The True Northerner (Paw Paw, Mich.)
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
2,284 issues from 1858 to 1919, published in Paw Paw, Michigan, digitised for Chronicling America.
Paw Paw remains the seat of Van Buren County in southwestern Michigan, 16 miles west of Kalamazoo. The town lies on the east branch of the Paw Paw River, where it enters Maple Lake (created in 1907 to provide hydroelectric power for the community). Van Buren is one of Michigan’s ten “Cabinet Counties,” named after the members of President Andrew Jackson’s cabinet in an attempt to secure his backing for Michigan’s admission to statehood. The area around Paw Paw was first settled by John Agard, a man of mixed English-French descent, who had previously traded with Indians in the locality in the 1820s. Agard built a small cabin near the present site of Paw Paw in 1833, as well as a wharf and warehouse. His decision to invest here was based in large part on the proposed Territorial Road running from Detroit to St. Joseph. Paw Paw was first organized on that road as “La Fayette,” and the first township meeting was held in Daniel O. Dodge’s tavern in April 1838. Peter Gremps, later the community’s first postmaster and storeowner, and Lyman I. Daniels surveyed and platted Paw Paw as the county seat in the spring of 1838.
The True Northerner was first issued in March 1855. A four-page weekly, the paper soon settled on Friday as its date of publication. It was established alongside the infant Republican Party in Van Buren County and held by George A. Fitch, owner of the Kalamazoo Telegraph. The True Northerner went through several owners and editors in its first years. Fitch…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Paw Paw, 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