Top of page

Chronicling America
National Endowment for the Humanities

Newspaper The Enterprise (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899

View All Front Pages

About The Enterprise (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899

The city of Wellington, located in the southeast portion of Lorain County, Ohio, did not have a newspaper for 10 years following the closing of the Wellington Journal in 1854. In 1865, James A. Guthrie decided to start theWellington Enterprise, a weekly newspaper that covered developments in what would come to be called the Cheese Empire of the nation. The Enterprise was up and running in time to cover the opening of Wellington’s first cheese factory, built by the Horr brothers in 1866. The completion of the Cleveland, Columbus, & Cincinnati Railroad at Wellington allowed the cheese made in the city to be shipped nationwide. Guthrie sold the paper several months later to John C. Artz.

Artz owned and edited the Wellington Enterprise until 1876 when he in turn sold it to Dr. John Wesley Houghton and his partner D.A. Smith. Houghton bought Smith’s portion of the paper the next year to become sole owner and editor, with Smith taking charge of the printing. A prominent doctor in Wellington, Houghton and his wife, Mary, who was very interested in literature and writing, owned and edited the paper together, covering home interests, politics, agriculture, science, and much more. Under the Houghtons, the publication promoted fairness in discussing disputed questions and supported progressive reform. Even though the paper generally endorsed Republican policies, Houghton never committed himself entirely to a single political party. The Wellington Enterprise also supported the goals of the temperance movement. The Houghtons owned and edited the paper until 1885, when they sold it John Britton Smith.

In 1897, Smith sold the Wellington Enterprise to R.L French of the French Printing Company. French would drop the city name from the title in 1889, simply calling the paper theEnterprise to reflect the paper’s broader geographical coverage: A Family Newspaper Devoted to the Interest of Lorain County and Vicinity. Articles would no longer center only on Wellington, but would cover Lorain County as a whole with increased news coverage from Medina and Ashland counties as well. Wellington was eventually restored in the title in 1899, putting the focus of its coverage back on the city. In 1900, French sold the paper to a stock company that put Robert Walden in place as the editor. That same year, the Enterprise merged with the short-lived Wellington Observer to become the Wellington Enterprise and Observer. Smith sold the latter in 1902 to the prominent Civil War veteran Henry Otis Fifield, who owned the paper for the next 15 years. The Wellington Enterprise is still in publication today.

Provided By: Ohio History Connection, Columbus, OH

About this Newspaper

Title

  • The Enterprise (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899

Dates of Publication

  • 188?-1899

Created / Published

  • Wellington, Ohio : A.B. Smith, -1899.

Headings

  • -  Wellington (Ohio)--Newspapers
  • -  Lorain County (Ohio)--Newspapers
  • -  Ohio--Lorain County
  • -  Ohio--Wellington
  • -  United States--Ohio--Lorain--Wellington

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly, Sept. 1897-1899
  • -  -33rd year, no. 8 (Feb. 22, 1899).
  • -  "A family newspaper devoted to home interests, politics, agriculture, science, art, poetry, etc.", -May 1, 1889; "A family newspaper devoted to the interest of Lorain County and vicinity," May 2, 1889-Aug. 9, 1893.
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format from the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  Description based on: Vol. 23, no. 1 (Jan. 2, 1889).
  • -  Wellington enterprise (Wellington, Ohio : 1899) (DLC)sn 84028273

Medium

  • volumes

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn84028272

OCLC Number

  • 11686813

ISSN Number

  • 2372-6903

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:

The Enterprise Wellington, Ohio 188?. (Wellington, OH), 188?. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn84028272/.

APA citation style:

(188?) The Enterprise Wellington, Ohio 188?. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn84028272/.

MLA citation style:

The Enterprise Wellington, Ohio 188?. (Wellington, OH) 188?. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, aj.sunback.homes/item/sn84028272/.