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Chronicling America
National Endowment for the Humanities

Newspaper Southern Tribune (Pontotoc, Miss.) 1842-18?? Southern tribune, and Aberdeen commercial news

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About Southern Tribune (Pontotoc, Miss.) 1842-18??

Pontotoc County, in northeastern Mississippi, was established in 1832 from land obtained from the Chickasaw under the Treaty of Pontotoc Creek. The town of Pontotoc was incorporated in 1837 and is the county seat.

The Spirit of the Times, a four-page Democratic paper published every Saturday in Pontotoc, was established in 1841 by William W. Leland. Prior to establishing the Times, Leland was proprietor of the Pontotoc newspapers, the Chickasaw Union (1836-38) and the Mississippi Intelligencer  (1840-18??); due to the Panic of 1837 the two journals were short-lived. The Times also endured financial instability, partially due to subscribers failing to pay their subscription fee, as evident in the September 18, 1841 article entitled, “Keep it before the people.” In the editorial Leland stated that “… printers can’t live on kind words and fair promises.” Because of the newspaper’s financial difficulties, the Times was published irregularly. The last installment of the Times was issued on September 3, 1842, but it resurfaced the following week as the Southern Tribune with Leland and Charles A. Bradford, a lawyer who once worked with Leland on the Mississippi Intelligencer, as publishers. For the first seven months of 1845 Leland, now with a different partner, moved the place of publication to Aberdeen and temporarily changed the title to the Southern Tribune and Aberdeen Commercial News; by August Leland had moved the operation back to Pontotoc. The Southern Tribune continued to be issued every Saturday until it ceased publication in 1847.

The Spirit of the Times initially started as a newspaper devoted to the topics of agriculture, commerce and literature; however, later issues shifted focus to the banking crisis and local and national political coverage such as congressional elections and affairs. Local matters were also reported, for example, the March 12, 1841 issue contained news about the establishment of the local militia, the Pontotoc Dragoons. The Southern Tribune reported a similar mix of news; by April 1846 coverage of the Mexican-American War had begun, and it lasted throughout the run of the paper. Being heavily involved in politics, the Tribune often published addresses delivered by key political figures; speeches by John C. Calhoun and President James K. Polk appeared in the December 20, 1845 issue. Other content of the Southern Tribune included bankruptcy and other legal notices, fugitive slave announcements, local advertisements, and amusing stories like “Let go my hair,” about a trick played on two sleepy deacons, which appeared in the December 6, 1845 issue.

Provided By: Mississippi Department of Archives and History

About this Newspaper

Title

  • Southern Tribune (Pontotoc, Miss.) 1842-18??

Other Title

  • Southern tribune, and Aberdeen commercial news

Dates of Publication

  • 1842-18??

Created / Published

  • Pontotoc, Miss. : C.A. Bradford & W.W. Leland, 1842-

Headings

  • -  Pontotoc (Miss.)--Newspapers
  • -  Mississippi--Pontotoc
  • -  United States--Mississippi--Pontotoc--Pontotoc
  • -  United States--Mississippi--Monroe--Aberdeen

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Vol. 1, no. 1 (Sept. 14, 1842)-
  • -  Published in Aberdeen, Jan. 30-July 24, 1845 as: Southern tribune, and Aberdeen commercial news.
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format from the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.

Medium

  • volumes : illustrations ; 69 cm

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn84020042

OCLC Number

  • 10278938

ISSN Number

  • 2575-5455

Preceding 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:

Southern Tribune Pontotoc, Miss. -18??. (Pontotoc, MS), Jan. 1 1842. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn84020042/.

APA citation style:

(1842, January 1) Southern Tribune Pontotoc, Miss. -18??. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn84020042/.

MLA citation style:

Southern Tribune Pontotoc, Miss. -18??. (Pontotoc, MS) 1 Jan. 1842. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, aj.sunback.homes/item/sn84020042/.