Smithfield Sunday School Gazette (UT, 1869)

July 25, 2011

Roy Alden Atwood 1869, Alphabetical Order, S, School Newspapers, United States, Utah, Youth Papers Leave a comment

Publication History:

Place of Publication: Smithfield, UT

Frequency:  Weekly

Volume and Issue Data:  Vol. 2, Nos. 1-6, Oct. 24-Nov. 28, 1869

Size and Format:  2.5 columns on 8.5”x14” lined paper, one issue with an extra 8”x10” and another with a 5”x7” poem

Editor/Publisher:  Louisa L. Greene

Title Changes and Continuation:  None

General Description and Notes:

Motto:  “Remember Thy Creator in the Days of thy Youth.”

The manuscript paper, Smithfield Sunday School Gazette, was a weekly paper edited from Oct. 24 to Nov. 28, 1869, by Louisa L. Greene, who later became founding editor of the Woman’s Exponent, a Mormon publication for women.  The Exponent was never an organ of the Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association, as the authors of The Story of the Latter-day Saints state on p. 336.

Copies of the Smithfield paper for the above dates are in the archives of the Mormon Church Historical Library in Salt Lake City.  Content of the papers included news of Sunday School members and of the community, with some literary efforts by the editor and her helpers.  The paper was distributed at Sunday School meetings.  Greene would have been about 20 years old in 1869.

(The above information was provided by Prof. Sherilyn Cox Bennion, Humboldt State University, Arcata, California)

According to the Olsons, the Sunday School was organized in Smithfield on Sunday, April 15, 1866, with Francis Sharp as superintendent.  There were 69 pupils in eight classes, with a teacher for each group….(40)

The Sunday School took charge of the May Day celebrations, the July celebrations, edited the Smithfield Sunday School Gazette, opened the first library there, and in general played an active part in the life of the Mormon community.

Information Sources:

Bibliography:  James Allen and Glen Leonard, The Story of the Latter-Day Saints (Historical Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Deseret Book Co., 1976), p. 336; Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Olson, eds., The History of Smithfield [Utah] (Smithfield:  City of Smithfield, 1927), pp.40-43

Locations:  Mormon Church Historical Library Archives, Salt Lake City, Utah (Ms D 2918, Box 17, fd 17)

The Night Blooming Cereus (NS, 1869-1871)

July 16, 2011

Roy Alden Atwood 1869, Alphabetical Order, Canada, N, Nova Scotia, Organization Newspapers Leave a comment

Publication History:

Place of Publication: Pugwash, Nova Scotia, Canada (a small village on the north shore.)

Frequency:  Semi-monthly

Volume and Issue Data:  From Nov. 1869 to Mar. 1871

Size and Format: Unknown

Editor/Publisher:  Unknown

Title Changes and Continuation: None

General Description and Notes:

It was the official organ of the Literary Association in Nova Scotia, devoted to science, poetry and art.

Information Sources:                

Bibliography:  “Flashback” (column), The Chronicle-Herald, June 15, 1964, p. 24.  Newspaper Library, Public Archives of Nova Scotia, 6016 University Avenue, Halifax, NS

Locations: North Cumberland Historical Society, Pugwash, Nova Scotia; Special Collections, Dalhousie University Library, Halifax, NS, Canada

Little Monitor (NC, 1869)

July 13, 2011

Roy Alden Atwood 1869, Alphabetical Order, Children Papers, L, North Carolina, School Newspapers, United States Leave a comment

Publication History:

Place of Publication:  Wilmington, NC

Frequency: Unknown

Volume and Issue Data:  1869

Size and Format:  Pen and ink journal

Editor/Publisher:  Edward A. Oldham

Title Changes and Continuation: Unknown

General Description and Notes:

“In 1869 at Wilmington, N. C., so far as it has been possible to ascertain, occurred the initial awakening of amateur journalism in the South. At the age of nine, Edward A. Oldham, who was later to become a leading publisher of newspapers, weekly and daily, and a distinguished columnist and writer, produced his first effort in mimic journalism, a pen-and-ink journal, bearing the title of the Little Monitor, suggested by his having been selected as monitor in a private school, where he was among the youngest pupils. This little make-believe newspaper was issued often enough to intensify the young editor’s ambition to own a real printing press and to print a little paper. He had seen Benjamin S. Wood’s advertisement of the Novelty Press in his monthly copy of the St. Nicholas. In time he managed to earn money enough for the purchase of a press and type equipment, and in 1870 he published the Star of the South, four pages, each page 5 x 7 inches, printing one page at a time. This tiny journal set the pace for Southern boys, North Carolina boys particularly, and in that State there quickly followed the Boys’ Courier from New Born, with James M. Howard, Charles R. Thomas and Owen Guiort, as editors. The last named became a Superior Court judge, and Thomas rose to political prominence and became a Member of Congress from North Carolina for several terms, in the Nineties and later.” (The Early Pioneers of Amateur Journalism (Before 1876))

