Thanks to our partners, Perquimans County Library and Pettigrew Regional Library, as well as funding from the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), a massive batch of The Perquimans Weekly adds 10+ years worth of issues to DigitalNC! This batch expands our current holdings to include the years: 1989 to 1992 and 2010 to 2020.

Commemorating the migration of Quakers from Perquimans County to the Northwest Territories during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, individuals donned their best Quaker costumes and hopped on their horses or into their horse-drawn buggies and wagons to participate in the Friends to Freedom Wagon Train that traveled through Perquimans County from March 17th to 20th in 2011.

The first two days of the event were set aside for riding the planned 25 mile trail. They started their journey at the Newbold-White House campsite, making stops in Beech Springs, Belvidere, Bagley Swamp, and Winfall. In Belvidere, around 400 people came out to celebrate the train with vendors, live entertainment, wagon rides, food, and promotion of the area’s historical homes and buildings.

On the last leg of the journey, the Train took the Causeway and historic S bridge to parade through Hertford before finally coming back to the Newbold-White House. The final day of the event ended with breakfast, a church service, and a driving course competition at the Newbold-White House site.

To view more issues of The Perquimans Weekly, please click here.

To learn more about the Perquimans Public Library, visit their website here.

To view more newspapers from across North Carolina, please click here.

Issues of The State’s Voice, published in Dunn, NC from 1933-1935, have been added to DigitalNC. Published by O. J. (Oscar J.) Peterson, this paper is much more of an editorial vehicle than many other papers at the time. The entire front page is devoted to his thoughts on one or more news items or topics of the day. His other interest was in writing informational essays about various parts of the state, like the one in this issue about Orange County and Hillsboro(ugh).

Over the years, Peterson managed a number of newspapers besides The State’s Voice including the Chatham Record, the Sampson Democrat, and the Lumberton Argus. Aligning with the Democratic platform of the time, Peterson expresses strong opinions in his paper about prohibition, public education, and economics. His editorials are so pointed that they are alternatively lauded or criticized in other papers.

In the final issue of the paper, Peterson says: “The publication of the State’s Voice has been an interesting experience, or experiment, in several respects.” The paper was intended to be read statewide, and was launched upon a “highly intellectual basis with a confessed non-public appeal.” He seems to attribute the demise of the paper in part to a lack of intellectuality amongst his subscribers, despite many of them being prominent in the state.

This paper was added on behalf of the Harnett County Public Library. You can view all of the materials contributed to DigitalNC from Harnett County Public Library on their contributor page.

DigitalNC is excited to announce that four more years of The Smithfield Herald are now available online, thanks to our partner, the Johnston County Heritage Center.

The Smithfield Herald, established in 1882, was the oldest newspaper in Johnston County, offering an important insight into the county’s history. These semiweekly issues from January 1926 to April 1930 highlight local interests. Popular topics include weddings, deaths, church news, and local politics.

Also available to explore: creative writing! The Smithfield Herald published serialized fiction, poems, and short stories. Below is one example:

Learn more about the Johnston County Heritage Center and browse their extensive collections here. To look through all 3,096 issues of The Smithfield Herald available on DigitalNC, click here. And to search through other North Carolina newspapers, click here.

Over 1,700 issues of The Central Express and The Sanford Express are now available to view thanks to our partner Lee County Libraries and funding from the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA). According to the Library of Congress, the paper was published under name The Central Express from ~1886 until 1891 when it was changed to The Sanford Express. This batch adds issues from a period of urbanization as well as agricultural and industrial expansion in Lee County from the late 19th to the early-to-mid 20th century.

From 1880 to 1919, Sanford saw agricultural and industrial expansion and community growth as a result of improved transportation. During this period, a large Black community began to take shape in Sanford with the establishment of business and residential district centered on Pearl Street. Individuals who did not work in the Pearl Street businesses in Sanford farmed; worked in the county’s brownstone quarries, sawmills, turpentine distilleries; or in building trades.

John and David Womack are specifically mentioned in the National Register of Historic Places application submitted in 1993 for the “Historic and Architectural Resources of Lee County, North Carolina, ca. 1800-1942,” as Black business operators. According to the application, the two were operators of a brickyard located near Sanford in the 1890s. Interestingly, John Womack is mentioned in the September 29, 1889 issue of The Central Express as being “a respectable colored man of this place,” that went to Charlotte to “become chief cook at the Buford House.” There appears to be no follow-up in The Sanford Express for John Womack’s return to Sanford in the 1890s to operate the brickyard.

Information about Sanford was taken from the NPS National Register of Historic Places application, seen here.

To view more issues of The Central Express and The Sanford Express, view the newspaper’s landing page here.

To browse more newspapers from across North Carolina, view our newspaper collection page here.

To learn more about Lee County Libraries, visit their website here.

1,691 issues of The Asheville-Gazette News are now available on the site, thanks to our partners at Buncombe County Public Libraries. This paper was published daily and is an incredibly rich resource for information on life in early 1900s Asheville. 1904-1909 were years of rapid growth, as Asheville grew from a small mountain town to a major hub for the region. The arrival of railroads in the 1880s transformed Asheville into a popular resort town for travelers seeking the healthful mountain air and beautiful landscapes. Just a few years before these issues were published, George W. Vanderbilt’s Biltmore Estate was completed as the largest private residence in the United States, cementing the city as both a tourist destination and a desirable place to live. While trains and electric cars still reigned as the main method of transportation, these newspapers show the advent of the automobile and its early adoption by some residents.

The city was growing in population, commerce, and technological advancement. Asheville in the early 1900s was maturing into a real urban center, with 14,000 permanent residents in 1901. As such, the issues in these newspapers are concerned with matters ranging from hyper-local to international. Readers could see which of their neighbors was traveling and to where, and on the next page get the latest updates on the 1905 Russian Revolution. Elections, both regional and national, were covered in The Asheville-Gazette News. Advertisements reveal the many businesses operating in town and speak to the needs and interests of residents, including many promoting various elixirs and compounds for healing illness. The content in these newspapers is wide-ranging and reveals a great deal about the history of Western North Carolina and its place in the world.

Researchers can view all of The Asheville-Gazette News issues on DigitalNC here. See all of the materials contributed by Buncombe County Public Libraries here, and visit the digital collections on their site here. Lastly, visitors to our site can see all of our digitized newspapers on the North Carolina Newspapers page.