A recent example of a great find comes from the western regions, in Wytheville, Virginia. Cathy Reynolds, Archivist at the Wytheville Community College has put together a fantastic run of the Southwest Virginia Enterprise from the earlier years in the 1880’s right up to 1923.

There’s actually more, but we wanted to make sure we were able to get the job done on this initial batch before moving forward with the post-1923 issues.

As many of you know it can be a bit of an adventure traveling from Richmond to Wytheville and back again. This time around, members of team VNP were caught in a flash snow storm that, as if on cue, produced heavy downpours and a thick fog on Afton Mountain.

However, despite the slow going, we made it back to the Library of Virginia and the handsome 11 volumes are safe and sound at VNP Headquarters.

According to Lester Cappon’s Virginia Newspapers 1821-1935, the Southwest Virginia Enterprise began in 1870 as a weekly and then moved to semi-weekly later that year. From 1870 to 1900, the Enterprise appears to have moved through a number of changes in publishers including J. A. Whitman, who, in 1908, merged the SWVE with the Wytheville Dispatch, a venerable newspaper that began publishing in 1862.

We include a few images happy to have the opportunity to preserve and provide better access to this important paper from southwest Virginia.

At a time, when many young people have spent their entire lives with a computer in their home and Photoshop has become a verb, there is a renewed appreciation for the unique look that hand lettering produces.  Here is a collection of random photos I have taken over the years, while I have worked with original newspapers here at the Library of Virginia.

These pieces are most likely from newspapers ranging from the 1900′s into the 1940′s, though hand lettering continued to be seen well into the 1970′s. Even before computers came along and completely decimated the craft there were other methods of photo-mechanical reproduction of type that severely limited the need for hand lettering.

Enjoy the lettering.

Don’t miss this second gallery of images.

The Family Budget was a hand-written camp newspaper by Edward Budget, Confederate soldier in Hampton’s Legion which was formed after South Carolina seceded.  The Library of Virginia holds this issue from July of 1861 in which Budget describes camp life on a rainy day, the arrival of artillery from Tredegar Iron Works, and criticizes Richmond at length for taking advantage of soldiers, and of being too “Yankee,” among other offenses.  The text is transcribed below.

Family Budget

July 14th, 1861

Camp Manning

We had hoped to have been able to chronicle in this issue an account of the presentation by Pres. Davis of a flag to Hampton Legion as the Legion were informed several days ago that said presentation would take place on the afternoon of Saturday the 13th […]; this however we are unable to do, not through any fault of our reporters but simply because the presentation did not take place, owing to the fact that the Executive was on that day too unwell to come out to Camp.  The presentation will probably take place tomorrow at any rate in time for us to give an account of it in our next. The [stand] of colors is a present from Carolina ladies.

Yesterday two six-pound rifle cannons arrived for the artillery and received a hearty welcome; these pieces were cast in the Tredegar Works Richmond and are beautiful specimens of workmanship.

Judging from appearances we would think that some important military movement was on foot in the neighborhood of Yorktown this morning.  There were […] about fifty or sixty feet long passed here on the rail road on their way to said place yesterday, a number of gun carriages, [timber chests], etc. and the day before several heavy pieces of artillery all bound to the same destination; what the nature of the movement is we are unable to say and cannot even venture a guess. While Yorktown is [best][ …5] miles from Richmond and our camp is directly on the road we are as ignorant of matters in that neighborhood as we are of affairs in Charleston; in fact now that we are so near the [seat of war] we are far more ignorant of the progress of events than we were when several hundred miles off.

Yesterday evening the camp was excited by hearing that Norfolk had been attacked and was the [surrounded] by forces both on land and sea, but this morning one of our man inquired at one of the news-paper offices in the city and was told that they had heard nothing of it. Consequently we are inclined to set it down as one of the numerous […] that are everyday got up for the entertainment of the credulous.

