Rosebud Multimedia

The Ashland Daily Tidings published its first edition on June 17, 1876, when Ashland had about 500 people but neither church nor saloon. Editor James M. Sutton noted, however, “whiskey is sold by the bottle and preaching is done in the schoolhouse; and therefore, the people are generally happy.” Sutton was former editor of the Oregon Sentinel, one of Jacksonville’s earliest papers, and is credited with coining the name “Crater Lake” for Oregon’s crown jewel. The Ashland Tidings, as the paper was called then, offered four pages of local news, “independent and fearless” editorials, advertising and folk tales every Saturday and cost $2 for a year’s subscription. Throughout the 19th century, the paper went through multiple owners —including Oliver C. Applegate, son of the founders of the Applegate Trail. Editorials in the 1880s supported the Republican agenda, including women’s suffrage and local miners’ strikes. By 1896, the Ashland Tidings was publishing twice a week with a full page devoted to women’s issues a