The Bradford Era is a newspaper published Monday – Saturday serving McKean County in Pennsylvania.
[16] Boyle and others used the paper to advocate against legislation, like the Billingsley Bill, which sought to regulate the oil industry.
[17] In addition, numerous editors for papers around the area were paid "pensions" for supporting Standard Oil interests in their printings.
[15] Boyle used the paper to attack people who opposed the monopoly of Standard Oil, such as Senator Lewis Emery .
Emery grew so tired of the attacks that he had Boyle arrested for libel; Standard Oil paid to have him released from jail and to continue his slander campaign.
[15][18] The Bradford Era was mentioned in testimony in United States v. Standard Oil, in which the government sued the company under the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890; the case was argued at the 8th Circuit Court in Missouri in 1909.
J. W. Milligan served on a committee to present President Warren G. Harding (who had also been a newspaperman) with a chair purchased with funds contributed by publishers across the country.
In 2012, the Era reported on the trial of Samuel Slocum, a priest who was accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a minor.