The people of Richmond – on this subject we must speak with caution; our opportunities for judging them being none of the best. of the better classes we have seen nothing at all accepting that there are a number of ladies at our Dress parade every […], but of the store and shop keepers we can speak feelingly. we consider them a set of [arrant] [knaves] and consummate swindlers; such instance of [exorbitance] as we every day meet with are without a parallel elsewhere; they appear to look upon the needy soldiers as fair prey as being game for them and accordingly make the most they can out of them; this morning a member of company [H] stopped at a restaurant in Richmond to get some refreshments, [he eat] one small plate batter-cakes, drank one cup of coffee and two mint juleps and for this he was charged one dollar an twenty-five cents for what he could have got for thirty-cents in Charleston; this I consider a swindle. Doubtless if he had worn a citizens coat he would have been charged a more reasonable amount but his military coat marked him out to be fleeced and fleeced he was. The people you meet on the street are more like Yankees than like Southerners. There is a rudeness and flippancy in their manner that is very revolting to a South Carolinian. The Negroes are impudent and disobliging. Speaking then from what I have seen I am inclined to dislike the people of Richmond. It strikes me that there is too much of the Yankee element in their midst. The city itself I admire more than any I have ever seen but the people less.

In the next column will be found the description of a rainy day in camp written yesterday during the continuance of a very heavy rain.

A Rainy Day in Camp

Rainy days are always considered dull even amid all the appliances for comfort and amusements which home offers.  The City Belle or beau finds a rainy-day an [inexpressible] bore; time hangs heavy on their hands, as listlessly they wander o’er the house, peering into odd corners, or, lying upon some velvet lounge with half-opened boots and half-shut eyes; turning frequently to the windows to watch the dark masses of sluggish vapor that cloud the sky; wondering if it will ever stop raining; half-fearing that it never will. To such as these a rainy day passes wearily enough, it presents no attractions whatever and is pronounced by them a decided bore.

Some from the possession of internal resources find no dullness in the day be the sky ever so dark and lowering, be the rain ever so heavy and incessant, cheerfully employed in some useful occupation, reading, writing or sewing, surrounded by loved ones, their minds occupied by pleasant thoughts, they do not dream of weariness; to such as these a rainy day, instead of being an object of dislike is often a blessing.

Rainy days have afforded material for innumerable essays, some light and entertaining, others dull and [prosy]; I have read many of both classes but do no recollect to have read one written during a rainy day in camp, hence this attempt.

To these who find a rainy-day dull amid the comforts of home surrounded by everything that can contribute to their amusement, what would be the dullness of a day spent in a six-foot tent with naught within to amuse or interest and naught without to please the eye or entrap the fancy.

In the tent where I am now seated there are four others, three of these stretched out upon the straw floor sleeping or trying to sleep, another perched on the end of a [board] with solemn face and [p…ing] manner is writing a letter on the head of a drum, while I with portfolio on knee am seated upon a knapsack, two upright muskets supporting my back while the pattering rain furnishes a topic to write on.

A stranger glancing in upon us now would receive an impression of utter discomfort, nothing would meet his eye suggestive either of ease or pleasure; the solemn looking [guns] have a forbidding aspect; the sleepers have an uncomfortable look while the melancholy looking bundle of coats and pants that swings from the ridge- pole flaps about in a most disconsolate manner; in one corner a pile of canteens, tin cups, and such like household utensils have a dull heavy appear-ance that makes one sleepy to look at them. The wide mouthed cups seem to yawn with weariness; a ragged flag that droops from the gun rack seems tired of the world and as if unable to flutter in the breeze again; the crushed and scattered hand-fuls of straw have a look of “yellow melancholy” that is most dispiriting while the pattering rain and heavy atmosphere is suggestive of yawns and lay attitudes; so much for what is within.

Immediately in front of the opening-called for politeness sake the door- is a large mud puddle, beyond this is another tent, the occupants of which lie huddled together upon the damp ground like pigs in a sty. Farther than this the view is obscured by the backs of other tents that look dreary and desolate in the gloom; from one of the neighboring tents is heard the melancholy tones of an ill used fiddle the […] of which being in full accordance with the weather and neither lively nor pleasant to the ear; the numerous voices heard from the near and far sound as if the speakers were growling in their sleep while an occasional laugh from some inconquerable spirit sounds strange and out of place.

With such surroundings one would naturally be surprised to find the day unbearably dull but such is not the case with a piece of paper to scribble on and my thoughts with those for whose amusement I write- I do not think whether the day is dull or otherwise. On a day like this with what pleasure do we turn from the outer to the inner world, from the darkened present to the sunlit past! With what pleasure do we wander through memory’s well filled storehouse and [revel] amid the scenes of the past calling around us, the faces and scenes we [most love]. we go over again the joys that have been ours, the outer world with us clouds and discomforts- fades from the view, the present is forgotten and the past, the ever pleasant past, lit up by the sunlight of home and by memory’s aid drawn near becomes a present reality which naught can darken or destroy.

