The Monroe Watchman is a newspaper serving Union, West Virginia, and surrounding Monroe County.[2] Published weekly, it has a circulation of 3,652 and is owned by The Monroe Watchman, Inc.[3]
History
Originally named the Border Watchman, the Monroe Watchman was founded by Elbert Fowler in February 1872.[4] Fowler, who was known for an "irascibility of temper that amounted to an infirmity," had learned the newspaper trade from his brother, Isaac Chapman Fowler at the Bristol News in Bristol, Tennessee.[5] Moving to Union he established the four page Democratic weekly,[6] which in its initial years it was known for a vicious back and forth with other local paper the Register, run at that time by Richard Burke.[4] Due to an altercation with Burke, the two engaged in a pistol fight where neither was wounded.[5] Fowler quit the newspaper business in 1874,[4] and moved to lawyering, later dying of blood poisoning brought on by an 1885 duel over a political squabble that resulted in a charge of slander.[5]
The title changed to Monroe County Watchman in 1884 and to Monroe Watchman in 1897.[7]
The paper was sold to Charles M. Johnston in 1874, who subsequently passed it on to his son, Albert Sidney Johnston,[4] who would publish the paper for almost 50 years,[8] before passing it on to his son J. Malcolm Johnston.[9]
In 1965, long-time editor Harold Mohler purchased J. Malcolm's stake in the paper.[10] His son Craig took over the paper after his father's death from cancer at 64, and runs it to this day.[11]
See also
References
- ^ 2016 West Virginia Press Association Newspaper Directory (PDF). West Virginia Press Association. 2016.
- ^ "Newspapers Currently Received in the West Virginia Archives and History Library" (PDF). West Virginia Division of Culture and History. State of West Virginia. December 2016.
- ^ 2016 West Virginia Press Association Newspaper Directory (PDF). West Virginia Press Association. 2016.
- ^ a b c d Morton, Oren Frederic (1916). A History of Monroe County, West Virginia. McClure Company, Incorporated. p. 251.
1872 Border Watchman.
- ^ a b c "Thompson and Fowler". The Weekly Register. 8 April 1885. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
- ^ N.W. Ayer & Son's American Newspaper Annual. N.W. Ayer and Son. 1882.
- ^ "Monroe Watchman". Mondo Times.
- ^ "Untitled". Beckley Post-Herald. 8 May 1936. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
- ^ "Johnston Is Postmaster". Beckley Post-Herald. 19 April 1935. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
- ^ "Monroe Watchman Headed by Mohler". Beckley Post-Herald. 17 August 1965. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
- ^ Johnson, Greg (19 November 2015). "Serving the Public Good". Greenbrier Valley Quarterly.