In 1915, veteran journalist James Irving Crabbe (1845-1922) saw a new opportunity. He’d been living in Montavilla for about a year on NE 74th and had a chance to engage with a community bent on improvement. Through group effort, Montavillans had gained a stable water supply and a local fire station. Most streets had been graded—if not paved—and most had concrete sidewalks. Neighborhood organizations were agitating for more improvements, like better streetcar service and paving major east-west roads, Barr (now Halsey), Stark and Glisan. Montavilla’s population was growing and thriving. In fact, The Oregonian deemed it one of Portland’s most prosperous suburbs on the east side in its March 15, 1914 edition.
Montavilla boosters’ most recent victory—after years of agitation—was extending the city sewer system within Montavilla. To celebrate, the Montavilla Board of Trade hosted a victory celebration at the Montavilla School on February 19, 1915. Crabbe was a member of the Board by then, helped plan the event, and was one of the speakers, along with Portland mayor H. Russell Albee. Crabbe spoke on the value of community cooperation.
Five weeks after the victory celebration, Crabbe launched The Montavilla Sun weekly newspaper. It was no doubt appreciated by many Montavillans since Montavilla had been without substantial local news coverage since the folding of The Beaver State Herald in 1914. That newspaper had its office in Montavilla and its printing plant in Gresham. It focused on east-side news.
The Montavilla Sun’s publisher was a seasoned journalist. Born in Britain in 1845, Crabbe began his long newspaper career soon after he emigrated to the U.S. in 1871. By the time he moved from St. Louis to Portland in 1911, Crabbe could claim a 40-year career in the newspaper business. He had worked for several newspapers in the Midwest and South as a reporter, editor, and publisher.
After arriving in Portland, he published The Portland Realty Index for the Portland Realty Board. At the same time, he was also practicing his second vocation: illustrated public lectures. He had been speaking on a variety of topics for as long as he had worked in the newspaper trade. One popular topic was Burma and Buddhism.
Crabbe had learned about Buddhism directly from Buddhist monks when, as a young man, he worked for the British Colonial Service in Burma during the 1860s. From 1871 on, he gave many lectures on Buddhism, Burma, India, as well as several other topics in numerous American cities, including downtown Portland and Montavilla. He planned—and presumably gave—a slide-illustrated lecture on India in Montavilla at Grebel’s Hall on Stark Street on June 5, 1915. His talk on India would include Buddhism, according to his May 28. In an interview with an Oregon Journal reporter, Crabbe said he considered himself a Christian Buddhist.
The Montavilla Sun was a four-page weekly. Subscriptions cost five cents an issue.
It went to press Thursday at noon and was mailed to subscribers that evening for delivery on Friday. Besides subscription sales, revenue came from advertising, which appeared on every page. Ads cost businesses ten cents a line. Workers could run four or five lines for free. Advertising copy had to be delivered either to the Fowler drug store on Glisan or the Dickson drug store on Stark.
On page one of the first issue of The Montavilla Sun, Crabbe includes a poem by his purported ancestor, the British poet George Crabbe (1754-1832). Called “The Newspaper,” the poem could almost describe the typical content of The Montavilla Sun, which featured things great and small.
Did George Crabbe’s poetic reference to the sun inspire the name of this new Montavilla newspaper? Perhaps. But this was also a common newspaper name, including the famous ones published in London and New York.
The Montavilla Sun had something for every reader, even children. There was local news: what was happening at local schools, associations, churches, the library, and sports, to name a few. Crabbe reported on important local initiatives, such as street improvements. He also recommended new Montavilla projects, such as a park and swimming pool. (Unfortunately, Montavilla would have to wait six more years for a park and 15 more years for a pool.) And in the June 18th edition, he noted that while the east side of 80th Street was getting a new sidewalk, the wooden sidewalk on the west side was still in “a shameful condition.”
Besides news and advocacy, The Montavilla Sun included personal news tidbits and entertaining features–such as his humorous advice column “Letters to Miss Fatima Pink” —as well as jokes for “the kiddies.”
News coverage routinely covered what was happening with Montavilla organizations, local churches, and sports. Six churches were covered: Hope Presbyterian, Grace Baptist, Montavilla Episcopalian-Methodist, Seventh Day Adventist, Ascension Catholic Church, the Reorganized Latter-Day Saints, and the Christian Church.
For incidental news—sometimes mixed with promotions or ads—the Sun reader could turn to the “Local and Personal” column on page four. Crabbe sometimes slipped in a few personal reports and ads disguised as personal reports.
The Montavilla Sun also included features purely for entertainment–poems, short stories, jokes, etc. A regular column, “Letters to Miss Fatima Pink,” offered humorous advice to the lovelorn.
Crabbe may have adopted the name “Fatima” from a brand of Turkish cigarettes popular in the early 20th century. Crabbe, a self-proclaimed lifelong smoker, published a book on the topic in 1920, where he promoted the health benefits of tobacco.
“The Montavilla Sun” printed a regular column just for children.
The Montavilla Sun published features on health and beauty:
If news and regular features were in short supply, Crabbe had plenty of “fillers” —games, poems, educational trivia, puzzles, and images—to fill the gaps.
The latest issue of The Montavilla Sun on the University of Oregon Knight Library’s microfilm is the June 18, 1915 edition. But was this the final edition? The issue contains no announcement of discontinuation, no farewell editorial—although there is a tirade against capitalists who refused to invest in local enterprises. In this issue, Crabbe was still soliciting advertising and subscriptions. He was still asking people to submit news items by Wednesday morning. So perhaps The Montavilla Sun endured a little longer.
Whenever The Montavilla Sun ceased publication—and for whatever reason—by early 1916 Crabbe had moved from Montavilla to the Sellwood neighborhood. But this was not to retire. If anything, he seemed busier than ever.
Crabbe’s June 18 editorial may suggest a change in direction for Crabbe. He continued to be a journalist, but now for labor-oriented publications. Polk’s 1918 Portland city directory lists him as associate editor of The Mediator, a labor magazine. In 1918, this publication was involved in a controversy over an article—not by Crabbe—that was condemned as pro-Prussian and banned by the Portland public library board. Also labor-related, in 1918, Crabbe compiled and edited a book titled Shipbuilders’ Dictionary and Sailors’ Wordbook. The United Metal Trades Association published it to assist young shipyard workers. Unrelated, but continuing his advocacy of tobacco for purported health benefits, his book Tobacconalia was published in 1920.
Besides continuing to write, Crabbe also continued to lecture. And he continued another long avocation: musical performance. A singer and pianist himself, he had been active in choral groups long before coming to Portland. In 1902, for example, he was the business manager of the St. Paul Choral Club. In 1905, he tried to create a national choir organization, and he compiled a songbook called Famous Ballads and Good Old Songs. In Portland, he became the secretary-treasurer of the new National Choral League.
This man of boundless energy and many talents died in Portland on August 9, 1922, of arteriosclerosis. You might suspect tobacco use was to blame. If so, at age 76 he surpassed the 1922 average life expectancy for American males, 58.4 years.
“The Montavilla Sun” is on microfilm at the University of Oregon’s Knight Library.
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This is part of Montavilla History Questions Answered, a series of history related articles. If you have questions about Montavilla’s past that you’d like answered, local historian Patricia Sanders will investigate your question. Please email your questions to history@montavilla.net and we may feature it alongside Patricia Sanders’ research in a future.