Volume and Issue Data: Vol. 1, No. 11, August 2, 1884
Size and Format: Ledger (7 3/4 x 12+)
Editor/Publisher: Multiple authors, editors
Title Changes and Continuation: See The Educator, The Evening Star, The Knowledge Seeker, A Manuscript Paper, Young Ladies’ Diadem, and Young Ladies’ Thoughts; one of many papers published by the Mormon’s Young Men’s and Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Societies in Utah
General Description and Notes:
According to Alter, the Young Men’s and Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Associations of Hyrum published weekly literary journals largely in the interests and for the entertainment of their members during the late 1880s. The publications carried news, religious items and weather reports.
“The Knowledge Seeker” was published by the Young Men; “The Young Ladies Thoughts” and “The Evening Star” were published by the Young Ladies. Apparently, “The Evening Star” succeeded “The Knowledge Seeker.” These papers appeared under various editors, since officers in these organizations changed hands regularly.
Information Sources:
Bibliography: J. Cecil Alter, Early Utah Journalism (Salt Lake City: Utah State Historical Society, 1938), 90; Lorraine T. Washburn, “Culture in Dixie,” Utah Historical Quarterly, 29 (July 1961), 259-260; Mark A. Pendleton, “The Orderville United Order of Zion,”Utah Historical Quarterly, 7 (October 1939), 151
Locations: John A. Israelson’s papers, Special Collections and Archives, Utah State University, Logan, UT
Place of Publication: Buffalo Springs, NC, with occasional references to Fayetteville, NC.
Frequency: Published monthly
Volume and Issue Data: According to Smith, 12 numbers (8 issues surviving); vol. I, No. 9, Sept. 1858. pp. 227-248.
Size and Format: About 9- by 11-inches
Editor/Publisher: John McLean Harrington
Title Changes and Continuation: None
General Description and Notes:
According to Smith, TheYoung American contained limited traditional newspaper content but it was more of a literary publication. The paper included politics, poetry, short stories, anecdotes and other timeless items. See below.
Information Sources:
Bibliography: Michael Ray Smith, AFree Press in Freehand (Grand Rapids, MI: Edenridge Press, 2011). Additional bibliographic information about this and other Harrington papers contained in Smith.
Locations: John McLean Harrington Papers, Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, Perkins Library, Duke University, Durham, NC
Place of Publication: Winter Harbour, Melville Island, Parry Islands, North West Territories, Canada
Frequency: Unknown
Volume and Issue Data: No. 1-21; Nov 1, 1819 to March 20, 1820.
Size and Format: Unknown
Editor/Publisher: Edward Sabine, Captain of the Ship Hecla.
Title Changes and Continuation:
General Description and Notes:
“Written, produced and circulated in Mss., by members of the Parry expedition while they were at their winter quarters in the Arctic, and published, in printed form, after the expedition’s return to London under the title: North Georgia Gazette, and Winter Chronicle.
“When the expedition arrived in the Arctic, Parry called the group of islands he discovered the “New Georgia Islands,” but having afterwards remembered that this name was already used in another part of the world he decided to change it to “North Georgian Islands” to honor George the Third. This change accounts for the variation in name as used in the title on the manuscript copy and that used on the published editions.”
Information Sources:
Bibliography: None
Locations: Rare Book & Special Collections Library, University of Illinois Library at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL
Place of Publication: Willow Creek Farm, Waverly, Nebraska
Volume and Issue Data: Vol. 1, No. 1, n.d.; author apparently intended to publish more: No. 1 ends a serialized story with “to be continued”
Size and Format: Ledger paper, 7.5 x 12 inches; pen and ink; 2 cols., 2 pp.
Editor/Publisher: Charles A. Pierce, “Editor and Proprietor”
Title Changes and Continuations: Immediate continuation of the March 1873 (Vol. 1, No. 4) issue of The Experiment
General Description and Notes:
The Willow Creek Journal is an immediate continuation of The Experiment, which was published March 1873.
The Journal contains Chapters 7 and 8 of “Johnny’s Adventures or the life of a boy among the Indians,” a serial story whose first six chapters appeared in The Experiment. Unlike The Experiment, The Journal‘s first number contains only this story. A headline for an “Editorial” appears over a single seven inch blank column, but no other news, advertisements or stories appear in the issue. Only the “Terms” are published on page one: “One contribution for each number of the paper.”
