The Whitehall Ledger - Serving Southern Jefferson County in the Great State of Montana

May, Part II As of now, the Kentucky Derby was a big event in 1897. Typhoon II won the 23rd running followed by Ornament. Second place received a tidy sum of $700. A San Francisco millionaire made the...

MAY: Part I By May in 1897, the long cold, snowy winter had finally receded and allowed spring to arrive. While the rest of the country and the world were embroiled in war, natural disasters, and...

April, Part II In 1897, April was ending with similarities and some definite differences to events in the current day. Macedonia was being invaded by Grecian insurgents; Theodore Roosevelt was nominat...

April, Part I By April 1897, people in our Jefferson Valley were ready for spring. It had been a long snowy winter. Around the USA and the world, the weather was just one concern. Politics, war, and...

March Part 2 The March weather "lion" was roaring in 1897 very much like now. The U. S. House of Representatives had just elected a new Speaker of the House, Republican Tom Reed; the U. S. supreme...

The Jefferson Valley Museum will offer a second opportunity to hear the oral history program of Carrie "Bunny" Leyson Wall on Tuesday, March 21st at 6:30 PM. The program will be held at the museum...

MARCH, Part I Like March 2023, in March 1897 the U. S. Congress was in session and discussing controversial issues. Two hot issues were the boundaries of the Alaska territory with Canada and a bill...

The second half of February 1897 had plenty of news events. National headlines in Whitehall's Jefferson Valley Zephyr included turmoil in the senate and a bill in the house to appropriate money for...

FEBRUARY, PART I 1897 was starting out with turmoil and political division. There were calls in Washington D. C. for major bank reforms to help curb the financial problems in the country; a bill...

JANUARY PART II As January moved toward February, politics, and science were clashing. In Boston, a woman was removed from the courtroom because the defense council said she might hypnotize the...

The Jefferson Valley Museum will be hosting its second oral history program at 6:30 PM on Wednesday, January 18th at the museum barn. It will feature an interview recorded in 1989 by Roy Millegan...

JANUARY, Part I, 125 YEARS AGO: As 1897 dawned, it was a new year with new tragedies and many of the same old problems. Sabotage to a railroad bridge in Tennessee caused the deaths of dozens of...

December, Part 2 Those living in December 1896 would be amazed at how things seem to be repeating in 2022. Wheat crops were failing in the "old world" causing famine; four banks in the eastern U. S....

In December 1896, the entire United States was in the grip of a strong winter. The Great Northern and Northern Pacific railroads were struggling to keep their lines open due to heavy snowfall and a...

NOVEMBER, PART II In November 1896, the elections were over, and people were able to focus on other concerns. In the West, flooding in the Coeur d'Alene area was of great concern with 100 cords of...

The Whitehall Fishpond is celebrating its 100-year anniversary in 2022. This artifact symbolizes the patriotic community it was built for, Whitehall, which has always been a patriotic township. During...

NOVEMBER PART I November 1896 was significant with the presidential election being fought between McKinley and Bryan. McKinley was declared the winner. The battleship Texas sunk in the Brooklyn Navy...

In late October 1896, the focus was on the upcoming November election. But there was plenty of other news on the front page. A hurricane caused severe damage to resorts at Coney Island, a Brit beat...

The Whitehall Rotary Club completed their annual distribution in October of dictionary/reference books to local third graders. Third grade students in Harrison, Cardwell and Whitehall receive the...

Editor's Note: The Whitehall Ledger received notice that former Whitehall resident Roy Millegan had passed last week. His obituary is forthcoming; Jefferson Valley Museum curator Arlene Weber was...

1896 was winding down but not without turmoil in October of that year. A miners' strike was continuing in Colorado, a child is killed by rats in a Baltimore home, the upcoming presidential election...