2l6 HISTORY OF PASADENA. 



This was the first daily ever published in Pasadena ; * but after Fair 

 week the Union Junior dropped down to a semi-weekly instead of a daily 

 issue. 



June 25, 1886, a practical printer named Athel B. Bennett became a 

 partner, and the paper once more had a three-headed firm to devour its 

 revenues. On August 6, they issued a great commercial and industrial 

 edition of eight pages — a sort of "boom " sheet. 



September i, 1886, J. E. Clarke bought Gardner out, so the firm was 

 now Clarke & Bennett. They suspended the Unio7i Junior, but on Sep- 

 tember 26 they enlarged the weekly, making it nine columns instead of 

 eight to the page. Bennett soon retired, and Clarke became sole proprietor. 



The next move was to form a stock company, which was accomplished, 

 and the "Union Publishing Co." was incorporated June 16, 1887, the in- 

 corporators being P. M. Green, J. E. Clarke, J. E. Howard, R. M. Furlong, 

 W. U. Masters, J. W. Wood, and Bayard T. Smith. The business flourished 

 and went on well until the real estate boom collapsed ; then every kind of 

 business fell into a sort of sickly decline. Clarke and Howard sold their 

 stock to Dr. John McCoy ; and in April, 1887, he became its editor. Its 

 decline was now more rapid, and bankruptcy both in business and prestige 

 soon followed. The Publishing Company made assignment to J. W. Wood, 

 who became manager and editor. f Mr. Wood is a man of grit and pluck; 

 and he held his grip and kept the paper going for nearly a year longer, in spite 

 of very embarrassing adverse conditions. The owners of the plant were 

 now J. W. Wood, W. U. Masters and R. M. Furlong, the two latter being 

 leading democrats, while Mr. Wood, the editor, was a republican. The 

 Union's business and good will were finally sold August 31, 1888, to the 

 Daily Star ; but the plant, which was leased to the v^eekXy Joiir?ial during 

 its short struggle for existence without survival as the fittest, was at last 

 sold off" in detached lots as opportunity ofi"ered. And Mr. Wood writes 

 pathetically : ' ' The poor Union died of too much ' management ; ' but it 

 was on an expense-paying basis when I sold it to the Star.'' 



The Pasadena Star. — This paper was first issued on Wednesdaj^ Feb- 

 ruary 9, 1887, as a weekly, 8-column folio, edited and published by H. J. Vail. 

 Mr. Vail had formerly published a paper called the Star a.t New Sharon, Iowa, 

 and thus brought the name here. On August 1 8 of the same year it was en- 

 larged to g-column folio. Next, in October it was changed to octavo form, and 

 has retained that form ever since. The paper was professedly Republican in 

 politics, but it was also pro-liquor, — for the editor in a lengthy editorial 



*" The Pasadena S/ar says it was the first daily of Pasadena. Not so : The Union was the first, as 

 the writer hereof has painful occasion to remember, having been ass enough to start it himself." — Easi 

 Los Angeles Exponent (Chas. A. Gardner then itseditori. — Seplemher /V, iSSg. 



" Correct ; and the writer hereof did .some pencil pushing for that first Daily Union, but kept at 

 a safe distance from the heels of the ' ass !" — Pasadena Standard, September zi, iSS^. 



tj. W. Wood, the druggist, is now editor of the Daily Union. Don't know if there is fire enough 

 in that Wood to give more light than the evening Star. — Pasadena Standard, February 2, i88<). 



