Montgomery County Sentinel

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Montgomery County Sentinel
Montgomery county sentinel. 1855-08-11 inaugural issue cover page.jpg
The cover page of the August 11, 1855 inaugural issue of The Montgomery County Sentinel
TypeWeekly newspaper
Format Compact
Owner(s)Berlyn, Inc.
Founder(s)Matthew Fields
PublisherLynn G. Kapiloff
EditorDaniel J. Kucin, Jr.
Metro editorJosé Mauricio Umaña
FoundedAugust 11, 1855;168 years ago (1855-08-11)
LanguageEnglish
Ceased publicationJanuary 30, 2020
Headquarters22 West Jefferson Street, Rockville, Maryland, 20850
CountryUnited States
Sister newspapersPrince George's Sentinel
OCLC number 9627507
Website mont.thesentinel.com

The Montgomery County Sentinel was the oldest continuously published newspaper in Montgomery County, Maryland. [1] As one of the smallest local newspapers, in terms of circulation, it was based in Rockville from its first print in 1855 until its closure in 2020. [2] [3] [4] [5]

Contents

History

The Montgomery County Sentinel was first published as a weekly newspaper on August 11, 1855 by Matthew Fields in Rockville, Maryland.

The early focus of the paper was on advertising and politics, with relatively little space devoted to local news. News articles were usually brief and to the point without elaboration. On two occasions, once before and once during the Civil War, the paper suffered brief interruptions while Union military forces detained Matthew Fields, a Southern sympathizer. [6]

Throughout the war, the Sentinel wrote on the issue of slavery and when Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, Fields published the document's text in full on September 26, 1862. The editors of the Sentinel took a firm stance against the Emancipation Act believing that it encouraged the occurrence of a racial war. [7] In addition to discussing the various political issues, war reports also informed readers on the progress of the war. [8]

After rioting killed Union soldiers in Baltimore, the institution of martial law in Maryland allowed the Union Army to imprison Confederate sympathizers for disloyalty. On October 6, 1862, Union soldiers arrested Matthew Fields on the suspicion of 'southern sympathies.' Court documents indicate Fields was to be released as soon as he was willing to take an oath not to publish material favoring the South. He was released on November 25, 1862, during Lincoln's Thanksgiving Amnesty. [9]

Fields was later arrested by United States military authorities once again, in the spring of 1864. He would be released in the following June. The paper ceased publication during this time period. [10]

Fields died in 1871 and his wife Rebecca took over publication, often handling production entirely on her own until 1910 when Matthew Fields' son Henry Clay Fields became the editor. Rebecca Fields maintained a limited role until her death in 1930 at age 100. [11]

The Fields family maintained ownership of the Sentinel until 1932, when they sold the newspaper to Paul Griffith Stromberg. Stromberg expanded the newspaper, hired numerous reporters and a newsboy to handle deliveries. His ownership period focused a great deal on roads as roads were essential to moving products from the mills. [12] Stromberg’s ownership also included the period through World War II and the need to rally support for the war, including coverage of the death of his son as well as the use of German prisoners of war to help on farms in Gaithersburg, Maryland. [13]

In its centennial year, the Stromberg family sold the Sentinel to Louis Linebach and Cy Campbell. During their ownership, Linebach and Campbell had significant disagreements, with Campbell eventually selling his stake in the publication. One of the key events during their ownership period was the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. [14]

In 1962, Leonard and Bernard Kapiloff purchased the newspaper from Linebach. [15] During the 1960s, the Sentinel’s reporting on "The Giles Case," often referred to as the "'To Kill a Mockingbird' case of Montgomery County," led to freeing African Americans charged and wrongly convicted of rape. [16]

After failing a two-week trial hiring at The Washington Post in 1970, Bob Woodward spent a year at the Sentinel as a reporter. The Post rehired Woodward and within 12 months he partnered with Carl Bernstein to investigate the Watergate break-in. [17] [18]

In June 2015, the Sentinel removed over 80 editorial cartoons it had plagiarized from a variety of other artists. [19] [20] [21] [22] [23]

