This week we have another 61 titles up on DigitalNC, including our first additions from Charleston, Culler, Red Springs, Rutherfordton, and Sanford! Included in this batch, on the front page of the February 28, 1872 issue of Raleigh’s Weekly Sentinel, is an article detailing the final heist of Robeson County folk hero Henry Berry Lowry.

Portrait thought to be of Henry Berry Lowry. Via the State Archives of North Carolina

Henry Berry Lowry, a Lumbee Native American, was the head of the mostly Native outlaw group known as the Lowry Gang. In addition to typical outlaw activities, the Lowry Gang also helped other Native Americans avoid Confederate work conscription and fought alongside Union soldiers who had escaped Confederate prison camps. While Lowry did often resort to murder to settle personal feuds, he was also considered a sort of Robeson “Robin Hood.” When they committed robberies, they would often share the spoils with the community and would return items such as horses as soon as they were no longer needed. They were known to be “respectful” robbers and would let you off the hook if you could show you didn’t have much.

The Weekly Sentinel, February 28, 1872

In 1869, governor William Holden put a $12,000 bounty on Lowry’s head, which resulted in bloody conflict over the next few years. After successfully evading capture, Lowry planned his final heist in February of 1872. The gang stole a safe from a local carriage manufacturer and were bold enough to take another from the sheriff’s office, walking away with $22,000 (about $520,000 today) and then he disappeared. The bounty was never collected and he was never heard from again. Some locals claim they saw him at a friend’s funeral years later, but we will likely never know what happened to Henry Berry Lowry.

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:

Asheboro

• Southern Citizen, & Man of Business (Asheboro, N.C.) – 1836-1837
• Southern Citizen (Asheboro, N.C.) – 1837-1844

Charleston

• Swain County Herald (Charleston, N.C.) – 1889-1890

Charlotte

• The People’s Paper (Charlotte, N.C.) – 1896-1903

Culler

• Pinnacle Era (Culler, N.C.) – 1893
• North Carolina Voice (Culler, N.C.) – 1894

Elizabeth City

• The Old North State, and Nag’s Head Advocate (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – 1841
• The Old North State (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – 1849-1854

Goldsboro

• Republican and Patriot (Goldsboro, N.C.) – 1853
• North Carolina Republican (Goldsboro, N.C.) – 1854

Greensboro

• The Daily Evening Patriot (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1888
• Weekly Message (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1851-1867
• The Message (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1867-1870
• The Olive Branch (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1870-1871
• The Greensboro Times (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1868

Halifax

• Roanoke Advocate (Halifax, N.C.) – 1830-1833
• Roanoke Advocate and State Rights Banner (Halifax, N.C.) – 1840-1842
• Roanoke Republican (Halifax, N.C.) – 1843-1855

Hertford

• Perquiman’s Record (Hertford, N.C.) – 1890-1894

North Wilkesboro

• The Hustler (North Wilkesboro, N.C.) – 1899-1905

Oxford

• The Oxford Free Lance (Oxford, N.C.) – 1878
• Oxford Examiner (Oxford, N.C.) – 1830-1838
• Oxford Mercury, and Citizen of Granville (Oxford, N.C.) – 1841

Plymouth

• The Plymouth Banner (Plymouth, N.C.) – 1856
• The Old Flag (Plymouth, N.C.) – 1865
• The Plymouth News (Plymouth, N.C.) – 1849-1850

Raleigh

• The Weekly Sentinel (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1872-1876

Red Springs

• Red Springs Comet (Red Springs, N.C.) – 1892
• The Comet (Red Springs, N.C.) – 1893

Reidsville

• The Reidsville Times (Reidsville, N.C.) – 1876-1889

Rockingham

• Spirit of the South (Rockingham, N.C.) – 1873-1892
• The Pee Dee Courier (Rockingham, N.C.) – 1876
• The Pee Dee Bee (Rockingham, N.C.) – 1879
• The Bee (Rockingham, N.C.) – 1880-1881

