Robert E. Lockwood

On December 18, 1890, Robert E. Lockwood published the first issue of the Weiser Signal newspaper.

Lockwood was born in southwestern Oregon, near the California border, in 1858. The family later moved to east-central Oregon, where Robert learned the printer’s trade. In 1878, he found work on the railroad in eastern Idaho. It then seems likely that he moved on with the Oregon Short Line as it laid track west, toward Weiser and the Oregon border.

Meanwhile, in 1882, Weiser’s first newspaper, the Weiser Leader, began publication. It was founded by two partners, one with considerable newspaper experience, the other with none. The Leader was very much a “shoestring” operation and made little in the way of profits. Thus, it passed through a succession of owners through most of a decade.

At some point, Lockwood went to work at the Leader for awhile. He then took a job in Caldwell for three months before returning to Weiser to begin publication of the Signal. The newspaper did very well. In September 1891, Lockwood bought the Leader and combined it with the Signal.

Although Lockwood did not retain the Leader name, the purchase established a publishing lineage back to Weiser’s earliest days. The Illustrated History considered the Signal to be “one of the best [newspapers] in southwestern Idaho.” For several years after 1893, Lockwood also served as an officer of the Idaho Press Association.

From Weiser Signal-American