The Clarksburg Telegram Archive

The Clarksburg [West Virginia] Telegram traced its roots back to the tumultuous days of the Civil War. The weekly Telegram was founded in Clarksburg in 1874 by Robert S. Northcott, a Unionist and Republican who had spent time in the Confederate Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia. Northcott eventually turned the reins of the Telegram over to Wilbur F. Richards and Nathan Goff, Jr., a United States Senator. In 1891, a consortium of men purchased the paper from the Richards and produced a weekly iteration of the Clarksburg Telegram, with Stuart Reed serving as the initial editor.

The Clarksburg Telegram boasted a healthy circulation throughout central West Virginia. Usually eight pages in length, the paper covered a wide variety of topics, including national and international news, Republican politics and elections, labor issues, and local affairs. Local news always received extensive coverage; updates from civic organizations such as the Elks and Knights of Pythias usually graced the Telegram's pages, as did news from the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Coverage of labor conflict appeared much less, likely reflecting the Telegram's Republican leanings. Important world affairs--such as the Russo-Japanese War--occasionally found their way into the newspaper's columns.

Local and national politics, however, dominated the Clarksburg Telegram, and the Telegram served as the local organ for the Republican Party. Stuart F. Reed, the editor of the weekly Telegram for its first eight years, was a prominent local Republican. During his time as editor, he served as in the West Virginia Senate and went on to become West Virginia's Secretary of State and finally a member of the United States House of Representatives. The Republican views held by Stuart were reflected in the pages of the Telegram, which lambasted Democratic politicians and rejoiced in Republican victories--especially those of McKinley and Roosevelt--at the polls. In 1899, Wilbur Morrison replaced Reed as editor of the paper.

In 1902, several owners of the Clarksburg Telegram purchased the Clarksburg Daily Post and renamed the publication the Daily Telegram. The latter was published alongside the weekly Clarksburg Telegram for ten years, until 1912 when the two publications joined to form a single newspaper named the Clarksburg Telegram. The now daily Telegram enjoyed continued success and growth over the next decade, reaching a circulation of over 20,000 by 1926.