This week we’ve added another 60 titles to DigitalNC. Included in this batch is the possible origin of a classic North Carolina ghost story!

The Maco Light story tells of a train conductor name Joe Baldwin who was decapitated in a tragic railway accident near the small community of Maco, North Carolina. Legend has it that the ghost of Mr. Baldwin could be seen walking the tracks at night, carrying a lantern and searching for his misplaced head, but once the railroad was removed in the 1970s he was never seen again.

The Southerner, January 12, 1856

As is the case with most folk tales, the story is passed down and embellished over the years and the origin becomes a little fuzzy. There is no record of a “Joe” Baldwin being involved in a wreck, but the January 12^th, 1856 issue of The Southerner has an article detailing a train accident that took place just outside of Wilmington a week earlier. The deceased in this incident is Charles Baldwin, who suffered a fatal head injury during the crash. Given the similarities in these stories, it seems our ghost might have actually stayed in one piece.

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:

Elizabeth City

• Daily Economist (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – 1905

Greensboro

• The Way of the World (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1862-1864
• The Weekly Tar Heel (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1905-1906
• The Twice-A-Week Tar Heel (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1907

Hendersonville

• The Visitor (Hendersonville, N.C.) – 1916-1918
• The Hendersonville Visitor (Hendersonville, N.C.) – 1918
• The News of Henderson County (Hendersonville, N.C.) – 1918-1919

Oxford

• The Tattler (Oxford, N.C.) – 1921-1922
• The Oxford Leader (Oxford, N.C.) – 1876
• The Torch-Light (Oxford, N.C.) – 1874-1880
• The Oxford Torchlight (Oxford, N.C.) – 1880-1886
• The Torchlight (Oxford, N.C.) – 1886-1888

Rutherfordton

• The Rutherfordton Tribune (Rutherfordton, N.C.) – 1901-1904
• The Western Vindicator (Rutherfordton, N.C.) – 1868-1899

Salem

• Weekly Chronicle and Farmers’ Register (Salem, N.C.) – 1836-1837
• The Little Typo (Salem, N.C.) – 1885-1889
• The News (Salem, N.C.) – 1883-1885

Salisbury

• The Salisbury Truth (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1887-1899

Southern Pines

• The Pine Knot (Southern Pines, N.C.) – 1886-1888

Southport

• The Southport Leader (Southport, N.C.) – 1895-1896

Tarboro

• Tarboro’ Mercury (Tarboro, N.C.) – 1859-1861
• The Southerner (Tarboro, N.C.) – 1856-1858
• The North Carolinian (Tarboro, N.C.) – 1869

Taylorsville

• The Taylorsville Index (Taylorsville, N.C.) – 1890-1891

Warrenton

• The Warrenton Courier (Warrenton, N.C.) – 1868
• The Living Present (Warrenton, N.C.) – 1869
• The Warrenton News (Warrenton, N.C.) – 1878-1882
• Home Journal (Warrenton, N.C.) – 1885
• Warrenton (North-Carolina) Reporter (Warrenton, N.C.) – 1824-1841

Washington

• The Republican (Washington, N.C.) – 1839
• Rough and Ready (Washington, N.C.) – 1848
• The Statesman, and Third Congressional District Advertiser (Washington, N.C.) – 1834-1835
• North Carolina Times (Washington, N.C.) – 1856-1860
• The Union Advance Picket (Washington, N.C.) – 1862
• The Eastern Intelligencer (Washington, N.C.) – 1869
• The Union (Washington, N.C.) – 1832
• What Next (Washington, N.C.) – 1876
• Washington Dispatch (Washington, N.C.) – 1857-1861
• Washington Herald (Washington, N.C.) – 1827
• Washington Index (Washington, N.C.) – 1867
• The Washington Gazette (Washington, N.C.) – 1884-1898

Williamston

• Democratic Banner (Williamston, N.C.) – 1856-1857
• Williamston Expositor (Williamston, N.C.) – 1866-1867
• Williamston Mercury (Williamston, N.C.) – 1859

Wilson

• The North Carolinian (Wilson, N.C.) – 1867-1868
• The Daily News (Wilson, N.C.) – 1900-1901
• The Wilson Ledger (Wilson, N.C.) – 1858-1861
• The Flag of the South (Wilson, N.C.) – 1861
• The Advertiser (Wilson, N.C.) – 1888
• The Advance (Wilson, N.C.) – 1874-1876
• The Wilson News (Wilson, N.C.) – 1899
• The Daily Topic (Wilson, N.C.) – 1873
• Southern Sentinel (Wilson, N.C.) – 1856
• The Little Jewel (Wilson, N.C.) – 1875

Winston

• The Piedmont Advertiser (Winston, N.C.) – 1890
• The Winston Leader (Winston, N.C.) – 1879-1885
• The Daily Pilot (Winston, N.C.) – 1883-1884

Winston-Salem

• The Twin-City Daily Sentinel (Winston-Salem, N.C.) – 1892-1914
• Elite (Winston-Salem, N.C.) – 1900
• The North Carolina Enterprise (Winston-Salem, N.C.) – 1885-1915
• The Enterprise (Winston-Salem, N.C.) – 1915

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.