Wheeling Sunday Register Archive

The Daily Register of Wheeling, West Virginia was the product of 31-year-old Lewis Baker, an Ohio native who moved to Wheeling prior to the Civil War. Baker purchased the printing press of the defunct Wheeling Daily Press and published the Register's first issue in July 1863. Shortly afterward, Baker was joined as editor by O.S. Long and the two men guided the young newspaper throughout its turbulent early years.

Established in the midst of the Civil War, the Register reflected the staunch Democratic views of its first editor. The Register's views contrasted sharply with those of its cross-town rival, the Republican Daily Intelligencer and most other West Virginia newspapers. Although Baker desired Union victory, the editor fearlessly used the Register's editorial columns to critique the Lincoln administration's war effort. Baker likewise thought little of the Emancipation Proclamation, believing abolition would only deepen Southern resolve.

The anti-administration views eventually landed Lewis Baker and O.S. Long in jail. In July 1864, Union General David Hunter ordered the arrest of the dissenting newspapermen, and they spent two months imprisoned in Wheeling. Baker contended that he and Long were offered their freedom if they ceased publication of the Register; they refused. Their jailing produced a local stir and the editors finally secured their release in late August. The Republican Daily Intelligencer thought the whole affair foolish, noting that Hunter's actions had actually provided the Register with "a notoriety that it would never have otherwise enjoyed, and also, in addition, a new lease of life, if ever it starts again." The latter comment proved prescient, as Baker quickly had the Register running again, tweaking the paper's title to the Wheeling Daily Register.

The Register developed a reputation as West Virginia's leading Democratic newspaper during and after the Civil War. It also kept its readers abreast of local affairs and state and national news. Reflecting its growing success, the Register also published several different iterations of itself: The Wheeling Weekly Register, the Wheeling Tri-Weekly Register, and even a German spinoff, Der Arbeiter-Freund ("The Friend of the Worker").

Perhaps because of the Register's growing influence, Lewis Baker entered the world of politics. In the early 1870s, Baker was elected as a Democratic state senator, even serving as President of the West Virginia Senate in 1871. Baker continued to oversee the publication of the Register until 1885, when he moved to Minnesota and took a hand in the St. Paul Daily Globe.

The Register went through several minor name changes in later years. After 1878, the paper was renamed the Wheeling Register. In 1935, a final alteration created the Wheeling News-Register, which lasted throughout the 20^th century.