About The Ladysmith news. [volume] (Ladysmith, Wis.) 1905-1905
Ladysmith, Wis. (1905-1905)

Ladysmith News, Ladysmith News and Ingram News, The Ladysmith News, and Ladysmith News-Budget

In 1905, a group of associates, among them George B. Goocher (1862-1910), the Iowa-born son of German immigrants, formed the Ladysmith Publishing Company. They issued the Ladysmith News, a weekly newspaper aimed at opposing local politics. The publishing company hired Albert D. Campbell as the new editor. Campbell was a newspaper editor from Minnesota known for his lively columns; to prepare readers for what he had planned for the News, his first issue read, "The Ladysmith News comes to the public with neither apology nor explanation."

Ladysmith, WI is located in the northwest portion of the state and is the seat of Rusk County. Positioned near the mouth of the Flambeau River and in a heavily forested region of the state, Ladysmith was a popular point from which lumber was floated to mills at Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls. Ladysmith was a "boomtown," as the economy grew on the logging industry until the turn of the century and fell into decline around 1915 when much of the forestry had been harvested. After the decline of lumber, the town's economy shifted to agriculture. The newspapers in Ladysmith reflected the "booming" economy; around 1905, the town had three operating papers, and a decade later, it had only two, despite a growing population.

The Ladysmith News changed titles a few times throughout its run, and it eventually merged with a competing paper the Weekly Budget. From 1905 to 1906, the paper was titled the Ladysmith News and Ingram News, likely an effort to cover news pertinent to the smaller nearby town of Ingram. When the paper changed its title back to the Ladysmith News, George B. Goocher became the only listed person under publisher replacing the Ladysmith Publishing Company.

Amzi Austin Hadden (1873-1959), hailing from Nebraska, arrived in Ladysmith in the fall of 1906 with the purpose of working for the Weekly Budget. He soon bought the paper, as well as the Ladysmith News and merged the titles into the new Ladysmith News-Budget. Hadden published the merged paper for five years, and then in 1911, sold it to Prentice, Wisconsin editor Marcellus (Mark) Ray Bell (1883-1965). Bell was no stranger to the newspaper industry. His father, Frank H. Bell, published the Prentice Calumet and Mark himself founded his own paper in high school: the Prentice Tribune. After his father's death, Bell installed a linotype at the Calumet and is credited with introducing the Ladysmith News-Budget to the new technology when he brought the machine with him.

The Ladysmith News-Budget was succeeded by the Ladysmith News-Budget and Rusk County Journal (1927-1927), edited by Bell, and the Ladysmith News (1927-current) which was published by Edward W. Richardson (1891-1988) from 1931 to 1941 and then Bell from 1941 to 1951.

Provided by: Wisconsin Historical Society