pittock, using him first as a printer, then as manager and eventually to turn the paper over to him.
    Henry Pittock, according to Turnbull, “unquestionably saved the Oregonian from going the way of so many papers managed by me that didn’t like the business end of managing a newspaper”. 
    The Oregonian was originally printed on a “Rampage press”, now stored in the University of Washington museum. Like other newspapers of the 1800's the Oregonian was typographically below par and poorly printed. The first of March saw the arrival of a new Washington hand-press. This press was similar to the ones used to print the Spectator and Statesman.
    Of the 24 columns in the Oregonian’ first issue, advertising occupied 6 ½ columns, including 2 ½ columns of land laws. Mr. Dryer also carried an editorial indorsing the proposed Portland and Valley railroad from Portland to Lafayette and promised to comment extensively later. The new Oregon donation land law was praised in a 150-word editorial.”
    The Oregonian is the oldest newspaper of continuous publication in the entire west. Even the Spectator was shut down for several months during the 1849 gold rush because its printer had left for California.
    No matter what your political preference, I’m sure that you will enjoy reading the Oregonian of the 1800's as much as we do.