Read all about it: A history of Edmonds’ early newspapers

Edmonds circa 1895-1900. (Photo courtesy Edmonds Historical Museum)

The date was April 12, 1890. At the top of the editorial column were the names M.J. Hartnett and Wm. H. Lentz as editors. This marked the first issue of the initial newspaper in Edmonds, The Edmonds Chronicle. Edmonds at the time had a population of just over 100 people.

Publishing a newspaper in a small logging town had to have been difficult at best. Within a few weeks, the paper was forced to shut down. But by July, Hartnett and Lentz were able to begin publishing again. Sadly, less than two years later their plant burnt to the ground. M. J. Hartnett, undaunted, managed to obtain enough equipment to resume publication in August of 1892. But by the end of November 1892, the last issue of The Edmonds Chronicle rolled off the presses, and Mr. Hartnett took his equipment to Snohomish, where he joined the Snohomish Democrat newspaper.

On March 17, 1893, Mayor W. F. Armstrong appointed a committee to “canvass the town to see what could be done to secure a publication of a paper”.

Four months later, J. Hartson Dowd appeared on the Edmonds scene and began publishing The Edmonds Lyre. The newspaper was mainly advertising along with local news about what people in the community were doing. This unusually named publication lasted approximately two-and-a-half years. In February 1896, with Edmonds now having a population of 750, Dowd moved the plant to Everett, where he started the Northwest Watchman.

Subsequently Edmonds didn’t have a local newspaper for nearly a decade.

The Edmonds Review – Missouri Hanna

Eight years after the departure of The Edmonds Lyre, on Aug. 1, 1904 Richard Bushell Jr. established The Edmonds Review. Two weeks later, he received an appointment naming The Edmonds Review as the official newspaper of Edmonds. But he only operated the paper for five months, selling it on Jan. 1, 1905 to Mrs. Missouri T.B. Hanna and Prof. Frank H. Darling.

Frank H. Darling had arrived in Edmonds in 1888, and had been one of the early teachers in the Edmonds schools. He subsequently held the position of city marshal before he entered the newspaper business.

Missouri Hanna had arrived in 1904. She was born Missouri Saunders in Galveston, Texas on Feb. 17, 1856, to Judge and Mrs. L. B. Saunders. Judge Saunders was well known as the discoverer of Arkansas resort, Eureka Springs. After graduating Clark College in Arkansas, Missouri married fellow student J.C. Hanna, who ran a successful mercantile business in Arkansas. In 1882, they moved to the small community of Spokane Falls, and opened a successful mercantile there. Tragically, five years later her husband was killed in a steamboat accident in Idaho.

Left with two daughters and a son, she opened up a successful real estate business. Then tragedy struck again. Her youngest daughter was severely injured in a bicycle accident and became paralyzed. Then her 19-year-old-son passed away suddenly in 1893 from an accidental morphine overdose.

Soon after her son’s passing, she sold her business, and took her daughter to a number of health resorts around the country. Finally determining that the sea air and sea water would be beneficial to her daughter, she moved to Edmonds in 1904, where she purchased a five-acre tract on the waterfront just north of the city limits. She built a house on the property for herself and her two daughters, and the area became known as Hanna Park. Over the years, she sold various lots within the original five acres.

Hanna, who was then 48, purchased The Edmonds Review with Prof. Darling. She was the driving force, though, going door to door collecting news and advertisements for the paper, and successfully publishing it for the next five years. In so doing, she gained fame as the first woman to run a newspaper.

Author’s Note: While publishing the newspaper, Hanna became very interested in the woman’s suffrage movement. She later began a Seattle publication known as Votes For Women. She proved to be a very forceful writer, and her prolific writings appeared in a wide range of publications up and down the West Coast. Her efforts helped lead the Washington electorate to grant women the right to vote in 1910, and subsequently the ratification of the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution on Aug. 18, 1920.

A remembrance of Missouri Hanna is proudly displayed at the corner of Caspers Street and Sunset Avenue. Two blocks east of the sign intersecting Caspers Street, you will find a street named Hanna Park.

The plaque commemorating Missouri Hanna’s achievements was installed in 2019, commissioned by the League of Women Voters. The plaque includes the cover of the “Votes For Women” pamphlet that Hanna created.

The Edmonds Tribune

In 1907, Will Taylor and Mr. Beale came to Edmonds from Illinois with printing equipment. On May 11, they published the first edition of The Edmonds Tribune. The newspaper was well made and caught on quickly with the town’s citizens.

Despite its success, The Edmonds Tribune was sold twice in a very short period  The paper was first sold to T.A.A. Siegfriedt, an Edmonds lawyer and real estate person, in late 1907. The following year, Siegfriedt sold the paper to W. H. Schumacher, a successful merchant who had also been a banker.

