Spirit of Jefferson (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.])
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
3,116 issues from 1844 to 1926, published in Charles Town, West Virginia, digitised for Chronicling America.
The Spirit of Jefferson debuted July 17, 1844 in Charles Town, a community of about 1,400 inhabitants in Jefferson County, Virginia. Founder James W. Beller published the weekly newspaper for a decade, and his departure, in late 1854 or early 1855, triggered a series of editorial and publishing changes. By April 1857, Benjamin F. Beall and Thomas P. Beall were the editors and proprietors, and Benjamin became the paper’s lone official two years later. Beall’s management during the ensuing tumultuous decade ended on January 11, 1870. The new publisher John W. Dalgarn brought George William Haines into partnership. Upon Dalgarn’s death on June 9, 1874, the newspaper’s trustee Stephen S. Dalgarn became publisher and editor until Haines succeeded him on July 13, 1875. Haines, a Confederate veteran and prisoner of war, served until his death in April 1914. He was succeeded by his son, Clayton L. Haines.
The Spirit of Jefferson supported the Democratic Party in direct competition with John S. Gallaher’s Virginia Free Press, Charles Town’s Whig newspaper. The politically neutral Shepherdstown Register appeared in 1849 in the town of similar size only ten miles away. Jefferson County benefited from its Shenandoah Valley location and from commercial relations in the Potomac River basin and Maryland. Its slave population was the largest in what became West Virginia. National attention focused on Jefferson County after John Brown’s Raid on nearby Harpers Ferry and then as the arena…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Charles Town, West Virginia, 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