Rutherfordton

• The New Regime (Rutherfordton, N.C.) – 1876
• Carolina Gazette (Rutherfordton, N.C.) – 1836-1837
• Western Star of Liberty (Rutherfordton, N.C.) – 1840
• Rutherfordton Intelligencer (Rutherfordton, N.C.) – 1841-1843
• North Carolina Spectator and Western Advertiser (Rutherfordton, N.C.) – 1830-1835

Salisbury

• Republican Banner (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1854-1857
• The Salisbury Banner (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1858-1867
• Yadkin Valley Herald (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1917-1919
• The Daily Union Banner (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1865-1866

Sanford

• The Sanford Express (Sanford, N.C.) – 1902-1917

Shelby

• Cleaveland Banner (Shelby, N.C.) – 1872-1874
• Shelby Banner (Shelby, N.C.) – 1875-1876
• New Era (Shelby, N.C.) – 1887-1889
• Shelby Aurora (Shelby, N.C.) – 1875-1906

Tarboro

• The Carolina Banner (Tarboro, N.C.) – 1889-1891
• The Farmers’ Advocate (Tarboro, N.C.) – 1891-1892
• The Tarborough Southerner (Tarboro, N.C.) – 1883-1885

Taylorsville

• The Alexander County Journal (Taylorsville, N.C.) – 1889-1890

Wadesboro

• The Pee Dee Herald (Wadesboro, N.C.) – 1871-1880

Warrenton

• The Record (Warrenton, N.C.) – 1913-1916
• The Warren Record (Warrenton, N.C.) – 1917-1922

Washington

• Washington Progress (Washington, N.C.) – 1914-1922
• The Whig (Washington, N.C.) – 1835-1838
• Washington Whig (Washington, N.C.) – 1839
• Washington Whig and Republican Gazette (Washington, N.C.) – 1839-1842
• North State Whig (Washington, N.C.) – 1842-1854

Winston-Salem

• The Business Guide (Winston-Salem, N.C.) – 1906-1907

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.

In following with our collaboration with newspapers.com, we have another large batch of newspapers this week! 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 we have over 5,000 issues of The Wilmington Morning Star. The paper was founded in 1867 by former Confederate Major William H. Bernard and played a role in stoking the Wilmington Massacre of 1898. In November of 1898 a biracial government was legitimately elected in Wilmington, which the paper claimed to be fraudulent. Earlier that year, Daily Record editor, Alexander Manly, published an article proposing that it was possible for white women to be attracted to black men. The Morning Star found this to be “vile and slanderous” and riled a mob of angry white supremacists to burn down the paper’s office then claim that they had not started the violence. The following clippings are from November 9, 10, and 11. The day before the massacre, the day of, and the day after.

Here are the rest of this week’s additions:

• Weekly Progress (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1864-1867
• The Raleigh Minerva (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1810-1821
• Daily Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.) – 1873-1886
• The Raleigh Register (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1830-1861
• The Raleigh Observer (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1876-1880
• The Raleigh Times (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1911-1912
• The North Carolinian (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1892-1908
• The Morning Post (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1899-1905
• The Raleigh Post (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1900
• The Times-Visitor (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1895-1900
• The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1919
• The Raleigh Enterprise (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1904-1907
• Raleigh Christian Advocate (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1871-1915
• The Daily Progress (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1865-1867
• Asheville Gazette-News (Asheville, N.C.) – 1898-1915
• Asheville Daily Citizen (Asheville, N.C.) – 1891
• The Press-Visitor (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1891-1898
• The Raleigh Evening Times (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1906
• The Progressive Farmer and Southern Farm Gazette (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1913-1916
• The Wilmington Morning Star (Wilmington, N.C.) – 1898-1922
• The Daily Conservative (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1864-1865
• The Newbern Gazette (New Bern, N.C.) – 1764-1801
• The Wilmington Herald (Wilmington, N.C.) – 1865
• Newbern Weekly Progress (New Bern, N.C.) – 1862-1863
• The State Gazette of North-Carolina (New Bern, N.C.) – 1797-1799

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 are sharing the second installment of titles on DigitalNC that were brought to us by the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) in a cooperative effort with the North Carolina Collection at UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries.