Schumacher quickly found out that running a newspaper was quite different than running a mercantile or a bank. He ran a letter from the previous owner/editor (T.A.A. Siegfriedt) chastising the mayor and other townspeople, including the paper’s landlord. The immediate result was an effigy of Mr. Siegfriedt hung over the main street during the nighttime hours. The effigy was eventually removed by citizens the following afternoon, after the town marshal refused to take it down.

The following day, Schumacher received a letter from his landlord stating he was being evicted, and had three days to vacate or receive a heavy increase in his rent. Fortunately, friends of Schumacher came to his rescue. A building site between 3rd and 4th Streets, on Main Street, was obtained, and a building quickly erected. Despite all the difficulties, the paper did not miss publishing an issue.

The Merger

On Feb. 10, 1910, Missouri Hanna, possibly seeking retirement or believing that Edmonds wasn’t big enough to support two newspapers, sold The Edmonds Review to Schumacher. The two competing newspapers were then combined to form The Tribune Review.

The final issue of The Edmonds Tribune’s masthead Feb. 3, 1910.
The first masthead of The Edmonds Tribune and The Edmonds Review Feb 16, 1910.
The following week, The Tribune-Review’s new masthead appeared, combining the two names — Feb 24, 1910.

The Edmonds Tribune Review: 1910 – 1921 

As recounted in a number of historical texts, the years from 1910 to 1921 were very turbulent in regards to the paper’s ownership. Ray Cloud in Edmonds: The Gem Of Puget Sound, chronicled:

George E. Boomer, socialist editor who had taken over management of the paper in December 1910, had become irked by the attitude of Edmonds merchants as early as August and in February 1912, J.M. Brady took over the paper, and made it an aggressive champion for the republication cause. He became secretary/treasurer of the local Republican Club and announced his candidacy for state senator.

But his career as publisher ended as abruptly as it had begun, and W.H. Schumacher was again in charge of the paper June 19. The following week, M.L. Sherapy appeared as editor and proprietor, but he remained less than a year.

Destined to publish The Tribune-Review for a longer period than any of their predecessors, Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Grace bought the paper in May 1913.”

The Graces ran the paper until June 1916, when an apparent sale was made to Ralph Emerson. But the paper was repossessed two weeks later.

Author’s note: Another historical account states that Ralph Emerson had launched The Edmonds Examiner with Missouri Hanna, then 60, as his associate editor the previous month. Little is known of this venture. Emerson was possibly trying to merge the two papers at that point. How long The Edmonds Examiner lasted is lost in history.

This 1917 photo shows the original Tribune-Review building at 312 Main St. It sat across the alley from the Edmonds Hardware Store (now Chanterelle).

After the failed sale, the Graces managed the paper for another three years, finally selling the paper to a group from Bothell in 1919. They, in turn, sold the paper the following year to a group from Kirkland with Sam F. Collins as editor.

Clouds to the rescue

On Dec. 7, 1921, Mr. & Mrs. Ray V. Cloud purchased the paper. According to an interview years later with their son, Ken, the sale was described as a “distress sale” as the paper had only 400 subscribers.

The Clouds were experienced newspaper people. They had previously owned and operated The Ferndale Record from 1916 to early 1921. After the sale of the paper, Ray had gone to work in the advertising department of The Everett Herald while looking around for a newspaper to purchase.

This front page article in the Dec 9, 1921 details the purchase of The Edmonds Tribune Review.

In the same issue, Ray Cloud’s wrote his initial editorial piece stating: “We are just plain folks; we have no visionary aspirations of fame or fortune; but wish in our humble way to give Edmonds as good a newspaper as it is possible for us to give. We are open to suggestions and criticism, and the columns of the Tribune-Review will always be open to communications on topics of community interested, when presented in a friendly spirit”.

One of the first things that the Clouds had to do was replace antiquated equipment, and then add more space to the small 20-foot-by-60-foot building that had been quickly erected in 1908. The Clouds asked the city for permission to add a second story on the building in October 1922.

Letter from Ray Cloud dated Oct. 3, 1922 asking permission to add a second story to the Tribune- Review building. (Letter courtesy Edmonds Historical Museum)

As the upgrades were being made to the equipment and building, the Clouds quickly grew popular with the townspeople. Mrs. Cloud (Fanny) went around town collecting newsworthy information while Ray wrote all of the editorials for the paper.

