The Chapel News (GA, 1883-1903)

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Publication History:

Place of Publication:  Broad, Georgia

Frequency: Unknown

Volume and Issue Data:  Only one existing hand-written copy; 1883-1903?

Size and Format: Unknown

Editor/Publisher:  Unknown

Title Changes and Continuation: 1883-1903

General Description and Notes:

None

Information Sources:

Bibliography: None

Locations:  Framed and hanging in the publisher’s office of The Millen News, Millen, GA

Information obtained from Jay Evatt, Main Library, University of Georgia, Athens, GA

Chalacha Pioneer (OR, 1855)

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Publication History:

Place of Publication:  Chalacha, Washington Territory (Oregon), (1855)

Frequency:  At least two issues

Volume and Issue Data:  July 1 and 7, 1855

Size and Format: Unknown

Editor/Publisher: Unknown

Title Changes and Continuation: Unknown

General Description and Notes:

None

Information Sources:

Bibliography: None

Locations:  Oregon State Historical Society

The Casket (NE, 1875)

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The Casket (NE, 1875)

Publication History:

Place of Publication:  Prospect Hill School (District 75), Waverly, Lancaster County, Nebraska

Volume and Issue Data:  Vol.1, No. 1, Jan. 22, 1875

Vol. 1, No. 2, Feb. 19, 1875

Vol. 1, No. 3, March 19, 1875

Size and Format:  Ledger paper, 7.75 x 12 inches; pen and ink; 2 cols.

Editor/Publisher:  Students, including Charles A. Pierce

Title Changes and Continuations:  See THE EXPERIMENT and WILLOW CREEK JOURNAL may have been precursors to The Casket

General Description & Notes:

The Casket contains short news items, editorials anecdotes and student “compositions.”  The weather apparently was of concern in all three extant numbers because of a bitter cold spell.

The editorial in the first number explains the circumstances of the new publication:

We come into your presence this afternoon, to make our first bow, in the editorial line, and hope that you will take our paper.  When it was announced, a couple of weeks ago, that “our school” was to have a paper, many were the disheartening exclamations, and hints that it would be a second rate sort of thing, if it did come out.

The Casket (NE, 1875)

We were not discouraged, however, for we had confidence in our contributors; but we were surprised by the number of articles which came pouring in.  Instead of our first number being a four or eight page paper, as we expected; we are enabled to issue a first class sixteen-page one, which we know exceeds the expectations of any of us.  Our motto is “Excelisor,” as you may see, and we will try to improve with every number, instead of retrograding, as some papers do.  As a last word, we ask you to keep on supporting use, as you did have this time, and we will soon be able to challenge any paper of this kind in the state, to excel us.

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.

The Casket (NE, 1875)

Information Sources:

Bibliography:  None

Locations:  Nebraska State Historical Society, State Archives, Lincoln, NB, Charles Pierce papers, Ms. 554

The Casket (MA, 1857)

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Publication History:

Place of Publication: Boylston, Massachusetts

Frequency: Unknown

Volume and Issue Data:  1857

Size and Format: Unknown

Editor/Publisher: Unknown

Title Changes and Continuation: Unknown

General Description and Notes:

Amateur Newspaper, written with pen or pencil.

Information Sources:

Bibliography: None

Link: The American Antiquarian Society, Amateur Newspapers Collection

Locations:   American Antiquarian Society, Worcester,  MA

The (Carolina) Rebel (SC, 1863)

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See The Rebel

Cape Horn Chronicle, Emigrant Soldiers Gazette and (England-BC, 1858-1859)

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See EMIGRANT SOLDIERS GAZETTE AND CAPE HORN CHRONICLE

Emigrant Soldiers Gazette & Cape Horn Chronicle (Eng-BC, 1858-1859)

The Camp Ford News (TX, 1865)

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Camp Ford News (TX, 1865)

Publication History:

Place of Publication:  Camp Ford (Confederate Prison Fort), Tyler, Texas

Frequency:  “Only one copy is known to have been printed, this being the issue of May 1, 1865”

Volume and Issue Data:  May 1, 1865 (one issue: Civil War ended the next week)

Size and Format:  One sheet broadside

Editor/Publisher:  Capt. Lewis Burger

Title Changes and Continuation:  None

General Description & Notes:

Like the OLD FLAG and RIGHT FLANKER, this was a paper created to relieve the monotony and trials of prison life during the Civil War.  Only one issue appeared apparently because May 13-17, 1865 marked the end of the Civil War and the abandonment of Camp Ford.

