The Jasper Weekly Courier (Jasper, Ind.)
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
3,232 issues from 1858 to 1922, published in Jasper, Indiana, digitised for Chronicling America.
The Jasper Weekly Courier debuted on March 19, 1858, in Jasper, Indiana. The seat of Dubois County in southern Indiana, Jasper was an agricultural trade center located near iron and coal deposits. John Mehringer, Rudolphus Smith, and Clement Doane published the Courier as an organ of the Democratic Party. The Courier was the first newspaper published in the county since the American Eagle left Jasper in 1848 after a two-year run. On November 1, 1859, Doane became sole proprietor of the Courier. The paper endorsed Stephen A. Douglas in the 1860 presidential election and early in the Civil War drew criticism for being disloyal to the Union. Doane fired back with an editorial affirming his loyalty, but lamented “a Union which requires bayonets and bullets to keep it together.” In 1872, Doane expanded the four- page weekly to eight pages. He continued to publish the Courier until his death in 1904. His son, Benjamin E. Doane, assumed publishing duties until his death in 1922. Benjamin Doane’s children briefly tried to maintain the Courier, but the publication ceased in July 1922.
The Courier was the oldest and, in its day, the longest running English-language newspaper in Dubois County. Jasper’s population ranged from 1,000 to 2,000 during the Courier’s lifetime, and the newspaper’s circulation ranged from 350 in 1869 to 750 in 1920. Since the county had a large German-speaking population, the very first issue of the Courier bore the following announcement in German:…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Jasper, Indiana, 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