The Democratic Banner (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?

• 1910–1922
• Newspaper

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

1,349 issues from 1910 to 1922, published in Mount Vernon, Ohio, digitised for Chronicling America.

Established in April 1838 by Chauncey Bassett and Joel Robb, the Mount Vernon Democratic Banner changed ownership and editorship nine times until it was finally purchased by Lecky Harper in December 1853. Under Harper’s 64-year editorship, the Democratic Banner flourished, with increased subscriptions and a distinctive point of view. Harper was a Peace Democrat with a national reputation for being strongly critical of big government, child labor, Whigs, and the Civil War. He was also a strong defender of foreigners, having emigrated from Ireland when he was five. Harper often used editorials to criticize the Ohio State Times and the Mount Vernon Republican.

After Harper’s death in 1895, his sons, Frank and William, took over the weekly paper. The strong political viewpoint and sensational headlines continued, with a focus on national political news. Readers were kept informed about laws, taxes, and politicians. Many articles also related incidents of crime, death, and injury. Yet local news was not forgotten, and several sections of the Democratic Banner, including one titled “County Correspondence,” were devoted to local affairs and gossip.

Frank Harper also provided detailed coverage of several local court cases, including Ohio v. Lewis Bolton, a first-degree murder case that was moved from Licking County to Knox County in April 1911. For several weeks running, readers were exposed to the inner workings of this case, from jury selection to the aftermath of the decision.…

Genres

News

Published in

Mount Vernon, Ohio, 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