Top of page

Notice
Monday, February 16, 2026: For the President's Day holiday, The Library will open under normal operating hours.
Chronicling America
National Endowment for the Humanities

Newspaper The Daily Gazette (Billings, Mont.) 1885-1900 Billings daily gazette

View All Front Pages

About The Daily Gazette (Billings, Mont.) 1885-1900

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 Company’s political causes. Struggles over control of the newspaper reflected the rift within the Republican Party between conservative ranchers like state senator John Edwards of Forsyth and progressives like Joseph Dixon and Teddy Roosevelt. Ownership issues persisted until 1914 when the Gazette Printing Company, headed by Edwards, hired Leon Shaw, an experienced editor for several other Republican newspapers in Helena and Butte. By the 1920s the Gazette came under the sway of the Anaconda Company, clearly identified as one of their nine daily newspapers.

Provided By: Montana Historical Society; Helena, MT

About this Newspaper

Title

  • The Daily Gazette (Billings, Mont.) 1885-1900

Other Title

  • Billings daily gazette

Dates of Publication

  • 1885-1900

Created / Published

  • Billings, Mont. : Gazette Pub. Co., 1885-1900.

Headings

  • -  Billings (Mont.)--Periodicals
  • -  Montana--Billings
  • -  United States--Montana--Yellowstone--Billings

Genre

  • Periodicals

Notes

  • -  Daily (except Mon.), Sept. 11-Nov. 30, 1900
  • -  Vol. 1, no. 1 (May 3, 1885)-v. 1, no. 70 (Nov. 30, 1900).
  • -  Sometimes published as: Billings daily gazette, Sept. 14, 1895-Nov. 14, 1896, and Dec. 1, 1900-Apr. 30, 1903.
  • -  "Republican." Cf. An Illustrated history of the Yellowstone Valley.
  • -  Restarts numbering after each suspension.
  • -  Suspended: Feb. 16, 1888-July 1, 1894; Aug. 26, 1894-Sept. 3, 1895; Nov. 16, 1896-Sept. 10, 1900.
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format from the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  Formed by the union of: Billngs herald, Billings rustler, and: Post (Billings, Mont.).
  • -  Billings daily gazette (DLC)sn 85053070 (OCoLC)11806955

Medium

  • volumes : illustrations (chiefly ads.) ; 54 cm

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn85053069

OCLC Number

  • 11806872

ISSN Number

  • 2576-7097

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 Daily Gazette Billings, Mont. -1900. (Billings, MT), Jan. 1 1885. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn85053069/.

APA citation style:

(1885, January 1) The Daily Gazette Billings, Mont. -1900. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn85053069/.

MLA citation style:

The Daily Gazette Billings, Mont. -1900. (Billings, MT) 1 Jan. 1885. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn85053069/.