Fantastic new titles from throughout the state have recently been added to Virginia Chronicle, but before diving into the newly digitized Virginia newspapers, a shoutout to a unique new addition that hails from our neighbor, West Virginia.
Running from 1956 to 1984, the West Virginia Hillbilly, of Richwood, was edited and published by Jim Comstock, educator, author, newspaperman and “true believer in West Virginia.” An irreverent and celebratory record of his beloved state, Comstock’s “weakly” newspaper was one for “West Virginians in particular and hill-loving people everywhere.”
Though the spirit of the Hillbilly was wry and self-deprecating with headlines like, “Impatient Lady Seeks Coffin Nails,” as well as one-liners that ran across the top of every front page like, “Spokesman for the state that mothered the mother of Mother’s Day” and “A paper that would rather be read than dead,” it also celebrated the state’s rich history, geography and culture. Comstock regularly included a “Talk of the Hills” column, highlighting local artists and writers, created “Postcard” editions, with picturesque images of architectural gems and natural wonders throughout the state, and ran short pieces on successful West Virginians like Dwight Morrow, ambassador to Mexico and father of Anne Morrow Lindbergh.
Politically, Comstock was a staunch Republican in what at the time was a solidly Democratic region. “His politics were terrifying,” wrote Matthew Neill Null of Comstock in a Paris Review piece, Letter from West Virginia, “he loathed the New Deal and opposed new mining safety regulations. . . but he had a point when he remarked that West Virginians never felt impoverished or backward until the outside world told us about our depravity.” Through the Hillbilly, Comstock brilliantly took West Virginia stereotypes and used them as a tool for regional pride rather than denigration and his admiration for the enterprising spirit of West Virginia’s people was evident in supplements like Black and Blue, which recognized self-made locals who had graduated from the “University of Hard Knocks.”
At the height of its popularity, the Hillbilly had 30,000 subscribers with a reach far outside of West Virginia. “Brimming with social and political commentary,” explained Null, but “governed by a prankster spirit. . . Jim [was] one of the few to capture West Virginia’s humor—absurd, fatalistic—in print.” Now, users of Virginia Chronicle can search 1961-1962 and 1976-1977 of the Hillbilly, with more years coming to the site soon.
On to the array of fantastic Virginia newspapers that just landed on Virginia Chronicle.
The prize for the oldest newspaper recently added to Virginia Chronicle goes to the Republican, a Democratic newspaper out of Petersburg published from 1843 to 1849. The Republican, which began as a daily then soon thereafter became a tri-weekly, contained legislative reports, dispatches from other papers on national and international news, shipping schedules and local announcements. It was, however, mainly comprised of advertisements for local businesses, property to buy and sell, services offered, and goods for sale in Petersburg at the time.
Initially published by J.M.H. Brunet, then Washington Greenhow, its last publisher was William & Mary graduate William R. Drinkard, who took over the paper in April 1846. After publishing the Republican, Drinkard became a Captain in Company E, Virginia 1st Infantry Regiment, and later served as Assistant Secretary of War under President Buchanan and as Secretary of the State Board of Public Works. When Drinkard died in 1883, his obituary in the Public Ledger of September 6—one of at least three obituaries published about him in Richmond newspapers—explained that the Republican was purchased from Drinkard by Richard A. Pryor in 1849 and the title changed to the Southside Democrat, which ran until 1853. The Southside Democrat will also be added to Virginia Chronicle in the coming months.
The National Watchman, a People’s Party publication distributed weekly from 1892 to 1897, is also among the new additions to Virginia Chronicle. The Watchman, published by N.A. Dunning, advocated for farmers and the working class. Printed and distributed simultaneously in both Alexandria and Washington, its maxim was “Equal rights to all: special privileges to none.” A densely packed paper, the Watchman carried political and economic news, congressional reports, a page of commentary from other Reform newspapers, “Domestic Hygiene” and “People’s Press” sections, and domestic and foreign news of the week.
Another labor newspaper, the Labor Journal of Tidewater, has also been digitized. The Journal was the official organ of the Norfolk Central Labor Union and its motto was clear: “The strongest bond of human sympathy, outside of the family relations, should be one of uniting all working people.” The Labor Journal, endeavoring to make a “mighty effort to elevate humanity,” covered the news of various labor unions, including articles and editorials on wages and workers’ rights, AFL news, civil service news, and ads for union-affiliated businesses.
