Published June 1967 — Download PDF of the original newspaper column
From the Office of United states Senator Robert C. Byrd 105 Senate Office Building, Washington, D. C. 20510 Volume VII -- Number 25 June 23, 1967 Byrd's Eye View A Public Service Column by Senator Robert C. Byrd WEST VIRGINIA WEEKLIES MIRROR STATE GROWTH Experts in the news field have said that West Virginia has a press which will rank with that of any State in the Union, if population is taken into account. A large portion of this credit certainly goes to the Mountain States weekly newspapers. They have been faithful reflectors of the State's growth,• its creation 8S a separate political body, and its subsequent maturity. The weeklies, in general, bad their origin because the political evolution within the State of its various counties created the need for news from the local seats of justice. As new counties began to be formed, from the 1830's onward, legal and official notices required publication. New businesses were attracted to the county seats, advertising revenues helped to make publication profitable, and by the outbreak of the Civil War and the formation of West Virginia as a State, almost every county had a weekly newspaper. The oldest newspaper in the State of West Virginia, continuously publishing and still operating, is a weekly -- the Spirit of Jefferson (Farmers) Advocate. Firmly established in 1844 in the eastern panhandle, at the Jefferson County seat of justice--Charles Town--it has been an excellent prototype of the development of weekly papers in the State. Political thought was naturally more advanced in the earlier-developed eastern panhandle, so that it was logical that a weekly would first spring up in that section of the State. With the population growth in the central and western Allegheny regions of what is now West Virginia J new counties- began to be formed. The county seats of justice became centers of transportation and Commerce and, served to generate news of interest to residents in the surrounding countryside. The Wellsburg Herald, in Brooke County, is a good example of the manner in which growing population, advancing transportation, and developing political thought served to inspire the establishment of a newspaper. Founded as a weekly in late 1846, it has during this century moved over to the ranks of the daily newspapers. The story of West Virginia's weekly papers is colorful. Typically, they have been one-man publications, with the publisher in the past performing all the chores--news-gathering, writing, editorializing, printing, and delivering the newssheet. It was a common sight to see an editor mounted on his horse, saddlebags loaded with newspapers, making his rounds weekly among scattered subscribers. It is said that subscriptions were often paid for under a barter system, with one of the best examples of this operation reported as that conducted by the editor of the short lived Monongalia Chronicle. It is said that he accepted a wide variety of produce for copies of his newspaper, including flax, beeswax, wool, feathers, tallow, and corn. West Virginia's weeklies, and the editors of these weeklies, have well served the State and continue to do so. Quite a lot of work and worry have been their lot in insuring survival to the present more modern era of news publication. -30-