Camp Ford was part of a Confederate prison complex in Tyler and Hempstead, Texas.  The prison held officers and enlisted men from 1863 to the end of war and the prisoners had built their own shelters.  After 1864 and the Red River Campaign, prison crowding and sickness increased, and the general conditions of prison life declined.  It was during these latter days of the War that the paper was produced.

Information Sources:

Bibliography:  F. Lee Lawrence and Robert W. Glover, Camp Ford, C.S.A.:  The Story of Union Prisoners in Texas (Austin, Texas:  Texas Civil War Centennial Advisory Committee, 1964); Mark Boatner, III, The Civil War Dictionary (New York: Random House, 1991).

Locations:  Smith County Historical Society, Texas

The Cactus (UT, 1878?-1884)

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Publication History:

Place of Publication:  Panguitch, Garfield County, Utah (1878? 1880?-1884)

Frequency:  Irregular, “when the spirit moved”

Volume and Issue Data:  Started 1878 or 1879 and published until about 1884

Size and Format:  8 x 10 inches, four pages

Editor/Publisher:  John M. Dunning, editor and publisher; James T. Daly, Sr., correspondent or writer

Title Changes and Continuation:  Garfield County News, The Recorder, The Register

General Description & Notes:

The paper was first called the Cactus, but the name was changed, possibly, to the Garfield County News, The Recorder, and/or The Register.  The paper was not issued regularly but “when the spirit moved.”

According to Alter, editor Dunning was said to have been a humorist and prepared his own jokes for fillers.  Many of his poems and other writings also appeared in the Cactus.  Says Alter, “It may have been a manuscript, pen-and-ink newspaper.”

Alter notes that “the Manti Home Sentinel mentions March 26, 1886 as being: ‘among our latest exchanges:’ though the echang practice was so universal it is more than likely the Register was just beginning when it received this notice.”

According Lucy Hatch, a member of the Panguitch Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, Dunning published the first newspaper in the town “from about 1880 to 1884” and that Daly was a correspondent or writer.

Information Sources:

Bibliography:  J. Cecil Alter,  Early Utah Journalism (Salt Lake City:  Utah Historical Society, 1938), p. 180

Locations:  No issues located

See also the Panguitch Register

The Butterfly (IL, early 20th century)

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Publication History:

Place of Publication: Chicago(?), Illinois

Frequency: “Several volumes”

Volume and Issue Data: Early 20th century

Size and Format: Unknown

Editor/Publisher: Members of the Butterfly Society

Title Changes and Continuation: Unknown

General Description and Notes:

The Butterfly is an aesthetic journal published by the Butterfly Society in the early part of this century.  The first two volumes are completely handwritten as well as illustrated.  Later issues were hand typed.

Information Sources:

Bibliography: None

Locations:  The Chicago Public Library, Special Collections, Harold Washington Library Center, Chicago, IL

Bumble Bee Budget, Flumgudgeon Gazette and (OR, 1845)

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See FLUMGUDGEON GAZETTE AND BUMBLE BEE BUDGET

The Bumble Bee (LA, 1864)

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Publication History:

The Bumble Bee, LA, 1864

Place of Publication:  “Camp near Shreveport (LA);” “Office of Bumble Bee for the present will be under the board shelter of Co. ‘E’, which is a very airy and healthy location in dry weather.”

