73Titles
Explore publications and collections from the past.
Community History Archive Partner
Grant County Public Library
Williamston, Kentucky
Explore this community history collection to discover the people, places, organizations, and events of Williamston.
1837 to 2022Dates represented
See individual titles for available dates.
121,562Archive pages
Historical pages reported for this collection.
Explore local history
Discover the people, places, and stories of Williamston, Kentucky.
Get to know Williamston, Kentucky in earlier years through newspapers as well as yearbooks and annuals shared in the Grant County Public Library's digital archive. Its seventy-three titles include material from 1837 to 2022. The collection also includes post office records and religious organization documents.
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Selected titles
Examples from Grant County Public Library’s collection include “Milbank High School Yearbooks” and “Western Stock Growers Journal”.
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Free and open access
No subscription or payment required.
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Different views of the past
A familiar name or event takes on another dimension in the newspaper coverage of its time, alongside the stories that mattered to the readers of that issue. Yearbooks and annuals bring together the people and activities their editors chose to remember, offering a view of life within a particular year.
Historical newspapers can connect a family name with the events and everyday concerns of an earlier time, offering more than a date or a name on its own. Bring a family connection, a question about a familiar place or an interest in local history, and see where the sources lead. Explore the archive online for free, without a subscription.
Explore the collection
Titles in this collection
Browse seventy-three titles and 121,562 digitized pages, with material from 1837 to 2022. A partnership between Grant County Public Library and Advantage Archives makes this collection available. Some years or items may be missing between the dates shown.
Start with a detail you already know, then browse the titles below for another perspective on the people and places connected with this collection.
Almueven
8 pages in 1890
Almuevennen
36 pages in 1890
Big Stone Headlight
15,099 pages from 1903 to 1952
Blue Blanket Leader
8 pages in 1912
Brown County Sentinel
4 pages in 1883
Carteronian
1 page in 1915
Census
4,163 pages from 1860 to 1910
Country Teacher
162 pages from 1900 to 1901
Frontier Scout
39 pages from 1864 to 1865
Grant County News
4,072 pages from 1905 to 1914
Grant County Teacher
321 pages from 1896 to 1898
Grant County Tribune
743 pages from 1915 to 1918
Harris Graphic
178 pages from 1887 to 1888
Library Vertical Files of Grant County
499 pages in 2022
Library Vertical Files of Milbank
270 pages in 2022
Library Vertical Files of South Dakota
1,106 pages in 2022
Lyman County Journal
8 pages in 1890
Marvin Monitor
3,263 pages from 1915 to 1924
Milbank Herald Advance
37,995 pages from 1922 to 1991
Milbank High School Yearbooks
8,442 pages from 1934 to 2020
Pierre Daily Recorder
4 pages in 1883
Post Office Documents
1,297 pages in 1837
Presbyterian Church Records
1,299 pages in 1951
Pukwana Press Reporter
18 pages in 1956
Sioux Falls Daily Press
28 pages from 1868 to 1898
Sioux Valley News
10 pages from 1875 to 1881
South Dakota Oil News
4 pages in 1922
South Shore Republican
5,610 pages from 1903 to 1918
Spring Lake Star
2 pages in 1887
Summit Signal
1,505 pages from 1905 to 1910
Syd Dakota Ekko
17 pages in 1889
The Advance
24 pages in 1890
The Aurora Times
24 pages from 1881 to 1887
The Black Hills Pioneer
4 pages in 1876
The Brushie Blade
8 pages in 1910
The Country Teacher
260 pages from 1898 to 1900
The Daily Hot Springs Star
4 pages in 1891
The Daily Revival Herald
174 pages in 1911
The Dakota Citizen
8 pages in 1884
The Dakota Gazette
2 pages in 1881
The Democrat
16 pages from 1859 to 1860
The Egan Express
2 pages in 1881
The Elk Point Tribune
3 pages in 1881
The Farmer
131 pages in 1958
The Farmingdale Gimlet
16 pages from 1909 to 1911
The Faulkton Herald
3 pages in 1883
The Fielder Times
4 pages in 1884
The Grant County Herald
1,301 pages from 1879 to 1883
The Herald
2,855 pages from 1883 to 1890
The Herald Advance
13,916 pages from 1890 to 1922
The Inkpa Headlight
8 pages in 1961
The Milbank Herald Advance
241 pages from 1990 to 1991
The Milbank Index
408 pages in 1887
The Millbank News Letter
1,073 pages from 1882 to 1885
The Milwaukee Road News
8 pages in 1901
The New Era
4 pages in 1882
The Onida Watchman
8 pages in 1898
The Parker Press Leader
678 pages from 1916 to 1918
The Pierre Daily Signal
4 pages in 1883
The Pierre Recorder
16 pages from 1883 to 1885
The Pioneer
8 pages in 1914
The Rapid City Evening Herald
4 pages in 1896
The Record Republican
8 pages in 1897
The Sioux Falls Press
4 pages in 1918
The South Dakota Messenger
4 pages in 1913
The South Dakota Wheat Grower
25 pages in 1930
The Summit Independent
7,913 pages from 1915 to 1937
The Valley Pioneer
13 pages in 1879
The Weekly Item
5,988 pages from 1904 to 1965
The Wentworth Bond
108 pages from 1885 to 1887
The Wentworth City Bond
8 pages in 1884
Vesterheimen
53 pages from 1887 to 1889
Western Stock Growers Journal
12 pages in 1891
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Partner Story
Yearbooks & Local Records
- Milbank High School Yearbooks (1934–2020)
- Census Records (1860–1910)
- Presbyterian Church Records (1951)
- Post Office Documents (1837)
These archives serve as a portal to the community's past, capturing snapshots of time—from printed news to official documents— and providing practical online access to local primary source documents.