The motto of the Journal is the same as The Experiment’s, “Progress and Perseverance.” Both newspapers are self-described as “A family paper, devoted to Literature, Agriculture, News, Family affairs, and General Improvement.”
One of the student editors, Charles A. Pierce, was the son of Charles W. Pierce, a civil war veteran, who was transferred to Demopolis, Alabama in 1866 as a major with the Freedman’s Bureau and District commander of western Alabama. The senior Pierce served one term in the 41st Congress from Alabama’s fourth district in 1867. I was during this time that his son, Charles A., began his first handwritten newspaper, The Experiment, at Oakland Hall, Chunchula, Alabama. In 1872 the family moved to Waverly, Nebraska, where The Experiment, and its successor, Willow Creek Journal were published by Charles A. in 1873. The Casket appeared in Nebraska in 1875 as a school effort, no doubt with the help of Charles A.
Information Sources:
Bibliography: None
Locations: Charles W. Pierce Papers, Ms. 554, Nebraska State Historical Society, State Archives, Lincoln, NB,
The Wild Goose: A Collection of Ocean Waifs (AUS, 1867)
Publication History:
Place of Publication: Shipboard the Hougoumont, the last ship to transport convicts from England to Fremantle, Australia
Frequency: Seven issues of the newspaper were produced, each issue carefully laid out and decorated by hand. Only one copy of each issue was made, which was then read to the convicts aloud.
Editor/Publisher: Irish “Fenian prisoners:” John Flood, John Boyle O’Reilly and John Casey
Title Changes and Continuation: None
General Description and Notes:
The Wild Goose was, according to a Wikipedia article, a
“handwritten newspaper created in late 1867 by Fenian prisoners aboard the Hougoumont, the last ship to transport convicts to Australia.
“Seven issues of the newspaper were produced, each issue carefully laid out and decorated by hand. Only one copy of each issue was made, which was then read to the convicts aloud. The aim was to provide entertainment and encouragement aboard the ship during its long and arduous voyage to Fremantle. The title refers to the Wild Geese: the Irish soldiers who had left to serve in continental European armies since the 16th century.
“The major contributors were John Flood, John Boyle O’Reilly and John Casey.
The documents provide a fascinating insight into life aboard ship. The documents contain songs, stories, articles, advice, poems, and even comedy. In addition to the diaries of Denis Cashman and the journals of John Casey and Thomas McCarthy Fennell, the journey of the Hougoumont was well recorded.
“One passage describes Australia and its history with more than a little sarcasm:
“This great continent of the south, having been discovered by some Dutch skipper and his crew, somewhere between the 1st and 9th centuries of the Christian era, was, in consequence taken possession of by the government of Great Britain, in accordance with that just and equitable maxim, “What’s yours is mine; what’s mine is my own.” That magnanimous government in the kindly exuberance of their feelings, have placed a large portion of that immense tract of country called Australia at our disposal. Generously defraying all expenses incurred on our way to it, and providing retreats for us there to secure us from the inclemency of the seasons…
“All seven issues survive, and were passed on by John Flood’s granddaughter to the Mitchell Library in 1967. The papers are bound into one book and are now part of the State Library of New South Wales collection.”John Boyle O’Reilly penned several poems for the paper, including The Flying Dutchman and The Old School Clock.
“On 9 September 2005, a memorial was unveiled at Rockingham beach to commemorate the Catalpa rescue. The memorial is a large statue of six Wild Geese.”
“The Fenian movement, or Irish Republican Brotherhood, was a secret society that flourished during the 1860s. Its activities included an armed rebellion against British rule in Ireland, which failed for a number of reasons. In 1865 hundreds of men were arrested in Ireland on suspicion of complicity. There were two elements amongst the men charged and convicted: those who were civilians, and those who were currently serving in the British military services. The civilian element were treated as political prisoners, whilst the military element were treated as ordinary criminals. In 1869 the civilian element were granted clemency and freed, whilst such consideration was denied the military element (Erickson pp.115-156).
“John Boyle O’Reilly [emphasis added] was an NCO in the 10th Hussars (the prestigious regiment of the Prince of Wales) when arrested in 1866 for assisting fellow soldiers to join the rebellious Fenian movement. Found guilty at his court martial, his death sentence was commuted to one of 20 year’s penal servitude which automatically meant transportation (anyone sentenced to seven years or more was transported).
