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Thanks to our partner, the Museum of the Albemarle, several batches of materials are now available on DigitalNC! The first batch adds several new titles and issues of older Elizabeth City, N.C. newspapers spanning from the 1800s to 1900s.
- The Elizabeth City Star (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – April 30, 1825; 1908
- North Carolina Native Sentinel (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – October 25, 1856
- The Democratic Pioneer (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – October 28, 1856
- The American Sentinel (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – September 12, 1857
- The North Carolinian (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – 1869, 1870, 1890, 1895, 1902
- The Falcon (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – November 12, 1883
- The Daily Advance (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – 1945
The second batch of materials contains two magazines and several newspaper clippings highlighting notable Elizabeth City news. Two of the newspaper clippings present in this batch, one from 1902 and the other 1941, directly deal with the infamous Ella Maude “Nell” Cropsey murder in Elizabeth City. The details of the case are provided below using newspaper articles from this batch along with others in our newspaper collection.
According to Ollie Cropsey, her sister Nell Cropsey and James “Jim” Wilcox met in June 1898, just two months after the family moved to Elizabeth City. In the early days, James would come over to see Nell every Sunday and eventually started to come over almost every afternoon. During their time together the two would go on walks, rides, sail, and see shows. However, in the fall of 1901 the two started getting into arguments and spats. After a period of silence and the arrival of Ollie and Nell’s cousin Carrie, the two began speaking again. The night Nell went missing from her family’s waterfront home in Elizabeth City, she was socializing with her visiting cousin Carrie, sister Ollie, LeRoy Crawford, and James Wilcox.
That evening, on November 20, 1901, around 11:10PM, Nell escorted Wilcox presumptively out of the house. About 15 minutes later, Crawford left as well. After the departure of Crawford, Ollie closed the door and windows and went to the bedroom she shared with her sister. She was surprised to find that her sister was not yet in their room, but figured she was either still talking with Wilcox outside or in the dining room and either went to sleep or stayed awake until 12:30AM depending on which newspaper issue you read. Whether she went to sleep or stayed awake, a commotion on the property had Mr. Cropsey getting his gun to defend his pigs. At that point, Ollie told her father to not shoot as James and Nell were potentially in the yard. Not finding Nell in the near vicinity, they began to search for her. Still unable to find her, the family enlisted the help of the community the following day. The search came to an end on December 27th when her body was found close to her home on the surface of the Pasquotank River. Wilcox was found guilty of second degree murder in 1902 and sentenced to 30 years.
According to the newspaper clipping from the March 13, 1941 issue of The Daily Advance, Wilcox’s father—former sheriff of Pasquotank County, Thomas Wilcox—tried several times to have him pardoned on petitions. The pardons were denied by governors two separate times supposedly as a result of Wilcox’s attitude during the search for Nell and towards the Cropsey family during the trial. In 1918, however, Wilcox was pardoned by Governor Thomas Bickett after writing the governor a “humble letter […] declaring innocence.”
To learn more about the Nell Cropsey case as it was happening, read the March 21, 1902 issue of the Tar Heel (Elizabeth City, N.C.) that provides details of the trial or by searching our newspaper collection here. For a present day look into the case, view The Daily Advance‘s article from October 9, 2021, “Author: Wilcox wrongly convicted of Cropsey murder,” covering author William Dunstan’s talk on the Cropsey case.
To view more materials from the Museum of the Albemarle, visit their contributor page here.
To browse more newspapers from across the state, visit our North Carolina Newspaper Collection linked here.
To learn more about the Museum of the Albemarle, visit their website here.
This week we have another 60 titles from all over the state up on DigitalNC, including a little piece of North Carolina railroad history!
On the second page of the January 15th, 1833 issue of the Fayetteville Observer, you’ll find a list of all the legislation enacted by the North Carolina General Assembly during the 1832-1833 session. One of these acts is the incorporation of the company that built North Carolina’s first functional railroad: The Experimental Rail Road Company of Raleigh.
