Democratic Messenger (Snow Hill, Md.)
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
1,431 issues from 1881 to 1922, published in Snow Hill, Maryland, digitised for Chronicling America.
The Democratic Messenger was established in 1869 as a weekly by T.H. Moore and George M. Upshur (1847-1924). The latter was a Yale graduate and prominent lawyer in Snow Hill. He also was a Democratic Party leader, representing Snow Hill in the Maryland House of Delegates, where he was elected Speaker in 1888. The paper was a consistent mouthpiece for Democratic Party political views, which reflected the conservative attitudes of most of the population on Maryland’s lower Eastern Shore.
By 1881, the newspaper had passed to the control of Littleton Dennis, a member of a family with deep roots in the county. Dennis sold the paper in 1887 to Oscar M. Purnell and Clarence L. Vincent (1861-1945). Vincent had prior experience as a local publisher, having started the Wicomico Record in nearby Salisbury in 1884. In 1902, Coriolanus V. White purchased Purnell’s half interest and joined Vincent in publishing the paper.
The Democratic Messenger chronicled major changes in Worcester County in the years following the Civil War. Snow Hill’s economy had relied primarily on the ability to ship timber and agricultural goods down the Pocomoke River to the Chesapeake Bay. These and allied businesses, such as the building of coastal schooners, continued to see coverage in the newspaper. The Maryland, Delaware and Virginia Railroad, later part of the Pennsylvania Railroad, reached Snow Hill in the early 1870s. This significantly shortened travel times from cities such as Baltimore and…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Snow Hill, Maryland, 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