Newspapers in Brooke County
This information from the book
HISTORY OF THE PAN-HANDLE, WEST VIRGINIA 1879
PAGE 328-329
The Charlestown Gazette bearing date December 31st, 1814 is the first paper that we have any history of. It was printed and published by Samuel Workman. The specimen before us is a four page paper of four columns each. The four columns occupying nine inches in width, and fifteen and one half inches in length. It is composed mostly of foreign news and advertisements. It was published every Saturday at $2.00 per year.
Next in order comes the Wellsburg Gazette new series, by John Gruber. Vol 1 No 7 Whole No. 319 and bearing date: Wellsburg, VA, Saturday January 18, 1823. In this number of the Gazette is a card announcing that "Philip Doddridge, Esq. Of Brooke county will be a candidate, at the ensuing election, to represent the citizens of this district in the congress of the United States." The same paper contains the doings of the Virginia Legislature, Friday, December 27th, of which Philip Doddridge was a prominent member, and, as the records show, took an active part in the work in hand.
The same number of the Gazette contains the prospectus of "Notes on the Settlement of the Western parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia, by the Rev. Dr. Joseph Doddridge, 250 to 300 pages octavo, price in boards not to exceed one dollar."
The next issue of the Gazette that we have is 1829, By reference to its title heading, we find that the first number commenced October 9, 1826, Thomas Semice, proprietor and publisher. The paper has at this time increased probably one fourth in size.
Saturday, May 25, 1833, the first number of the Brooke Republican made its appearance. Daniel Polsley was editor and S.R. Jones printer and proprietor. January 4, 1834, the name of S.R. Jones as printer and proprietor does not appear in the paper any longer.
Thursday, September 24, 1835, was the last issue of the Brooke Republican. The Wellsburg Gazettewas still in existence at that time, but it did not exist long afterwards; but at what date it terminated its existence we are unable to learn. The Brooke Republican was a four page, twenty four column paper, 18 x 14 inches, devoted to politics, foreign and domestic news, manufacturing and agriculture, and other interesting miscellany. It was a very able paper.
Thursday, October 1, 1835, the Western Transcript made its appearance, D. Polsley, editor. The specimen number was printed by D. Maclane, on the 5th of September 1835, "in quarto form, on a royal sheet." Between that time and October 1, Maclane had arranged with Mr. Polsley, of the Brooke Republican to take subscriptions list of the Transcript and merge it with the Republican. The arrangement was satisfactory and the Transcript was furnished at two dollars per year. It was "devoted to literature, miscellany, general intelligence and agriculture." "With politics" the editor said "I will have nothing to do." He states that "more than two years experience has proven to him that an exclusively political paper cannot be sustained (here) without the greatest difficulty, not with any profit to the proprietor. In size the Transcriptwas the same as the Republican." Mr. Polsley continued to control and edit the Trnscriptuntil December 20, 1845. When Wills DeHass assumed control of it, soon thereafter, J.W. Breckenridge became proprietor of it, during whose ownership it went out of existence. In 1824, Solomon Sola published a paper here called the True Republican. How long it existed or what was its character we are unable to ascertain. In 1840 Dr. Hazlett published a paper called the Jefferson Democrat. It was a campaign paper.
Next in order came the Wellsburg Herald, by Joseph A. Metcalf, bearing date December 8,m 1846. December 8, 1848, it was purchased by John G. Jacob and James A. Smith.. On the 25th of November, 1858, James A. Smith severed his connection therewith, since which time it has been conducted by Mr. Jacob. Mr. Smith died shortly after the dissolution. The Herald has attained its thirty-third volume, is a four page, thirty-two column paper, Republican in politics, devoted to general news. "Mr. John G. Jacob, the editor and proprietor, is the Nestor of the press in this part of the state, having been on the tripod these twenty odd years. He has seen his various competitors come and go while he and the Heraldremain like the house that was built upon the rock. Mr. Jacob was one of the early Republicans, or rather he was one of the first to come out in print and defend the right of all Virginia citizens to express and vote their sentiments on the sacred soil to which he is 'manor born' without respect to their political orthodoxy."
The Itempublished by J.W. Plattenburg, is the next adventurer in the newspaper line. The volume before us bears date, Wellsburg, August 20, 1856, volume II. No 5. It is a ten by twelve four page, sixteen column sheet, devoted to news and humor. It was published every Wednesday, at twenty five cents for three months; single copies three cents, payable in advance.
March 4, 1866, Alfred Glass started the Wellsburg Democrat. Glass sold out to James E. Anderson, of recent Louisiana returning board notoriety. The number before us bears date, Friday, June 21, 1867. It was furnished at two dollars per year and was democratic in politics. Anderson conducted the paper but a short time, when he sold out to J. F. Campbell & Son, who changed the name to the Wellsburg Times. It appears that the change took place some time during the winter of 1867, as the prospectus of Campbell & Son, in volume I. No. 10 of the Times bears date December 20, 1867. September 1, 1868, Alfred Glass & Son purchased the Times and changed the name to the Pan-Handle News. They managed it until May, 1872, when they sold one half interest thereof to Eugene Tarr and subsequently the remaining one-half. Then Glass & Son started a weekly paper called the Wellsburg Independent. It came to light in November 1873, and lived six months.
Mr. Tarr associated with him in the management of the Pan-Handle News, Mr. W.A. Brown, now editor of the Hancock Independent, as one-half partner. In July 1874, Glass & Son repurchased the Pan-Handle News, and are the present proprietors. It is a four page, twenty-eight column paper, democratic, and devoted to general news. Mr. Glass had an up hill business in establishing his paper here. So long had the community been without a democratic organ, that its advent was looked upon not in a very encouraging light. But from all appearances the paper is now on a firm basis all of which is due to the indomitable energy of the proprietors.
Some where along about April 20, 1872, J.S. Hyle published a paper called the Christian Star, it was printed at the office of the News. It had a short live and disappeared about March 1874. Such has been, and is, the history of newspapers in Wellsburg so far as we have been able to ascertain, and our efforts have been untiring. There was a printer here by the name of John P. McArdle, along a bout 1820 o 1829, but whether he carried on a newspaper, or was only a journeyman printer, could not be ascertained definitely. Doddridge's Notes were printed at the office or the Gazette in Wellsburg in 1824.
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