The Calhoun Chronicle Archive

Although only a few issues of the Calhoun Chronicle survive, enough details exist to piece together a rough image of the rural West Virginia weekly. Established in 1883 by Robert M. Marshall as a "local journal devoted to the interests of Calhoun and the adjoining counties," the Chronicle featured the usual columns found in late nineteenth-century newspapers: local affairs, national and international news, short stories and anecdotes, songs and poems, and sage advice for home and field alike. Four pages in length and published weekly, Marshall's early production of the paper proved shaky, and publication was inconsistent.

Robert Marshall would be the first in a revolving door of owners for the Calhoun Chronicle. In the 1890s, he sold the paper to Samuel C. Barr, who improved its consistency and quality. The Point Pleasant The Weekly Register praised the Chronicle in September 1900 as "one of the best conducted papers in the State" and its editor as "the only real independent editor we know of in the State." This independent streak, particularly Barr's progressive views, did not always sit well with Democratic readers, but Barr nevertheless stated his intent to "speak what he believes is the truth until the heavens fall." Perhaps owing in part to Barr's rebellious political nature, the paper again changed hands in 1900, when Robert Hays and Samuel P. Bell took over, infusing the paper with a Democratic political slant. Although Bell quickly left, Hays stayed on until 1911, when Robert Linn Hamilton took over the paper as its editor and owner.

Hamilton, an ardent Democrat whose father was a U.S. Congressman from West Virginia, managed the Chronicle for more than thirty years. Under his guidance, the paper remained a staunch Democratic vehicle and sparred with its Republican rival, the Grantsville News. Only Hamilton's death in 1943 ended his tenure, marking the passing of an era for the newspaper. In 1984, the Calhoun Chronicle merged with the Grantsville News to produce the Calhoun Chronicle and Grantsville News, which remains in publication.