Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society
Researching Warren County and beyond! We are a FamilySearch Affiliate Library!
Alleen Stephenson Digital Newspaper Project
Since the fall of 2018, the Alleen Stephenson Digital Newspaper Project has provided FREE online public access to digital images of The Western Star and other area newspapers on the Ohio Memory Project. These digital images were created from original copies of the newspaper located at the Ohio History Center in Columbus and from microfilm provided by the Warren County Historical Society and Warren County Genealogical Society.
The Alleen Stephenson Digital Newspaper Project is sponsored and maintained by the Warren County Genealogical Society. Using digitization and OCR technology, it provides FREE public access to over 160,000 pages of this historical newspaper. There are some issues missing, but the entire collection on hand is browsable and searchable by titles, names, or dates.
The Western Star (Lebanon, Ohio)
Published for 206 years from 1807 to 2013, The Western Star is Ohio's oldest weekly newspaper. This newspaper reported the local news and activities of the citizens of Lebanon, Warren County, and nearby areas. The first publisher was John McLean (1785-1861), who was an American attorney, a political activist who served in the United States Congress, and a justice of the Ohio and the U.S. Supreme Courts. He started his legal career in Cincinnati and moved to Lebanon, Ohio, to open a law practice and dedicate his time to opening and running a weekly newspaper.
Other area newspaper titles found in this digitized collection include:
The Western Star & Lebanon Gazette (Lebanon, Ohio);
The Star & Gazette (Lebanon, Ohio);
The Weekly Western Star (Lebanon, Ohio);
The Lebanon Daily Star (Lebanon, Ohio);
The Western Star and the Lebanon Patriot (Lebanon, Ohio);
The Star Free Press (Springboro, Ohio) Jan 1986-Dec 1988;
The Franklin Chronicle (Franklin, Ohio) Jan 1987-Dec 1987.
The online collection can be found by visiting:
https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p16007coll84
About Alleen
This project is dedicated to the remarkable Alleen Stephenson (shown right), and was made possible through the generosity of Alleen's son and daughter-in-law, J. Todd and Rebecca Stephenson. For more than 60 years, Alleen wrote a much-loved column about the Kings Mills community that celebrated and preserved many aspects of the County's history.
Support the Star!
We are in the final phase of digitizing the remaining copies of The Western Star that we have available. There are TWO ways you can help us finish this monumental project.
(1) LOCATE MISSING ISSUES!
Using the red button below, you can access a list of the missing issues of The Western Star we are trying to locate. WCGS is actively seeking donations or loans of hard copies or microfilm to help us digitize as many issues as we can.
You can also access a list of ALL Western Star (and associated newspapers) issues and see the current status of those issues using the white button above. Some dates and days of the week provided are a best guess, as the day of the week it was published changed over time.
(2) PLEASE DONATE!
Help us finish this digitization project. Our funding has reached its limit and we still have more to do! We have established a dedicated fundraising campaign to "Support the Star!" and all donations will be used to help us complete this last phase of the project and digitize and add missing issues online as they are located.
Donate online below or you can mail a check to:
Support the Star!
Warren County Genealogical Society
406 Justice Drive
Lebanon, OH 45036
Support the Star! Flyer
Donate Online to Help Digitize The Western Star
Frequency
One time
Monthly
Amount
0/100
Comment (optional)
Thank you to those who have donated to
Support the Star!
July 4, 2024 - December 31, 2025
GOAL: $20,000
September 2025 Update
Western Star Analytics and Support the Star! Update
Since the fall of 2018, our Alleen Stephenson Digital Newspaper Project, sponsored and maintained by the Warren County Genealogical Society, has provided free public access to digital images of The Western Star from 1807 through 2001 on the Ohio Memory Project. With the addition of issues through 2001, there are now well over 160,000 pages online, with more in the digitization process. As of the end of September 2025, 63,959 users have viewed 1,015,216 page views in 91,066 sessions. It seems incredible we have now surpassed ONE MILLION page views!
Thank you again to all who have donated to make this venture possible and to those of you who keep donating! We received word that two more batches covering June 2002 through May 2005 are nearing completion and will be uploaded soon. If you would like to donate, or find more information about The Western Star and the Alleen Stephenson Digital Newspaper Project, please visit our permanent website page dedicated to The Western Star.
You can search this online newspaper collection by using the "Western Star" blue button at the top of every website page or by visiting Alleen Stephenson Digital Newspaper Project on the Ohio Memory Project.
August 2024 Update
We have discovered GenealogyBank.com has 149 issues of the Western Star and even one issue of the Farmer online! GenealogyBank.com is a paid subscription site, and while not free like Ohio Memory, it is still great to know these issues are available.
You can search for these newspapers on GenealogyBank.com which will also bring up obituaries (but not entire pages) from 4 Jan 2006 - 14 Jul 2012. Once you are logged in, select "Browse Newspapers by State" from the top menu bar and enter "Lebanon" in the Filter by City box. Your search will bring up what they have available:
We have compiled a PDF (see button below) with links to each issue they have online to make searching for a particular date easier. When using these links, please note that the newspaper pages are large files and the pages load slowly.
If you need help accessing these issues, please contact us at 513-695-1144 or visit the WCGS Resource Library at 406 Justice Drive in Lebanon.
Piles of Newspapers Donated!
Many thanks to Joey Hansted of the Little Miami History Connection for delivering piles of donated copies of the Western Star! We are working to inventory the issues and hopefully match them to our Missing Issues list. WooHoo!
Other Helpful Links
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Western_Star_(Ohio)
Chronicling America / Library of Congress
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83035040/
Congressional Record for January 15, 2025, Page 25
https://www.congress.gov/119/crec/2025/01/15/171/8/CREC-2025-01-15.pdf