Alpena Weekly Argus (Alpena, Mich.)

• 1871–1893
• Newspaper

Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.

1,112 issues from 1871 to 1893, published in Alpena, Michigan, digitised for Chronicling America.

The Alpena Weekly Argus was founded in 1871, in Alpena on northastern Michigan’s Thunder Bay, in the same year as the city’s incorporation. Alpena was and remains one of the largest towns in the northern part of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. It was also one of the most diverse, as reflected by the 1889 establishment of Temple Beth El by the local Jewish community. The town itself was founded in 1856 and was variously called “Fremont,” “Thunder Bay” and “Alpena” prior to incorporation. Like many northern Michigan settlements, the lumber industry was crucial in its early years. By 1870, the surrounding county had reached a population of around 3,000. Due to the shelter provided by Thunder Bay and Alpena’s location on the northern shore of Lake Huron, shipping also contributed significantly to the town’s growth, and by 1880 the population had risen to almost 6,000. The railroad arrived from Bay City in 1886, and by 1890 the population of Alpena exceeded 10,000. As lumber became scarcer in the 1890s, the city diversified into cement production. Alpena was also the birthplace of Leon Czolgosz (1873-1901), the assassin of President William McKinley.

The founder of the Argus, John C. Viall, was born in Pittsfield, New York, in 1842. His parents settled in Pontiac, Michigan, in 1850. There he was apprenticed in a local printing office. During an 1871 visit to Alpena, he concluded that there was a market for a Democratic paper. Consequently, his Alpena Weekly Argus served as the…

Genres

News

Published in

Alpena, Michigan, 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