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Chronicling America
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Newspaper Camden Commercial Courier (Camden, S.C.) 1837-1838 Commercial courier / Camden courier

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About Camden Commercial Courier (Camden, S.C.) 1837-1838

The weekly Camden Commercial Courier, “devoted exclusively to commerce, agriculture, and amusement,” served for a year as the only newspaper representing the city of Camden, South Carolina. The Camden Journal had previously served as Camden’s de facto newspaper of public record, but in the spring of 1837 it had temporarily suspended publication. Lewis M. Jones and Francis S. Bronson quickly acquired the Journal’s printing press and subscription list and tapped local druggist and merchant Mordecai M. Levy to serve as editor. They adopted as their slogan “At the public good we aim.” The first issue of the Commercial Courier appeared on May 6, 1837.

The Commercial Courier featured advice columns for farmers, general interest items, international news (called “foreign intelligence”), sermons, and works of fiction (“The Hunters of the Prairie, Or, The Hawk Chief,” by John Treat Irving, for example). The subjects of banks and banking, railroads, and steamboats received extensive coverage, reflecting Camden’s growing status as a hub of commerce. The notices of the Camden Jockey Club, meanwhile, offered a glimpse into Camden’s future as a center of equestrian activities. Although the Commercial Courier’s proprietors declared they would remain neutral on political issues, strong opinions, especially on the issue of slavery, invariably surfaced. On March 3, 1838, they recounted having received an unsolicited issue of the New York Emancipator, published by the American Anti-Slavery Society. They warned, “So long as you [abolitionists] keep where you are, your actions do but little concern us … we desire not to degrade reason by arguing with madmen.”

It would appear that the Commercial Courier ultimately collapsed under the weight of mounting debt and community indifference. On October 7, 1837, Francis Bronson and Lewis Jones reported having “received a new and handsome assortment of type … the expenses we have now incurred are much heavier than we anticipated.” A month later, they dissolved their business partnership. On May 26, 1838, Jones pleaded that, “We must seriously represent to our subscribers the necessity of their complying speedily with the terms of subscription. Unless this is done the paper must inevitably be discontinued.” The Commercial Courier folded sometime shortly thereafter. The city of Camden would not have a newspaper of its own until Thomas William Pegues re-launched the Camden Journal in December 1839.

Provided By: University of South Carolina; Columbia, SC

About this Newspaper

Title

  • Camden Commercial Courier (Camden, S.C.) 1837-1838

Other Title

  • Commercial courier
  • Camden courier

Dates of Publication

  • 1837-1838

Created / Published

  • Camden, S.C. : L.M. Jones and Co., 1837-

Headings

  • -  Camden (S.C.)--Newspapers
  • -  Kershaw County (S.C.)--Newspapers
  • -  South Carolina--Camden
  • -  South Carolina--Kershaw County
  • -  United States--South Carolina--Kershaw--Camden

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Vol. 1, no. 1 (May 6, 1837)-
  • -  Ceased in 1838.
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format from the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  Microfilm available from the University of South Carolina.
  • -  Latest issue consulted: Vol. 2, no. 7 (June 16, 1838).

Medium

  • v.

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper
  • AN

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn92065563

OCLC Number

  • 25968525

ISSN Number

  • 2472-7857

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:

Camden Commercial Courier Camden, S.C. 1837 to 1838. (Camden, SC), Jan. 1 1837. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn92065563/.

APA citation style:

(1837, January 1) Camden Commercial Courier Camden, S.C. 1837 to 1838. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn92065563/.

MLA citation style:

Camden Commercial Courier Camden, S.C. 1837 to 1838. (Camden, SC) 1 Jan. 1837. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, aj.sunback.homes/item/sn92065563/.