“He sailed, along with 280 other convicts — 62 of them Fenians — on board the Hougoumont from Portland in October 1867. They arrived at Fremantle in January 1868, the last convicts to be sent to Western Australia. Their arrival also signalled the end of the convict era in Australia.”
Locations: Wikipedia: “All seven issues survive, and were passed on by John Flood’s granddaughter to the Mitchell Library in 1967. The papers are bound into one book and are now part of the State Library of New South Wales collection.”
Place of Publication: Fort Lancaster, Crockett County, (Western) Texas
Frequency: Unknown
Volume and Issue Data: Four pages; Feb. 1, 1862
Size and Format: Unknown
Editor/Publisher: Unknown
Title Changes and Continuation: Unknown
General Description and Notes:
None
Information Sources:
Bibliography:
Locations: University of Houston (original); The Texas Newspaper Project, Center for American History (microfilm), University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
Editor/Publisher: Adelaide Holcomb and Delia Parsons, young women in their late teens or early twenties.
Title Changes and Continuation: Unknown
General Description and Notes:
According to Carol Laun, curator of the Salmon Brook Historical Society, “Unfortunately, we have no copies of this paper, but we do have several letters submitting articles and jokes for the paper.”
Frequency: Published Thursdays at first June 7-28, 1860), then Tuesday and Thursdays (July 5-31, 1860), then Tuesdays (Aug. 7-June 4, 1861), then Wednesdays (June 12, 1861-March 2, 1864).
Volume and Issue Data: According to Smith, 182 numbers (153 issues surviving)
Size and Format: About 9- by 11-inches
Editor/Publisher: John McLean Harrington
Title Changes and Continuation: See also The Times and other Harrington papers
General Description and Notes:
According to Smith, the Weekly News. contained traditional newspaper content. The paper included politics, poetry, local election results, and other general news items.
Information Sources:
Bibliography: Michael Ray Smith, AFree Press in Freehand(Grand Rapids, MI: Edenridge Press, 2011). Additional bibliographic information about this and other Harrington papers contained in Smith; “Handwritten Newspaper Was Published in Western Harnett,” Harnett County News, February 3, 1944, front page story; Malcom Fowler, They Passed this Way, (Harnett County Centennial, 1955), see Chapter XVII, “Authors, Poets and Papers”, pp. 150-52. In the Harrington Papers is an article dated 1944, “Unique state Newspaper Found in Files at Duke”. No dates or page numbers for the article are viewable on the copy.
Locations: John McLean Harrington Papers, Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, Perkins Library, Duke University, Durham, NC
Place of Publication: American Fork, Utah County, Utah
Frequency: Weekly
Volume and Issue Data: At least 12 issues; No. 12, ca. March 11, 1868
Size and Format: Pen and ink manuscript
Editor/Publisher: R. G. Eccles
Title Changes and Continuation: None
General Description and Notes:
The Salt Lake Telegraph,March 11, 1868, reported: “From American Fork. We are pleased to receive number 12 of the American Fork Weekly Gazette, edited by Brother R.G. Eccles. It is published in neat manuscript. Its pages are filled with instructive and interesting matter, comprehending the scientific, useful, and amusing, such as: ‘An Essay on Astronomy; Original Poetry by J. Crystal; Local Items; Wit and Humor; and Various Selected Matter.'”
The telegraph opened in American Fork. Nov. 20, 1867
July 20, 1868–President Brigham. Young organized a theological school in American Fork for the region. (George F. Shelley)
According to the University of Utah,
“American Fork first got a newspaper in 1868. The Weekly Gazette was written in pen-and-ink manuscript, and included items like “Original Poetry,” “An Essay on Astronomy,” and “Wit and Humor” before folding after about 12 editions. The American Fork Independent debuted in March 1890. It provided coverage of Utah’s mining industry for the next two years. Other American Fork newspapers included the Item, an “Independent Weekly,” which survived for less than three years, and The Advance, which succumbed after just 12 weeks in 1901.”
