We’ve just added newspaper issues from 37 titles, dating from 1819-1968, with the majority dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. From a variety of cities, most of these additions are only 1-5 issues per title. Thanks to the State Archives of North Carolina and its preservation of newspapers, we’re pleased to include these fill-in issues. The State Archives provided them to us as part of their newspaper microfilming workflow.

Below is a list of titles, their cities of publication, and the years from which the issues date.

• Southern Citizen, Asheboro – 1873
• The Asheboro Courier, Asheboro – 1888
• Bayboro Sentinel, Bayboro – 1902
• Beaufort Halcyon, Beaufort – 1855
• The Carteret County Telephone, Beaufort – 1882, 1884-1885
• The Weekly Record, Beaufort – 1886
• The Tobacco Plant (Durham), Durham – 1872, 1882-1883
• The Durham Daily Globe (later the Herald-Sun), Durham – 1891
• The Edenton Transcript, Edenton – 1908-1909
• The Albemarle Observer, Edenton – 1911
• The Edenton News, Edenton – 1922
• The North Carolinian, Fayetteville – 1856-1857
• Western Reporter, Franklin – 1880
• Our Farms, Franklinton – 1896
• Weekly Message (later The Olive Branch), Greensborough – 1855
• The Gold Leaf, Henderson – 1885
• The Herald of Truth, Hendersonville – 1855
• The High Point Enterprise, High Point – 1968
• The Lincoln Courier, Lincolnton – 1867
• The Visitor (paper of the Littleton Female College), Littleton – 1902
• The Littleton Dispatch, Littleton – 1928
• The Franklin Times , Louisburg – 1879
• The Robesonian, Lumberton – 1872, 1876-1877, 1880-1881
• Milton Intelligencer, Milton – 1819
• The Milton Chronicle, Milton – 1860, 1883
• The Monroe Enquirer, Monroe – 1881
• The Norlina Headlight, Norlina – 1919
• The Granville Free Lance, Oxford – 1880
• The Oxford Torchlight, Oxford – 1881
• Spirit of the Age Raleigh – 1855
• The Spy, Raleigh – 1875
• North Carolina Spectator and Western Advertiser, Rutherfordton – 1834
• The Rutherford Banner, Rutherfordton – 1888
• The Democrat, Rutherfordton – 1895
• The Sun, Rutherfordton – 1918-1919
• North Carolina Argus, Wadesboro – 1855

The State Archives has an exhibit of Early North Carolina Newspapers here. Their microfilming efforts are behind almost all of the digitized microfilmed papers available through DigitalNC. Search or browse all of our newspapers on the newspaper landing page.

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.

This week we have 40 more titles on DigitalNC from all across North Carolina! Most of these papers are from Raleigh (such as the long-running Raleigh Evening Times and the Methodist Episcopal paper Raleigh Christian Advocate) as well as many papers from smaller communities. We have Rich Square’s Roanoke-Chowan Times, The Warrenton Gazette from Warrenton, The Roanoke News from Weldon, and Richmond County’s Rockingham Rocket. Whether it’s marriage announcements, classifieds for lost pets, or local elections where the winner barely reaches 100 votes, these newspapers give a glimpse into what small town life in North Carolina was like over a hundred years ago.

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 Southern Home (Charlotte, N.C.) – 1870-1881
• The Tarborough Southerner (Tarboro, N.C.) – 1877-1910
• Warrenton Gazette (Warrenton, N.C.) – 1872-1897
• The Record (Warrenton, N.C.) – 1892-1912
• Roanoke-Chowan Times (Rich Square, N.C.) – 1907-1926
• The Daily Tobacco Plant (Durham, N.C.) – 1888
• The Tobacco Plant (Durham, N.C.) – 1889
• The Times-Mercury (Hickory, N.C.) – 1899-1912
• Rockingham Post-Dispatch (Rockingham, N.C.) – 1923-1924
• Rockingham Rocket (Rockingham, N.C.) – 1888-1890
• Salisbury Daily Sun (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1897-1904
• Salisbury Evening Sun (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1904-1905
• The Salisbury Truth (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1900
• The Salisbury Semi-Weekly Truth-Index (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1900-1903
• Salisbury Daily Truth-Index (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1900
• The Statesville Sentinel (Statesville, N.C.) – 1909-1922
• The Roanoke News (Weldon, N.C.) – 1878-1922
• The Carolina Era (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1871-1872
• Tri-Weekly Constitution (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1876
• The Weekly Constitution (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1876
• Daily Constitution (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1875-1876
• North-Carolina Constitutionalist and Peoples’ Advocate (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1832-1833
• The Weekly North Carolinian (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1868
• The North Carolinian (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1868
• The Raleigh News (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1876-1877
• The Raleigh Weekly News (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1878-1880
• Blasting-Powder for Democrats and Conservatives (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1872
• Southern Illustrated Age (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1875
• The Episcopal Methodist (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1867-1868
• Raleigh Episcopal Methodist (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1869-1870
• Raleigh Christian Advocate (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1894-1899
• Daily Examiner (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1874
• The Raleigh Evening Visitor (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1890
• The Daily Evening Visitor (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1890-1894
• The Raleigh Evening Times (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1905-1906
• The Raleigh Daily Times (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1912
• The Raleigh Daily Tribune (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1897
• The Sentinel (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1866-1867
• The Union Herald (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1919-1922
• Raleigh Weekly Telegram (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1871

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.

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. 

Here are this week’s additions:

• The Morning Star (Wilmington, N.C.) – 1868-1873
• The Cape-Fear Recorder (Wilmington, N.C.) – 1829-1832
• The Weekly Transcript and Messenger (Goldsboro, N.C.) – 1874-1889
• The Carolina Federal Republican (New Bern, N.C.) – 1809-1818
• The Newbern Journal of Commerce (New Bern, N.C.) – 1866-1876
• New Bern Republican (New Bern, N.C.) – 1867-1868
• The Daily Nut Shell (New Bern, N.C.) – 1875-1883
• North Carolina Sentinel (New Bern, N.C.) – 1830-1833
• Newbern Spectator (New Bern, N.C.) – 1828-1842
• New Berne Times (New Bern, N.C.) – 1865-1873
• Weekly Commercial (Wilmington, N.C.) – 1848-1854
• The Weekly Intelligencer (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1859-1865
• The Wilmington Messenger (Wilmington, N.C.) – 1888-1908
• The Chronicle (New Bern, N.C.) – 1897
• New Bern Democrat (New Bern, N.C.) – 1879-1900
• The Courier (New Bern, N.C.) – 1894
• The Daily Liberal (New Bern, N.C.) – 1872
• The Republican (New Bern, N.C.) – 1847-1849
• The Weekly Union (New Bern, N.C.) – 1856-1859
• The Weekly News (New Bern, N.C.) – 1853
• Daily Commercial News (New Bern, N.C.) – 1881-1882
• The Newbernian (New Bern, N.C.) – 1874-1883
• The Cape Fear (Wilmington, N.C.) – 1876-1877
• The Carolina Farmer and Morning Star (Wilmington, N.C.) – 1869-1870
• The Morning New Bernian (New Bern, N.C.) – 1917-1920

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.