The People's Defender (West Union, Adams County, Ohio) 1866-Current
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
1,068 issues from 1922 to 1943, published in West Union, Ohio, digitised for Chronicling America.
This newspaper was first printed on January 16, 1866, in West Union, Ohio, to support the Democratic Party and provide news to the residents of Adams County. Although the People’s Defender began as a semi-weekly paper, it developed into a weekly by the early twentieth century. Issues typically ranged from 8 to 12 pages long.
A History of Adams County, Ohio, by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers, describes the People’s Defender as a “radical Democratic organ.” Its politics reflected those of the Defender’s first publisher, Joseph W. Eylar, whom Evans and Stivers identify as “a Democrat in the intensest sense of the word.” In 1890, he sold the paper to the like-minded Edward A. Crawford. Under both publishers, the paper was successful and enjoyed large circulation numbers throughout southern Ohio. Crawford also purchased the West Union Democratic Index seven years later and consolidated it with the People’s Defender.
In October 1916, Crawford divested from the paper, and a joint stock venture, the Defender Publishing Company, took over. It had strong ties to Joseph Eylar’s son, William A. Eylar, editor of the nearby Georgetown News Democrat, and the Eylar family would remain heavily involved with the People’s Defender through at least 1943. Over that span, the Defender continued to favor the Democratic Party’s candidates and platforms. It also maintained its popularity, asserting on December 30, 1937, that its circulation was wider than any other two Adams County…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- West Union, Ohio, 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