She thought the area needed a newspaper, so she collected 500 signatures of people who promised to subscribe if she started one, which was the requirement for a state franchise. She saved up $200 from her teaching job and used it to buy a hand press and metal type. On September 11, 1897 she published the first edition of her newspaper, the Miller County Liberal. In the early days of the paper Toole rode a bicycle to gather news, working on the paper before and after her daytime teaching job.
