Top of page

Chronicling America
National Endowment for the Humanities

Newspaper The Western News (Stevensville, Mont.) 1890-1977

View All Front Pages

About The Western News (Stevensville, Mont.) 1890-1977

James Turner Farris and R. L. Davis published the first edition of the weekly Western News in Stevensville, Montana, in December 1890, with extensive coverage of the hanging of four Kootenai Indians, along with the efforts to remove the Salish from their traditional homeland in the Bitterroot valley to the Flathead Reservation established in the 1855 Stevens Treaty. Chief Charlo’s band refused to leave until 1891 when demand for the rich agricultural lands in the Bitterroot became overwhelming.

In 1895, the Western News was sold to Miles Romney, the son of Mormon farmers who moved to the Bitterroot valley in 1881, a man with no prior journalistic experience. In short order, Romney established himself and his newspaper as one of the most caustic critics of Marcus Daly and the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. Daly had platted the town of Hamilton in 1890, home to his large lumber mill and Bitterroot Stock Farms. Romney ran unsuccessfully as a Democratic candidate for Secretary of State in 1904 and again in 1908, but was elected as a Progressive to the state senate in 1906. Newspapers across Montana reprinted Romney’s fiery editorials against the railroads, the beef trust, the timber barons, and the copper kings in Butte. The Western News reprinted the speeches and articles of trust-buster President Theodore Roosevelt.

In 1910, Romney created the People’s Power League, successfully promoting women’s suffrage, primary elections, and a “corrupt practices” law limiting campaign spending. Romney and the League also lobbied to enact a tax on mineral extraction. In the 1930s, Romney left his newspaper for his son, Miles Romney Jr., who continued his father’s muckraking tradition.

Provided By: Montana Historical Society; Helena, MT

About this Newspaper

Title

  • The Western News (Stevensville, Mont.) 1890-1977

Dates of Publication

  • 1890-1977

Created / Published

  • Stevensville, Mont. : Farris & Davis, -1977.

Headings

  • -  Stevensville (Mont.)--Newspapers
  • -  Hamilton (Ravalli County, Mont.)--Newspapers
  • -  Montana--Hamilton (Ravalli County)
  • -  Montana--Stevensville
  • -  United States--Montana--Ravalli--Hamilton
  • -  United States--Montana--Ravalli--Stevensville

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly, Nov. 10, 1916-Feb. 24, 1977
  • -  -87th year, no. 26 (Feb. 24, 1977).
  • -  Began in Nov. 1890.
  • -  "A progressive newspaper."
  • -  "Official organ of the Democratic Party in the county." Cf. Progressive men of the State of Montana.
  • -  "Vigorously anti-[Anaconda] Company." Cf. Karlin, J.A. Joseph M. Dixon of Montana.
  • -  Place of publication varies: published in Stevensville until Aug. 9, 1893 when it moved to Hamilton.
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format from the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  Description based on: Vol. 1, no. 4 (Dec. 16, 1890).
  • -  Ravalli republican Feb. 1977 (DLC)sn 86075328

Medium

  • volumes : illustrations ; 55 cm

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn84036207

OCLC Number

  • 11267479

ISSN Number

  • 2470-4342

Preceding Titles

Succeeding Titles

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

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. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

The NEH awardee responsible for producing each digital object is presented in the Chronicling America page display, below the page image – e.g. Image produced by the Library of Congress. For more information on current NDNP awardees, see https://www.loc.gov/ndnp/listawardees.html.

For more information on Library of Congress policies and disclaimers regarding rights and reproductions, see https://www.loc.gov/homepage/legal.html

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

The Western News Stevensville, Mont. -1977. (Hamilton, MT), Jan. 1 1890. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn84036207/.

APA citation style:

(1890, January 1) The Western News Stevensville, Mont. -1977. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn84036207/.

MLA citation style:

The Western News Stevensville, Mont. -1977. (Hamilton, MT) 1 Jan. 1890. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn84036207/.