Farmers' Champion (Elgin, Okla.)
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
279 issues from 1912 to 1921, published in Fletcher, Oklahoma, digitised for Chronicling America.
The Farmers’ Champion appeared on November 14, 1912, in Elgin, Comanche County, Oklahoma, with the motto, “Free-Fearless-Progressive”. This was a fitting aphorism for the paper’s publisher, Jules Soule.
Soule was an experienced newspaperman with strong ties to the Farmer’s Alliance. Non-Indian farmers in the territory had organized the Oklahoma alliance in 1889, establishing cooperatives and its own newspaper, the Alliance Courier. Jules Soule published the paper in Ardmore, Indian Territory. The alliance cooperatives and newspaper soon failed due to poor management and lack of funds. Alliance members turned to politics in the form of the Populist Party.
Soule moved to Guthrie and began publishing the Home, Field, and Forum in 1893. The paper stated that it was the “Only agricultural journal devoted to the interests of the farmers and material resources of Oklahoma and the Indian Territory.” Soule ran a Progressive Farmer column in the editorial pages.
For reasons unknown, Soule moved his operation to Comanche County in 1910 and established the Indiahoma Champion. Soule stated in the Champion’s salutation, “We come free of all entanglements, political, business or otherwise.” The motto was “Free–Fearless–Independent.” On October 31, 1912, Soule published a farewell, hinting at being run out of town due to lack of support. Soule and his newspaper landed in Elgin.
By August of 1913, the Farmers’ Champion was suffering financial difficulties. In order to keep the paper in…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Fletcher, Oklahoma, 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