Thomas Jefferson Dryer (January 8, 1808 – March 30, 1879) was a newspaper publisher and politician in the Western United States. A member of the

Oregon Territorial Legislature Oregon's Territorial Legislature was a bicameral legislative body created by the United States Congress in 1848 as the legislative branch of the government of the Oregon Territory. The upper chamber Council and lower chamber House of Representati ...

in 1857, Dryer is best remembered as the founder of ''

The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 185 ...

,'' an influential and enduring newspaper in the American state of

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

. Dryer was also a committed mountain climber and is credited with being among the first to summit

Mount St. Helens Mount St. Helens (known as Lawetlat'la to the indigenous Cowlitz people, and Loowit or Louwala-Clough to the Klickitat) is an active stratovolcano located in Skamania County, Washington, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United St ...

and perhaps

Mount Hood Mount Hood is a potentially active stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc. It was formed by a subduction zone on the Pacific coast and rests in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located about east-southeast of Portlan ...

Biography

Early years

Thomas Jefferson Dryer was born on January 10, 1808, in

Ulster County, New York Ulster County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. It is situated along the Hudson River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 181,851. The county seat is Kingston. The county is named after the Irish province of Ulster. History ...

."Biographical Sketch of Thomas Dryer,"
in ''Crafting the Oregon Constitution.'' Salem, OR:

Oregon State Archives The Archives Division of the Office of the Secretary of State of Oregon, or the Oregon State Archives, is an agency of the Oregon Secretary of State charged with preserving and providing access to government records. The Oregon State Archives is ...

, 2009. Retrieved 2016-06-20.

Move to Portland

After working as a journalist in New York state, Dryer came to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

in 1849 with a hand-operated printing press in tow, seeking a suitable location to establish a newspaper of his own.Eugene E. Snyder, ''Early Portland: Stump-Town Triumphant: Rival Townsites on the Willamette, 1831-1854.'' Portland, OR: Binfords & Mort, 1970; pg. 76. He initially launched a publication called the '' California Courier,'' but with limited success. While in San Francisco Dryer was recruited to relocate north to the town of

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

Stephen Coffin Stephen Coffin (1807 – 1882) was an investor, promoter, builder, and militia officer in mid-19th century Portland, Oregon, Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. Born in Maine, he moved to Oregon City, Oregon, Oregon City in 1847, and in 1849 he ...

and

William W. Chapman William Williams Chapman (August 11, 1808October 18, 1892) was an American politician and lawyer in Oregon and Iowa. He was born and raised in Virginia. He served as a United States Attorney in Iowa when it was part of the Michigan and Wisconsin ...

, founders and leading boosters of the fledgling enclave. Coffin and Chapman provided a crude log cabin to Dryer to set up his press and establish his newspaper office. He was able to release the first issue of his publication, ''The Weekly Oregonian,'' on December 4, 1850 — about two weeks after the launch six miles to the south in

Milwaukie, Oregon Milwaukie is a city mostly in Clackamas County, Oregon, United States; a very small portion of the city extends into Multnomah County. The population was 20,291 at the 2010 census. Founded in 1847 on the banks of the Willamette River, the city ...

by Lot Whitcomb, ''The Western Star,'' a rival publication.

Political career

In 1856, Dryer served in the Territorial Legislature representing Multnomah and Washington Counties as a Whig.Oregon Legislators and Staff Guide, 1856 Regular Session (8th Territorial)

. Retrieved 2016-06-20. The following year, he was elected and served at the

Oregon Constitutional Convention The Oregon Constitutional Convention in 1857 drafted the Oregon Constitution in preparation for the Oregon Territory to become a U.S. state. Held from mid-August through September, 60 men met in Salem, Oregon, and created the foundation for Oregon ...

. Dryer became a

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

and was an active supporter of

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

in the Presidential election of 1860, winning election as a

presidential elector The United States Electoral College is the group of presidential electors required by the Constitution to form every four years for the sole purpose of appointing the president and vice president. Each state and the District of Columbia appo ...

