Westby Times

Westby Time
East State Street
100 years ago

The only newspaper in the world that cares a whoop for Westby, Coon Valley & Chaseburg, The Westby Times was established in 1900 by Frank Burns, who was editor and publisher for six years. The first paper was located under what is today the Uff-Da Mart and shortly moved to the front of the building today occupied by Treasures on Main. Type was set by Linotype, powered by a gas engine.

Harvey Owens, with  assistance from his brother Ed, succeeded Burns. In 1911, J.T. Hage took over and Owens remained as printer.  Later Joseph Houghton became printer.  At that time, type was hand set and the paper was folded by hand.

When electricity came to Westby in 1902, the lights operated from dusk until 11 p.m. However, if the Times was not put to bed by 11 p.m., the city manager would leave the lights on until the paper was finished.

Since its founding, the paper moved from the under the Uff-Da Mart to the corner of First and Main, to the top of the hill where the old City Hall was. The next move was to State Street, between Dahl Ford and Thoreson Lumber Company and then to the rear of where Treasures on Main is located.  It is possible that the last two location are in reverse order.  What is known is that about 1916 the Times had a fire and lost all of its records.

Julius T. Hage
Times Editor — 1911-1964

The next move was to the Ender Hotel, renamed the Times Hotel that is located at the corner of First and Polly Rude Way. The next move was to Second Street where it remained for almost 50 years before moving to the location on First Street one building west of where it was located at the Time Hotel.   

Two valued employees at the Second Street location were Howard Durst, who was printer for 35 years until he died in 1953, and Paul MacFarland, Linotype operator and printer from 1951 until his retirement in 1993. When Hage died and Durst was hospitalized, MacFarland put out the paper alone for several weeks.

From 1964 until 1984, The Times was published and edited by Virginia and Ray Way. During their years, the paper went to tabloid size and offset printing, ending the clackety clack of the Linotype. 

Dorothy Robson
Current Editor
of the Times

In 1984, Ray Way, after Virginia’s death, sold the paper to James Turner and Jeff Davis. Davis sold out and Turner turned the Times into a free-distribution paper and returned the paper to the broadsheet size.

In 1987, Hale and Janet Evans became the next owners and published the paper until January 1992 When Pete and Mary Hollister, owners of the Vernon County Broadcaster bought the Times.

Today, The Westby Times, Broadcaster, Foxxy Shopper as well as the La Crosse Tribune and many other local papers and others around the country are owned by Lee Enterprises.

September 2004, saw a big change at The Times when pagination was introduced. For the first time each paper is completely done on computers.