Information Sources:
Bibliography: J. Cecil Alter, Early Utah Journalism (Salt Lake City: Utah State Historical Society, 1938), 18-20; George F. Shelley, Early History of American Fork, American Fork City, 1945
Volume and Issue Data: According to Smith, one issue, the only one that survives; April 20, 1860
Size and Format: About 9- by 11-inches
Editor/Publisher: John McLean Harrington
Title Changes and Continuation: None
General Description and Notes:
The paper included politics, poetry, local election results, and other general news items.
Information Sources:
Bibliography: Michael Ray Smith, AFree Press in Freehand (Grand Rapids, MI: Edenridge Press, 2011). Additional bibliographic information about this and other Harrington papers contained in Smith.
Locations: John McLean Harrington Papers, Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, Perkins Library, Duke University, Durham, NC
According to Loveridge, the Dufferin Weekly Critic and the Swan River Daily Police News represented the first efforts at rural journalism at Swan River and Fort Dufferin by North West Mounted Police in 1875 and 1876. These may have been the earliest Manitoba newspapers outside Winnipeg. Loveridge calls them “newsletters” and distinguishes them from “true newspapers.”
Information Sources:
Bibliography: D.M. Loveridge, A Historical Directory of Manitoba Newspapers, 1859-1978 (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1978), pp. 5, 58
Locations: Legislative Library, Culture, Heritage and Citizenship, Manitoba, Winnipeg; cited in Manitoba Free Press, March 1, 1875
Place of Publication: Washington, Washington County, Iowa
Frequency: Irregular
Volume and Issue Data: 1850-ca. 1854
Size and Format: “A folio with regular columns of ordinary size, tolerably fine pen type, published on the four sides of one sheet of cap paper”
Editor/Publisher: Nathan Littler and Richard B. McMillan
Title Changes and Continuation: None
General Description and Notes:
In his own Washington County history, editor Littler described The Washington Shark as “a folio with regular columns of ordinary size, tolerably fine pen type, published on the four sides of one sheet of cap paper.” The paper used pseudonyms frequently in its reports and the editors apparently tried to keep their own names a secret. Littler says the paper contained “general news and current literature,” market reports, advertisements and society news. The editor notes that it appeared only one copy at a time, so wide distribution did not occur. Instead, readership was limited to those who could meet in public gathering places.
The Shark was put into the mail box when none were present. It was directed to some one whom the editors felt would give it the widest publicity. Usually, when the paper came, its owner would go the most frequented store in town, and taking his seat on a stool or mail keg, would proceed to read to the crowd that quickly assembled, the contents, advertisements and all.
Littler claims the paper appeared frequently, and when it did it was the “sensation of the town until its contents became familiar to all the citizens.” If most “readers” were amused by the paper’s wit and satire, not all appreciated its occasional bite.
Some, however, to whom the jokes and caricatures fit most closely, were outrageously vexed and the only reason the editors were not punished corporeally at least, was the fact that they were safely incognito.
Littler says the Shark would attack “any and everything going on to which the editors were opposed or which was opposed to the best interests of the community.”
Apparently other handwritten papers were published in the area on the model ofThe Shark. Notes Littler: “Occasionally afterwards, other papers of a similar character came out, but none of them achieved the popularity of the Shark.”
Littler served as constable of Washington in 1850, the year the Shark first appeared. In 1852 he was elected justice of the peace and served in that post until he moved to the town of Richmond, Iowa. He returned to Washington in 1869 and wrote a history of the county which was serialized in the local paper.
McMillan (1823-1898) lived in Washington from 1846 to 1855. During that period he was a county assessor and township clerk. While editing the Shark, McMillan’s brother, Horace Greeley McMillan, lived with him. The year Richard died Horace purchased the Cedar Rapids Republican, and he eventually owned two Iowa dailies and a weekly farm paper.
Information Sources:
Bibliography: Nathan Littler, History of Washington County, 1835-1875, ed. by Edna Jones (Washington, Iowa: Jonathan C. Clark, 1977), 186-187; Roy Alden Atwood, “Handwritten Newspapers on the Iowa Frontier, 1844-1854,”Journalism History, 7:2 (Summer 1980), 56-59, 66-67
Ian Macllelan, in “Kakuma Refugee Camp Free Press,” writes, “In Osire Refugee Camp, Namibia, The Voice of Refugees was a handwritten newspaper that was snuck out of the camp and then spread around to shed light on what happens there. The Namibian Government and UNHCR shut down the venture before long.”
