The Siskiyou Daily News traces its roots to the founding in 1877 of the Scott Valley News at Fort Jones.
A news brief in the Republican Free Press in Redding marked the News’ seventh year in business in 1884, saying about it: “May its influence be felt throughout Siskiyou County.”
It was 1886 when the Free Press reported that L. D. Clark of Red Bluff planned to resurrect the Siskiyou newspaper. A decade later, in 1894, the newspaper came into the hands of E. H. Ellsworth. The newspaper moved to Yreka and was rebranded as the Siskiyou News.
Four years later, Ellsworth sold the newspaper to Will J. Balfrey of Etna, who was the publisher of the Advance. The sale was for $2,155.20, local newspapers reported. “Mr. Balfrey is not a newspaper man, but is full of business and will not let any grass grow under his feet,” The Searchlight in Redding said in its Thursday, Dec. 22, 1898 edition.
Ten days after the sale, Ellsworth was arrested and held at the county jail in Yreka over the Monday, Dec. 26 slaying of Constable E. E. Dixon of Montague. Ellsworth was leaving Yreka and ready to board the southbound Oregon Express despite having what newspapers described as “unsettled obligations.”
The constable was wired from Yreka to arrest the former publisher or “force collection” of the obligations, the Daily Free Press reported at that time. Ellsworth then shot and killed Dixon for which he was convicted and ordered to serve a 21-year sentence in the penitentiary.
By the early 1920s, the Siskiyou News was described as a county newspaper circulating in “every corner and cranny” of Siskiyou. It had 17 paid correspondents to cover the outside territory of the county, with a circulation of 2,000.
Herbert G. Moody, editor of The Searchlight, bought the paper from F. E. Holbrook, who was retiring after 17 years leading the News through growth and influence in the community and Northern California newspaper circles. The newspaper became a daily and updated its name to Daily Siskiyou News. Eight years later, in 1930, Moody sold it to the Siskiyou Publishing Company. The sale was for $18,000.
The newspaper changed hands in 1932. C. H. Ling of the Burbank Review took it over from the Siskiyou Publishing Company, whose leadership included James Lovejoy as president, R. R. Anderson as vice president, Don Avery as editor and Roy Avery as advertising manager. Don Avery in the 1950s was elected a Siskiyou County supervisor and stayed in office for 16 years.
The next decade would bring change. The Yreka Journal and the Siskiyou News, each semi-weeklies competing for news for more than half a century, merged in 1941 to create the Siskiyou Daily News and become the only daily publication in the county. The Yreka Journal continued to be issued as a weekly edition for readers in remote parts of Siskiyou County. Walter B. Stafford, who previously was the publisher of the Daily Ledger in Antioch, became the editor.
Over the next several decades, the newspaper went through ownership changes.
The Siskiyou Daily News eventually was acquired by Gatehouse Media in the mid-2000s. The newspaper, along with several other California papers, became part of Gannett’s USA TODAY Network following a merger in 2019 of the two newspaper chains.
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This article originally appeared on Siskiyou Daily News: About the Siskiyou Daily News; its roots in Scott Valley, then Yreka
Reporting by Siskiyou Daily News | siskiyoudailynews.com / Siskiyou Daily News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