About the Library
About the Grant County Public Library
Located at 201 Barnes Road, Williamstown, Kentucky, the Grant County Public Library serves a population of approximately 24,700 and houses around 46,000 volumes, circulating over 138,000 items annually :contentReference[oaicite:2]{index=2}. The library offers a welcoming environment for reading, research, and community programs.
Library History
The History of the Grant County Public Library
Tax-supported public library service began in 1954. The library was relocated in 1967 to the old County Records Building and moved again to its current 12,500 sq ft facility in April 2003—built on land donated by Lee B. Lanter and designed by Sherman Carter Barnhart Architects :contentReference[oaicite:3]{index=3}. The building was funded via a 1976 public levy supporting 90% of operating costs. Prior to county consolidation in 1978, the library originated from Milbank's Carnegie Library (opened May 8, 1906), funded through Andrew Carnegie’s grant :contentReference[oaicite:4]{index=4}.
About the Community
About Williamstown and Grant County, Kentucky
Williamstown was founded on June 12, 1820 by Captain William Arnold, a Revolutionary War veteran and first sheriff of Grant County, which split from Pendleton County in 1820 :contentReference[oaicite:5]{index=5}. As of 2020, Grant County has around 24,941 residents. Its economy grew with the arrival of the Cincinnati Southern Railway in 1877 :contentReference[oaicite:6]{index=6}.
Local History
Did You Know?
The library's predecessor, the Milbank Carnegie Library, now listed as a National Historic Site, became part of the county library system in 1978—and the historic Carnegie building is now used as a museum by the historical society :contentReference[oaicite:7]{index=7}.
More ways to explore and share local history
Research Guidance
Look beyond a familiar name
For a school or community question about Williamston, note the year and section of a yearbook entry. Use the yearbooks and annuals shared by the Grant County Public Library to explore related names or activities, keeping each possible link separate until another reference supports it. The material can preserve everyday school life alongside milestone events, but its selection is not a complete portrait of the community.
Where the available dates overlap, use a name, activity, or organization in a yearbook or annual as a starting point for a newspaper search. Compare the details carefully; a similar name is a lead to investigate, not an identification by itself.
Keep the title, date, page or item reference with each useful finding. Separate the words in a historical account from your interpretation, and note conflicting perspectives rather than choosing one too quickly. These notes help you connect a local story to its evidence and explain what remains uncertain.
Community Partnership
Keeping local history a community resource
This community archive is made possible by the collaboration of the Grant County Public Library, its community, and Advantage Archives. Together, these partnerships preserve local sources and give people a way to explore, learn from, and share the history around them.
Advantage Archives covers ongoing archive hosting, storage, development, and maintenance. The institution and its community do not pay a subscription, seat license, annual support contract, or other recurring archive-service charge. Local history remains a community resource, not a subscription to maintain.
Would you like to see more of your community's history preserved and accessible? Start a conversation with your library, newspaper publisher, historical or genealogical society, museum, or school about the materials they would like to share and a possible partnership with Advantage Archives.
Learn about partnerships
Stories, research tips, and archive news
Read All About It connects archive research with the people and institutions preserving local history. Explore partner and community stories, project updates, research ideas, and perspectives on digitization, education, and working with primary sources. Use the articles as a starting point for your next question or a new way to share a discovery.
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Unveiling the Hidden Mysteries: Exploring Cold Cases and Unconventional Clues
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This Week in History: March 31st through April 6th
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This Week in History: March 24th through March 30th
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March 18, 2025
It’s Your Community’s History, So Why Rent Something You Own?
We believe that history belongs to the communities where it was made - not locked behind paywalls or inaccessible due to budget restrictions. Subscription-based services and large content aggregators are generally more concerned with "content" and less concerned with the history that content contains. Their models typically involve a reoccurring charge for a plan that renews annually or licensing agreements with the library based on population served or circulation numbers. You are essentially Renting Access To YOUR History.
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