Corvallis Gazette-Times - The Corvallis Gazette

The Corvallis Gazette

The Gazette first appeared in Corvallis in 1862 as a Republican pro-Abraham Lincoln newspaper, with T. B. Odeneal as its editor. Odeneal had previously edited another Corvallis newspaper, The Democratic Crisis, a pro-Southern newspaper, beginning in 1859. Odeneal had been converted to the Republican cause after Lincoln's election as United States President in 1860.

Later editors of The Gazette included W. F. Boyakin in 1865 and William B. Carter later in the 1860s. Under Carter the paper came to support the cause of prohibition. This was a controversial political stance to take in a town where half the businesses were saloons.

The paper's advocacy of prohibition changed in 1870 when Samuel L. Simpson became editor in 1870. In an editorial explaining the change he wrote:

"Temperance ceases to be the speciality of this paper, as, in fact, it is not the forte of the present editor. Right here the bright habiliments of neutrality are laid aside forever, and wheeling into line the good champion of prohibition goes down in the smoke and fury of political war."

Carter later returned as editor and remained at that post until his death in 1880. Later editors included W. P. Keady, later Speaker of Oregon House of Representatives in the Oregon Legislative Assembly; Will H. Parry who later founded the Capital Journal in Salem, Oregon; and later Springer, who launched the Gazette's daily edition in 1909.

The Gazette was known briefly as a The Union Gazette following its 1899 merger with the Oregon Union which had been founded in 1897. The Union portion of the name was soon dropped.