On January 30, 2020, the Sentinel ceased publication. [24] [25] [26] [27] [28]

Contributors

Contributors to the publication include notable writers, political activists and editors such as:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Montgomery County, Maryland</span> County in Maryland, United States

Montgomery County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 1,062,061, increasing by 9.3% from 2010. The county seat is Rockville and Germantown is the most populous place in the county. The county is adjoined to Washington, D.C., the nation's capital, and is part of the Washington metropolitan area and the Washington–Baltimore combined statistical area. Most of the county's residents live in Silver Spring, Bethesda, Germantown, and the incorporated cities of Rockville and Gaithersburg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rockville, Maryland</span> City in Maryland, United States

Rockville is a city in and the county seat of Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, and is part of the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area. The 2020 census tabulated Rockville's population at 67,117, making it the fourth-largest incorporated city in Maryland.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Darnestown, Maryland</span> Census-designated place in the United States

Darnestown is a United States census-designated place (CDP) and an unincorporated area in Montgomery County, Maryland. The CDP is 17.70 square miles (45.8 km2) with the Potomac River as its southern border and the Muddy Branch as much of its eastern border. Seneca Creek borders portions of its north and west sides. The Travilah, North Potomac, and Germantown census-designated places are adjacent to it, as is the city of Gaithersburg. Land area for the CDP is 16.39 square miles (42.4 km2). As of the 2020 census, the Darnestown CDP had a population of 6,723, while the village of Darnestown is considerably smaller in size and population. Downtown Washington, D.C. is about 22 miles (35 km) to the southeast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Bethesda, Maryland</span> Census-designated place in Maryland, United States

North Bethesda is an unincorporated, census-designated place (CDP) in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, located just north-west of the U.S. capital of Washington, D.C. It had a population of 50,094 as of the 2020 census. Among its neighborhoods, the centrally-located, urbanizing district of White Flint is the commercial and residential hub of North Bethesda. The Pike & Rose development and the Pike District is an initiative of Montgomery County to brand and market this region as "North Bethesda's Urban Core". The WMATA North Bethesda metro station and Grosvenor-Strathmore metro station serve the region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Potomac, Maryland</span> Census-designated place named North Potomac in Maryland, United States

North Potomac is a census-designated place and unincorporated area in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It is located less than 5 miles (8.0 km) north of the Potomac River, and is about 20 miles (32 km) from Washington, D.C. It has a population of 23,790 as of 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Travilah, Maryland</span> Census-designated place in Maryland

Travilah is a United States census-designated place and an unincorporated area in Montgomery County, Maryland. It is 17.28 square miles (44.8 km2) located along the north side of the Potomac River, and surrounded by the communities of Potomac, North Potomac, and Darnestown—all census-designated places. It had a population of 11,985 as of the 2020 census.

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Richard Montgomery High School (RMHS) is a public high school located in Rockville, Maryland. It is part of the Montgomery County Public Schools system. RMHS hosts the county's most competitive and far-reaching International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme.

