Portland Bee
{{for|the Portland-based newspaper founded in 1906 and still publishing|Sellwood Bee}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2025}}
{{Infobox newspaper
| name = Portland Bee
| image =
| caption =
| type = Daily, Weekly
| format = Broadsheet
| foundation = November 1875
| ceased publication = 1882
| owners = Doran H. "Don" Stearns (founder) (1875-1879/1880)
W.S. Chapman (briefly)
C.L. Packard (1879-1882)
Atkinson & Farrish (1880-1882)
| publisher =
| editor = James K. Mercer (1875-1878)
Catherine A. Coburn (1879-1880)
| language =
| political = Republican
| circulation = 1,000
| headquarters = Portland, Oregon, United States
| oclc =
| ISSN =
| website =
}}
The Portland Bee was a Republican{{cite news |title=An Old Friend |work=The Corvallis Weekly Gazette|date=February 20, 1880 |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84022650/1880-02-20/ed-1/seq-3/#date1=1871&index=6&rows=20&words=Bee+Daily&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=Oregon&date2=1883&proxtext=%22Daily+Bee%22&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=2 }} newspaper in Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon in the late 19th century. It was launched in November 1875, the same year as the Portland Daily Bulletin disincorporated;{{cite book | first=George S. |last=Turnbull |title=History of Oregon Newspapers | publisher=Binfords and Mort |year=1939 |section=The Bulletin and the Bee |title-link=s:en:History of Oregon Newspapers }} like the Bulletin, it had both daily{{Cite news | url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84022668/ |oclc= 10527729 | title=The daily bee| work=National Endowment for the Humanities}} and weekly{{Cite news | url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84022669/ |oclc= 10527776 | title=The Weekly bee. [volume]|work=National Endowment for the Humanities}} editions. It initially had two daily editions, and circulated 1,000 free copies.
Though fairly short-lived, the paper has been described as "a journal of force and influence in its time."{{cite book |title=Equal to the Occasion: Women Editors of the Nineteenth-Century West |first=Sherilyn Cox |last=Bennion |url=https://archive.org/details/equaltooccasionw0000benn |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/equaltooccasionw0000benn/page/142 142] |year=1990 |publisher=University of Nevada Press |isbn=978-0874173840 |location=Reno, Nev. |oclc=45731454 }} It was quoted, and its contents syndicated, in numerous contemporary newspapers in its region,[https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn99063955/1898-03-07/ed-1/seq-1/#index=4&rows=20&proxtext=%22Daily+Bee%22&searchType=basic&sequence=0&words=Bee+Daily&page=1 Daily Capital Journal, 1878][https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn85042403/1879-11-15/ed-1/seq-1/#index=17&rows=20&proxtext=%22Daily+Bee%22&searchType=basic&sequence=0&words=Bee+Daily&page=1 Think link] and [https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn85042403/1880-02-28/ed-1/seq-1/#index=19&rows=20&proxtext=%22Daily+Bee%22&searchType=basic&sequence=0&words=Bee+Daily&page=1 Grant County News, 1879][https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84022650/1879-01-03/ed-1/seq-2/#date1=1872&index=8&rows=20&words=Bee+Daily&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=Oregon&date2=1883&proxtext=%22Daily+Bee%22&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1 this link] and [https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84022650/1879-04-11/ed-1/seq-3/#date1=1872&index=16&rows=20&words=Bee+Daily&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=Oregon&date2=1883&proxtext=%22Daily+Bee%22&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1 Corvallis Gazette] and contemporary papers also published general praise for the Bee.[https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84022643/1876-01-21/ed-1/seq-3/#date1=1872&index=13&rows=20&words=Bee+daily+Daily&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=Oregon&date2=1883&proxtext=%22Daily+Bee%22&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1 Albany Register, 1876][https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn96061149/1877-10-05/ed-1/seq-1/#date1=1871&index=0&rows=20&words=Bee+Daily&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=Oregon&date2=1883&proxtext=%22Daily+Bee%22&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=2 Daily Astorian, 1877]
Several of the many owners, publishers, and editors it had during its short tenure were family relations of the editors of other major newspapers of the time, the Oregonian and the New Northwest. Shortly after the paper launched, and after its first ownership transfer, editor James K. Mercer killed the editor of the rival Portland Telegram in a duel. D. H. Stearns, the paper's founder, repurchased the Bee following the scandal, and emphasized the change in leadership in advertisements in newspapers around the state. Following another ownership change, the Bee was renamed the Bulletin in August 1880{{Cite journal | url=https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn85042403/1880-08-28/ed-1/seq-3/#index=11&rows=20&proxtext=%22Daily+Bee%22&searchType=basic&sequence=0&words=Bee+Daily&page=1 | title=Grant County news. (Canyon City, Or.) 1879-1908, August 28, 1880, Image 3| date=1880-08-28| journal=University of Oregon Library}} and discontinued in 1882.
The Oregon Historical Society acquired archival copies of the Bee upon its incorporation in 1898.{{Cite book | url=https://archive.org/stream/proceedings00oreguoft#page/n3/search/Bee |title = Proceedings of the Oregon Historical Society|location = Salem|date = June 1901}}
Leadership
File:Portland Bee advertisement, December 1878.png, in several editions in December 1878.]]
