The Ronan pioneer., 1917-05-11

will long be mourned in the Flathead
valley and his many friends throgh-
out the state of Montana. Mr.. Rath-
bone has been in i'll health for the
past year since prostration with an
attack of la grippe which brought
on Bright's disease. He visited vari-
Gus sanitariums and medical institu
tions throughout the United States
but his affliction did not seem to
yield to treatment. For the past three
weeks he has been in an extremely
critical condition which resulted in
death Tuesday morning.
E. H. Rathbone has been connected
with the newspaper business all his
| life nearly always in association with
his surviving brother, Coker F. Rath
bone. Their first venture was at
Herndon, Kansas, where they edited
and published "The Courant". This
paper was disposed of in 1890 and
seeking a new location they finally
decided upon lewiston, Montana.
Mr.. Rathbone accompanied by his
wife and son, Justus, made the jour
ney overland from Herndon, Kansas,
to Lewiston, Montana, in the year
1890, where he located and establish
ed The Fergus County Republican,
which is still in existence and con-
sidered one of the largest and best
newspapers in eastern Montana, un-
der the name of The Fergus County
Democrat. After disposing of this
property they moved to Provo, Utah,
and founded THE Provo Press a
publication since suspended.
They next established at Eureka,
Utah, "The Tintic Miner" and con-
tinued it's publication until March,
1898, when owing to the general sus-
pension of mining operations at that
time they moved their plant to Lam
tion of the Fremont County Gazette.
They continued this newspaper until
September, 1896, at which time they
disposed of it's goodwill and took up
homestads near Meteetse, Wyoming,
founding a paper at Cody, known as
"The Big Horn County News. This
publication was later moved to Ma
teetse where it was published by the
Rathbone Brothers for number of
years. Probably no other newspaper
ever enjoyed stranger experience
it's removal from Cody to Mcteetse
overland by freight. In order to
maintain it's legality it was necessary
and important that an edition be is
sued each week and being delayed
by rain and the extremely bad con-
diton of the trail the Rathbone Bros.
stopped their teams midway between
the two towns and after setting up a
hand press in one of the wagons,
while Coker went forward to make
some arrangements Harvey locked
the forms and the paper went to
press on the open range under the
light of the stars and the edition of
the Big Horn County News, vital to
its legality, was issued.
This publication they afterwards
disposed of to Hon. A. C. Thomas
whose tragic death last fall at the
hands of Miss Edith Colby, a news
reporter, during the heat of a polit-
ical campaign at Thompson Falls is
fresh in the minds of Montanans.
The next publication to be founded
by the deceased was THE Shoshoni
News" at Shoshoni, Wyo. which he
operated and published Independent
for about two years. Finally dispos-
ing of this publication he removed
to Hardin, Montana, where he estab
lished the Hardin Tribune and con-
tinued its publication until 1910, at
which time he sold it and leased
the Sanders County Ledger at Thomp-
son Falls, Montana, and published
that organ until the spring of 1911, =,
when he joined his brother Coker F.
at Roman, who had established this
paper and were associated in business
until the first of January, 1915, when
| the deceased took over the property
| individually, continuing its issue and
publication up to the time of his
| death.