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About the Appeal Tribune
by Jeff Brekas
The Appeal Tribune is a weekly newspaper that has served Silverton
and its surrounding communities since 1880.
The Appeal traces its roots to The Silverton Appeal, first published
by Henry G. Guild on Monday, May 17, 1880. The paper competed with the
Silverton Tribune until 1893, a weekly published by Wiles and Davis.
In 1904, then-owner of The Silverton Appeal John Earl Hosmer sold
the paper to Gilford D. and Henry E. Browne, publishers of The Silvertonian,
a politically-oriented weekly. They renamed the paper The Silvertonian-Appeal.
In 19010 the paper was purchased by Wiles and H.E. Hodges, who named it
The Silvertonian. In 1914 the paper was purchased by John T. Hoblitt,
who renamed it The Silverton Appeal. The following year, Browne founded
The Mt. Angel Tribune in Mt. Angel, which was sold in 1920 to Edward
B. Kottek, Sr., who reestablished The Silverton Tribune - and the
competition between Appeal and Tribune.
In 1930, under the onus of the Great Depression, a merger was announced.
Hoblitt consolidated the papers with a masthead reading The Silverton
Appeal-Tribune. In 1959, Hoblitt's son Mahlon had the plat at 399
S. Water Street built by the John A. Pfiefer Construction Company of Silverton;
the newspaper's offices remain there to the present.
A new owner, Joe Davis, replaced the old hot type press with a cold type
press in 1968, and half interest in the new press was purchased by The
Stayton Mail publishers Trude and Frank Crow. In 1975, Davis bought
The Mt. Angel News. He incorporated the two publications, creating
The Silverton Appeal-Tribune and The Mt. Angel News, the longest
masthead of any newspaper in Oregon history.
In 1984, Mary Ann and Howard Woodall, Jr., owners of The Stayton Mail
since 1982, bought out Joe Davis' interest in the Appeal and founded
parent company East Valley Newspapers. East Valley Newspapers was purchased
by the Statesman Journal in 1990, making both weekly newspapers
and their commercial print shop a part of Gannett Co., owner of USA Today
and other newspapers across the country.
In 1998, the Silverton Appeal Tribune & Mt. Angel News was
retitled simply the Appeal Tribune.
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