William A. Katz

“ Although Dryer's control of The Columbian appears to have been one of the best kept secrets in early frontier journalism there were at least twenty men, in addition to Wiley and McElroy, who knew the true owner to be Dryer. On July 8, 1852, they had given, or pledged to give Alonzo M. Poe, early northern Oregon settler and friend of Dryer, close to $500 for "establishing a newspaper at some prominent point on Puget Sound, [the paper] to be called the Columbian . . . to be neutral in politics and religion, and devoted to the interests of northern Oregon." ”

“ I am completely wore out by constant attention to business . . . [and] for the last three or four months I have had to be editor, publisher, compositor, devil and all hands be sides handling' the financial affairs to attend to which is about three men's work. [12]
Years later Henry Pittock, who would purchase the Oregonian from Dryer in 1860, noted Dryer was "entirely indifferent to income and outgo" [13] and an extremely poor hand at business. Obviously had it not been for McElroy, The Columbian would have gone under—not only financially but physically. ”

“ The people of Oregon, north or south of the Columbia River, should not be distracted by partisan politics. Second, by mid-I 853 when Dryer began pressing home the battle against the Democrats, he determined to sell The Columbian. A Democratic administration in Washington, D.C. prepared to send good Democrats out to govern newly-created Washing ton Territory and employee difficulties on the newspaper convinced him that at least in the case of the Olympia paper the best course to follow was neutrality. ”