Top of page

Notice
Special holiday hours in effect, December 2025 through January 2026. More information.
Chronicling America
National Endowment for the Humanities

Newspaper Bedford Inquirer (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884

View All Front Pages

About Bedford Inquirer (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884

A trading post built in 1750 on the Juniata River in southwestern Pennsylvania was joined by a British stockade in 1758 and named Fort Bedford after the fourth Duke of Bedford. Bedford County, named after the fort, was formed on March 9, 1771, out of Cumberland County, with Bedford town as county seat. Mainly a farming region, Bedford also attracted many visitors to its natural springs resort.

The True American was the second newspaper (after the Bedford Gazette, established in Bedford County, becoming the Democratic Enquirer in 1827. Its editor was Thomas R. Gettys, followed in quick succession by five others until David Over purchased the weekly, then known as the Bedford Democratic Inquirer and of Whig affiliation, on January 1, 1850. Over’s predecessor, William T. Chapman, Jr., is notable for being sued at least twice (1845 and 1846), once by the editor of the Bedford Gazette, for allegedly libelous comments in the Inquirer.

Over was born in Bedford in 1825 and learned the printing trade at an early age. He purchased the Bedford Chronicle in 1854 for $1,000 and merged it with the Inquirer, complaining in the issue of January 4, 1856, that he still owed $500 and “we have not a dollar to meet it with.” “Fearless and Free” was the Inquirer and Chronicle’s motto, and Over took it seriously, regularly lambasting “that reckless and shameless paper, called the Bedford Gazette.”  In a typical harangue, on January 2, 1857, Over referred to a recent Gazette article: “It is a compound of absurdity and folly, malignity and baseness, leaving the reader in great doubt whether the proper place for its author would be the lunatic asylum, or the State penitentiary.” The Inquirer and Chronicle became simply the Bedford Inquirer on November 27, 1857, with Over referring to the change as a matter of improved appearance for the paper.

The Civil War represented a clear and present danger for Bedford County, located on the Mason-Dixon Line. On January 4, 1861, the Inquirer advised, “Let the People Arm….If you have a gun, get it ready for instant use; If you do not own one, get one as soon as possible.” War coverage in the newspaper was extensive and vivid. Joseph R. Durborrow became editor on April 4, 1862. (In his farewell, the irrepressible Over wrote, “If we have wrongfully offended any during our long connection with the press, we ask for their pardon.” Those rightfully offended presumably could remain so.)

Durborrow handed over management of the Inquirer to a Methodist Episcopal minister, Benjamin Franklin McNeil, on April 1, 1864, and it became McNeil’s sad duty to publish the issue (April 21, 1865), every column black-bordered, reporting Lincoln’s assassination. McNeil penned a heartfelt editorial conveying genuine personal loss. “Once we were permitted to hear him – on the memorable occasion of the Consecration of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, and never shall we forget the impression he made on our mind: Never were words better than those uttered….And if any man has been more instrumental than another, in unloosing the fetters of the oppressed, and giving liberty to four millions of American bondsmen, that man is Abraham Lincoln.”

Provided By: Penn State University Libraries; University Park, PA

About this Newspaper

Title

  • Bedford Inquirer (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884

Dates of Publication

  • 1857-1884

Created / Published

  • Bedford, Pa. : David Over, 1857-1884.

Headings

  • -  Bedford (Pa.)--Newspapers
  • -  Bedford County (Pa.)--Newspapers
  • -  Pennsylvania--Bedford
  • -  Pennsylvania--Bedford County
  • -  United States--Pennsylvania--Bedford--Bedford

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Vol. 30, no. 48 (Nov. 27, 1857)-v. 57, no. 7 (Feb. 15, 1884).
  • -  Publishers: J.R. Durborrow, -Mar. 1864; B.F. McNeal, Apr. 1864-Apr. 1865; John Lutz, May 1865-1874; Jordan & Mullin, 1875-1879; Mullin & Buckingham, 1880-1884.
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format from the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  Bedford Republican (DLC)sn 86083436 (OCoLC)2258220
  • -  Republican and inquirer (DLC)sn 86083441 (OCoLC)12442865

Medium

  • 27 volumes ; 60-70 cm

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn83032006

OCLC Number

  • 10108188

ISSN Number

  • 2376-273x

Preceding Titles

Succeeding Titles

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

The NEH awardee responsible for producing each digital object is presented in the Chronicling America page display, below the page image – e.g. Image produced by the Library of Congress. For more information on current NDNP awardees, see https://aj.sunback.homes/ndnp/listawardees.html.

For more information on Library of Congress policies and disclaimers regarding rights and reproductions, see https://aj.sunback.homes/homepage/legal.html

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Bedford Inquirer Bedford, Pa. -1884. (Bedford, PA), Jan. 1 1857. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn83032006/.

APA citation style:

(1857, January 1) Bedford Inquirer Bedford, Pa. -1884. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn83032006/.

MLA citation style:

Bedford Inquirer Bedford, Pa. -1884. (Bedford, PA) 1 Jan. 1857. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, aj.sunback.homes/item/sn83032006/.