“If a free press spreads among the hundreds of camps in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and appears on the World Wide Web, indeed a feedback mechanism will have been established. We know of only one other newspaper, TheVoice of Refugees, produced in Osiri Camp in Namibia, but it is not using modern information technology.”
Frequency: Library reports only one issue, but 500 copies (lithographed)
Volume and Issue Data: Extant copy says “No. 1, September 8, 1841” (NZ library site says “15 September 1841”)
Size and Format: Size (unknown), but handwritten text was lithographed
Editor/Publisher: Thomas Bluett and Jacob Jones
Title Changes and Continuation: None (possibly related the New Zealand Gazette)
General Description and Notes:
According to the National Library of New Zealand website, “The Victoria Times was only published once but is noteworthy for several reasons; it was Wellington’s second earliest paper, it was lithographed rather than letter-pressed and it contains a plan of Wellington on the back page. The plan was hand-coloured in some issues although not the one presented here.
“The Victoria Times was published by Thomas Bluett and Jacob Jones. They had previously produced lithographs for the New Zealand Company, including a chart of Port Nicholson that’s now recognized as New Zealand’s first lithograph. Given that the Company had a strong interest in Wellington’s other newspaper, the New Zealand Gazette, the decision to publish a rival paper seems reckless. And is presumably one of the reasons why the paper failed to appear again. Another possible reason for the paper’s brief life was that the partnership of Bluett and Jones did not endure. Jones announced its dissolution in the Gazette in late 1841.
“Bluett moved to Tasmania. Records show him operating a lithographic firm in Hobart in 1842. Examples of his work are held in various archives in Australia. He died in England in 1846.”
According to the Library Tech NZ site, “Many of you will know that five hundred copies of the first issue of the Victoria Times were published in Wellington on 15 September 1841. These were lithographed, rather than letter-pressed like most newspapers.
“The first three pages are handwritten text, and the last is a fascinating plan of Wellington in 1841. Note that Lambton Quay is actually a quay (i.e. constructed along the edge of a body of water) and that Basin Reserve is a “proposed basin” linked to the water by a “proposed canal”. In some issues (but not ours) the map was hand-coloured. This was not an economical way to run a newspaper, apparently, as the first issue was also the last.”
Title Changes and Continuation: According to the front page story in the Vermont Autograph and Remarker, the editor also wrote the Huntington Gazette when he was 13 years old (March 1810). He altered the title of this paper “as fancy dictated.”
General Description and Notes:
The paper is very neatly written in scripted print. On the first page James Johns writes:
“It cannot well escape the notice of an observing eye that the Autograph is, as the title indicates, a manuscript production, being executed with a pen by hand. consequently it may well be supposed what is the fact, that such a mode of issue does not admit of multiplying copies like the press and types, one at a time being all that I undertake to get out at once. This I am generally able to accomplish in little more than half a day with close application. The matter is all written down on the columns directly from the dictates of my mind. The papers’ so issued I mostly send off by mail to either publishers.”
According to the editor of the Proceedings of the Vermont Historical Society, Vol. IV, No. 2 (New Series), 1936, pp 69-70, the editor of the Autograph, James John was born in Huntington, VT, September 26, 1797.
“As early as 1834, he pen-printed a newspaper, the Vermont Autograph and Remarker; each issue included five or six articles, totaling about fifteen hundred words–every letter printed by hand. He continued the Autograph until three months before his death [1867, age 76]. His pen-printed material consists of historical items, essays, fiction, poems, and political statistics.”
Information Sources:
Bibliography: Robert W. G. Vail, “Bibliography of the Writings of James Johns,” Monograph on James Johns [The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, Vol. 27, Part 2, 1933]; cited in Proceedings of the Vermont Historical Society, 1936, “James Johns, Vermont Pen Printer,” Vol. IV, No. 2, pages 69-71
Locations: Vermont Historical Society Library, Montpelier, VT; Newspapers and Periodicals, American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, MA
Gazette-Extr., Philadelphia, 1846; attributed to Herman Melville; courtesy of Prof. Roger Stritmatter, Dept. of Humanities, Coppin State University, Baltimore, MD, USA
![Irish Fenian Volunteer Poster (re. Wild Goose [AUS, 1867])](https://royaldenphd.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/fenian-volunteer-poster-wild-goose-aus-1867.jpg)
The Handwritten Newspapers Project 
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