ORIGIN OF SOME EARLY BELMONT COUNTY
NEWSPAPERS*
By FRANCIS C. HIBBARD
The history of the early newspapers of
Belmont County,
Ohio, is, to some extent, confused and
contradictory. Much that
has been written on the subject is based
apparently upon tradition
and second-hand information. An attempt
will herewith be made
to clear up some of the confusion and
rectify at least some of
the errors.
Two of the present-day papers of the
county--the St. Clairs-
ville Gazette and the Belmont
Chronicle--have been in existence
since the early part of the last
century. As would be expected,
both originated in St. Clairsville, the
oldest town, and, almost
from the beginning, the seat of county
government. The weekly
papers of the early days depended upon
the bounty of legal adver-
tising for much of their income; and as
the county seats were
usually the political centers, they were
the source of much of
the news. Location in the county seat
was, therefore, decidedly
advantageous.
Probably the first journalistic venture
in the county was the
Impartial Expositor, published by Gilkison & Company at St.
Clairsville in 1809. The American
Antiquarian Society has the
initial issue of March 25. No other
issues have been located.
Second in the field came the St.
Clairsville Gazette, first pub-
lished December 14, 1811, by Alexander
Armstrong, with the
title of Belmont Repository. C.
N. Gaumer (one-time editor of
the St. Clairsville Gazette), in
his history of the St. Clairsville
Gazette--written for the Centennial Issue of 1912--states that
the original name was the Belmont
Repository, and accepts 1812
as the founding date. The present-day Gazette
carries the 1812
date in its masthead; this date also
appears on the facade of the
old Gazette building in St. Clairsville.
The Cincinnati Public
* Acknowledgment and thanks are made for
valuable information supplied by
Arthur Mink, acting head of the
Newspaper Department of Ohio State Archaeological
and Historical Society and Dr. Clarence
S. Brigham, director of the American Anti-
quarian Society.
178
BELMONT COUNTY NEWSPAPERS 179
Library copy of the Belmont
Repository (dated April 13, 1814,
Vol. III, No. 117) would seem to bear
out the 1812 date. Con-
sidering the exigencies of publication
in those early times, it is,
however, very likely that, in some
weeks, publication was omitted
--not an uncommon occurrence with old
newspapers.
Conclusive proof of the correctness of
the date of founding
(December 14, 1811), though, has been
furnished by Dr. Clar-
ence S. Brigham, of the American
Antiquarian Society. About
the year 1920, he personally examined the
issues of the Belmont
Repository (December 21, 1811; February 8, 29 and March 7,
1812), in the collection of the
Cincinnati Young Men's Mercan-
tile Library. Unfortunately these issues
are now lost.
The first change of name is revealed by
the file of the Ohio
Federalist (Cincinnati Public Library); here it is disclosed that
the Ohio Federalist and Belmont
Repository were merged No-
vember 23, 1814, assuming the title Ohio
Federalist and Belmont
Repository. Charles Hammond had founded the Ohio Federalist
at St. Clairsville on May 11, 1813.
After the merger, Ham-
mond and Armstrong (editor of the Belmont
Repository) became
joint editors, continuing the political
principles of Hammond.
The combination continued until at least
July 2, 1818 (date of
an issue in the Marietta College
collection). This definitely es-
tablishes the connection of the Belmont
Repository and the Ohio
Federalist.
The Belmont Journal, successor to
the above combination,
appeared in August, 1818. Alexander
Armstrong continued as
editor and publisher until 1823, when he took
Robert H. Miller
into partnership; the change was marked
by the assumption of
the new name Western Post. It continued
until January 1, 1825,
at that time assuming the title St.
Clairsville Gazette, which has
continued to the present time, with the
exception of the period
1851 to 1861, when it was known as the Gazette
and Citizen,
occasioned by the purchase of the Citizen
by the Gazette.
Some very old copies of the above papers
were in existence
in 1912. At that time the former editor, Mr. Gaumer,
presented
the St. Clairsville Gazette (in
commemoration of its hundredth
anniversary), with a number of old
issues, among them the Bel-
180
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
mont Repository of November 3, 1813, Belmont Journal of No-
vember 14, 1818, and Western Post of
July 10, 1824. Unfortu-
nately they are now lost.
Early contemporaries of the St.
Clairsville Gazette were
True American and American Star. both published at St. Clairs-
ville. The Ohio Federalist of
September 4, 1815, referred to a
quotation from the St. Clairsville True
American, published in
the Muskingum Messenger of March
15, 1815. The Ohio Fed-
eralist of September 14, 1815, announced that the post route
kept
up by True American and Ohio
Federalist and Belmont Reposi-
tory had been discontinued, commenting that the True
American
would not want it and the Ohio
Federalist, on account of the ex-
pense, was not justified in continuing
it alone. The National In-
telligencer of October 8, 1818, referred to the American Star
of
St. Clairsville. Nothing further is
known of the True American
and American Star and no copies
have been located.