Bee founder Doran H. "Don" Stearns had a background in journalism in his native Nebraska,{{Cite web | url=http://history.columbian.com/stearns/ |title = Doran H. Stearns – Clark County: A history}} and married into a prominent news family in Portland in the same year he started the Bee: his wife, Clara Belle Duniway, was the only daughter of New Northwest founder Abigail Scott Duniway, and niece of longtime The Oregonian editor Harvey W. Scott.{{Cite web | url=https://library.uoregon.edu/ec/exhibits/feminist-voices/cbdunwy.html |title = Feminist Voices & Visions: Clara Belle Duniway (1854–1886)}}Portland, Oregon: Its History and Builders/Volume 3/John Tucker Scott Alfred Holman, later an editor of the Oregonian, started his newspaper career at the Bee in 1876.{{cite journal |volume=17 |number=2 |date=June 1916 |title=Extracts from the Unpublished Reminiscences of H. R. Kincaid |journal=Oregon Historical Quarterly }}
In 1878, Bee editor James K. Mercer engaged in an ongoing war of words with A. C. MacDonald of the Portland Telegram, through the columns of both papers. The conflict escalated to a duel, with Mercer fatally shooting MacDonald in 1878.{{cite news |title=Fearful Tragedy |date=September 28, 1878 |work=The Douglas Independent |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn93051662/1878-09-28/ed-1/seq-3/#date1=1872&index=12&rows=20&words=Bee+Daily&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=Oregon&date2=1883&proxtext=%22Daily+Bee%22&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1 }} Mercer was indicted for first degree murder{{cite news |title=Trial of J. K. Mercer |work=The Oregonian |date=December 20, 1878}} and went to prison for 15 years.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WQVZcvArJRUC&q=Portland+Bee&pg=PA138 |page=138 |title=Oregon, End of the Trail |year=1940 |isbn=978-1-62376-036-6|last1=On |first1=Best Books }} Detailed witness testimony from the ensuing murder trial was published in the Oregonian.{{cite news |title=The Preliminary Trial of J. K. Mercer for the Murder of A. C. MacDonald – Second Day: Forenoon |work=The Oregonian |date=September 23, 1878 |url=https://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/image/v2%3A11A73E5827618330%40EANX-NB-12349B13CF34B728%402407251-122FAC27F1642E28%402-12D4BC75AF796D58%40The%2BPreliminary%2BTrial%2BOf%2BJ.%2BK.%2BMercer%2BFor%2BThe%2BMurder%2BOf%2BA.%2BC.%2BMacDonald?p=AMNEWS }}
W. S. Chapman, a Portland city surveyor and son of Oregonian founder William W. Chapman, bought the paper from Stearns, but later sold it back to him. He was the owner and editor at the time of Mercer's altercation with McDonald. A contemporaneous article in the Oregonian about McDonald's death described the Bee as a "deadly stench to all decent people who come in contact with it."{{cite news | title=A Shocking Conspiracy |work=The Oregonian |date=September 26, 1878 |url=https://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/image/v2%3A11A73E5827618330%40EANX-NB-12349B18E70E42B0%402407254-122FAC281B863BF0%401-12D4BC856CB9B118%40A%2BShocking%2BConspiracy?p=AMNEWS }}{{cite book |title=Portland, Oregon: Its History and Builders | first=Joseph |last=Gaston |section=Winfield S. Chapman |volume=3 |year=1911 | title-link=wikisource:en:Portland, Oregon: Its History and Builders }}
Upon his return to the Bee, Stearns hired his wife's aunt, Catherine Amanda Coburn, who edited the paper from 1879 to 1880. Coburn had previously worked for her sister's paper, the New Northwest.The Souvenir of Western Women/Mrs. Catherine A. Coburn Upon her hire at the Bee, Coburn became one of the few 19th century women editors of a daily newspaper in the western United States. She soon moved on to the Oregonian. The paper also got a new printing press in 1879.{{Cite news |url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84022673/1879-07-10/ed-1/seq-3/ |title=Home News |date=1879-07-10 |work=The new Northwest |access-date=2018-07-24 |issn=2166-2010}}
In February 1880, the Corvallis Weekly Gazette published glowing praise for the Bee and for owner Stearns.
Stearns sold half his interest in the Bee to C. L. Packard in 1879,As reflected in an advertisement published in the Oregonian: {{cite news |title=Advertisement |work=The Oregonian |date=May 10, 1879 |url=https://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/image/v2%3A11A73E5827618330%40EANX-NB-1233F3645EB71D08%402407480-1230577EEBD2B830%401-12D5D439B91BB0A0%40No%2BHeadline?p=AMNEWS }} and the remainder to Atkinson & Farrish in 1880.{{cite web |title=History of Early Portland Newspapers |date=April 12, 2013 |url=https://www.accessgenealogy.com/oregon/history-of-early-portland-newspapers.htm }} He went on to a successful career in real estate and fruit trees.{{cite book |title=Portland, Oregon: Its History and Builders | first=Joseph |last=Gaston |section=Chapter 23 |volume=1 |year=1911 | title-link=wikisource:en:Portland, Oregon: Its History and Builders }} The Bee was renamed the Bulletin in August 1880 and discontinued in 1882. It was the third Portland paper to carry the name "Bulletin"; Atkinson had launched the first, which lasted only a few months, more than a decade prior.