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Fred Lockley (March 19, 1871-October 15, 1958) was one of the most famous journalists in Oregon history. Known as "The Journal Man", Lockley was most famously known for his editorial column for the Oregon Journal. "Impressions and Observations of a Journal Man", which was read throughout the Western United States on a nearly daily basis, as well as his many books which, like his articles, were largely about his travels and interviews with early settlers in the Willamette Valley. It was said that he interviewed "bullwhackers, muleskinners, pioneers, prospectors, 49ers, Indian fighters, trappers, ex-barkeepers, authors, preachers, poets and near-poets". He would also interview Thomas Edison, Booker T. Washington, Ezra Meeker, Woodrow Wilson, Count Tolstoy, General Hugh Scott and Jack London.

Early Life

Fred Lockley was born in Leavenworth, Kansas to English immigrant, Civil War Veteran and newspaper editor Frederic Lockley and Elizabeth Campbell on March 19, 1871. The following year the family moved to Salt Lake City where along with business partners George F. Prescott and A. M. Hamilton, Frederic Lockley would buy and run the Salt Lake City Tribune, working for seven years as the managing editor. From there, the family would take a wagon west to Walla Walla, Washington, giving young Fred the first taste of the country he would later come to define. He would later say, "The odor of sagebrush today brings back vividly our evening campfires made of sagebrush, and the ever present coyotes with their mournful howl. Once more I can see the stagecoach sweep by with its four horses, traveling at full speed -- I can see too, the long lines of freight wagons and Indians. Here and there along the trail were the bleaching bones of oxen -- a grim reminder of the hardships of the Old Oregon Trail." One year Later the family would move to Butte, Montana where Frederic would become the first editor of the Butte Inter-Mountain. It was for the Inter-Mountain that young Fred Lockley would get his start in the newspaper business, as a carier for the paper.

After four years the family would move again though, to what is now Oklahoma. At the time however it was called the Cherokee Strip and the Lockley family lived on Ponca Reservation. While the family lived on the reservation, young Fred Lockley met Chief Joseph while the former chief of the Nez Perce was being held as a prisoner of war.

From Oklahoma the family would move to Albany, New York as Fredric Lockley toured the Eastern and Mid-Western United States as a lecturer. Fredric Lockley would soon leave the lecture circuit to return to the newspaper business, purchasing the Arkansas City Traveler. Here, young Fred would continue his education in what would become his profession, working as an office boy and type sorter for his father.

Career

In 1888 Fred Lockley moved to Salem, Oregon at the age of 17. Once in Salem, Fred was hired by the Capital Journal as compositor by W.H. Byars, the surveyor general of Oregon from 1890-1894. Before long Byars began devoting a greater amount of time to his surveying and less to the paper, promoting Lockley to the position of Business Manager and Editor for the paper. While in Oregon Fred Lockley entered into the Oregon Agricultural College, now Oregon State University, from 1889-1890, and would later recieve a degree in education from Willamette University in 1895.

For a year Lockley would work on a farm in Polk County, Oregon followed by work writing for the Salem Statesman and as Field Editor for Pacific Homestead. His working during this time would take him on horseback across the Pacific Northwest during which time he would sleep with the farmers, miners, hunters and pioneers whose paths he would cross and it was during these trips that Lockley began writing the articles on pioneer men and women that would later lead him to fame. Lockley would also work for the government in the following years, assisting in geological surveys in what has become known as Glacier National Park. He would then work as a carrier for the Salem Post Office and by the year 1900 Lockley had made his way to Nome, Alaska. In Nome Lockley found work both as a miner and continuing his calling, would work for the local newspaper, the Nome Nugget. While in Nome, with the help of Ben Taylor, who had also worked for the Salem Post Office, Lockley would provide for the first free mail delivery to Nome.

Upon the urging of his wife, Fred Lockley would move to Pendleton, Oregon, in 1901, where he would buy a 25% interest in the Daily East Oregonian. After four years though, Lockley would again find himself moving to another paper, this time to become general manager of the magazine Pacific Monthly, which would be merged with Sunset in 1911 when the magazine was bought by the Southern Pacific Railroad. When the magazines merged Fred Lockley would find himself once again at a new paper, this time his last, and the publication that would lead to his most lasting fame, the Oregon Journal, in Portland, Oregon.

It was while writing for the Oregon Journal that Lockley would begin his nearly daily column, "Thoughts and Observations of a Journal Man", or as it was shortened for his nickname, "The Journal Man". Aside from a short amount of time spent as war correspondent for the Oregon Journal, New York Herald, and the London Globe, during which time he would also build huts and dig trenches for the combined Allied forces, sometimes under heavy fire, while still managing to send home 347 articles about the World War I from inside the trenches.

While Lockley would continue to write for the Oregon Journal for several years, his output would slowly taper off over the years as he began to spend more of his time on his books and with his family. His books would include Oregon Folks, Oregon's Yesterdays, Oregon Trail Blazers, Across the Plains by Prairie Schooner, Vigilante Days in Virginia City, and Vigilante Days in Carson City.

Family and Death

On June 16, 1897 Fred Lockley would marry his first wife, Hope Gans. Years later he was quoted as saying "If ever a man had a loyal partner and a real helpmate, I had." It was Hope that would convince Fred to leave the government postal work and invest in the Daily East Oregonian. They would have three children, only one of which, Lawrence, would reach adulthood. The other two, Frederic Llewellyn and Hope, would both die in their youth, Hope at the age of five in Portland, Oregon. Lawrence Campbell Lockley would fight in World War I, graduate from the University of California, with a doctorate from Harvard. He would go on to teach at several colleges including the University of Southern California and Santa Clara University, where he would help found the business school.

In 1928, Hope Gans Lockley died and was buried in Portland, Oregon, next to their daughter, also named Hope. Two years later Lockley would marry Laura Simpson. Fred Lockley died October 15,1958. After Lockley's death Mike Helm, an Oregon native and author, would compile notes, essays and articles by Fred Lockley into several books including Conversations with Pioneer Men and Conversations with Pioneer Women. Collections by Fred Lockley can be found in universities across the country and are used to this day as a reference on Oregon history and pioneers of the Northwest.

On his life and work, Fred Lockley said, "I have interviewed pioneers and Indian war veterans, mule-skinners and bull-whackers, scouts and prospectors, archbishops and aviators, hoboes and world travelers, politicians, scientists, sourdoughs, criminals and underworld characters, and whether these human documents are bound in broadcloth or buckskin, calico or satin, I find they all have something worth while to tell me."