Ohio Waisenfreund (Pomeroy, O. [Ohio])
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
764 issues from 1874 to 1953, published in Columbus, Ohio, digitised for Chronicling America.
The Ohio was established in Pomeroy, Ohio, in 1873 by Reverend John Joseph Jessing, a Roman Catholic priest and German immigrant associated with the Sacred Heart Church. Proceeds from the newspaper were intended to support St. Joseph’s Orphanage which Jessing started after seeing the hardships experienced by the orphaned boys of his community. In 1874, Jessing changed the name of the weekly newspaper to Ohio Waisenfreund (“Ohio Orphan’s Friend”), emphasizing its mission. He moved the paper to Columbus, the capital of Ohio, in 1877, hoping to build circulation by publishing in a larger city with access to more railroad lines. Subscriptions increased from around 5,000 in the 1870s to 40,000 by the end of the 1880s. The Waisenfreund was distributed across the United States and was considered a strong and important voice of the German-American Catholic community in Ohio and beyond.
In 1888, Jessing established a seminary, the Collegium Josephinum, in response to interest by some older orphans attending his trade school to join the priesthood. The college was transferred to the Holy See and granted pontifical status in 1892. From that point, the Waisenfreund was published under the auspices of the Pontifical College Josephinum, which would become the leading educational center for German-American priests in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and today is the only pontifical college in the Western Hemisphere. Initially focused on preparing its students to minister to…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Columbus, Ohio, United States
- 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