Frequency:  “Semi occasionally” (from No. 1)

Volume and Issue Data: April 1, 1864

Size and Format:  13+ x ? inches

Editor/Publisher:  “Cook & Hu(?)ghey, Editors & Proprietors”

Title Changes and Continuation:  Unknown

General Description & Notes:

This is a handwritten Confederate Army paper published near Shreveport, Louisiana, in 1864. Its motto on first number: “Oh brush that Bee away or you will surely get a sting.” The extant copy (see above) includes “Local” news, anecdotes, and appeals for subscriptions.

Information Sources:

Bibliography: None

Locations: Arkansas History Commission, Little Rock, AR (according to John L. Ferguson, State Historian [letter to HNP editor, June 21, 1993], “I think that we have a few similar little CSA papers on microfilm”).

Bum Hill Gazette (CA, 1906)

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Publication History:

Place of Publication:  San Francisco, California

Frequency:  Two issues

Volume and Issue Data:  May [no day], and May 23, both 1906

Size and Format:  56-60 x 42 cm.; May (no date) May 23 issue is 2 pp.; “three folio leaves”; pen and ink; illustrated with watercolor

Editor/Publisher:  Published by “Prowlers of Ashbarrel Street, New San Francisco;” compiled, written and illustrated by Hazel Snell; also edited by “U.R.A. Bum, I.B.A. Tramp”

Title Changes and Continuation:  None

General Description & Notes:

Two issues of a newspaper edited by Hazel Snell (Holmes), San Francisco, were donated to the Bancroft Library by the editor.  In her own undated description of the Gazette, which accompanied the donation, Ms. Holmes writes:

“Three folio leaves compiled, written and illustrated by Snell as a neighborhood paper, residing with her parents on Ashbury Street between Hayes and Fell near the pan-handle of Golden Gate Park.  Some of the humorous jibes were contributed by William Jones Hanlon, now a retired Colonel of the U.S. Air Force.  As far as known, first amateur paper issued after earthquake and fire in San Francisco on April 18, 1906.”

The first number which was dated “May, 1906,” contained sections on business, society, poetry, and local news, and includes want ads and advertisements.  The two-page second number, dated “May 23, 1906,” noted:

“Editors:  U.R.A. Bum, I.B.A. Tramp.  Published any old time.  Sub. Price–six doughnut holes on a toothpick.  When your subscription expires–call an undertaker.  Price per copy–a can of corn bread.”

The motto of the paper, as indicated in the second issue was, “To see ourselves as others saw us.”  The second issue also announced on page one:

“The editors wish to inform the general public that a third and last Edition of the B.H.G. will be published and for the suckers of the same they will depend on the reports of the citizens of this street.  The names of reporters will not be mentioned.

“Kindly place reports in hands of Editors.

“The painting at head of the edition is the reproduction of the famous masterpiece rescued from Hopkins Art Institute during the ‘grate’ fire.”

The editor also claimed, “The first edition of the B.H.G. was probably the most elaborate publication since the earthquake.  It was encased in a beautiful gold and silver frame and given a warm reception in St. Nick’s Kitchen, evidently keeping its circulation in a good condition.”

Information Sources:

Bibliography:  None

Locations:  University of California, Berkeley Bancroft Library manuscripts collection, C-II 81.

Bugle (NV, 1880)

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Publication History:

Place of Publication:  Junctionville (also known as Bonelli’s Ferry), Nevada

Frequency:  Weekly

Volume and Issue Data:  c. Feb. 1880-c. 1880

Size and Format:  Written on letter sheets

Editor/Publisher:  Leonard Bonelli, Bugle Publishing Co.

Title Changes and Continuation:  None

General Description & Notes:

The Pioche Record, Feb. 28, 1880, reports that the Bugle was a weekly written on letter sheets by the ferryman’s son, Leonard Bonelli, who lists himself as the editor and the Bugle Publishing Co. as publisher.

Information Sources:

Bibliography:  Pioche Record, Feb. 28, 1880; Lingenfelter and Gash, The Newspapers of Nevada (Reno:  University of Nevada Press, 1984), p. 123.