William Richard Cutter William Richard Cutter (August 17, 1847 – June 6, 1918) was an American historian, genealogist, and writer. Life Born in Woburn, Massachusetts on August 17, 1847, he was the son of Dr. Benjamin Cutter and Mary Whittemore Cutter. He attended ...

(ed.), ''American Biography: A New Cyclopedia, Volume 12.'' New York: American Historical Society, 1922; pg. 21. Following Lincoln's victory, Dryer called in a political favor and was appointed U.S. Commissioner to the

Kingdom of Hawaii The Hawaiian Kingdom, or Kingdom of Hawaiʻi ( Hawaiian: ''Ko Hawaiʻi Pae ʻĀina''), was a sovereign state located in the Hawaiian Islands. The country was formed in 1795, when the warrior chief Kamehameha the Great, of the independent island ...

. Dryer was a heavy drinker"Thomas Jefferson Dryer (1808-1879)"
''The Oregon History Project'',

Oregon Historical Society The Oregon Historical Society (OHS) is an organization that encourages and promotes the study and understanding of the history of the Oregon Country, within the broader context of U.S. history. Incorporated in 1898, the Society collects, preser ...

. Retrieved 2016-06-20. and it was not long until his taste for alcohol was drawing public scrutiny and criticism. In March 1862 Dryer's longtime publishing rival and political foe

Asahel Bush Asahel Bush (June 4, 1824 – December 23, 1913) was an American newspaper publisher and businessman in Salem, Oregon. As publisher of the ''Oregon Statesman'' newspaper, he moved the paper to Salem when the territorial capital moved to that city. ...

gleefully reprinted a snippet from the ''Yreka Union'' charging that the "Bad Egg" T. J. Dryer "is so constantly drunk as to render him unfit to discharge the duties of his office." By the summer of 1863 the same paper would be able to cheerfully report that "Ex-Commissioner T.J. Dryer has arrived at San Francisco, on his return from the

Sandwich Islands The Hawaiian Islands ( haw, Nā Mokupuni o Hawai‘i) are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kur ...

Loss of the ''Oregonian''

During Dryer's absence ''The Oregonian'' was published by Henry Lewis Pittock, a compositor and pressman who had been on the paper's staff since November 1853.Cutter (ed.), ''American Biography: A New Cyclopedia, Volume 12,'' pg. 20. Dryer was deeply in debt to Pittock for unpaid back wages and he mortgaged the publication to him as security on the unpaid debt. When Dryer made no further attempt at repayment, ownership of the ''Oregonian'' passed into Pittock's hands. Pittock would later go into business partnership with longtime editorialist Harvey W. Scott and ''The Oregonian'' would come to see its place cemented as the state's de facto newspaper of record during the 20th century.

Mountain climber

Dryer is credited with being part of the first documented ascent of

on August 27, 1853, together with three companions. He has also been reported as among the first party to climb

, on August 8, 1854."First Ascent of Mount Hood, Oregon August 8, 1854,"
United States Geological Survey. This latter report has been disputed, with most historians claiming the Dryer attempt fell several hundred feet of the summit of Mount Hood, while an 1857 climb by Henry Lewis Pittock and four others provided better documentation of the summit having been reached.

Death and legacy

Dryer died March 30, 1879. He was 71 years old at the time of his death. Dryer's body was buried at

Lone Fir Cemetery Lone Fir Cemetery in the southeast section of Portland, Oregon, United States is a cemetery owned and maintained by Metro, a regional government entity. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the first burial was in 1846 with the ceme ...

in Portland."Lone Fir Cemetery: Some Interesting Burial Facts,"
www.friendsoflonefircemetery.org/

Footnotes

External links

* Full body portrait of Dryer in his later years
Oregon Biographies: Thomas Jefferson Dryer
from the

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dryer, Thomas American newspaper founders 19th-century American newspaper publishers (people) Ambassadors of the United States to Hawaii 1808 births 1879 deaths Members of the Oregon Constitutional Convention Members of the Oregon Territorial Legislature 19th-century American politicians Burials at Lone Fir Cemetery Oregon pioneers Oregon Whigs The Oregonian people Oregon Republicans 19th-century American journalists American male journalists Hawaiian Kingdom and the American Civil War 19th-century American male writers Editors of Oregon newspapers