The NDNP is a partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress with the intention of creating a vast, searchable database of newspapers and other historical documents. You can currently search all of the NDNP issues on the Library of Congress’ Chronicling America website. Those same issues will be available on our newspaper database, allowing you to search that content alongside the other papers on DigitalNC.  The week’s titles are the following:

• Watauga Democrat (Boone, N.C.) – 1888-1934
• Carolina Watchman (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1931-1937
• The Tarborough Southerner (Tarboro, N.C.) – 1848-1876
• The Charlotte Democrat (Charlotte, N.C.) – 1853-1887
• Weekly Standard (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1836-1858
• Marion Progress (Marion, N.C.) – 1930-1931
• The News and Views (Jacksonville, N.C.) – 1942-1952
• Fisherman & Farmer (Edenton, N.C.) – 1889-1901
• The Farmer and Mechanic (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1877-1915
• The Free Press (Southern Pines, N.C.) – 1898-1905
• The Commonwealth (Scotland Neck, N.C.) – 1888
• The Review (High Point, N.C.) – 1910-1921
• Rockingham Post-Dispatch (Rockingham, N.C.) – 1917-1922
• French Broad Hustler (Hendersonville, N.C.) – 1905-1919
• The Durham Daily Globe (Durham, N.C.) – 1887-1894
• The Wilmington Messenger (Wilmington, N.C.) – 1897-1908
• Journal of Freedom (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1865
• The Sun (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1883-1885
• The North-Carolinian (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1842-1857
• Wilmington Morning Star (Wilmington, N.C.) – 1941-1946
• The Robesonian (Lumberton, N.C.) – 1872-1918
• Western Sentinel (Winston-Salem, N.C.) – 1886
• The State Chronicle (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1883-1892
• The Daily Caucasian (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1895
• The Gold Leaf (Henderson, N.C.) – 1882-1911
• The Caucasian (Clinton, N.C.) – 1884-1913
• The Durham Recorder (Durham, N.C.) – 1879-1911
• The Hillsborough Recorder (Hillsborough, N.C.) – 1836-1879
• Henderson Daily Dispatch (Henderson, N.C.) – 1932-1940
• Hillsboro Recorder (Hillsborough, N.C.) – 1887-1888
• The Carolinian (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1935-1939
• The Lincoln Times (Lincolnton, N.C.) – 1935-1962
• The Southern News (Asheville, N.C.) – 1938-1962
• Charlotte Messenger (Charlotte, N.C.) – 1882-1889
• The Weekly Intelligencer (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1864-1865
• The Educator (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1874-1875
• The Chapel Hill Weekly (Chapel Hill, N.C.) – 1930-1934
• Wilmington Journal (Wilmington, N.C.) – 1844-1876
• Cherokee Scout (Murphy, N.C.) – 1890-1917
• The Daily Confederate (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1864-1865
• The Gazette (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1891-1898
• Our Living and Our Dead (New Bern, N.C.) – 1873-1874
• North Carolina Republican (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1880
• Weekly Confederate (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1864-1865
• The Monroe Journal (Monroe, N.C.) – 1903-1922
• The Journal of Industry (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1879-1880
• North Carolina Gazette (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1885
• The Skyland Post (West Jefferson, N.C.) – 1935-1947
• The Coastland Times (Manteo, N.C.) – 1951-1962
• The Burke County News (Morganton, N.C.) – 1899-1900
• The Fool-Killer (Boomer, N.C.) – 1910-1922
• Orange County Observer (Hillsborough, N.C.) – 1880-1916

This concludes the list of newspapers that we are sharing from the NDNP. 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.