Beriah Brown and the Puget Sound Dispatch
From the desk of Judy Pitchford
The Puget Sound Dispatch, published in Seattle from 1871 to 1880, has been added to the Washington State Library’s Historic Washington Newspapers Online.
Published Weekly from 1871 to 1880, the newspaper was launched by Beriah Brown and Charles H. Larrabee in December 1871. Brown, who also ser
ved for one term as mayor of Seattle in 1878, was known to be a strongly opinionated editorialist. So much so, that it is sometimes hard to distinguish between his editorials and the articles he wrote about everyday local occurrences. Since the newspaper was published during what is sometimes called the “railroad period” in the Pacific Northwest, he had much to say about the railroads and their officials, a truly hot button issue of the day. But, as noted by an essay at Historylink.org, he also had strong words for a group of white parents complaining about “colored” children taking classes at the university. Brown wrote in the January 29, 1874 Puget Sound Dispatch that “Every child of African descent born in this country has the same right of access to our public schools as the children of the most privileged of Caucassian [sic] blood. No teacher or school officer has any more legal right to exclude one than the other”. He was opinionated and ahead of his time. Brown was also noted for composing his articles as he set them in type, rather than first writing them down on paper. Financial difficulties forced Brown to sell the paper and it was merged with the Daily Intelligencer, which later became the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
The Historic Washington Newspapers Online project was purposely designed for students, genealogists, and historians to easily access historical information. It provides viewers with the ability to search by keywords, dates, subjects, and personal names. To view the newspapers, please visit www.sos.wa.gov/history/newspapers.aspx.
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