This week we have another 30 newspaper titles up on DigitalNC! In the September 3, 1891 issue of Boone’s Watauga Democrat we have an article describing the terrible train wreck of Bostian’s Bridge in Statesville. This fatal accident sparked a legendary North Carolina ghost story, but perhaps even scarier are the boogeymen railroad companies would often create to avoid accountability: train wreckers.

By 1891 the railroad system in America had exploded, allowing for easier cross-country travel and bringing with it fresh new paranoia about disasters and scary strangers coming to your town. Blaming a wreck on some shady character was a lot easier than paying a fortune on settlements due to negligence. Almost immediately after the August 27, 1891 accident, the Richmond & Danville Railroad Company put out ads offering a $10,000 reward for the apprehension of the perpetrator, leading to many being accused and arrested (conveniently with the help of a railroad detective).

The editor at Statesville’s Landmark provides us with an incredibly detailed account of the accident and the recovery effort, complete with interviews from survivors and witnesses where they describe rotten cross-ties and rail workers throwing this evidence into the creek below the bridge. Many of those interviewed make a point to mention that there were no signs of robbery after the crash, which doesn’t exactly support the idea of this being some dastardly deed by a bandit.

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:

Asheville

• Western North Carolina Baptist (Asheville, N.C.) – 1886
• The Epworth News (Asheville, N.C.) – 1891

Boone

• Watauga Democrat (Boone, N.C.) – 1888-1914

Burlington

• The Burlington Falcon (Burlington, N.C.) – 1925

Chapel Hill

• The Chapel Hill News (Chapel Hill, N.C.) – 1893-1894
• The News (Chapel Hill, N.C.) – 1898-1917

Durham

• The Trinity League Record (Durham, N.C.) – 1894-1895
• The Christian Educator (Durham, N.C.) – 1896

Fayetteville

• Fayetteville Observer [1816-1865] (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1834-1865
• The Fayetteville Advertiser and Gazette (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1871
• Fayetteville Observer [1880-1919] (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1883-1885
• Fayetteville Observer [1880-1919] (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1887-1900
• The Home-Florist (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1890

Fairfield

• Hyde County Messenger (Fairfield, N.C.) – 1934-1941

Gastonia

• The Gastonia Gazette (Gastonia, N.C.) – 1886-1892

Holly Springs

• The Cape Fear Enterprise (Holly Springs, N.C.) – 1899-1901

Jackson

• The Northampton Reporter–Supplement (Jackson, N.C.) – 1879

Kinston

• Kinston Journal (Kinston, N.C.) – 1878-1882

Lexington

• The Normal Echo (Lexington, N.C.) – 1886

Lincolnton

• The Literary South (Lincolnton, N.C.) – 1937

Pittsboro

• The Semi-Monthly Record of the Pittsboro’ Scientific Academy (Pittsboro, N.C.) – 1866

Raleigh

• Raleigh Register, and North-Carolina Gazette (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1836
• The Daily Standard (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1865
• The Gazette (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1871
• Monthly Bulletin, North Carolina Department of Agriculture (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1883-1884
• The Belles-Lettres (Raleigh, N.C.) – 1885

Salisbury

• The Farmer’s Journal (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1846-1847

Tarboro

• The Edgecombe Farm-Journal (Tarboro, N.C.) – 1860

Winston

• The Independent Supplement (Winston, N.C.) – 1885
• The Broad Street Worker (Winston, N.C.) – 1894

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 Semi-Weekly 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.

The language lab at Appalachian State Teachers College shown in the December 29, 1960 issue.

More than a decade of the Watauga Deomcrat has been added to DigitalNC courtesy of our partner, the Watauga County Public Library. Started in 1888 and still operating today, the Wautaga Democrat is published in Boone N.C., and serves Western North Carolina. This batch covers the years 1950-1963 and joins previously digitized issues spanning 1923-1949.

According to the Watuga Democrat’s website, the paper began as a political newspaper with a mission to be “the voice of the Watauga Democrat Party,” but quickly evolved into a non-partisan publication. The paper covers local, state, and national news. Many of the stories in the newly digitized issues concern Appalachian State Teacher’s College, which became Appalachian State University in 1967.

You can see more materials from our partner the Watauga County Public Library by taking a look at their DigitalNC partner page  or by visiting their website. To see more community newspapers from many counties in North Carolina, please visit the North Carolina Newspapers Collection.

A chilly headline from January 16, 1961