Locations:  No extant issues located

Bow and Arrow (MI, 1833)

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Publication History:

Place of Publication:  Michilimackinac, Michigan (1833)

Frequency:  Unknown

Volume and Issue Data:  No. 2, Oct. 1, 1833

Size and Format:  Unknown

Editor/Publisher:  Henry Rowe Schoolcraft (1833)

Title Changes and Continuations:  None

General Description & Notes:

According to Littlefield and Parins, The Bow and Arrow was a manuscript magazine devoted to Indian life, history, opinion, and names.  This was editor Schoolcraft’s third handwritten publication, the first being a literary magaznie published from 1809 to 1818 and the second being The Muzzinyegun or Literary Voyager (1826-1827) published in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.  The Oct. 1, 1833 issue of the Bow and Arrow contained an article entitled “The Indian” dealing with stereotypes and characteristics of the American Indian.

Information Sources:

Bibliography:  Vernon Kinietz, “Schoolcraft’s Manuscript Magazines,” Bibliographical Society of America Papers, 35 (April-June, 1941), 151-154.  Indexed in David F. Littlefield, Jr. and James W. ParinsAmerican Indian and Alaska Native Newspapers and Periodicals, 1826-1924 (Westport, Conn.:  Greenwood Press, 1984), 44.

Locations:  DLC

The Boston News-Letter (MA, 1700-1704)

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Publication History:

Place of Publication:  Boston, Massachusetts

Frequency: Weekly

Volume and Issue Data:  1700-1704; after 1704, the paper was printed

Size and Format: Approximately 6.25 x 10.5 inches

Editor/Publisher: John Campbell, Boston postmaster

Title Changes and Continuation: Boston News-Letter (printed edition beginning 1704)

Boston News-Letter (printed edition, 1704)

General Description & Notes:

The Boston News-Letter is generally regarded as the first “successful” newspaper in the American colonies. From 1704 to 1722, the last date being three years after he retired as postmaster, editor John Campbell produced a printed newsletter. However, for the first four years of the News-Letters’ existence, it was published in handwritten form.

Benjamin Harris’s Publick Occurrences preceded the News-Letter by at least 10 years, but Day’s paper lasted only one issue and was shut down by authorities. As the Campbell’s first printed issue of the News-Letter boldly states, the paper was “Published by Authority.”

Postmaster Campbell used his postal role as to gather information which he published “in the form of a newsletter–the primitive, handwritten report that had been the common medium of communication in Europe before the invention of printing. Most of the information sent out by Campbell was concerned with commercial and governmental matters.”

According to one historian, “There was such a demand for his news letter that Campbell began to look around for some way of relieving the pressure upon his time and energy. He got his brother, Duncan, to help, but even together they could not supply the demand for news. The just couldn’t write longhand fast enough.”

The first printed edition, replacing the handwritten version, appeared on April 24, 1704. “It was called the Boston News-Letter, an appropriate title, since it was merely a continuation of the publication the Campbells had been producing since 1700.”

Source: http://blog.genealogybank.com/a-mystery-from-the-first-handwritten-newspaper-published-in-america.html

Boston News-Letter (Boston, Mass.), 18-25 November 1706, p. 4

Information Sources:

Bibliography: Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, First Series, March 1867, Volume 9, pp. 485-501 (Nine issues of the News-Letter from 1703 are presented in this collection); Frank Luther Mott, American Journalism: A History of Newspapers in the United States Through 250 Years (New York, 1941); Willard G. Bleyer, Main Currents in the History of American Journalism (New York, 1973); Edwin Emery and Michael Emery,  The Press and America,  Fifth ed.  (Englewood Cliffs, 1984); Wm. David Sloan and Julie Hedgepath Williams, The Early American Press, 1690-1783 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994), p.  18; Wm. David Sloan, “John Campbell and the Boston News-Letter,” AEJMC website (2004); Tom Kemp, “A Mystery from the First Handwritten Newspaper in America,” http://blog.genealogybank.com/a-mystery-from-the-first-handwritten-newspaper-published-in-america.html, posted Nov. 20, 2012, accessed Feb. 7, 2013.

