Original Civil War Era Newspapers - "The Belmont (Co.) Chronicle", St Clairsville, Ohio

WmGriffin

Cadet
Joined
Mar 30, 2020
Anyone have information about original Civil War era newspapers; "The Belmont (Co.) Chronicle", St Clairsville, Ohio?
I just purchased a large bound book of approx. 210 weekly newspapers from 1/5/1860 - 2/4/1864. There are over 800 printed pages in all. I'm wondering
what wood be the best way to deal with these interesting document(s)? Condition varies from fair to V. Good. All are readable but some are better than others.
 
If you are industrious, indexing or itemizing the copies with notations for the condition of each, would be the first step if you wanted to give them (sell them, donate them etc.) to an organization or individual. For your own inquisitive mind, if you just wanted to read up on some 'old news' it could be interesting, and valuable for your personal knowledge.
Lubliner.
 
Thank you for your response.
I have only briefly looked at the book to get an overview of what all is in there. One thing I noted in the 1960 group is there are several papers with endorsements for Lincoln & Hamlin running for President. Slavery is another topic I noticed often in articles of several papers. Then there are the 140+ Civil War papers. I have not actually read any articles fully because of the huge volume & length of all the articles. I think the best way to evaluate the large grouping is to see it in person. I'm not sure exactly how to best handle this. I would like to find someone with keen interest to investigate from the probable historic information contained in these newspapers. My feelings is this was a fairly small local newspaper and there may not be many of these actual newspapers available? I'm hoping other readers may have some more suggestions where or who to contact.
 
Is there a local historical society or library that might be interested in the collection? Any chance Library of Congress
would be interested for their newspaper archive online collection?

Would be marvelous if the issues could be scanned and available online. Know that is costly and time consuming.

My g g grandparents farmed/lived in Powhatan Point area 1844-1855 during those years before coming to Iowa.
 
Thanks for your reply. I agree these may be interesting and useful if scanned and made available to view. In the past I tried contacting the Ohio Historical Society about some similar original Ohio county Civil War newspapers and I never even got a reply from them! Those were individual copies that I later was able to sell individually at a military sale. Some went to a museum. This book is still bound and removing individual papers would be difficult and risky.
 
Thanks for your reply. I agree these may be interesting and useful if scanned and made available to view. In the past I tried contacting the Ohio Historical Society about some similar original Ohio county Civil War newspapers and I never even got a reply from them! Those were individual copies that I later was able to sell individually at a military sale. Some went to a museum. This book is still bound and removing individual papers would be difficult and risky.
You may find a teacher or professor at a local school or college that would be interested in reviewing your trove, and drawing some useful topics from it, for your local newspaper now. A running column in the 'weekend' section of your newspaper could be of interest.
Lubliner.
 
What ever you do, don't throw them away. Those books are primary sources for the history of Belmont County/St. Clairsville area. Those books are the area's story. Surly a local/county historical society would accept them? Even as sources for genealogy research. I believe Cadiz, Ohio has a Civil War roundtable. Since those books are the C W era, maybe someone there would be interested.

Researching the 19th Ohio, newspapers were a primary source of information. Library of Congress Chronicling America is a great source and it seemed that they were attempting to include newspapers from a variety of geographical locations. Perhaps SE Ohio is already covered?
 
Consider donating book to a local/county historical society as others have suggested. Place a value on newspapers therein to be $5- $10 each. Expect the receiving non-profit to gladly write you a receipt for the donation. Take a legitimate federal tax write-off in April. This could save you hundreds of dollars on your taxes and the newspapers will be preserved forever.
 
Yes! You are correct about reaching out to schools or community organizations to share and show the newspapers.
I'm a retired teacher and have shown some of my previous newspapers with schools several times and also our Rotary Club, County Historical Society, and the current newspaper these newspapers were copies of from 140+ years ago. I'm still hoping to find a broader audience that may study these in depth and discover interesting information that is only contained in these gems of yesterday.
 
What ever you do, don't throw them away. Those books are primary sources for the history of Belmont County/St. Clairsville area. Those books are the area's story. Surly a local/county historical society would accept them? Even as sources for genealogy research. I believe Cadiz, Ohio has a Civil War roundtable. Since those books are the C W era, maybe someone there would be interested.

Researching the 19th Ohio, newspapers were a primary source of information. Library of Congress Chronicling America is a great source and it seemed that they were attempting to include newspapers from a variety of geographical locations. Perhaps SE Ohio is already covered?
What ever you do, don't throw them away. Those books are primary sources for the history of Belmont County/St. Clairsville area. Those books are the area's story. Surly a local/county historical society would accept them? Even as sources for genealogy research. I believe Cadiz, Ohio has a Civil War roundtable. Since those books are the C W era, maybe someone there would be interested.

Researching the 19th Ohio, newspapers were a primary source of information. Library of Congress Chronicling America is a great source and it seemed that they were attempting to include newspapers from a variety of geographical locations. Perhaps SE Ohio is already covered?
Thanks for the leads and information. I have contacted Belmont Co. to seek out interested local originations that may have an interest in these newspapers. I'm not familiar with the Library of Congress Chronicling America. I did look there and saw they have some digital copies of The Belmont (Co.) Chronicle, St Clairsville, Ohio. I was not sure if they have all of the issues that are in my book? Also, I didn't see where I could contact them about my newspapers.

F.Y.I. I see your 19th Ohio. I noticed several newspaper article titles were about the Ohio 98th. I did not read those article and have not yet researched their Civil War history.
 
Consider donating book to a local/county historical society as others have suggested. Place a value on newspapers therein to be $5- $10 each. Expect the receiving non-profit to gladly write you a receipt for the donation. Take a legitimate federal tax write-off in April. This could save you hundreds of dollars on your taxes and the newspapers will be preserved forever.
I am reaching out to Belmont Co. to see if there is someone locally interested in these papers. Thanks....
 
Back
Top