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 Tarborough Southerner (Tarboro, N.C.) – 1856-1858, 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.

We have over 60 titles up on DigitalNC this week! While these papers are from all over North Carolina, about a third are from western Carolina. 18 from Asheville, one from Morganton, as well as our first additions from Bryson City and Bakersville! Bakersville, which gives us The Mountain Voice, only has a population of 466, but is home to the North Carolina Rhododendron Festival. Started in 1947, the festival was a relatively small affair until Spruce Pine resident O.D. Calhoun came into the picture. Calhoun owned several movie theaters across North Carolina and apparently had contacts to Walt Disney. He used these connections to promote the festival and make it into a nationally renowned event. It’s estimated that between five and ten thousand people attended the festival when Richard Nixon made an appearance in 1958.

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 Blue Ridge Blade (Morganton, N.C.) – 1876-1881
• North Carolina Advertiser (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1865
• Carolina Beacon and Metropolitan Omnibus (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1840
• Republican Touchstone (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1840
• North-Carolina Statesman (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1854
• The Independent (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1843-1845
• Democratic Flag (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1848
• The American Signal (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1856
• The Daily Telegraph (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1862
• Weekly Ad Valorem Banner (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1861
• Daily Ad Valorem Banner (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1861
• The National Democrat (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1860
• The Randolph Bulletin (Asheboro, N.C.) – 1910-1912
• The Asheboro Courier (Asheboro, N.C.) – 1918-1921
• Asheville Semi-Weekly Journal (Asheville, N.C.) – 1879
• The Western Tribune (Asheville, N.C.) – 1885
• Mountain Home-Journal (Asheville, N.C.) – 1892
• The Asheville Advertiser (Asheville, N.C.) – 1890
• The Buncombe Reformer (Asheville, N.C.) – 1893
• The Skyland Herald (Asheville, N.C.) – 1886
• The Evening Journal (Asheville, N.C.) – 1889
• Asheville Spectator (Asheville, N.C.) – 1853-1858
• Town Topics (Asheville, N.C.) – 1887
• The Daily Advance (Asheville, N.C.) – 1884-1885
• Asheville Daily Advance (Asheville, N.C.) – 1885-1887
• The Asheville Advance (Asheville, N.C.) – 1887-1888
• The Asheville Register (Asheville, N.C.) – 1901-1905
• The State Reporter (Asheville, N.C.) – 1896
• The Smoky Mountain Times (Bryson City, N.C.) – 1895-1896
• Sylvan Valley News (Brevard, N.C.) – 1916
• The Weekly Citizen (Asheville, N.C.) – 1890
• Asheville Weekly Citizen (Asheville, N.C.) – 1890-1892
• The Albemarle Press (Albemarle, N.C.) – 1922-1925
• The Bayboro Sentinel (Bayboro, N.C.) – 1902-1913
• Columbian Repository (Chapel Hill, N.C.) – 1836
• The Chapel Hillian (Chapel Hill, N.C.) – 1891
• The Harbinger (Chapel Hill, N.C.) – 1833-1834
• Orange County Independent (Chapel Hill, N.C.) – 1894
• The Independent (Chapel Hill, N.C.) – 1894
• The Chapel Hill Weekly Gazette (Chapel Hill, N.C.) – 1857
• Chapel Hill Literary Gazette (Chapel Hill, N.C.) – 1857-1858
• The Chapel Hill Gazette (Chapel Hill, N.C.) – 1858
• Burke County Times (Morganton, N.C.) – 1917-1918
• The Morning Post (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1898
• North Carolina Temperance Union (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1842
• The Southern Advertiser, and Appendix to the “Southern Weekly Post” (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1853
• Democratic State Flag (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1848
• The Deaf Mute (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1850
• North Carolina State Advertiser (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1871
• The Mercury (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1864
• The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1919
• The Post (Wilmington, N.C.) – 1869
• Western Carolina Advocate (Asheville, N.C.) – 1892-1983
• Daily Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.) – 1886
• North Carolina Christian Advocate (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1912-1917
• The Cape-Fear Recorder (Wilmington, N.C.) – 1816-1829
• The High Point Enterprise (High Point, N.C.) – 1886
• Asheville Gazette-News (Asheville, N.C.) – 1914
• The Mountain Voice (Bakersville, N.C.) – 1880
• The Daily Bulletin (Charlotte, N.C.) – 1859-1876
• The Evening Bulletin (Charlotte, N.C.) – 1880

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 44 newspaper titles up on DigitalNC ranging from 1799 t0 1919! The vast majority of these are Raleigh papers, but we also have some from Charlotte, Asheville, New Bern, Winston-Salem, and Chapel Hill.

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 are the following:

• The Semi-Weekly Sentinel (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1866-1875
• Daily Sentinel (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1865-1876
• The Southern Field and Fireside (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1864-1865
• Raleigh Register and North-Carolina Gazette (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1826-1845
• Weekly North Carolina Standard (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1853
• State Agriculture Journal (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1873-1875
• The Raleigh Sentinel (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1876-1877
• Southern Weekly Post (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1852-1955
• The Daily North-Carolina Standard (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1866
• North Carolina Standard (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1868-1869
• The Daily Standard (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1869-1870
• The North-Carolina Star (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1850-1856
• Raleigh Star and North Carolina Gazette (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1839-1849
• Weekly State Journal (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1860-1884
• The State Journal (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1862-1863
• Weekly Post (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1851-1852
• The Star and North Carolina Gazette (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1833-1839
• The North Carolina Intelligencer (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1890-1891
• The Home Rule (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1898
• The Rasp. (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1841-1842
• The Signal (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1879-1880
• The State Journal (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1913-1919
• The Field and Fireside (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1865-1867
• The Sentinel (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1866
• The Raleigh Star (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1850
• The Life Boat (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1865
• North Carolina Christian Advocate (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1904
• The Raleigh Minerva (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1809
• Raleigh Register and North-Carolina Weekly Advertiser (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1799-1800
• Daily Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.) – 1883
• Asheville Daily Gazette (Asheville, N.C.) – 1898-1900
• Asheville Gazette-News (Asheville, N.C.) – 1910-1915
• The Weekly Ledger (Chapel Hill, N.C.) – 1878-1879
• The Chapel Hill Ledger (Chapel Hill, N.C.) – 1879-1880
• The Weekly Catawba Journal (Charlotte, N.C.) – 1860-1865
• The Western Democrat (Charlotte, N.C.) – 1869-1870
• Hornets’ Nest and True Southron. (Charlotte, N.C.) – 1850-1851
• The Weekly Courier (Charlotte, N.C.) – 1873-1881
• Our Weekly (Charlotte, N.C.) – 1872-1873
• The New Bern Weekly Times (New Bern, N.C.) – 1873
• The People’s Press (Wilmington, N.C.) – 1833
• The Weekly News (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1872-1876
• The Daily News (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1876
• Spirit of the Age (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1874-1876

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.