Top of page

Chronicling America
National Endowment for the Humanities
BETA

Newspaper The Weekly Arizona Miner (Prescott, Ariz) 1877-1885 Weekly miner / Arizona miner

View All Front Pages

About The Weekly Arizona Miner (Prescott, Ariz) 1877-1885

Established in 1864, the Republican Fort Whipple Arizona Miner began as a semimonthly newspaper owned by then Territorial Secretary Richard McCormick and published by Tisdale A. Hand. That same year, McCormick moved the paper to Prescott, the designated capital of Arizona Territory, and bought the very first town-site lot. According to William H. Lyon in Those Old Yellow Dog Days: Frontier Journalism in Arizona, 1859-1912, McCormick established the paper as “the creature of the new territorial government.” And yet, through the initial rapid succession of editors, the paper tended to avoid political content. Other than announcing Lincoln’s reelection as president, the Miner barely noted politics beyond the announcing the meeting of the territorial legislature. All that changed, however, when former prospector John H. Marion took the helm as proprietor and editor of the Miner in 1867. Under his ownership, the paper became a bitter partisan tool. Marion was known for being a proud Democrat, a staunch defender of Arizona, a true “frontier” editor, and his own man; but Marion was also known to be a heavy drinker with a combative and racist perspective that made itself known through his often aggressive and biting criticism of others. Lyon made note of this when he wrote that Marion intended the Miner to be both “The Official Paper of Arizona” and an “Organ of the White People of Arizona.”  

Benjamin H. Weaver joined forces with Marion in 1868 and the semimonthly Miner became a weekly newspaper, changing its masthead to the Weekly Arizona Miner. After Weaver left the paper in 1874, the masthead changed again, becoming the Arizona Weekly Miner. In 1875, Thomas J. Butler became editor and part owner. Then, in 1876, after Butler sold his interest, Charles W. Beach stepped in as editor. Marion finally relinquished his hold on the paper in 1877, and Beach took over as sole proprietor, returning the paper’s political leanings to Republican. The paper’s title changed back to the Weekly Arizona Miner that year as well. Beach almost sold the paper to Samuel N. Holmes in 1882, but Holmes died in Prescott’s Sherman House hotel fire before the deal was finalized. Despite ongoing financial difficulties, Beach kept the paper alive until he could find another buyer.

In late 1885, the editor of Prescott’s Arizona Weekly Journal, John C. Martin, initiated the merger of the Arizona Miner with his paper to create the Arizona Weekly Journal-Miner. The newspaper’s plant and files were destroyed by a fire on July 14, 1900, and a temporary daily paper was issued from July 23 to August 18. Martin stayed on as editor of the merged newspaper as it changed its masthead yet again to become the Weekly Arizona Journal-Miner in 1903. When John W. Milnes took over as editor and proprietor in 1908, he renamed the periodical the Weekly Journal-Miner. Milnes maintained control of the paper for almost fifteen years. Arthur John Doud became publisher and A. V. Napier manager on July 1, 1929, running the weekly publication until its demise in April 1934.

Research provided by the University of Arizona Libraries.

Provided By: Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records; Phoenix, AZ

About this Newspaper

Title

  • The Weekly Arizona Miner (Prescott, Ariz) 1877-1885

Other Title

  • Weekly miner
  • Arizona miner

Dates of Publication

  • 1877-1885

Created / Published

  • Prescott, Ariz : C.W. Beach, 1877-

Headings

  • -  Prescott (Ariz.)--Newspapers
  • -  Yavapai County (Ariz.)--Newspapers
  • -  Arizona--Prescott
  • -  Arizona--Yavapai County
  • -  United States--Arizona--Yavapai--Prescott

Genre

  • Newspapers
  • MIning newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Vol. 14, no. 25 (June 8, 1877)-
  • -  Ceased in Aug. 1885.
  • -  Some numbers issued out of chronological order.
  • -  Supplements accompany some issues.
  • -  Available on microfilm from the Library of Congress, Photoduplication Service.
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format as part of the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  Merged with: Arizona weekly journal, to form: Arizona weekly journal-miner.
  • -  Arizona weekly journal (DLC)sn 95060809 (OCoLC)33213889
  • -  Arizona weekly journal-miner 2166-5877 (DLC)sn 85032938 (OCoLC)13019318

Medium

  • volumes

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn82014897

OCLC Number

  • 8793462

ISSN Number

  • 2165-9044

Preceding Titles

Succeeding Titles

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

The NEH awardee responsible for producing each digital object is presented in the Chronicling America page display, below the page image – e.g. Image produced by the Library of Congress. For more information on current NDNP awardees, see https://www.loc.gov/ndnp/listawardees.html.

For more information on Library of Congress policies and disclaimers regarding rights and reproductions, see https://www.loc.gov/homepage/legal.html

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

The Weekly Arizona Miner Prescott, Ariz -1885. (Prescott, AZ), Jan. 1 1877. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn82014897/.

APA citation style:

(1877, January 1) The Weekly Arizona Miner Prescott, Ariz -1885. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn82014897/.

MLA citation style:

The Weekly Arizona Miner Prescott, Ariz -1885. (Prescott, AZ) 1 Jan. 1877. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn82014897/.