Locations:  American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, MA; State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, WI

The Bomb Shell (MN, 1854)

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Publication History:

Place of Publication:  Fort Ripley(?), Minnesota

Frequency: Unknown

Volume and Issue Data:  1854

Size and Format: Unknown; may be printed “from type carved by hand.”

Editor/Publisher:  Unknown

Title Changes and Continuation: Unknown

General Description & Notes:

“The paper is pictured on the end papers as well as contained in the unpaginated illustrations portion.” (quote from Danky letter to HNP editor, June 21, 1993).  This could refer to the book by George S. Hage, Newspapers on the Minnesota Frontier, 1849-1860.

Information Sources:

Bibliography:  Referred to in George S. Hage’s book Newspapers on the Minnesota Frontier, 1849-1860, and presumably copies were used inside the cover.

Locations:   Information came from James Danky, Newspapers and Periodicals Librarian at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, WI.

The Blister (PA, 1921-1927)

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Publication History:

Place of Publication: Gettysburg, PA

Frequency: “Created almost every day when school was in session”

Volume and Issue Data: November 5, 1921-March 29, 1927

Size and Format: Single typewritten and hand-illustrated page

Editor/Publisher: Variable

Title Changes and Continuation: Unknown

The Blister, PA, 1922

General Description & Notes:

Note from Gettysburg College Special Collections Librarian David Hedrick (to HNP editor, June 22, 1993):

The Blister was created almost every day when school was in session. The Blister consisted of a single typewritten page usually containing an ‘Editorial’, some campus news, a couple of jokes, and a hand-drawn cartoon. It seems that only a limited number of copies of each issue were created and at least one copy was always posted on a campus bulletin-board. An almost complete run is maintained in our collections . . . . This publication has been microfilmed, and can be acquired via interlibrary loan.

Information Sources:

Bibliography: Charles Glatfelter, A Salutary Influence: Gettysburg College, 1832-1985 (Gettysburg, 1987).

Locations: Musselman Library, Special Collections, Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, PA

Black Republican and Office-Holder’s Journal (NY, 1865)

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Publication History:

Place of Publication:  New York, New York

Frequency:  Unknown

Volume and Issue Data:  August, 1865

Size and Format:  Last issue 4 pages

Editor/Publisher:  Pluto Jumbo

Title Changes and Continuation: Unknown

General Description and Notes:

The Library of Congress identifies the handwritten paper as a parody publication. 

  •  “…an entry for the Black Republican and Office-Holder’s Journal, which turns out to be a single-issue parody of black newspapers.”–African American Review.
  • Microfilmed by the Library of Congress for the Committee on Negro Studies of the American Council of Learned Studies.
  • Description based on: Aug. 10, 1865; title from title page.
  • Latest issue consulted: Number 4 (September, 1865); American History, 1493-1945 (online) (viewed February 16, 2018).”

Includes line drawings.

Information Sources:

Bibliography: None

Locations:  Available in microform from DLC (1865). LC card no. sn85-42252.  OCLC no. 12006614, 2611164.  Subject focus and/or Features:  Newspaper.

On microfilm at The State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, WI.

See https://www.loc.gov/item/sn85042252/.

Images of the paper are included in a video on 19th century American journalism.

The Black Fly (MI, 1913-1915)

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Publication History:

Place of Publication:  Douglas Lake, Michigan

Frequency: Irregular

Volume and Issue Data:  July and August, 1913-1915

Size and Format: Unknown

Editor/Publisher:  Student surveyors at surveying camp, Douglas Lake, Michigan

Title Changes and Continuation:  Unknown

General Description & Notes:

This paper is listed as a “printed holding”, but may still be relevant–perhaps it is partial manuscript.

Information Sources:

Bibliography:  Floyd Streeter, Michigan Bibliography (Michigan Historical Commission, 1921), p. 42 (entry 380):

The black fly, v. 2-4. Camp Davis, Mich., 1913-1915. U.
Published irregularly during July and August at the University of Michigan surveying camp at Douglas Lake, Mich.”

Locations:  Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

Big Injun (TX, 1866, 1869)

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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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