Beginnings The
Chehalis Bee, originally known as the
Lewis County Bee, was published from 1884 into November 1898. The first issue of the
Lewis County Bee was printed and circulated on June 6, 1884. Editions varied between
dailies and
weeklies, often in morning editions. An annual subscription cost $1.50. The
Lewis County Bee began under the proprietorship of G.M. Bull and William W. Francis. Bull left the paper later that year; a professor, John T. Forrest became a part-owner in April 1886, assuming full-ownership in August. The
Lewis County Bee officially changed its moniker to the
Chehalis Bee in April 1888 after Forrest sold the newspaper to W.E. Shater and W.H. Snyder. The
Bee changed hands frequently afterwards, with the company sold in October 1888 to Frank Mortison and Frank H. Owens, a newspaperman who owned the
Winlock Pilot and by the mid-1890s became editor of the
Coast Advocate, a "not a large one" newspaper published in
Half Moon Bay, California. Owens was described by
The San Francisco Call as turning the
Bee into the "leading country newspaper in
Western Washington".
Bush family ownership Judd C. Bush, an Illinois native who arrived in Chehalis in 1888, purchased Mortison's investment in the
Bee in August 1889 and Owen's ownership later that November. He had previously been a proprietor of other newspapers, including the
Sydney Telegraph located in
Sidney, Nebraska. Bush was not an active owner for long, retiring from day-to-day oversight due to "ill health" in March 1890; his brother,
Dan W. Bush began management of the
Chehalis Bee, serving as editor. He became the outright owner of the
Bee in 1891. A July 1885 edition, in celebrating
Independence Day, contained blue ink typesetting on the second page, with red ink used on the third page. The July 4, 1888
Chehalis Bee issue was printed entirely in blue and red ink; the printer's efforts were noted by the
Seattle Times to be "not less credibly" more than the usual efforts of the ''Bee's'' editor. A similar colored edition was issued in November 1896 during the
1896 United States presidential election. The blue ink was described as matching the disappointed feelings of Republican voters in the state.
Publication ceases The
Chehalis Nugget merged with the
Chehalis Bee in 1898 to become
The Chehalis Bee-Nugget; Dan Bush remained the owner of the new publication. The managing editor of the
Nugget was reported to have sent a "graceful" letter to their competitor, the
Bee, "taking his medicine" after the sale. The transaction was officially completed on November 28, 1898, for a price of $2,400, , which included all
Nugget holdings and machinery. Judd Bush became the editor of the
Chehalis Bee-Nugget. Early issues of the
Bee had been stored for preservation in the basement of the
Temple of Justice in
Olympia. A collection of the
Chehalis Bee, along with other publications printed before 1900, was reported by 1951 to be near a state of permanent loss. The newspapers had begun to rot and
microfilming of the collection had either not been undertaken or was found to be lacking. ==Recognition and criticism==