A rainy day in camp then is not necessarily dull and despite the lowering clouds, the beating rain, despite even that discordant fiddle, one can succeed in keeping up their spirits.

In lieu of the absent sunlight memory creates a sunny spot where undisturbed I may repose and dream the hours away caring not whether the rain continues or ceases, in fact rather preferring the former for with the thought of the clearing away of the clouds looms up dark and threatening the certainty of a battalion drill, the terror of the camp and my peculiar aversion.

News being [not] – we are again obliged to [curtail] our [valuable] [st…] but trust our patrons will be lenient towards us E. Budget.

Catalog record

For more information about handwritten newspapers, visit: handwrittennews.com.

Mountain Laurel masthead, 1987

I would like to introduce you to the Mountain Laurel, a unique paper from Meadows of Dan, Virginia. The Mountain Laurel warned readers that it would “not keep you informed of world events” but instead sought to “portray mountain people with honor and distinction”, hence the double-meaning in the title: a laurel is not only a native flower but also means “honor and distinction”.

Front page of the first issue in March 1983

Distinctly Appalachian, the paper introduced readers to Glendon Boyd, wood carver and artisan rake-maker, and it told the tale of the man who once fell out of his cornfield and broke his leg because the land there was so steep. It would keep readers up to date with a report from the Floyd County Public Library which once resided in the basement of the Floyd courthouse. Readers clamored to contribute their own stories and memories making the paper a rich and entertaining resource full of oral history.  The Mountain Laurel has been collecting and printing the lore, history, culture, and happenings of their Blue Ridge Mountain community since Bob and Charlotte Heafner and Susan Thigpen set up shop with an electronic typewriter in a rented farmhouse in March 1983.

A few years ago, Bob Heafner generously lent his collection of the Mountain Laurel to the Library of Virginia so it could be preserved on microfilm. Issues for March 1983 through Winter 1995 are available on Film 2025A.

The Mountain Laurel maintains a website for the journal with many transcribed articles available and they are still accepting submissions of readers’ stories.  Please visit mtnlaurel.com for more of these wonderful stories.

Headlines from the March 17, 1911 issue of the Times Dispatch. A prominent article on Ireland's home rule appears in the right column.

The Mar. 17 article detailed the continuing struggle for home rule of Ireland.

St. Patrick’s Day news from other newspapers around the state. . .

Big Stone Gap Post, 11-13-1918

The Fall of 1918 saw the end of World War I and hundreds of thousands in America dead from a influenza pandemic that was sweeping the globe killing millions worldwide.

More than 600,000 people died over the course of a year in what would be deemed the worst epidemic to hit America. According to the CDC, 20-50 million people worldwide died between 1918-1919 as a result of the flu.  The virus spread quickly, taking an enormous toll on densely populated areas such as Philadelphia, Boston, and San Francisco.

But what about its impact on small towns?

The Big Stone Gap Post of Big Stone Gap, Virginia and the Clinch Valley News of Tazewell, Virginia published regular updates about the comings and goings of the flu. Roughly 100 miles apart in the southwestern portion of the state, both towns currently boast modest populations of around 4-5,000 residents. As the article below points out, Spanish Flu was considered a “crowd disease” but small towns in Virginia were not spared, with relative isolation making it difficult for the sick to get help.

Big Stone Gap Post, 11-20-1918

From the Big Stone Gap Post, November 20, 1918, nine days after the end of the war:

“It is hardly likely that the general public will ever realize the extent of the suffering and anguish caused by the Spanish Influenza in some of the more remote mountain communities in Virginia where the frightful malady raged with a degree of severity which is difficult to explain.”

As the war was ending, the local and national news seemed equally dominated by reports of influenza cases. World war may have even helped spread to influenza around the globe just as the spread of the flu impacted the war effort at home and abroad.

A list of “Hun arch-criminals” sits next to news of another flu death, juxtaposing the end of one war with a very visible foe against the on-going battle with an invisible enemy virus.

