Cottage Grove Sentinel

The ''Cottage Grove Sentinel'' is a weekly newspaper serving the city of Cottage Grove, Oregon, United States. It was established in 1889 and is published on Wednesdays with a circulation of 2,829.

History

The earliest newspaper in Cottage Grove was the ''Cottage Grove Leader,'' which was first published on July 15, 1889. It was printed in Drain, Oregon using a military style press by E.P. Thorp, who at the time was publisher of the ''Drian Echo'' established four years earlier. On October 12 of the same year, F. W. Chausse moved the paper's operations to Cottage Grove. Thorp bought out Chausse in 1895 and merged his two paper's together to form the ''Echo-Leader''.

On November 30, 1895, during the height of a town feud, when the western side of town briefly changed their name to Lemati, the newspaper adopted both of the names ''Cottage Grove and Lemati Echo Leader'' for a single run. Only one edition was printed after a two-and-a-half-month absence from the publication of the ''Echo-Leader''. When publication resumed, the ''Cottage Grove and Lemati Echo-Leader'' shortened its name, and was stylized only as ''The Leader.''

Thorp died in February 1897 and the paper was taken over by L. F. Wooley, who changed the name back to the ''Leader''. C. W. Wallace became the paper's owner four years later and he was followed by W. C. Conner in 1903. He sold it a year later to A. Clifford Gage, who that same year sold the paper to a cooperation owned by several local businessmen. In 1905, the paper changed to a semi-weekly and was renamed to the ''Lane County Leader''. Two years later the owners bought the ''Bohemia Nugget,'' originally established as the ''Messenger'' in 1897'','' and absorbed it into the ''Leader.''

C. J. Howard established the ''Western Oregon'' in 1905. He sold it to D. W. and I. S. Bath in 1908. Lew A. Cates became the new proprietor and changed its name to the ''Cottage Grove Sentinel'' on Oct. 2, 1909. Elbert Bede purchased ''The'' ''Sentinel'' on Sept. 11, 1911. He and W. H. Tyrrell, owner of ''The Leader,'' merged their two papers together in July 1915. Bede acquired full-ownership of the ''Cottage Grove Sentinel'' in October 1915 after buying out Tyrrell. He operated the paper for a quarter-century until he sold his ownership stake in 1936 to Judge Leonard S. Godard, who was a former associate justice on the Supreme Court of the Philippines. A. W. Shofstall maintained his 20% ownership stake at the time.

Two years later both men sold the paper to W. C. Martin. His family operated the ''Sentinel'' until selling it in 1961 to Elmo Smith who co-owned the Democrat-Herald Publishing Co., which published the ''Albany Democrat-Herald''. Capital Cities purchased the company in 1980, which itself was acquired by The Walt Disney Company in 1995. Disney sold its Oregon newspapers to Lee Enterprises in 1997. Lee sold the ''Cottage Grove Sentinel'' to News Media Corporation in 2006, who in turn sold it to Country Media, Inc. in 2023.

See also

* Daniel Gault

References

Further reading

External links

''Cottage Grove Sentinel''
(official website)

{{Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association

1889 establishments in Oregon
Cottage Grove, Oregon
Newspapers published in Oregon
Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association
Newspapers established in 1889
Weekly newspapers published in the United States