Page:History of American Journalism.djvu/204

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
172
HISTORY OF AMERICAN JOURNALISM

and the Berkeley Advertiser and had for its motto, "Where Liberty Dwells, There's My Stand." The earliest known issue is that of April 3, 1792, Volume 2, Number 73. It was a 9 x 15 sheet and the copy is preserved at the Capitol at Richmond, Virginia. Nathaniel Willis, father of Nathaniel Willis, who published The Boston Recorder, and grandfather of Nathaniel Parker Willis, who was the most distinguished literary man of his day, founded the second newspaper of West Virginia, also in Martinsburg in 1799. Willis called his paper The Martinsburg Gazette. The third newspaper in the State, again printed at Martinsburg, was started in 1800 and called The Berkeley and Jefferson County Intelligencer and Northern Neck Advertiser. Its publisher was John Alburtis. Wheeling had its first newspaper, The Repository, in 1807. Other early papers in Wheeling were The Times, The Gazette, The Telegraph, and The Virginian. In 1819 Herbert P. Gaines brought out the first newspaper at the Capital of the State, Charlestown, The Kanawha Patriot, and in 1820, Mason Campbell brought out the second, The Western Courier. Other papers followed until by 1850 there were three dailies and twenty-one weeklies in West Virginia.


INAUGURAL JOURNALISM IN DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Before the seat of government was permanently located in the District of Columbia, a number of newspapers had been published in Georgetown. The first of these was The Times and Potowmack Packet, established by Charles Fierer in February, 1789. Others were The Weekly Ledger, started by Alexander Doyle in March, 1790; The Columbian Chronicle, by Samuel Hanson in December, 1793; and The Centinel of Liberty, by Green, English & Company in May, 1796. The first paper actually printed in Washington City was The Impartial Observer and Washington Advertiser, the initial number of which Thomas Wilson issued on May 22, 1795. The paper was suspended about a year later on account of its owner's death. Its immediate successor was The Washington Gazette—a semi-weekly established on June 15, 1796. The relation between The Impartial Observer and The Washington Gazette is made clear by the following notice in the early issues of the latter:—