Montgomery Co. Newspapers

Read the local newspaper for the time period to gain an understanding of hardships your ancestors endured.  You can never be sure how accurate an index is. Page by page searching can increase your chance of finding genealogical material. If a local newspaper did not exist for a time period check metropolitan newspapers indexes that circulated in the area as they reported regional news.

The Arkansas History Commission has a newspaper database showing holdings information on about 3000 titles published in Arkansas from 1819 to today.

• Montgomery County News weekly - Thursday's
• Arkansas Democrat-Gazette daily
• Fort Smith Southwest Times-Record  daily
• Mena Star - weekly
• Hot Springs Sentinel - Record - daily
• Glenwood Herald -weekly
• Arkansas newspapers online
• Newspapers online
• Obituaries 2001
  Mr McCoy, editor,  has given permission to transcribe obituaries from the Montgomery County News.
• The Montgomery County Herald   Col. William Cochran, editor Montgomery County Herald, and G. Witt business manager. The paper is now in its first volume, is a five-column folio, and is the only paper in the county. Reference: The Goodspeed Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Western Arkansas. 1891

• Verse

• Montgomery County News
  P.O. Box 187
  Mount Ida, AR 71957  
  phone: 870-867-2821
  email: montcnews2@alltel.net
  Published by Graves Publishing company weekly each Thursday at Mount Ida, Arkansas.
  Danielle Dingler-Cummings - Editor
  Will accept double-spaced genealogical inquiries and family reunion information without charge. It is a  weekly newspaper that is published on Thursdays but can be purchased for 75 cents in Mt Ida on Wednesdays.
  Yearly subscription rates in 2008:
  Outside Arkansas: $50
  In Arkansas $42
  In Montgomery Co. $33
  
  In 1998 the yearly subscription rates were:
  Outside Arkansas: $36.50
  In Arkansas $31.50
  In Montgomery Co. $16.50

• The Montgomery County News was first published in 1951. Before this there was the Montgomery County Herald foundered in 1889.  Our newspapers were never saved and microfilmed like some places did.  The Arkansas History Commission have some of them on microfilm, which our county library also has a copy. Mt Ida Library has on microfilm scattered issues of area newspapers e.g.
          Montgomery County News 1951-1994 (complete)
          Bear Mountain Miner March 1 1889 (Vol. 2) one issue.
          The Norman Visitor
          Montgomery County Review (Womble)
          The Montgomery County Herald
          Montgomery County Demoract (Mt Ida)
   
• Publications at the beginning of the year 1921 for Montgomery County
  Montgomery County Democrat,  Mount Ida
  Montgomery County Review, Womble.
  
  New York Times Nov 1, 1951; p. 1
  Leopards and Bears Flee Circus; Lion in Same Show kills a child.
  Mount Ida, Ark, Oct. 31.
  A leopard, one of several circus animals that escaped in this wild mountain area of western Arkansas, was shot and killed this afternoon. Another leopard, two black bears, one polar bear and six rhesus monkeys still at large, Ben Davenport, owner of the Campa Brothers circus, said. A heavy rain was hampering efforts of a posse to track down the animals, which scampered into the woods earlier this dreary Halloween when a circus truck overturned on a slippery highway near Mena, Ark, en route to Mount Ida. Sheriff Wilbur Tidwell of Montgomery County, of which Mount Ida is the seat, said a leopard had been spotted about 100yards from the scene of the wreck. He reported that nineteen persons shot at the cat and that five hits were registered. The search for the animals was being conducted in bad weather and over urged terrain in the Ouachita National Forest section about fifteen miles northwest of mount Ida. The area is inhabited by native panthers, bears and other wild animals. Meanwhile, at Mena, the child killed by the lion was buried. Two circus officials, Mr Davenport and Huh Reeves, were released after a hearing on charges of manslaughter. Police Judge Clem Brown said there was not sufficient evidence of negligence on the part of the circus officials to warrant holding them. The lion had been tied to a short chain outside his cage when Maria de la Lues, a member of the troupe, ran by. the lion grabbed the girl and killed her with a bite.

Montgomery Co. ARGenWeb Project

Movie featuring Montgomery County
The White River Kid, a movie, starring Randy Travis was filmed in and around Mt. Ida, June 1998. The name of the county newspaper office on the town square was changed to 'Wexas County News' for the occasion.  The 'clabber girl' sketch on the buff colored building on the town square opposite the courthouse was left behind.