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References

  1. ↑ "The Sentinel Newspapers". www.thesentinel.com.
  2. ↑ "About Montgomery County sentinel". Chronicling America. Library of Congress. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
  3. ↑ "Maryland State Archives, Guide to Special Collections, Maryland Newspapers". speccol.mdarchives.state.md.us.
  4. ↑ McGuckian, Eileen S. (2001). Rockville: Portrait of a City (Illustrated ed.). Hillsboro Press. ISBN   1577362357 . Retrieved 26 February 2018.
  5. ↑ Kapiloff, Lynn (January 16, 2020). "Thank you for your support, The Sentinel will close on Jan. 30". Montgomery County Sentinel. Retrieved January 30, 2020.
  6. ↑ "📃 Download free Guide to Selections from the Montgomery County Sentinel, Maryland, January 1, 1905 – December 31, 1908 ePub by John D Bowman – Free Books – Ultimate Classics Library on the App Store".
  7. ↑ Brugger, Robert J. (1988). Maryland, a middle temperament, 1634-1980. Baltimore, Md: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 299. ISBN   9780801833991.
  8. ↑ Bowman, John D. (2007). Guide to Selections from the Montgomery County Sentinel, Maryland, January 1, 1897 – December 31, 1901. Heritage Books. ISBN   978-0788443930 . Retrieved 26 February 2018.
  9. ↑ Gordon Malloy, Mary; Waters Jacobs, Marian (1986). Genealogical Abstracts: Montgomery County Sentinel, 1855–1899. Montgomery County Historical Society. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
  10. ↑ Scharf, John Thomas (1968) [1882]. History of Western Maryland: Being a History of Frederick, Montgomery, Carroll, Washington, Allegany, and Garrett Counties from the Earliest Period to the Present Day; Including Biographical Sketches of Their Representative Men,. Vol. 1. Genealogical Publishing Com. p. 741. ISBN   9780806345659.
  11. ↑ Jacobs, Charles; Waters Jacobs, Marian (May 1993). "Matthew Fields and the Montgomery County Sentinel". The Montgomery County Story (36): 249–260.
  12. ↑ Schwartz, Paul (January 30, 2020). "Another one bites the dust…and this time it's us!". Montgomery County Sentinel. Retrieved January 30, 2020.
  13. ↑ Schwartz, Paul (January 30, 2020). "Another one bites the dust…and this time it's us!". Montgomery County Sentinel. Retrieved January 30, 2020.
  14. ↑ Schwartz, Paul (January 30, 2020). "Another one bites the dust…and this time it's us!". Montgomery County Sentinel. Retrieved January 30, 2020.
  15. ↑ Sukharev, Nickolai (August 17, 2017). "How far we've come . . ". Montgomery County Sentinel. Retrieved January 30, 2020.
  16. ↑ Sukharev, Nickolai (August 10, 2018). "The Sentinel celebrates its birthday – 163 years young!". Montgomery County Sentinel. Retrieved January 30, 2020.
  17. ↑ "Fact Sheet". bobwoodward.com.
  18. ↑ "Bob Woodward, Washington Post Investigative Journalist". Stevenson University. Baltimore Speakers Series. November 12, 2019. Retrieved February 2, 2020.
  19. ↑ Gardner, Alan (May 29, 2015). "The Montgomery Sentinel caught publishing plagiarized editorial cartoons". The Daily Cartoonist. Retrieved January 30, 2020.
  20. ↑ Kraut, Aaron (May 29, 2015). "Rockville Council Member Accuses Newspaper Of Stealing Political Cartoons". Bethesda Magazine. Retrieved January 30, 2020.
  21. ↑ Gardner, Alan (May 30, 2015). "Sentinel Newspapers apologizes for plagiarized cartoons; may continue using cartoonist". Montgomery County Sentinel. Retrieved January 31, 2020.
  22. ↑ Cavna, Michael (June 1, 2015). "Cartoon plagiarism and the case of the unknown Maryland cartoonist". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 30, 2020.
  23. ↑ Gardner, Alan (June 23, 2015). "Investigation called in Sentinel plagiarism; 81 of 84 cartoons found to be copies; paper owner: 'meh'". The Daily Cartoonist. Retrieved January 30, 2020.
  24. ↑ Yasharoff, Joe (January 10, 2020). "Sentinel Papers Going Out of Business". Montgomery Community Media. Retrieved January 30, 2020.
  25. ↑ Grunberger, Alessia (January 13, 2020). "The Sentinel Papers Fold In Montgomery, Prince George's Counties". Patch. Retrieved January 30, 2020.
  26. ↑ Kapiloff, Lynn (January 16, 2020). "Thank you for your support, The Sentinel will close on Jan. 30". Montgomery County Sentinel. Retrieved January 30, 2020.
  27. ↑ Umaña, Jose (January 30, 2020). "County officials react to Montgomery County Sentinel closure". Montgomery County Sentinel. Retrieved January 30, 2020.
  28. ↑ Farhi, Paul (January 30, 2020). "The end comes for another local newspaper, 165 years after it began". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 31, 2020.
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