The Billings Gazette (Billings, Mont.)
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
1,059 issues from 1899 to 1909, published in Billings, Montana, digitised for Chronicling America.
On May 2, 1885, the inaugural edition of the Billings Daily Gazette appeared, created from the remains of three earlier newspapers–the Billings Post, the Billings Herald,and the Billings Rustler. The first edition emerged dramatically along with a fire that destroyed part of the building and a printing press; the owners did salvage a small job press which allowed the paper to survive and eventually prosper.
The Billings Gazette, a four-page, five-column semi-weekly newspaper, published regular reports on the progress, schedules, and routes of the Northern Pacific Railroad, which early on provided the impetus for the creation of Billings, the town named for Fredrick Billings, an early president of the transcontinental railroad. The first issues of the Gazette also reported on developments in Yellowstone National Park and the establishment of highway from Billings to Cooke City. Considering the newspaper’s dramatic beginnings, a May 9, 1885 editorial called for creation of a local fire department.
One of the Gazette’s early editors, John D. Matheson, came to Billings from Milton, Ontario, in 1882 to purchase and operate the Billings Post, where he remained until 1887 when he became editor of the Gazette. Matheson parlayed his experience as an editor and mayor of an Ontario town into positions in Billings as a probate judge, newspaperman, and real estate and insurance salesman.
From the beginning, the Gazette tilted towards the Republicans and supported the Anaconda…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Billings, 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