Big Stone Gap Post, 11-13-1918

Clinch Valley News, 11-22-1918

The threat continued through the Fall, dying out quickly that Winter. The flu, like the Great War, tended to take the lives of young adults, and in a way seemed to be an extension of the war, rather than a separate tragedy. Perhaps this fact combined with the abrupt end to the epidemic explains why it seems to be a somewhat forgotten story in our history.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch has a great article that focuses specifically on John Mitchell, Jr. and the Stanley Steamers he owned during his lifetime.

http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/local/city-of-richmond/editor-s-travelogues-highlight-story-of-the-stanley-steamer/article_1c4e7e0a-7eff-11e2-8bd0-001a4bcf6878.html

The automobile’s steam boiler mechanism was based on technologies that had existed for decades, so it’s no surprise that someone would develop a personal vehicle based on the same concepts that drove railroad locomotives and factory motors. For an informative master class on the workings of a classic Stanley Steamer, check out Jay Leno’s Garage where he shows you all the necessary steps to getting the vehicle steamed up and ready to roll: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Me8b0ed59s

To-date, thousands of pages (1889-1910) of the Richmond Planet have been made available online at Chronicling America and well over 300,000 pages of Virginia imprint newspapers which makes up the Newspaper Project and the Library’s contribution to the National Digital Newspaper Program.

The newspaper articles are from the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America, to which the Newspaper Project has contributed hundreds of thousands of pages.

For the full article from The Times (Richmond, VA), August 24, 1894: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85034438/1894-08-24/ed-1/seq-5/

For the full article from the Alexandria Gazette, August 24, 1894: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85025007/1894-08-24/ed-1/seq-2/

To see the full page from the Roanoke Times, August 24, 1894: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86071868/1894-08-24/ed-1/seq-1/

Hocking Sentinel, Logan, Ohio, 10-14-1897

Dueling, a trend that emerged in the middle ages as a way to settle disputes among European nobility, persisted among members of the American press, particularly in the South, long after the practice came to be regarded as barbaric to most Americans.  The rules for dueling were laid out in 1777, in an Irish document called the “Code Duello”. In 1838, South Carolina Governor John Lyde Wilson wrote  The Southern Code of Honor, which was very similar to the Irish code although Wilson claimed not to have seen a copy until after writing his own code. In the North, dueling was already out of fashion around the time of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr’s famous meeting in 1804.  This was not the case in the South, where the practice would not see a decline in popularity until the Civil War. To refuse a duel in the South meant suffering a “posting”, a public notice accusing the refuser of cowardice and other shaming offenses.

Joke from the Staunton Spectator, 1-17-1860. It is hard to imagine that dueling could have been so commonplace as to be the source of light humor such as this. Actually, this joke is quite similar to the result of the duel between Henry Clay and John Randolph in 1826.

19th century newspapers were often aligned with a particular political party, sometimes naming themselves for the party such as the Richmond Whig, the paper edited by William Elam which found itself the target of editorial attacks lobbed by Richard Beirne. Beirne, stalwart Funder and vitriolic editor of the State, was embarrassed by a dueling blunder and determined to prove his courage on the “field of honor”.  He aimed an editorial loaded with a racial epithet and charges of corruption at “Mahone-ites” and Colonel Elam in 1883. Elam, equally vitriolic editor of the Whig, secretary of the State Readjuster Committee, and no stranger to dueling himself, responded to Beirne’s editorial by hurling accusations of “lies” and “cowardice”, typical of a challenge to duel.

Excitement in Richmond! June 26, 1883 as reported in the Staunton Spectator, Staunton, Virginia

Even though dueling was certainly waning in the South by this point, it was inevitable to the two men that they would settle the score by firing pistols at one another. The editors negotiated arrangements through their “seconds”, friends selected according to the “code” to encourage mediation and to maintain a cool temper.  Elam, 20 years older than Beirne, insisted upon firing at eight paces instead of ten to accommodate his failing eyesight.  A police officer in disguise arrived on horseback to arrest the men but everyone on the field scattered and Beirne and Elam went into hiding, though both still determined to defend their honor.

It is worth mentioning here that dueling was actually illegal, and had been for quite some time. A duel resulting in death could mean a murder conviction for the shooter, and one could be barred from seeking political office for their involvement in a duel.

The story was already something of a sensational news item in papers around the country because of the oddity that the honor ritual had become, so the fact that the antagonists were now fugitives bound to fight to the death over an editorial flame war must have been very titillating to the news reading public of 1883.

