The Western News (Libby, Mont.) 1933-Current
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
864 issues from 1933 to 1949, published in Libby, Montana, digitised for Chronicling America.
The Western News was first published on July 17, 1902, in Libby, Montana. The paper was established by Frank M. Leonard and Leo H. Faust. In 1909, E.A. Southwick, the former publisher of The Whitefish Pilot, bought a half interest in the News. He and Faust continued together until Faust sold out to Southwick in 1912. Southwick sold the News to journalist and politician Col. J.M. Kennedy in 1913. He hired John P. Kelly to edit the paper. On March 18, 1915, the paper announced that “the Western News becomes an eight-page, home-print newspaper. Every line of type appearing in this issue has been set in our plant and deals with local conditions.” Over the next few years, C.A. Griffin and James E. Stevens would hold the position of editor. In September 1916, Griffin and partner Irwine purchased the News from Kennedy. The masthead read “Western Montana Publishing Company” and listed Griffin as both manager and editor. Hand-set type was standard until 1917, when Griffin brought the first Linotype machine to Libby. In June of 1920, the News merged with J.T. Farris’s The Libby Times. As a result, the paper’s title changed to Western News and Libby Times. Charles D. Rowe bought controlling interest in the Western Montana Publishing Co. in 1923.
Contents in the 1940s included news for Libby, Eureka, and Troy, as well as a humor column and “With Our Men in the Service,” which provided updates on locals in the service. The local high school published its own column as a pseudo-paper,…
- Genres
- Westerns, News
- Published in
- Libby, Montana, United States
- Language
- English
- Collection
- Chronicling America
- Licence or status
- None stated by the archive
- Rights
- The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety.
- Credit
- Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities
- Who can read it
- Teens profiles and older (placed by Invisible Network from what the archive says; archives give no ratings)
- Archive
- Library of Congress