The weekly Ashland Tidings was the first newspaper published in Ashland, Ore., its first edition dated June 17, 1876. The present-day newspaper’s website says it was a time when “Ashland had about 500 people but neither church (n)or saloon.” The website quotes the first-editor, James M. Sutton, as writing, “whiskey is sold by the bottle and preaching is done in the schoolhouse; and therefore, the people are generally happy.”
Promised the first copy, which he never got, Welborn Beeson of Talent hauled a Washington hand-press from Roseburg to print the Tidings’ first edition.
A new editor-publisher, Bert R. Greer, began daily publication in 1912 and promoted turning Ashland into a mineral water resort town. The newspaper website states, “Ashland voters approved a $175,000 bond in 1914 to fund transporting the (lithia) sulfur water to several fountains in town and Lithia Park, but the resort concept never really took off — despite the bond campaign’s slogan, ‘Ashland grows while Lithia flows.’ ”
The newspaper has had a series of owners and editors through the years. Rosebud Media purchased the Tidings and Medford Mail Tribune in 2017.
Sources: Turnbull, George S. History of Oregon Newspapers. Portland, Ore., Binfords & Mort, Publishers, 1939, pp. 260-61; "About Us: ." Ashland Tidings, Rosebud Media, 2019, ashlandtidings.com/station/about-ashland-tidings. Accessed 15 May 2019.