Fayetteville Observer, January 15, 1833
The one and one-quarter mile rail line extended from the Capitol Building, which had burned in 1831, to a quarry just east of Raleigh. When the horse-drawn rail carts weren’t transporting the stone used to rebuild the Capitol, people could ride the line in “pleasure cars” for a 25 cent fare. The line cost $2,700 to construct, which would be roughly $91,000 in 2022.
Over the next year, we’ll be adding millions of newspaper images to DigitalNC. These images were originally digitized a number of years ago in a partnership with Newspapers.com. That project focused on scanning microfilmed papers published before 1923 held by the North Carolina Collection in Wilson Special Collections Library. While you can currently search all of those pre-1923 issues on Newspapers.com, over the next year we will also make them available in our newspaper database as well. This will allow you to search that content alongside the 2 million pages already on our site – all completely open access and free to use.
This week’s additions include:
- The North Carolina Prohibitionist (Bush Hill, N.C.) – 1886-1888
- The Progress (Enfield, N.C.) – 1908-1922
- The North-Carolina Journal (Halifax, N.C.) – 1792-1810
- The News Reporter (Littleton, N.C.) – 1897-1923
- The Franklin Courier (Louisburg, N.C.) – 1872-1874
- The Madison Enterprise (Madison, N.C.) – 1873-1874
- The Monroe Journal (Monroe, N.C.) – 1923
- The Iredell Gazette (Mooresville, N.C.) – 1880
- The Morganton Herald (Morganton, N.C.) – 1891-1901
- Surry Visitor (Mount Airy, N.C.) – 1874-1876
- Cherokee Herald (Murphy, N.C.) – 1874-1876
- Person County Courier (Roxboro, N.C.) – 1890-1892
- North Carolina Argus (Wadesboro, N.C.) – 1848-1876
- Mecklenburg Times (Charlotte, N.C.) – 1889-1897
- The North Carolina Whig (Charlotte, N.C.) – 1863
- King’s Dollar Daily (Greenville, N.C.) – 1904
- King’s Weekly (Greenville, N.C.) – 1894-1909
- McDowell Democrat (Marion, N.C.) – 1905-1909
- Marion Progress (Marion, N.C.) – 1909-1922
- The Stanly Banner (Albemarle, N.C.) – 1876
- The Stanly Observer (Albemarle, N.C.) – 1884
- The Stanly News (Albemarle, N.C.) – 1892-1893
- The Caldwell Messenger (Lenoir, N.C.) – 1875-1876
- The Semi-Weekly News (Lenoir, N.C.) – 1900
- The Weekly News (Lenoir, N.C.) – 1900-1902
- The Magnolia Monitor (Magnolia, N.C.) – 1873-1876
- The Duplin Record (Magnolia, N.C.) – 1874-1875
- The Weekly Record (Magnolia, N.C.) – 1876-1877
- The Central (Lexington, N.C.) – 1876
- Lexington and Yadkin Flag (Lexington, N.C.) – 1855-1856
- The Lexington Herald (Lexington, N.C.) – 1915-1917
- The North State (Lexington, N.C.) – 1904-1908
- Murfreesboro Enquirer (Murfreesboro, N.C.) – 1876-1878
- The Albemarle Enquirer (Murfreesboro, N.C.) – 1878-1881
- The Hornets’ Nest (Murfreesboro, N.C.) – 1812-1813
- Carolina Chronicle (Murfreesboro, N.C.) – 1827
- Milton Intelligencer (Milton, N.C.) – 1819
- Milton Spectator (Milton, N.C.) – 1832-1839
- The Milton Chronicle (Milton, N.C.) – 1841-1888
- Milton Gazette & Roanoke Advertiser (Milton, N.C.) – 1824-1831
- The Milton Spectator (Milton, N.C.) – 1854
- The Lincoln Democrat (Lincolnton, N.C.) – 1895-1896
- The Lincoln Journal (Lincolnton, N.C.) – 1898-1901
- The Lincoln Courier (Lincolnton, N.C.) – 1891
- Lincoln Transcript (Lincolnton, N.C.) – 1836
- The Western Whig Banner (Lincolnton, N.C.) – 1840
- Lincoln Progress (Lincolnton, N.C.) – 1873-1882
- Economist (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – 1903
- The Weekly Economist (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – 1903-1905
- Daily Economist (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – 1905-1907
- North Carolina Advocate (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – 1833
- The Intelligencer, and Nag’s Head Advocate (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – 1840-1841
- The Elizabeth-City Gazette, and Public Advertiser (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – 1808
- Fayetteville Observer (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1833
- The Public Spirit (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1876
- The News (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1865
- The Fayetteville Daily News (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1865
- The Weekly Courier (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1860
- Fayetteville Examiner (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1880-1883
- Daily Telegraph (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1865
If you want to see all of the newspapers we have available on DigitalNC, you can find them here. Thanks to UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries for permission to and support for adding all of this content as well as the content to come. We also thank the North Caroliniana Society for providing funding to support staff working on this project.
