Mount Vernon Signal (Mt. Vernon, Ky.) 18??-Current
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
1,083 issues from 1896 to 1922, published in Mount Vernon, Kentucky, digitised for Chronicling America.
The publication of the Mountain Signal on November 3, 1887, brought the first newspaper to the small town of Mount Vernon in Rockcastle County at the junction of Kentucky’s Bluegrass, Pennyrile, and Eastern Coal Field regions. A four-page Democratic weekly, the Signal was one of several accomplishments of its first editor and co-owner, “Colonel” James Maret (1855-1936). Born in neighboring Garrard County, Maret had lived in Texas before returning to Kentucky in 1876. The following year he worked as a telegrapher in Mount Vernon, where he later owned a furniture factory and operated a sawmill. Maret’s fascination with innovation led him to press for civic, regional, and state development throughout his life, and to own the county’s first telephone and typewriter. He gained statewide fame as the irrepressible force behind creation of the Boone Way Highway, a 96-mile route joining Crab Orchard in Lincoln County and Cumberland Gap in Bell County, later to become U.S. 25.
Maret edited the Mountain Signal for three years before selling his stake to Edward Smith. Smith, who apparently kept a caged eagle in his office, renamed the newspaper the Mountain Eagle. In October 1896, however, Maret repurchased Smith’s share, and became the paper’s sole owner. The paper again became known as the Mount Vernon Signal. Maret’s second tenure as owner ended two years later when Edward S. Albright assumed ownership; however, Maret continued his “Notes & Clips” column until his death in 1936,…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Mount Vernon, Kentucky, 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