Idaho County Free Press (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-Current
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
2,012 issues from 1886 to 1924, published in Grangeville, Idaho, digitised for Chronicling America.
Aaron F. Parker began publishing the Idaho County Free Press in June 1886, in Grangeville, Idaho. He had previously been a newspaper man in Lewiston, the former territorial capital of Idaho. Before Idaho achieved statehood in 1890, many residents of Northern Idaho had wanted the region to be annexed by Washington State rather than remain united with Southern Idaho. Parker opposed annexation by Washington, an unpopular position in Lewiston at the time, so he moved to Grangeville and began carrying out his anti-annexation campaign in the columns of the Free Press. The motto underneath the paper’s masthead was “Montani Semper Liberi,” or “mountaineers are always free.”
The Free Press supported the development of Idaho County, including the opening of reservation lands for white settlement, the expansion of railroads, and the upkeep of wagon roads to connect Northern and Southern Idaho. It promoted agriculture, stock-raising, and mining, described as “the three great industries of the county.” For many years, mining dominated Grangeville, but as the mines were exhausted, men turned their attention to raising stock and, gradually, to agriculture. The pages of the Free Press documented this shift.
Parker’s Free Press was independent in politics and described itself as having “the freedom and impartiality of independent criticism.” The paper was published weekly and consisted of six to eight pages with six columns. It included news of surrounding Idaho County, Montana, and…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Grangeville, Idaho, 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