Late 1922 or early 1923 photo of the two-story Tribune-Review building with Ray and Fanny Cloud and their 6-year-old son. (Photo courtesy Edmonds Historical Museum)

The Clouds moved in upstairs after the second story was completed to be close to their work. Their son stated in an interview that he remembered drifting off to sleep at night to the throbbing sound of the 2 horsepower motor on the ground floor driving from a single shaft all of the plant’s equipment: an old cylinder press, job press and folder.

In May 1931, The Richmond Beach Herald and The Richmond Highlands Post, which were owned by the same group, were combined with The Tribune-Review.  Throughout the years, the Clouds put the paper “to bed” every week with the exception of a two-week vacation in 1934.

In 1938, the Clouds built a new two-story brick building to house the expanded operation of the paper. The building was located at 514 Main St. — now the home of Glazed and Amazed. The Clouds used the upstairs as a furnished apartment, so that they could remain close to their work.

1938 photo of the new Tribune-Review building with Ray and Fanny Cloud and their 22-year-old son Ken, who had just returned from the military. (Photo courtesy Edmonds Historical Museum)

After 25 years of hard work and commitment to the community, the paper’s circulation had grown to 2,355. In addition to the daily circulation, the Clouds mailed out over 400 papers a week to servicemen serving away from home during World War II.

The Clouds were also very supportive of the high school’s journalistic club and assisted in the publication of the local high school’s newspaper The Wireless, for many years.  Ray also served as Chamber of Commerce president (1929), president of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association and president and secretary of the Edmonds Kiwanis Club. In addition, both Fanny and Ray were involved in a wide range of community activities.

After three decades of service to the Edmonds community, the Clouds sold The Tribune-Review on Jan. 3, 1952, to John B. McKean, who had been the former publisher of The Bothell Citizen.

In his final editorial, Ray Cloud wrote the following (partial excerpt):

“We have grown along with Edmonds and its environs from the uncertain years which followed the first World War, through the boom years of the late twenties, the stock market crash followed by closed banks – when we were obliged to issue trade certificates as part of our employee wages – through the depression years and finally the second World War when, with lack of skilled help we worked longer hours than ever before and at the same time managed to mail about 400 copies of the paper weekly to local boys in the camps and the far-flung battlefronts of the world.

To our friends and neighbors of Edmonds and community this is a farewell which really is not a farewell.  While we may not appear before you each week in a column – and that may be a relief to many of you – Edmonds will still be our home and we may have the opportunity to enjoy cherished friendships which in the past we have neglected under pressure of business.”

In 1953, as a final gift to Edmonds, Ray Cloud combed through the historical newspapers from the previous 50 years, gathering information across all areas of the city’s history. He then wrote, handset the type and published a hardback with over 250 pages entitled Edmonds The Gem Of Puget Sound. It was later reprinted in 1983 in paperback by The Edmonds Historical Society.

Author’s note: The Tribune Review continued until 1965 under different owners. In 1965, the paper merged with The Enterprise, a Lynnwood newspaper, and functioned as an adjunct to The Enterprise until the end of 1981, when the Tribune-Review was discontinued.

Missouri Hanna died in 1926, and her daughter continued to reside in the family home after her mother’s death.

Ray Cloud died in 1974 at the age of 80.

The original 1908 office of The Tribune-Review was torn down in 1976 to make room for Rainier Bank.  The space is now part of the Bank of America parking lot.

1976 demolition of the 1908 Tribune-Review building. (Photo courtesy Edmonds Historical Museum)

— Article researched and written by Byron Wilkes. This project would not have been possible without the assistance of the Edmonds Historical Museum, the Sno-Isle Genealogy Society and the Everett Library – Northwest Room.

  1. What a great and detailed slice of history, thank you! Are there issues of any of these newspapers scanned and digitally archived for people to read?

    1. Shannon they are available on microfiche at the Lynnwood library. I don’t believe any of them have been digitized yet.

  2. Great thanks to Byron, for writing, and Teresa, for publishing, this wonderful history of our town newspapers. In my Junior and Senior Years (’64) I was on the Edmonds High School (correct Tiger’s version) “Wireless” newspaper referred to in the article. I was feature Editor and one of my best friends, then and still, was the sports Editor. One of our favorite duties was the monthly tasks of dropping off the copy and picking up the published school paper at the Tribune Review Office during regular school hours. Gave us a chance to unwind from all the writing stress with a smoke (I never inhaled and never got hooked; but he did) and even an illegal can of beer or two once in awhile. We were newsmen and and wanna be juvenile delinquents all at the same time.

  3. Another great historical article – thanks!

    Could I suggest another topic: Edmonds hotels. I seem to remember there was one when we moved here in ’61, but I’m wholly ignorant of anything beyond that vague memory.

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