The Free Press (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
568 issues from 1891 to 1923, published in Poplarville, Mississippi, digitised for Chronicling America.
In 1890, sparsely populated, predominately white, Pearl River County was created mostly from northern Hancock, a coastal county. Named after the Pearl River, which divides Mississippi from Louisiana below the thirty-first parallel, the county is located in the yellow pine forest of Southern Mississippi. In addition to lumber-related businesses, the county had strong cattle, sheep, and dairy industries.
Established the same year as the county, the Free Press may have originated in Purvis, Mississippi. By February 1891, founder Colonel A. G. Russell was printing the paper in the Pearl River seat of government, Poplarville. Possibly initiated as a Farmer’s Alliance journal, by December 1891 there was a regular column that featured the agrarian organization’s news from all over the country. By 1894, George P. Rowell and Company’s American Newspaper Directory listed the Press as a Democratic newspaper, and by this time, it routinely printed the Proceedings of the County Board of Supervisors meetings. In the August 26, 1897 issue, Russell assured his readers in his farewell address that the Free Press would be “… in experienced hands and will continue to labor for the special upbuilding of Poplarville, Pearl River County and the State of Mississippi.” The new owner, John Rhodes Oliphant, was the longest serving publisher, running the newspaper for at least 16 years. In October 1919, owner G. S. Harmon absorbed the short-lived Pearl River Watchman, which had begun publication in…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Poplarville, 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