Many small towns in Northern California and Southern Oregon had their own newspapers, but few had an editor as colorful as Catherine Terry, a Baltimore typesetter who bought the Merrill Weekly Record in Klamath County in 1909.
Terry agreed to pay $700 for the Record, with a down payment of only $10. She surprised the town by retiring the entire debt within four months.
Terry demonstrated her ingenuity in 1910 by participating in the Independence Day parade in nearby Klamath Falls with her printing press loaded on a horse-drawn wagon. She produced the weekly issue of her paper and handed out copies to spectators as the parade moved down Main Street.
She made news herself a few years later when she came to blows with a competitor named George Bradnack. She followed him to the Jewel Café on Main Street in Klamath Falls, and summoned him to step outside. During the altercation that followed, she removed her coat and pulled out a whip to make her point with Bradnack. She was arrested and fined $5 dollars by the town judge.
Terry remained in the newspaper business for some years, later working in Lakeview, Alturas and Sacramento.
Source: Klamath Echoes 7: 44-45. Print. Turnbull, George S. History of Oregon Newspapers. Portland, Ore.: Binford and Mort, 1939. 148. Print. Surprise Valley Record 15 Mar. 1922 and 12 June 12, 1929 [Cedarville, Cal.]. Print.