The Frostburg Gleaner Archive

The Frostburg Gleaner was one of a series of short-lived weekly newspapers in Frostburg. Its first issue was published on January 5, 1899 with Henry Francis Cook (1868-1931) as editor and publisher. Cook was a native of Allegany County, Maryland, the son of a miner who also worked in the coal mines himself as a young man. Cook had previously published the Echo newspaper, the Friendsville Collaborator, and the Frostburg News, which he founded in 1897. Together with John B. Williams, he had formed the Forum Publishing Company and established the Frostburg Forum in 1897, but left the firm the same year and worked as a job printer until he started the Gleaner.

Cook supported the prohibition of alcoholic beverages, and the pages of the Gleaner often featured stories about the evils of alcohol consumption while promoting the activities of local prohibition groups. It styled itself "An Independent Prohibition Weekly." Reflecting the proprietor's background, the Gleaner was moderately pro-Union, with a few articles supporting labor movement activities. The Gleaner's narrow focus on the issue of prohibition did not generate enough income to succeed and Cook closed the paper in 1901, likely soon after the fall election where he had supported prohibition candidates.