Monroe Watchman
The Monroe Watchman is a newspaper serving Union, West Virginia, and surrounding Monroe County.[1] Published weekly, it has a circulation of 3,652 and is owned by The Monroe Watchman, Inc.[2]
Type | weekly |
---|---|
Owner(s) | The Monroe Watchman, Inc. |
Founded | 1872 |
Headquarters | 430 Main Street., Union, WV 24983 |
Circulation | 3,652 |
History
Originally named the Border Watchman, the Monroe Watchman was founded by Elbert Fowler in February 1872.[3] Fowler, who was known for an "irascibility of temper that amounted to an infirmity," had learned the newspaper trade from his father at the Bristol News in Bristol, Tennessee.[4] Moving to Union he established the four page Democratic weekly,[5] 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.[3] Due to an altercation with Burke, the two engaged in a pistol fight where neither was wounded.[4] Fowler quit the newspaper business in 1874,[3] 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.[4]
The title changed to Monroe County Watchman in 1884 and to Monroe Watchman in 1897.[6]
The paper was sold to Charles M. Johnston in 1874, who subsequently passed it on to his son, Albert Sidney Johnston,[3] who would publish the paper for almost 50 years,[7] before passing it on to his son J. Malcolm Johnston.[8]
In 1965, long-time editor Harold Mohler purchased J. Malcolm's stake in the paper.[9] His son Craig took over the paper after his father's death from cancer at 64, and runs it to this day.[10]
See also
References
- "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.
- Morton, Oren Frederic (1916). A History of Monroe County, West Virginia. McClure Company, Incorporated. p. 251.
1872 Border Watchman.
- "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.