“WHAT HAS BEEN CHARACTERIZED as “The Mimic Press” had an early start in North Carolina. In 1869, at the age of nine, Edward A. Oldham, of Wilmington, is credited with producing the first “amateur newspaper” — the Little Monitor, a pen and ink folio, followed in 1873 by the Star of the South, miniature and type-set.” (Oldham, History of Early Amateur Journalism in North Carolina)

Information Sources:

Bibliography: None

Links: Edward A. Oldham, History of Early Amateur Journalism in North Carolina, http://www.thefossils.org/horvat/aj/states/NorthCarolina.htm; The Early Pioneers of Amateur Journalism (Before 1876)  http://www.thefossils.org/horvat/aj/pioneers.htm

Locations:  Unknown

The Delhi Independent (OH, 1869)

June 20, 2011

Roy Alden Atwood 1869, Alphabetical Order, D, Images, Ohio, Organization Newspapers, United States Leave a comment

Delhi Independent (OH, 1869)

Big Injun (TX, 1866, 1869)

June 20, 2011

Roy Alden Atwood 1866, 1869, Alphabetical Order, B, Frontier Papers, Military Papers, Texas, United States Leave a comment

Publication History:

Place of Publication:  Fort Belknap, Texas

Frequency:  Unknown

Volume and Issue Data:  Published sometime between 1866 and 1869.

Size and Format:  Unknown

Editor/Publisher:  H.H. McConnell

Title Changes and Continuation:  Same editor/publisher produced LITTLE JOKER at Jacksboro, Texas, prior to his transfer to Fort Belknap.  After creating BIG INJUN, he was transfered again a short distance to Fort Buffalo and “again broke forth” with THE GRASSHOPPER.

General Description & Notes:

According to Whisenhunt, the Jacksboro area had no fewer than four newspapers between 1866 and 1869, although only one was printed.  The editor of all four was H.H. McConnell, a soldier first assigned to Jacksboro, Texas in 1866.  McConnell recounts his journalistic efforts and military experience on the Texas frontier in the Reconstruction period in his autobiography, Five Years a Cavalryman.

Shortly after he arrived in Jacksboro, McConnell and other soldiers published a weekly newspaper, LITTLE JOKER, on foolscap.  The paper circulated among the soldiers at Jacksboro.  The Jacksboro post was temporarily abandoned by the military, and the LITTLE JOKER “was ignominiously packed on a Quartermaster’s hourse and moved to Fort Belknap.”

At Fort Belknap soon issued another handwritten paper, BIG INJUN, intended for a military audience.  According to McConnell, “Here the genius of the editor again broke forth, and the ‘Big Injun’ for a time shed an undying lustre on the literature of the nineteenth century.”  The paper was short-lived:  “Like a meteor flashing along the midnight sky–brilliant for a moment, then rendering the darkness more intense–so the ‘Big Injun’ ran its course.”

McConnell’s transfer to nearby Fort Buffalo Springs marked the publication of his third handwritten, THE GRASSHOPPER.  Like its predecessors, THE GRASSHOPPER was short-lived.  Fort Buffalo Springs was soon abandoned for the more strategic Jacksboro post.

McConnell was finally reassigned to Fort Richardson where he contracted with a Weatherford, Tex. printer to publish The Flea.  This, his first printed newspaper, appeared Feb. 1, 1869, but lasted only six issues, until June 15, 1869.

According the Whisenut, McConnell’s handwritten papers did little more than provide diversion for the soldiers at their respective military posts, but “this was important.  Their very existence also impolies that the life of the frontier soldier was mostly a monotonous existence despite the legend and aura of romance that surrounds the United States Cavalry.”

Information Sources:

Bibliography:  H.H. McConnell, Five Years a Cavalryman (Jacksboro, Texas:  J.N. Rogers and Co., 1889), p. 174; Donald W. Whisenhunt, “The Frontier Newspaper:  A Guide to Society and Culture,” Journalism Quarterly, 45:4 (Winter 1968), 727; see also Theronne Thompson, “Fort Buffalo Springs, Texas, Border Post,” West Texas Historical Association Yearbook, 36:168 (October 1960).

Locations:  None

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