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Newspaper Clarke Courier (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997

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About Clarke Courier (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997

The town of Berryville lies west of the Blue Ridge in the northern Shenandoah Valley, 20 miles southwest of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, and 60 miles west of Washington, D.C. As the seat of Clarke County, Berryville by 1860 had at least three newspapers. However, all were casualties of the Civil War. The last of these, the Berryville Conservator, disappeared in March 1862, when newsprint from a partially printed issue was used to produce copies of The First Minnesota, published by a Union Regiment occupying the town for “circulation among their friends in the Great Northwest.” Two weeks later, the 27th Regiment, Indiana Volunteers, followed suit, printing at least two numbers of the Haversack.

William N. Nelson launched the Clarke Courier on February 19, 1869. A former captain of the Nelson Guards, Company C of the 2nd Regiment, Virginia Volunteers, who had been wounded at First Manassas, Nelson purchased the printing plant of the defunct The Clarke Journal. The four-page weekly opposed Reconstruction and the agenda of the Radical Republicans. In its “Salutatory,” the editor described occupied Virginia as “despoiled, conquered, torn bleeding” and wanted the state to “resume her rightful position.” Conservative and unwaveringly supportive of the Democratic Party, the paper in 1870 trumpeted a local election victory as “Radicalism Routed . . . White Men Triumphant!”

In 1870, Nelson relinquished the editorship of the Courier to John O. Crown, a Marylander. A former Confederate, Crown held fast to a Democratic outlook. Much discussed in the Courier during the 1870s and early 1880s was the critical question of whether to repudiate some portion of Virginia’s immense public debt and refinance the remainder or, instead, to face fully Virginia’s fiscal responsibilities. Proponents of the first course were the “Readjusters” led by William Mahone. Their opponents were known as Funders. In November 1880, Crown placed the Courier squarely behind the latter: “Virginia Takes it Straight. She wants no Mahone in it.” A week later, after Mahone won a seat in the U.S. Senate, the paper with considerable regret announced “with feelings of sorrow and shame the success of the coalition party of this state.” The Courier also voiced outrage that enfranchised African-Americans were a part of the successful coalition.

The mid-1880s also found the Courier closely following the business practices of Virginia’s railroads and supporting the establishment of a Railroad Commission. “We do not advocate extreme legislation in regard to railroads,” the newspaper commented, “but we think laws should be enacted that will confine them to their duties as public carriers, and to prevent unjust discriminations against local traffic.” Crown was, as a Clarke County historian later noted, widely acknowledged as a “practical printer as well as an accomplished writer, one of the best editorial writers in the State.” Crown edited the paper until his death in 1902. Two of his sons ran the paper from 1917 to 1927, years when prohibition became a major topic. In 1907, the Courier, a pro-temperance paper, quoted an unnamed resident who compared alcohol to an “awful demon polluting our land,” and in that year five saloons in Berryville closed.

Under changing ownership in the decades that followed, the Clarke Courier became the Clarke Times-Courier in 1997 under Arthur Arundel, who had purchased the paper in 1981.

Provided By: Library of Virginia; Richmond, VA

About this Newspaper

Title

  • Clarke Courier (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997

Names

  • Arundel, Arthur
  • Arundel, Peter

Dates of Publication

  • 1869-1997

Created / Published

  • Berryville, Va. : William N. Nelson, 1869-1997.

Headings

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Vol. 1, no. 1 (Feb. 19, 1869)-128th year, no. 26 (June 25, 1997).
  • -  Published by: John O. Crown, Dec. 14, 1870-<> ; Arthur Arundel, <1985> ; Arundel Newspapers, <1985-1992> ; Arcom Pub., <1992-1997> ; Times Community Newspapers, Jan. 1997-
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format as part of the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  Various publishing companies, under Arthur and Peter Arundel, published: Reston times, Herndon times, Centreville times, Chantilly times, Burke times, Loudoun times-mirror, Eastern Loudoun times, Fauquier democrat, Fauquier times-democrat, Vienna times, McLean times, Providence journal and McLean times, Rappahannock news, Springfield times courier, Great Falls times, Fairfax times, Fairfax Station times.
  • -  Clarke times-courier (DLC)sn 97066021 (OCoLC)37628375

Medium

  • volumes ; 60 cm

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn85025371

OCLC Number

  • 11704653

ISSN Number

  • 2157-3328

Preceding Titles

Succeeding Titles

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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.

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Cite This Item

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

Chicago citation style:

Clarke Courier Berryville, Va. -1997. (Berryville, VA), Jan. 1 1869. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn85025371/.

APA citation style:

(1869, January 1) Clarke Courier Berryville, Va. -1997. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn85025371/.

MLA citation style:

Clarke Courier Berryville, Va. -1997. (Berryville, VA) 1 Jan. 1869. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, aj.sunback.homes/item/sn85025371/.