Dramatic headlines ran in the Washington Post that told the day by day of the epic duel in almost real time (Warning! Spoilers ahead):

BENT ON HAVING BLOOD.: SANGUINARY EDITORS PREPARING TO MEET IN MORTAL COMBAT. Richmond Ages over an affair of honor between Messrs. Beirne and Elam — Both gentleman not to be found (June 22, 1883)

THE DUELISTS ARRESTED.: An Officer Appears While the Seconds Are Wrangling About the Pistols.  (June 23, 1883)

BLOODTHIRSTY EDITORS.: The Duelists Again at Large Trying to Arrange Another Meeting.
(June 24, 1883)

NOW FOR THE FIGHT!: The Seconds of Beirne and Elam Again Complete Arrangements
(June 26, 1883)

DETAILS OF THE AFFAIR.: Journeying Hundreds of Miles in Carriages in Order to Elude Arrest. (July 1, 1883)

COLTS AT EIGHT PACES.: ELAM AND BEIRNE MEET AND THE FORMER IS WOUNDED. Shot in the Thigh the Second Round–the Wound Serious–Elam Lying at Waynesboro and Beirne in Baltimore ( July 1, 1883)

ELAM DOING WELL.: Further Particulars of a Most Remarkable Affair of Honor. (July 2, 1883)

MR. ELAM’S CONDITION.: The Reports of Its Seriousness Exaggerated — Beirne’s Movements.
(July 3, 1883)

THE BEIRNE-ELAM AFFAIR.: The Better Class of Virginians Not in Favor of Dueling. (July 19, 1883)

News of the Beirne-Elam duel reached coast to coast:

Shenandoah Herald, Woodstock, Virginia, 6-27-1883

The Evening Critic, Washington DC, 6-22-1883

Daily Record-Union, Sacramento, California 6-27-1883

Some papers were not so amused by the blood-lust.  Take the Daily Globe in St. Paul, Minnesota for instance:

The Daily Globe, St. Paul, Minnesota, 6-25-1883

The Daily Globe, St. Paul, Minnesota, 6-29-1883

Daily Globe, St. Paul, Minnesota, 7-1-1883. The final results of the duel languished on page six, and the Virginia accent is mocked.

And in the Columbian in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania:

The Columbian, Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, 7-6-1883

“The pistol seems to be mightier than the pen in Virginia. It remains to be seen now whether the law is mightier than the pistol. In this enlightened age it is high time that the resort to “the code” be abandoned.”

It was front page news in Lancaster, Pennsylvania:

Lancaster Pennsylvania Daily Intelligencer, 7-2-83

Salt Lake City apparently sought regular updates of the conflict, registering their disapproval with lines like “chivalric idiots” and “details of the disgusting affair”:

Herald, Salt Lake City, Utah, 6-22-1883

Herald, Salt lake City, Utah, 6-28-83

Herald, Salt Lake City, Utah, 7-1-1883

So there you have it.  William Elam was hit in the thigh by Richard Beirne’s bullet.  Beirne “won” and Elam recovered, and never dueled again.

Perhaps the appeal of dueling flagged because of the increasing accuracy of firearms in the 19th century. Simply put, it kept getting easier to kill and be killed.  It was less likely, though obviously still possible, to die in a duel with the old flintlocks, the favored weapons of duelers and the same used by Hamilton and Burr, which were inaccurate even for very experienced marksmen. Consider the weapons chosen in the late duel between editors Elam and Beirne, however; in 1883, Col. Elam insisted upon Navy revolvers and a relatively short distance of 8 paces to compensate for his age and nearsightedness.  The duel these men were so bent on fighting was about drawing blood on the so-called “field of honor”; they revealed no interest in settling the score any other way.

Though dueling didn’t end that day with a bullet in Col. Elam’s thigh, it certainly tapered off after that, finally coming to a close with Richmond Times editor Joseph Bryan’s very public and elegant refusal of a challenge to a duel and resulting arrest of riled Richmond Democrat, Jefferson Wallace, in 1893–ten years after the “last duel”.

Joseph Bryan's letter of refusal printed in the Richmond Dispatch, Richmond, Virginia, 10-8-1893

News of the arrest of Jefferson Wallace of Richmond, Alexandria Gazette 10-9-1893

Further reading:

Pistols & Pointed Pens by Virginius Dabney

Pistols, Politics and the Press: dueling in 19th century American journalism By Ryan Chamberlain