| Calvin Cobb |
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After falling in love with the city, Cobb negotiated in May, 1889, to buy the Idaho Statesman Newspaper with Joseph Perrault and R. Willman. Later, Cobb and his brother-in-law, Jack Lyon, gained Controlling Interest of the Statesman. Cobb worked actively in the newspaper business. He served a term as vice-president of the Associated Press . Cobb became involved in national events and politics, as well as local ones. In 1896 he directed a campaign in the Idaho Statesman against “ Free Silver .” He was a friend of Senator William Borah (until Borah ran on William Jennings Bryan’s “silver” ticket), and of presidents William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt (until Roosevelt split from the Republican Party , prompting Cobb’s famous 1912 editorial--”Teddy, you stink”). In answering a 1928 questionnaire about the newspaper’s support of civic movements, Cobb commented: “Sorry to say we supported Woman’s Suffrage and Direct Primary . Our best work was in getting Telegraph , Telephone and Railroad s into Boise, and finally the main line. We opposed free silver and had a hell of a time for six months. The Statesman started as a Republican paper and the vote here was usually 7,000 Democrats to 400 or 500 Republicans.” Cobb married Fanny Howes Lyon of Chicago on February 7, 1878. They had two children: Lyon (died in 1921) and Margaret Cobb Ailshie (later Mrs. James F. Ailshie, Jr., and successor to Cobb as Statesman Publisher ). Mrs. Cobb died October 11 , 1917 . Calvin Cobb died November 7 , 1928 , in Boise. |
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