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Newspaper The Brattleboro Daily Reformer (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955

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About The Brattleboro Daily Reformer (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955

Charles N. Davenport, a lawyer from Brattleboro, Vermont, and an ardent Democrat, established the weekly Windham County Reformer in the summer of 1876 to support the presidential campaign of Samuel Tilden. Davenport was frustrated by the biased coverage provided by the Vermont Phoenix, the local Republican paper. According to one account, a campaign slogan, “Tilden and Reform,” provided the inspiration for the new paper’s name. A prospectus promised that the Reformer would support federal and state administrative reforms regarding currency, revenue, and civil service, and “oppose thieves, plunderers and bribe takers everywhere.” In Vermont, the Reformer promised to stand for a system of equal taxation and against favoritism for corporations and railroads. Davenport’s son, Charles H., took on the editorial duties, and after his father’s death, assumed ownership of the paper.

In the 1880s, the Reformer appeared in five editions, including papers in Bennington County, Vermont, and Franklin County, Massachusetts. The Windham County Reformer was issued as a county edition and a local edition, and a statewide edition appeared as the Brattleboro Reformer from 1884 to 1901. Starting in 1897, the paper was published on Tuesdays and Fridays as the Semi-Weekly Windham County Reformer.

The Reformer included the literary, scientific, home, religion, and agriculture departments typical of 19th-century country weeklies. The paper prided itself on its local, county, and state coverage, and advertised that it had news bureaus in every county in Vermont providing more than 50 columns of local news every week. Under Charles H. Davenport’s direction, the Reformer was known for its political content and an extensive editorial page, characterized by strong language and sarcasm. While he often criticized Republican politicians and causes, Davenport also chastised his own party for failing to take action.

Jacob G. Ullery purchased the Reformer in 1901. He modernized the production facilities, and within weeks ended the Tuesday edition for lack of advertising support. Davenport stayed on as an editorial writer, and was joined by writer and editor Adalaide D. Reynolds, who had first worked as an assistant editor at the Reformer in the 1880s.In 1903, Ullery sold the Reformer and the printing plant to Ephraim H. Crane’s Vermont Printing Co.

Crane vowed to “make and keep the Reformer a paper for Brattleboro and Windham County first, for Vermont and the neighboring states secondly” and “to tell the truth about things that happen every day.” Under Crane, the Reformer ended its active support for the Democratic Party. The paper received a new name in 1907, when the first issue of the year appeared as the Brattleboro Reformer, to reflect its place of publication. In 1913 Brattleboro’s newspaper landscape underwent a significant change, resulting in the end of the weekly Reformer. Crane and his business partners consolidated the competing weekly papers under the title of the Vermont Phoenix. In March 1913, they published the first number of the Brattleboro Daily Reformer. Finally, in 1955, the weekly and the daily merged to form the Brattleboro Daily Reformer and Vermont Phoenix, which became the Brattleboro Reformer in 1973.

Provided By: University of Vermont

About this Newspaper

Title

  • The Brattleboro Daily Reformer (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955

Dates of Publication

  • 1913-1955

Created / Published

  • Brattleboro, Vt. : Reformer

Headings

  • -  Brattleboro (Vt.)--Newspapers
  • -  Vermont--Brattleboro
  • -  United States--Vermont--Windham--Brattleboro

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Daily (except Sun.)
  • -  Vol. 1. no. 1 (Mar 3, 1913)- v. 43, no. 257 (Dec. 30, 1955).
  • -  Independent. Cf. Ayer, 1914.
  • -  Also available on microfilm from the Vermont Public Records Library.
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format from the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  Merged with: Vermont phoenix (Brattleboro, Vt. : 1834) to form: Brattleboro daily reformer and Vermont phoenix.
  • -  Vermont phoenix (Brattleboro, Vt. : 1834) 2166-9821 (DLC)sn 98060050 (OCoLC)38967714
  • -  Brattleboro daily reformer and Vermont phoenix (DLC)sn 97067590 (OCoLC)37671724

Medium

  • v. : ill. ; 58 cm.

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn86071593

OCLC Number

  • 13712537

ISSN Number

  • 2474-6134

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.

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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:

The Brattleboro Daily Reformer Brattleboro, Vt. -1955. (Brattleboro, VT), Jan. 1 1913. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn86071593/.

APA citation style:

(1913, January 1) The Brattleboro Daily Reformer Brattleboro, Vt. -1955. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn86071593/.

MLA citation style:

The Brattleboro Daily Reformer Brattleboro, Vt. -1955. (Brattleboro, VT) 1 Jan. 1913. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, aj.sunback.homes/item/sn86071593/.