The Cambria Freeman (Ebensburg, Pa.)
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
1,409 issues from 1867 to 1897, published in Ebensburg, Pennsylvania, digitised for Chronicling America.
Cambria County in Pennsylvania lies in the Alleghenies, a rugged stretch of the vast Appalachian mountain range. The county was formed on March 26, 1804, and called a variant of an ancient name of Wales (Cumbria), reflecting the region’s longtime Welsh presence. Ebensburg, in Cambria’s geographical center, became the county seat. Welsh roots here dated to 1796, when a small group of religious dissidents arrived from Philadelphia led by Congregational Minister Rees Lloyd, who named the settlement after his late son, Eben. Situated in a rich bituminous coal region, Ebensburg thrived on mining and small industries and prospered in the late 1800s as a summer mountain resort for wealthy visitors including Andrew Carnegie and the Vanderbilts. Some of the rich visitors contributed generously to rebuilding the town after a disastrous fire in 1915 devastated much of it.
The Democrat and Sentinel of Ebensburg ceased publication at the end of 1866, leaving the county seat without a Democratic press. Robert L. Johnston, an attorney and judge, and Henry A. McPike, an experienced newspaperman (both of whom had been associated with the recently defunct newspaper), answered the call by launching the Cambria Freeman in Ebensburg on January 31, 1867. Johnston was the editor and McPike, who had produced the Mountain Echo in Johnstown and the Crusader in Summitville, both in Cambria County, was publisher.
The first issue of the Cambria Freeman proclaimed, “Truth shall be our pole star, for…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Ebensburg, Pennsylvania, United States
- Language
- English
- Collection
- Chronicling America
- Licence or status
- None stated by the archive
- Rights
- The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety.
- Credit
- Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities
- Who can read it
- Teens profiles and older (placed by Invisible Network from what the archive says; archives give no ratings)
- Archive
- Library of Congress