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Chronicling America
National Endowment for the Humanities

Newspaper The Meridian Times (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938

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About The Meridian Times (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938

John F. Baird bought the Meridian Tribune in Meridian, Idaho, from Dr. Samuel Reynolds in May 1909. Reynolds had been publishing the Tribune in Meridian since 1903, when the town was first incorporated. Baird changed the name of the paper to the Meridian Times with his second issue, and dropped the subscription price to one dollar, with the goal to “make the price so low that no one in the vicinity will have an excuse to do without his home paper.”

The Meridian Times contained sections of school district news, church happenings, and Oregon Short Line Railroad timetables. While dedicating most of the column space to Meridian news and society notes, the Times also contained news of nearby Boise and other Ada County and neighboring Canyon County towns of Nampa, Caldwell, and Star.

Meridian developed as an agricultural community, and many issues of the Times included one or more pages devoted completely to crop and stock raising news, tips, developments, and discussions. Advertisements by local businesses such as banks, hardware stores, and lumber companies, were targeted to the farming community. On multiple occasions, Meridian played host to meetings of farmers from all around Ada County. In February 1922, the Times published an interesting clip, “The growing of head lettuce is a new industry which bids fair to become a permanent and lucrative one and the farm bureau has arranged for a campaign in Ada County with meetings to be held this week in Meridian.”

John F. Baird often took jabs at two other rural newspapers, the Caldwell Tribune and the Nampa Recorder. All three papers had an ongoing rivalry, with each claiming its town was the best in the region.

When Baird first established the Meridian Times, the paper was four pages with six columns and published weekly. In 1913, he purchased a new power printing press, and the paper expanded to eight pages with six columns. Baird continued to publish the Meridian Times for nearly two decades. The Meridian Times continued publication until 1958 when it changed to the Meridian News-Times.

Provided By: Idaho State Historical Society

About this Newspaper

Title

  • The Meridian Times (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938

Dates of Publication

  • 1909-1938

Created / Published

  • Meridian, Idaho : J.F. Baird

Headings

  • -  Meridian (Idaho)--Newspapers
  • -  Idaho--Meridian
  • -  United States--Idaho--Ada--Meridian

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Vol. 6, no. 6 (May 14, 1909)-v. 54, no. 42 (Jan. 31, 1958).
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format from the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  Meridian news-times (DLC)sn 89055005 (OCoLC)19023617

Medium

  • v.

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn89055004

OCLC Number

  • 19023790

ISSN Number

  • 2575-0658

Preceding Titles

Succeeding Titles

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

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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 Meridian Times Meridian, Idaho -1938. (Meridian, ID), Jan. 1 1909. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn89055004/.

APA citation style:

(1909, January 1) The Meridian Times Meridian, Idaho -1938. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn89055004/.

MLA citation style:

The Meridian Times Meridian, Idaho -1938. (Meridian, ID) 1 Jan. 1909. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, aj.sunback.homes/item/sn89055004/.