The Tryon Daily Bulletin’s tagline is the World’s Smallest Daily Newspaper. This masthead is from Aug 15, 1945, with Seth M. Vining as editor.

Issues of the Tryon Daily Bulletin from 1935-1936 and 1942-1951 have been added to DigitalNC, thanks to funding from the North Caroliniana Society. This title was recommended and advocated for by the Polk County Public Library.

The Bulletin is a physically smaller paper both in dimensions and page length, and it actually boasts the tagline “The World’s Smallest Daily Newspaper” to this day. Despite (or perhaps because of) its size, the Bulletin focus mostly on local news. You’ll find items about church, school, and sporting events, and articles about marriages, illnesses, births and deaths without many syndicated articles or ads to sift through. As a daily, the paper covered smaller details than you might normally see, as specific as a list of books added to the library. 

The Curb Reporter column graphic beginning in the mid 1940s.

The issues scanned from 1942-1951 cover World War II and its immediate aftermath. Unlike many of the Bulletin’s peers, the front page doesn’t focus on national news but rather the war’s impact on the local community. There are calls for donations of items for soldiers, articles announcing events for soldiers visiting from Camp Croft (which was located near Spartanburg, SC), and lists of Tryon-area soldiers and their comings and goings. The paper features a regular front page column called “Curb Reporter” which is a compiled list of brief local, national, and international news items.

You can view all of the issues we’ve scanned of the Tryon Daily Bulletin on the newspaper’s landing page. All of the items we’ve scanned on behalf of the Polk County Public Library can be found from the Library’s contributor page.

Polk County News, December 18, 1924, page 13

Thanks to the Polk County Public Library, DigitalNC has now published 3 more years of the Polk County News!

These issues add to the nearly 800 other issues of the paper (also known as the Tryon Bee) that are already online. Like many newspapers from small communities in North Carolina, the paper was a source of local events, advertisements, national and international stories, serialized novels, regular columns, and style information.

All of the issues of the Polk County News are an excellent source for genealogical research, as the paper covers many of the comings and goings within the town.

To learn more about the Polk County Public Library, please visit their contributor page or their website.

Polk County News, January 07, 1926, page 1

The Tryon Daily Bulletin, January 17, 1942.

Another new newspaper title, The Tryon Daily Bulletin, is now accessible on DigitalNC thanks to our partners, Polk County Public Library. Known as “The World’s Smallest Daily Newspaper”, The Tryon Daily Bulletin delivered the news in Polk County, N.C., Monday through Saturday, as it continues to do to this day. Over 2000 issues spanning the years 1928 to 1942 are available to view, advertising local events such as church gatherings, political meetings, and events around town. Daily reporting made it easier for The Tryon Daily Bulletin to bring the most current news to the community, best represented by the “Curb Reporter” front page articles.

Curb Reporter, January 16, 1942.

“Little Church Around the Corner”, February 4, 1934.

To see all issues of The Tryon Daily Bulletin, check out our digital exhibit here. To learn more about the Polk County Public Library, visit their contributor page here or their website here.

After catching sight of the bizarre Wrigley’s gum ad seen above (cools your mouth! heartburn and flatulence disappear!), I dug up a number of interesting Wrigley’s ads in North Carolina newspapers from the years before and during World War I.

Before the War, ads focused on the health-related claims made by the manufacturers:

• cures heartburn and flatulence
• a “regular aid to teeth, breath, appetite and digestion“
• “relieves all over-eaten feelings“
• “healthy, wholesome exercise for teeth and gums“
• “soothes the throat, relieves thirst, steadies the stomach“

Ads from 1914-1918 show the Spearmint/Pepsin variety, then add Doublemint (a peppermint flavor) and finally Juicy Fruit.

The “Wrigley Spearmen” brand mascots begin appearing around 1915, especially in ads that suggested the gum as a “goody” for children. You could send away for a Wrigley’s Mother Goose book, with the Sprightly Spearmen featured in favorite fairy tales and encouraging gum chewing.

Two Wrigley’s Spearmen, from 1917 (L) and 1915 (R)

Then, beginning in 1917, ads turn to Wrigley’s gum as a comfort and aid to soldiers abroad. One ad claims “All the British Army is chewing it” and the one shown below says it’s the “great wartime sweetmeat.”

According to the ads, soldiers from the Arctic to the Southern Cross chewed Wrigley’s. The company also announced its substitution of waxed paper for tin foil to assist with the war effort.

From the Wrigley website, I learned that the company invested heavily in marketing in the early 20th century. The proliferation and variety of ads I found definitely supports this. Most of the other ads in newspapers of the time period are smaller, with the largest ones promoting local businesses like banks and stores rather than individual products. Few of the ads have the eye-catching and detailed illustrations of the Wrigley’s ads, which is probably why these caught my eye.

I’ll close with this last ad from 1916, which adopted an image of the “caveman” character that had entered American popular culture a few years earlier. This ad has a very different style from the others I located from the early 20th century. Perhaps Wrigley was trying out a different direction, only to return to more traditional pitches during the War.

This post was greatly facilitated by our Advanced Search page, which helped me narrow down my search by year. Feel free to browse a variety of front pages from 1914-1918, or my original Wrigley’s search.