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“Mr. Raleigh Stewart caught 21 fine fish in his trap Sunday night”: Social Media in 1900

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With the recent 10 year anniversary of Facebook and various other forms of social media such as Twitter and Instagram becoming increasing ubiquitous in our lives, there are often reports of the end of privacy for everyone.  However, if you take a look at newspapers from the late 1800s and early 1900s, you have to wonder when privacy in one’s social life ever existed.  As the quote above about Mr. Stewart’s catch from The Danbury Reporter shows, no news was too small to be printed.  Newspapers provided a variety of resources for citizens that we now often turn to the internet for, from publishing serials such as Sherlock Holmes, ads from assorted businesses, the weather, train schedules for the day or week, and crop pricing, in addition to the regular news of the day.  So it makes sense that the media of the day also was social in nature.

News of those sick in Graham, NC from the Alamance Gleaner in 1911

News of those sick in Graham, NC from the Alamance Gleaner in 1911

From the April 27, 1934 Rocky Mount Herald

From the April 27, 1934 Rocky Mount Herald

Small town newspapers in particular had weekly features that described in detail all the goings-on in town, including the very mundane of “Mr. Jones has a cold this week.  We wish him well.”  Sounds an awful lot like a tweet if you just add in a hashtag or two, “Heard @MrJones has a cold this week. #feelbetter #boosickness!”  In towns with just a few hundred people, where everyone likely knew who you were anyways, one’s social network was indeed the whole town and these local news sections provide a recording of what was happening on a weekly basis.

Appeal from Asheboro  Courier editors to citizens for news items in 1903

Appeal from Asheboro Courier editors to citizens for news items in 1903

Called a variety of names from “Local News,” “Items of Local Interest,” etc, these sections of the paper were usually a page or two after the main headlines of the day.  It is not always obvious who wrote the columns, but some do identify it as being “Club News,” being pulled together by the social women’s clubs in the area.  Others, such as the Asheboro Courier pictured above, make appeals from the paper’s editors themselves to send in items to be published.  Those with a more social club focus saw such columns as being primarily for women, such as the Rocky Mount Herald, which called their section, “Of Interest to Women.”

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Other papers, such as the Forest City Courier and the Elm City Elevator, had a mix of both social and more business items in their local news and called their section, “News Items in and Around Forest City,” and “Personal Paragraphs.”

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For those researching the daily lives of people around the turn of the 2oth century, these sections of newspapers can be a rich resource, not only to learn who was sick and who was visiting from out of town, but these sections also contain information about social gatherings in town, such as camp meetings, lectures, and openings of businesses such as mills and restaurants.  The newest technology can also come up in the local news items, as the telephone line mention shows below.

Restaurant news in October 9, 1919 Forest City Courier

Restaurant news in October 9, 1919 Forest City Courier

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Telephone news from the 1903 Asheboro Courier

To find more local news, check out DigitalNC‘s North Carolina Newspapers Collection and read some 140 character postings from the early 1900s.


Newspapers Selected for Digitization, 2011-2012

The following newspapers were digitized from microfilm in 2011 and 2012.

Title Years Nominating Institution
The Mebane Leader 1911-1915 Alamance County Public Library
Highland Messenger (Asheville) 1840-1851 Buncombe County Public Library
The Standard (Concord) 1888-1898 Cabarrus County Public Library
Daily Concord Standard 1895-1899 Cabarrus County Public Library
Mecklenburg Jeffersonian (Charlotte) 1841-1849 Charlotte Mecklenburg Library
Miners’ and Farmers’ Journal (Charlotte) 1830-1834 Charlotte Mecklenburg Library
Catawba Journal (Charlotte) 1824-1828 Charlotte Mecklenburg Library
Western Democrat (Charlotte) 1856-1868 Charlotte Mecklenburg Library
North Carolina Whig (Charlotte) 1852-1863 Charlotte Mecklenburg Library
Fayetteville Observer 1851-1865 Cumberland County Public Library
The Carolina Times (Durham) 1951-1964 Durham County Library
The Lincoln Republican (Lincolnton) 1840-1842 Gaston County Public Library
The Lincoln Courier (Lincolnton) 1845-1895 Gaston County Public Library
The Roanoke News (Weldon) 1878-1922 Halifax County Public Library
The Marion Progress 1916, 1929, 1940 McDowell County Public Library
Marion Record 1894-1895 McDowell County Public Library
Marion Messenger 1896-1898 McDowell County Public Library
The Pilot (Southern Pines) 1920-1945 Southern Pines Public Library
Sylvan Valley News 1900-1911 Transylvania County Library
The Pinehurst Outlook 1897-1923 The Tufts Archives
The Goldsboro Headlight 1887-1903 Wayne County Public Library
The Elm City Elevator 1902 Wilson County Public Library
The Wilson Advance 1874-1899 Wilson County Public Library

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This blog is maintained by the staff of the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center and features the latest news and highlights from the collections at DigitalNC, an online library of primary sources from organizations across North Carolina.

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