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Newspaper The Keota News (Keota, Weld County, Colo.) 1911-1922

About The Keota News (Keota, Weld County, Colo.) 1911-1922

Keota, Colorado, in the northeastern grasslands of the state, was founded out of the sales of homesteads proved up by Mary and Eva Beardsley in 1888. The Beardsley sisters sold their claims to the Lincoln Land and Cattle Company in 1889. In the same year, Alva C. Hamilton, speculating on an influx of people in the new settlement, opened the Keota post office but closed it only four months later.

Keota experienced an early boom of population in 1891, with 64 homesteaders—51 men and 13 women—moving there to prove up claims obtained under the 1862 Homestead Act. By 1909 the post office reopened, and in 1910 Clyde Leslie Stanley moved to Keota to homestead. Stanley brought substantial newspaper experience, having published The Fairplay Flume, The Erie News, and The Lafayette News, and in 1911 he began publication of the Keota News, with former postmaster Hamilton acting as editor. By 1913, Stanley was the sole editor, publisher, and owner, as well as the proprietor of the general store and the land commissioner issuing homestead claims under the Enlarged Homestead Act. Later he became publisher of the Wayside Press and other magazines.

The Keota News was classified in N.W. Ayer & Son’s American Newspaper Annual and Directory as a “local” paper. Its local flavor was clear from the first item in the first issue, which noted that “the editor of the News is a homesteader and will have to drive to and from the claim for work.” From that first issue of May 26, 1911, the paper was conducted on the “plan of a non-partisan independent newspaper, taking up the various questions which will benefit those living in this part of the state.” The eight-page weekly included local coverage of Keota, Buckingham, Greenwood Valley, Sunshine Valley, and other small homesteading communities throughout Weld County. International, national, and sporting items were condensed in a page-length feature, “An Epitome of Late Live News.” Colorado state news received a weekly column, in addition to “Little Colorado Items—Small Happenings Occurring Over the State Worth Telling.” When the United States entered World War I, the Keota News printed updates about the men from Keota and the surrounding area who were fighting in Europe.

Keota was formally incorporated as a town in 1919 and included a train depot and a Farmers State Bank. The Keota News published until 1923, when it became The Pawnee Herald, which ended its run in 1926. The town’s population peaked in 1914 at 177 homesteaders, including 28 women, benefiting from many years of rain, but the area was hard hit by drought in the early 1930s and then dust storms. Beginning in 1937, most Keota farmers took government buyouts offered by the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act, which bought back “sub-marginal” farmland. By 1958, Keota was down to 15 people, and in 1960 the Pawnee National Grassland was formed out of reclaimed homesteading lands. The Keota post office was closed for good in 1974.

Provided By: History Colorado

About this Newspaper

Title

  • The Keota News (Keota, Weld County, Colo.) 1911-1922

Dates of Publication

  • 1911-1922

Created / Published

  • Keota, Weld County, Colo. : News Print. Co., 1911-

Headings

  • -  Weld County (Colo.)--Newspapers
  • -  Colorado--Weld County
  • -  United States--Colorado--Weld--Keota

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Vol. 1, no. 1 (May 26, 1911)-v. 1, no. 52 (May 17, 1912) ; v. 2, no. 1, whole no. 53 (May 24, 1912)-v. 12, no. 34, whole no. 606 (Dec. 29, 1922).
  • -  Available on microfilm from the Colorado Historical Society.
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format from the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  Pawnee herald (DLC)sn 89052039

Medium

  • v.

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn89052038

OCLC Number

  • 19463995

ISSN Number

  • 2641-5410

Succeeding Titles

Additional Metadata Formats

Rights & Access

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Cite This Item

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

Chicago citation style:

The Keota News Keota, Weld County, Colo. -1922. (Keota, CO), Jan. 1 1911. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn89052038/.

APA citation style:

(1911, January 1) The Keota News Keota, Weld County, Colo. -1922. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn89052038/.

MLA citation style:

The Keota News Keota, Weld County, Colo. -1922. (Keota, CO) 1 Jan. 1911. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn89052038/.