William Thompson (journalist)

Col. William Thompson (1846–1934[1]) was an American-Indian fighter and journalist, the editor of multiple newspapers in Oregon and California, having his longest run with the Alturas Plaindealer.

[2] In 1871, he was involved in a shootout with Henry R. Gale, the editor of a rival newspaper in Roseburg; he sustained severe injuries but survived while his opponent did not.

I felt the muzzle of the revolver pressed against my ear, and throwing up my head the bullet entered my neck and passed up through my mouth and tongue and lodged back of my left eye.

In 1872 Thompson sold the Roseburg Plaindealer for $4000 and took up control of the Salem Mercury, about which he wrote: "My success there as a newspaper man was all that could be desired.

"[2] His final stint in the newspaper business was with the Alturas Plaindealer, where he worked for twenty years, selling his stake in 1915 to R. A. French, his partner.

[4] In 1912 he published his autobiography, Reminiscences of a Pioneer, which concluded:[2] The events here recorded were seen with my own eyes, or were received from the lips of the actors therein.

And yet, as I look back over the past, I must be excused for a feeling of pride in having been a part, however insignificant, in the building here on the western rim of the continent, of the mighty Empire of the Pacific.

To have seen proud cities rear their heads from a wilderness—from a cluster of log huts in a primeval forest—whose everlasting stillness was alone broken by the yells of savage men, the long howl of the wolf and the scream of the panther—is something to have lived for.