From
its inception the St. Clairsville Gazette has been an
advocate of Jeffersonian Democracy. For
many years its rival
the Belmont Chronicle has upheld
the views of the opposition--
under the banners of
Anti-administration, Whig and finally Re-
publican adherents. The early history of
the Belmont Chronicle
is more obscure than that of its
opponent. Hooper's History
of Ohio Journalism has little to tell, other than it was established
in 1813--this date is still carried in
the masthead of the Chron-
icle. Caldwell's History of Belmonlt and Jefferson
Counties,
Ohio (Wheeling, 1880), makes only brief mention. Unfortu-
nately, an opportunity for its authentic
history, through some acci-
dent of Fate, was lost. The only
statement worthy of note was
that it was founded in 1813, based on the Ohio Statistical Report
for 1877. McKelvey in The
Centennial History of Belmont
County (1902), goes more into detail, stating that the paper
had
its origin in Charles Hammond's Ohio
Federalist in 1813! Man-
ifestly an error, for as previously
pointed out, incontrovertible
evidence shows that the Ohio
Federalist merged with the Belmont
Repository--antecedent of the St. Clairsville Gazette.
Whether the Belmont Chronicle had
earlier antecedents
than the National Historian is a
question yet to be answered.
BELMONT COUNTY NEWSPAPERS 181
Circumstances point to such a
possibility. For instance, when
Charles Hammond started the Ohio
Federalist in 1813, "Printed
by J. Berry" accompanied the
statement that Charles Hammond
was the editor. It is possible that
Berry was publishing another
paper at the time. There is the further
possibility that True
American and American Star might have been fore-runners
of
the Chronicle.
The National Historian--a definite
antecedent--was founded
by Horton J. Howard in January, 1827.
Its full name was the
National Historian, and St.
Clairsville Advertiser, indicating the
possibility that the National
Historian might have taken over
another paper known as the St.
Clairsville Advertiser.
The National Historian continued
with some variations of
name until January, 1833. On July 20 of
that year, it was being
published under the title of the Belmont
Journal, apparently a
resurrection of the name used by the Gazette
antecedent edited by
Armstrong from 1818 to 1823. The Belmont
Journal had a pre-
carious existence from 1833 to 1836, continuing for the latter
part of the period as the Belmont
Journal and Enquirer. Finally,
in July, 1836, the name was changed to
the Belmont Chronicle,
the name surviving, with some
variations, to the present time.
A minor publication of early times--The
Informant--has
been passed by in the county histories.
It was published in June,
1828, and was printed by R. H. Miller
(editor at the time of the
St. Clairsville Gazette)--a reminder
of the bitter religious con-
troversy of the Hicksite and Orthodox
Friends. It was an
advocate of the doctrines of Elias
Hicks, "having for its object
the diffusion of genuine Christianity,
and a faith which worketh
by love, in the room of bigotry and
intolerance."
To recapitulate, the following table is
attached for con-
venience:
182 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
Title Period First Editor
Impartial
Expositor 3-25-1809 to ?
John C. Gilkison & Co.
St.
Clairsville Gazette and antecedents:
Belmont
Repository 12-14-1811 to 11-?-1814 Alexander Armstrong
Ohio
Federalist and
Belmont
Repository 11-23-1814 to 8-?-1818
C. Hammond and
A.
Armstrong
Belmont
Journal 8-?-1818 to 1823 Alexander
Armstrong
Western
Post 1823 to 1824 A.
Armstrong and
R.
H. Miller
St.
Clairsville Gazette 1-1-1825 to date
Robert H. Miller
Ohio
Federalist and Belmont Repository:
Ohio
Federalist 5-11-1813 to 11-23-1814 C. Hammond
Ohio
Federalist and
Belmont
Repository 11-23-1814 to 8-?-1818
C. Hammond and
A.
Armstrong
True
American 1815
American
Star 1818
Belmont
Chronicle and antecedents:
National
Historian and
St.
Clairsville Adver-
tiser 1-27-1827 to 1833
Horton J. Howard
Belmont
Journal
and
Enquirer 1833 to June 1836 John
Duffey
Belmont
Chronicle1 1836 to date. Thomas
L. Reid
The
Informant June 1828 R.
H. Miller
1 Called the Belmont
Chronicle and Farmers, Mechanics and Manufacturers Advo-
cate
from October, 1848 to January,
1855.