Old Fort News Archive 

The Old Fort News was published weekly in connection with the Marion Progress (NC) beginning in 1927. Each issue was a single page of news about Old Fort, a town 12 miles southwest of Marion and also in McDowell County, North Carolina. Old Fort township's 3,500 residents comprised the second largest population in the county, and they generated sufficient social news to warrant their own small newspaper within the Progress. The paper was not a section or a page of the Progress. Rather, it was a sister newspaper included at the center of each issue of the Progress by agreement between the editors of the two titles. Gertrude Dula (1884-1960) was listed as editor and business manager of the Old Fort News for the duration of its publication from 1927 to 1931. Dula was a native of Old Fort, and the United States censuses for the years 1910 through 1940 list her occupation as milliner.

The Old Fort News included marriage announcements, funeral notices, reports on parties and club meetings, and short articles touting upcoming events. The newspaper published its last issue as a separate title within the Progress on September 17, 1931. The September 24, 1931 Progress features a column titled "Old Fort News," with the words Miss Gertrude Dula listed under the title. Neither the Old Fort News nor the Progress included for the cessation of the News as a separate newspaper title.