“When the newspaper the Daily Court and Commercial Index opened on May 1, 1890, Tacoma was a city of incredible activity – stump-filled lots and rough mud roads leading haphazardly to opportunity.After all, the railroad came here, steam and sailing ships came to Tacoma, the forests were thick with virgin timber, Washington had just become a state, and Citizen Train had coined the slogan synonymous with Tacoma even today – referring to it as the City of Destiny.The Daily Court and Commercial Index, later changing its name to be simply the Tacoma Daily Index, took its place as A Live Business Newspaper, publishing legal notices at reasonable rates, something the paper continues to do today.With it’s contents including calls for bids; court, permit and other public records; contractor listings; and advertisements, in some ways the Index of the 1890s wasn’t that different from the Index of today.The concepts of a web site, e-mailed legal notices, and computerized production of the newspaper in the year 2000, however, might have been relegated to the realm of one of Jules Verne’s fantastic novels by R.B. Whitaker, first publisher of the Index.Still, the mission of the Index remains essentially unchanged 110 years later – to deliver timely information useful to those in business and commerce. We hope our readers continue to find the Index – and its accompanying web site – useful, well into the 21st century.”
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