An area of the Commonwealth that previously lacked representation on Virginia Chronicle now has much more, thanks to two new Mecklenburg County newspapers donated by their publisher, Stephen Bowman. Each one-to-two-page issue of Mr. Bowman’s Goodell Gazette offered editorials, local history pieces, and community news to the rural community between Clarksville, Chase City, and Boydton from January 1971 to July 1973. In 1977, Bowman published a second newspaper with the retired editor of the Clarksville Times titled Love Power. As he explained, “it was a monthly paper of about 10,000 circulation for seven or eight months in 1977 with the unusual name, Love Power, thinking it might appeal to the young people.” In 1985, Bowman followed up with a special, single edition of the Goodell Gazette, focused on “Technical Advances in the Art of Printing,” with information and illustrations on historical printing techniques, which has also been digitized.
Leisure-related newspapers are among Virginia Chronicle’s new offerings as well. The Homestead News, “the daily newspaper of Hot Springs,” consisted of telegraph and cable news from all parts of the world to keep Homestead visitors informed. Printed in a small format for guests of the resort, it claimed to provide news 24 hours before any other paper could reach the Homestead by mail. Most of each issue of the Homestead News was devoted to (often sensational) national and international news but page four was reserved for “Life’s Little Drama at The Homestead” with items like, “Horse Chestnut was feeling very peppy, having had one day of rest.” 1942 and 1951 issues of a later Homestead publication, the Homestead Spectator (also called Spectator), have also been digitized.
Some fabulous new school newspaper collections, many of which were donated by generous patrons and alumni of their respective schools, are also newly digitized and now available on Virginia Chronicle. New school newspapers include 1967-1970 issues of Fairfax High’s professional-quality publication Fair Facts, 1944-1945 issues of the Surveyor, published “in the school print shop” every two weeks by the students of George Washington High in Alexandria, 1977 issues of Amherst County High’s Amherite, 1951 issues of the High Spot from Spotsylvania High, 1952 issues of the Blue and Gold published by Hopewell High, and the Ginter Park Messenger, published monthly by Ginter Park School in Richmond from 1956 to 1959.
Along with the Ginter Park Messenger, another newspaper out of Richmond’s Ginter Park area, the Suburban News, has been digitized and can now be searched on Virginia Chronicle. The 1959-1964 run of the Suburban News provided a variety of neighborhood news for a long list of communities within Richmond’s Northside, including Bryan Park, Ginter Park, Longdale, Glen Allen, Laurel Park, Club Court, and Dumbarton. Its school updates, reports on infrastructure improvements, club activity listings, graduation news, voting information, parks and civic association news, garden club updates, and PTA bulletins, along with its advertisements for businesses like Lakeside Book Shop, Hermitage Cleaners, and the Record Bar, paint a vivid and lively picture of this historic area.
The Virginia Republican of Amherst is also among the new titles on Virginia Chronicle. The Republican, which strove to bring its readers “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth,” was published weekly by W.C. Crews and carried stories with headlines like “Peery and Byrd Win; Four More Years of Machine Rule.” Its mantra, “Virginia Needs a Change,” made it clear that it was not an advocate of the Byrd Machine controlling Virginia politics at the time. The first issue of the paper, published on September 23, 1933, has been digitized along with additional 1933 issues. The summer 2001 edition of another Republican newspaper, the Elephant’s Ear of Annandale, published by the Fairfax County Republican Committee, is also now on Virginia Chronicle.
Along with labor, high school, leisure, political and community newspapers, noteworthy and new religious newspapers have also been digitized, including an 1893 issue of Richmond’s Grace Street Chimes, “published semi-monthly in the interest of Grace Street Baptist Church by the Young Men’s Missionary Society” and another Richmond publication, the Advocate of Missions, devoted to reporting worldwide missionary efforts of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
There have also been several more titles added to Virginia Chronicle that are comprised of a single issue or a few issues, including new titles from Southwestern Virginia, like the Declaration, the Grayson-Carroll Gazette, the Grayson Gazette, and the Independence Journal, as well as an 1892 issue of the Daily Bee of Roanoke; two Surry County newspapers, the Virginia Democrat and the Monthly Advocate; the Nottoway Journal of Crewe; and a 1917 issue of the Times of Boykins. Though these newspapers are extremely rare and holdings for them are sparse, every issue is valuable and packed with local history.
As Virginia Chronicle steadily grows, the possibility for discovery grows, so visit today and start researching!
