Buffalo Bulletin, Heritage 2019 – 9

seven newspapers have served Johnson County since 1885: “The Big
Horn Sentinel,” The Buffalo Bulletin, “The Buffalo Echo,” “The Buffalo
News,” “The Buffalo Voice,” “The Johnson County Republican” and
“The People’s Voice.” Three of these – the “Sentinel,” the “Echo” and
the “Johnson County Republican” – predate the Bulletin, which pub-
lished its first issue in October 1890.
When Buffalo was incorporated as a city on March 3, 1884, the
“Echo” and the “Sentinel” were already flourishing.
“The Buffalo Echo” was established by a stock company on Aug. 2,
1883, and was the only paper for a radius of several hundred miles when
it was established. T.V. McCandlish was the first editor.
“The Big Horn Sentinel” started operations within two weeks of the
“Echo” and moved to Buffalo in September 1897. Within a year of the
move, owner E.H Becker had sold the paper to a stock company and
became editor of the “Gazette” in Billings, Montana.
A year after Becker’s departure, the “Sentinel” announced it was shut-
tering its operations and selling to the “Echo.”
“Exit the Sentinel,” an October 19, 1889, column announced. “Our
demise is not due to financial or internal diseases, but to the difficulty of
finding motive power. Our force has suddenly dissolved. … The stock-
holders offered the plant to Tom Bouton of the Echo, who purchased the
paper and will discontinue it.”
But the “Echo” did not go without competition for long. Within a
year, the Buffalo Bulletin published its first issue. Under its masthead
ran the words “Republican in Politics. Progressive in Principal.” The
Bulletin charged $2.50 a year for a subscription – 50 cents less than
the “Echo.” Joe De Barthe and Charlie Lingle founded the paper.
In 1892, Bulletin writer G.H. Flagg purchased and discontinued the
“Echo.”
With Flagg’s purchase of the “Echo,” the Bulletin’s journey to become
“the voice of Johnson County” began in earnest.
~ Bulletin file photo
Thursday, February 2, 1893 – The “Double Ought Meheli” press was used to print the Buffalo
“That the invasion was an unlawful affair and sad mistake, no matter Bulletin for many years.
what the mitigating circumstances might have been, cannot be denied by
anyone, but all the harm has been done and nothing is to be gained by stir-
ring up strife and animosity between the several sections and factions.
“In the light of these facts it behooves every good citizen no matter
where he may reside to cease hostilities, and join one grand and united
effort to recover what we have lost. Let there be peace and prosperity
will be our happy and contented lot.”
~
Some newspapermen wait a lifetime for the one story that will
define them – a story that will be told and retold for generations in
books and films.
Joe De Barthe only had to wait a few months.
While De Barthe only owned the Bulletin for 18 months, it was
during the most tumultuous time in Johnson County’s history: The
infamous Johnson County Cattle War.
On April 5, 1892, the cattle war – a dispute between rich cattle barons
and small operators barely making a livelihood – came to a head when
the invaders, 52 armed men working for the cattle barons, rode into
Buffalo on a mission to hang or kill 70 men. De Barthe, an advocate for
the rights of the smaller operators, was on the invaders’ list. Bulletin file photo

De Barthe had largely avoided mention of the entire cattle industry Janet Filbert and Linda Dunn help
check a page of the paper for errors.
in the Bulletin until July 1891, when the “Cheyenne Leader” printed
an editorial in favor of the large cattle interests.
De Barthe was forced to respond and defend the people of Johnson
County.
“The reported stealing of cattle right and left is a mistake,” De Barthe
continued on page 42