Wetzel Chronicle

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Wetzel Chronicle
Type Weekly newspaper
PublisherEric Anderson
EditorEd Parsons
Founded1876
Headquarters1100 Third Street, New Martinsville, WV
Circulation 4,630(as of 2016) [1]
Website wetzelchronicle.com

The Wetzel Chronicle is a newspaper serving New Martinsville, West Virginia, and surrounding Wetzel County. [2] Published weekly, it has a circulation of 4,630 and is owned by Ogden Newspapers. [3] Since April 2018, Eric Anderson has been the publisher. [4]

Contents

History

The paper is the merger two previous local newspapers, [5] the Democrat which dates back to 1877, [6] and the Republican, [7] which traces its roots back to the founding of the Messenger in 1876. [8] [9]

The Wetzel Democrat was established as an eight-page Democratic weekly [10] by Dan Long, with W. S. Wiley and Robert McEldowney as editors. [11] Its early fame was based on McEldowney's editorials, which were widely syndicated, quoted, and discussed throughout the state. [12] Born in 1837, McEldowney had been raised in Wetzel County had received a public education in the local schools before attending Marrietta College in Ohio. [13] On the outbreak of the Civil War he had headed south to fight with the Confederacy's "Stonewall Regiment", [13] and fought as a captain at the Battle of Gettysburg. [12] An ardent Democrat, his editorials were known for both their wit (McEldowney once described the Republican party in the state as the only known instance of a "corpse attempting to commit suicide") [14] and its oppositional stance to Democratic party leadership. McEldowney died in 1900, at which point C. G. Westerman took over as editor and publisher. [12]

The Messenger was started 1876 by J. E. Hart. [11] After selling it and then repurchasing it, Hart changed the name to the Wetzel Republican, [11] a name under which it continued until its 1979 merger with the Democrat. The chief rival of the Democrat in its early years, it had a 1917 circulation of 1,300 [15] to the Democrat's 1,800 [15] in a county with a population of just over 20,000. [16]

Merged in 1979 under the title of the Wetzel Chronicle, the first issue of the Chronicle was published on July 5 of that year. [5] It has been owned by Ogden since at least 2001. [17]

On August 13, 2018, Perry Nardo, former publisher and current regional publisher of the Wetzel Chronicle, won the Adam R. Kelly Award from the West Virginia Press Association. [18] The Adam R. Kelly Award is the association's highest honor.

References

  1. ↑ 2016 West Virginia Press Association Newspaper Directory (PDF). West Virginia Press Association. 2016.
  2. ↑ "Newspapers Currently Received in the West Virginia Archives and History Library" (PDF). West Virginia Division of Culture and History. State of West Virginia. December 2016.
  3. ↑ 2016 West Virginia Press Association Newspaper Directory (PDF). West Virginia Press Association. 2016.
  4. ↑ "Anderson Named New Publisher". Wetzel Chronicle. April 4, 2018.
  5. 1 2 "About Wetzel chronicle". Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress. Retrieved August 19, 2018.
  6. ↑ "About The democrat". Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Retrieved August 19, 2018.
  7. ↑ "About Wetzel republican". Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress. Retrieved August 19, 2018.
  8. ↑ "About The Messenger". Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress. Retrieved August 19, 2018.
  9. ↑ "About The New Martinsville messenger". Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Retrieved August 19, 2018.
  10. ↑ Rowell's American Newspaper Directory. 1887.
  11. 1 2 3 McEldowney, John C. (1901). History of Wetzel County, West Virginia. p. 109.
  12. 1 2 3 McEldowney, John C. (1901). History of Wetzel County, West Virginia. pp. n111.
  13. 1 2 Atkinson, George Wesley; Gibbens, Alvaro Franklin (1890). Prominent Men of West Virginia: Biographical Sketches, the Growth and Advancement of the State, a Compendium of Returns of Every Election, a Record of Every State Officer. W. L. Callin. p.  808. Robert McEldowney.
  14. ↑ "Untitled Item". The Weekly Register. May 20, 1885. Retrieved August 19, 2018.
  15. 1 2 West Virginia Blue Book. Tribune Printing Company. 1917.
  16. ↑ Forstall, Richard. "WEST VIRGINIA: Population of Counties by Decennial Census: 1900 to 1990". Census.gov. US Bureau of the Census.
  17. ↑ "Marietta Times sold to Ogden Newspapers". Marysville Journal-Tribune. June 5, 2001. Retrieved August 19, 2018.
  18. ↑ "Four newspapers earn West Virginia Press Association Editorial Honors". West Virginia Press. West Virginia Press Association. August 13, 2018.


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