Archives West Finding Aid

On January 27, 1883, Samuel W. Langhorne established the Bozeman Weekly Chronicle in order to promote the Democratic Party. The main competition in town was the Avant Courier, a supporter of the Republican Party. Langhorne did not start out as a newspaper man. He was trained as a druggist, working in Helena from 1865 to 1870 before moving to Bozeman. He opened a drug store in Bozeman before establishing the paper. In addition to the paper, Langhorne was involved in civic affairs and served as a probate judge, a legislator and Speaker of the House, and county clerk and recorder. After a year of running the paper, he sold it to his editor, A. K. Yerkes who was publisher with Charles S. Fell until October 1899. David Marks bought the paper from Yerkes and Marks and created the Chronicle Publishing Company. His first editor was J. W. Kelley. By February 1902 William M. Bole took over as editor of the paper. In 1886 the Bozeman Weekly Chronicle was enlarged to a nine-column format and by 1911 it became a daily paper. Over the next few decades, ownership of the paper changed hands several times, usually to prominent Bozeman businessmen.