Greenbrier County, West Virginia - Newspapers of Greenbrier County *********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. *********************************************************************** Submitted by Valerie Crook, , February 1999 The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume I, pgs. 307-308 The first newspaper published in Greenbrier county was the Palladium and Pacific Monitor, started in 1820 soon after the appearance of the first newspaper at Charleston. It was established by Joseph Cunningham Waggoner, who, at an earlier date, had been a printer in Botetourt county, and for a time before 1820 had published a paper at Fincastle, although he was only eighteen years of age when he migrated to Lewisburg. The editor was Dr. Joe F. Caldwell, a lifetime friend of Mr. Waggoner. Apparently Mr. Waggoner was connected with the paper until its cessation in 1830 (or 1831). In November, 1825, at the Old Stone Church at Lewisburg, Mr. Waggoner was married to Sarah Campbell Breckenridge Venable, a girl of "sweet" sixteen, the ceremony being performed by the well known Presbyterian minister, Rev. John McElhaney. Apparently for many years he was prominent in politics. He was a warm admirer of both Jackson and Polk, both of whom were guests at Waggoner's Hill and for each of whom he named two of his sons, Andrew and James. He was strongly opposed to negro slavery and was always a Union man although he loved the South. He advocated the separation of western Virginia and the formation of a new state.** His wife was strongly Southern in her sympathies, and "believed in the old South from A to Z." She strongly felt that negroes must know their place at all times and she never permitted one to enter her front door. According to tradition she was so Southern in her sympathies that her bill for damages by the Union soldiers in connection with a battle fought at Lewisburg during the Civil war was refused by Congress. The printing establishment on Waggoner's Hill was burned one Sunday morning while Mr. Waggoner was at church. Here the news was announced in a loud voice by a man who had hurried to inform him. It is said, he never entered that church afterwards. At the close of the war, Caldwell became well known as an ardent Republican who advocated test oaths and proscription laws against those who had given aid to the Confederate cause. In 1867 he was one of the Greenbrier members of the House of Delegates. The immediate successor of the Palladium was The Alleghanian, which first appeared in 1831. Later papers were the Western Enquirer (1837- ), The Western Whig (1842- ), The Lewisburg Observer (1844-47), The Lewisburg Chronicle (1848-60), The Western Era (1850-61), which in its last years changed its name to The Lewisburg Era, and finally The Greenbrier Independent (1859-61). The Chronicle was published by Stewart J. Warren in 1855. The Independent was established by a lawyer, Joseph Granville, and on August 16, 1859 (Vol. 1, No. 27) its editor and proprietor was J. D. Alderson. The Chronicle, the Era, and the Independent, were suspended by circumstances connected with the beginning of the Civil war. The Independent was revived after the war. ** At the close of the war Mr. Waggoner retired to his farm on River Hill, refusing to appear in any public affairs. Here he suffered with rheumatism. Late in life he joined the Presbyterian church which may be regarded as a very proper thing for an Irishman of Scottish decent from the Cunninghams. He died in January, 1879, and his wife died in June, 1897.