Local Newspapers, Then and Now

I’ve read several articles and editorials in recent months about the demise of local newspapers. An editorial in The New York Times last November reported that 204 counties in the United States had no local newspaper, and 1,562 counties had only one. The Medill Local News Initiative found that in […]

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St. Nicholas Day

Today, December 6, is St. Nicholas Day, a feast day honoring St. Nicholas, a 4th-century bishop of Myra (now part of Turkey). St. Nicholas was known for his charitable deeds, particularly toward children. For centuries, St. Nicholas Day was celebrated in many countries in Europe. It was a religious feast, […]

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Ben Holladay, Transportation Tycoon

I’ve written before about rail development in Oregon and the fierce competition between the East Side line and the West Side line in laying rails around Portland. Ben Holladay was the owner of the successful East Side line, and he had his finger (indeed, his whole fist) in many other […]

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Early History of Portland, Oregon

I mentioned in an earlier post that my next novel will deal with the development of railroads in Oregon, probably in the early 1870s. I also think I will set much of the book in Portland, Oregon, which by this time had become the predominant city in Oregon, far outpacing […]

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