This week we have another 24 titles up on DigitalNC, including one of the state’s oldest papers: The State Gazette of North-Carolina!
The State Gazette was founded by Abraham Hodge and Andrew Blanchard in 1785. Hodge, born 1755 in the colony of New York, worked as a patriot printer during the American Revolution and even operated George Washington’s traveling press at Valley Forge in 1778. While stationed there, he printed official orders, commissions, and recruitment posters for the Continental Army. Seeking a warmer climate after the war, Hodge relocated to Halifax, N.C., where he would go on to own printing presses in Edenton, Halifax, Fayetteville, and New Bern. In addition to newspapers, he was named printer of the North Carolina General Assembly and printed the state’s laws in 1786. He was also one of the first people to contribute to the library of The University of North Carolina.
March 5, 1795 issue of The State Gazette of North-Carolina. Less than a month after The University of North Carolina opened its doors to students.
Over the next year, we’ll be adding millions of newspaper images to DigitalNC. These images were originally digitized a number of years ago in a partnership with Newspapers.com. That project focused on scanning microfilmed papers published before 1923 held by the North Carolina Collection in Wilson Special Collections Library. While you can currently search all of those pre-1923 issues on Newspapers.com, over the next year we will also make them available in our newspaper database as well. This will allow you to search that content alongside the 2 million pages already on our site – all completely open access and free to use.
This week’s additions include:
- The Daily Bulletin (Charlotte, N.C.) – 1862-1863
- Goldsboro Messenger (Goldsboro, N.C.) – 1880-1887
- The Greensborough Patriot (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1851-1856
- The Patriot and Flag (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1857-1858
- The Greensborough Patriot (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1858-1868
- The Patriot and Times (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1868
- The Little Ad (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1860
- The North Carolina Citizen (Asheville, N.C.) – 1878-1880
- The State Gazette of North-Carolina (New Bern, N.C.) – 1787-1796
- The Chatham Record (Pittsboro, N.C.) – 1912-1914
- Eastern Courier (Hertford, N.C.) – 1897-1898
- Economist and Falcon (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – 1891-1893
- Economist (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – 1900-1902
- The Standard (Concord, N.C.) – 1896-1899
- The Daily Standard (Concord, N.C.) – 1892
- The Concord Times (Concord, N.C.) – 1910-1912
- The Evening Tribune (Concord, N.C.) – 1906-1907
- The Concord Daily Tribune (Concord, N.C.) – 1912-1923
- The Davie Record (Mocksville, N.C.) – 1919-1920
- The Anglo-Saxon (Rockingham, N.C.) – 1899-1901
- Fayetteville Observer (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1896
- The Reporter and Post (Danbury, N.C.) – 1882-1884
- The Danbury Reporter-Post (Danbury, N.C.) – 1884-1891
- The Danbury Reporter (Danbury, N.C.) – 1894-1917
If you want to see all of the newspapers we have available on DigitalNC, you can find them here. Thanks to UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries for permission to and support for adding all of this content as well as the content to come. We also thank the North Caroliniana Society for providing funding to support staff working on this project.
