The Columbus Commercial (Columbus, Miss.)
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
1,157 issues from 1895 to 1919, published in Columbus, Mississippi, digitised for Chronicling America.
Columbus, the seat of Lowndes County situated on the bank of the Tombigbee River in east-central Mississippi, has been a commercial center of the surrounding cotton-producing region since the 1830s. Although a Confederate arsenal was based there during the Civil War, Columbus escaped capture and destruction by Federal troops. By the early 20th century, it was the second largest town in the region and a manufacturing center.
Shortly after the Civil War, the Mississippi Index (1865-69?), a four-page tri-weekly, began publication. It was established by the Worthington brothers, William, Samuel, and Winfield, sons of Henry H. Worthington, long-time editor/proprietor of the Columbus Democrat (1834-78). James A. Stevens, who worked at the Index, became publisher/editor of the succeeding newspaper, the Columbus Index (1869-93), alternately known as the Columbus Weekly Index or the Weekly Index; a tri-weekly edition was added in 1873. In 1893, with a new publisher, the newspaper became the Columbus Commercial (1893-1922); it was published weekly prior to 1909 and semiweekly until at least 1918. Page count varied from four to eight pages throughout the Commercial‘s run.
By August 1886 English-born widow, Susan C. Maer, was sole editor/publisher of the four-page semiweekly Columbus Dispatch (1879-1908), also known as the Columbus Sunday Dispatch and the Columbus Wednesday Dispatch; and the concurrent eight-page Columbus Weekly Dispatch (1902-05). After starting as city editor of…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Columbus, Mississippi, 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