Saturday News Archive

The Saturday News, or the News, was a weekly paper started in Watertown, South Dakota, around June 22, 1902. Publication continued until at least June 26, 1919. The News originally contained an average of 12 six-column pages and later grew to eight columns. Its masthead changed on May 20, 1910, to an elaborate design picturing a landscape; on June 6, 1911, it returned to a simple text similar to the original. At first, the Saturday News was published every Friday. On August 24, 1911, it became a Thursday paper, although the publisher's block continuing to read "Friday" until May 16, 1912. A yearly subscription cost one dollar per year until January 1, 1909, when it raised to a dollar and fifty cents. On October 17, 1917 the price became one dollar once more. On July 23, 1914, the Saturday News merged with the Watertown Times.

E. M. Baker was the editor and publisher of the News until April 2, 1914. Albert E. Piercy served as the assistant editor from October 30, 1908, until May 27, 1910. Vice President Charles W. Larson and Secretary Treasurer Albert W. Ransom were first listed on November 14, 1912. Larson's last appearance in the publisher's block was April 2, 1914, with Ransom's on June 25, 1914. On October 3, 1916, the publisher's block changed to "Watertown Daily News," although the masthead remained Saturday News. The paper continued as a weekly, with David F. Jones as president and Frank J. Cory as secretary and general manager.

The Saturday News focused on events in Watertown and Codington County, even though it claimed to have "more circulation than any other English paper" in South Dakota. During growing and harvest seasons, its pages were filled with ways to improve crops, livestock, and the condition of farm animals. At other times, the paper covered local happenings, Chautauquas, political developments, and other news from nearby towns

The News devoted more attention to Native Americans than most newspapers in South Dakota at the time. A 1913 article reported on a two-day gathering of the Sioux at Thunder Butte station. Indians from four districts--Cherry Creek, Thunder Butte, White Horse, and Cheyenne Agency--met to discuss the problem of unpaid compensation for the sale of lands on the Cheyenne River reservation. Understanding that regular payments from the purchase of reservation land for homesteads were to be distributed among the members of the tribe--to help provide for their families, improve their own lands, and obtain livestock, a committee was formed to present Indians' claims to the proper authorities in Washington. The News reported also that the Sioux on the Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota disapproved of opening more of Indian land to white settlement, saying "what is to be left for them and their children?"

The Saturday News did not leave Codington County secluded from the world. National and global news also appeared regularly. For example, the paper followed closely the career of the boxer Jack Johnson, from July 29, 1910, when Johnson won the world heavyweight boxing championship until April 8, 1915, when he lost the title. The News also consistently printed reports on the Mexican Civil War as well as World War I.