Wetzel Chronicle

Last updated
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.

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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. 4 April 2018.
  5. 1 2 "About Wetzel chronicle". Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress. Retrieved 19 August 2018.
  6. "About The democrat". Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Retrieved 19 August 2018.
  7. "About Wetzel republican". Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress. Retrieved 19 August 2018.
  8. "About The Messenger". Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress. Retrieved 19 August 2018.
  9. "About The New Martinsville messenger". Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Retrieved 19 August 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. 20 May 1885. Retrieved 19 August 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. 5 June 2001. Retrieved 19 August 2018.
  18. "Four newspapers earn West Virginia Press Association Editorial Honors". West Virginia Press. West Virginia Press Association. 13 August 2018.