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Newspaper The Weekly Panola Star (Panola, Miss.) 1857-1881

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About The Weekly Panola Star (Panola, Miss.) 1857-1881

The flat to rolling terrain of Panola County, in northwest Mississippi at the eastern edge of the fertile Yazoo-Mississippi River Delta, was perfect for growing cotton, the cash crop of 19th-century Mississippi. Later in the century, additional profitable crops included corn, potatoes and sorghum. Farmers raised livestock including cattle, mules, and horses; and the timber industry was on the rise.

From 1856 until 1871 the county seat, Panola, had one newspaper, the four-page weekly Star run: the Southern Star (1856), the Panola Star (1856-57) and the Weekly Panola Star (1857-81). A June 21, 1856 editorial summed up the newspaper’s pre-war political stance: “Let no one suppose that in publishing a neutral paper, we do not sympathize with either party . . . as an individual citizen, we intend to vote for Millard Fillmore . . . .” This endorsement of Fillmore, who had formerly been associated with the Whig party, reflected the moderate views of the county citizenry. During the Civil War, while Matthew S. Ward, the proprietor/editor of the Weekly Panola Star, served in the Confederate Army, assistants managed the newspaper, which was reduced to two pages in 1862 until it was discontinued in 1864. Civil War reporting included muster lists for at least seven of the twenty military companies raised in the county. When the Star resumed publication on July 1, 1865, the paper supported the Democratic Party. Ward sold the newspaper in 1867, but continued for a time as editor. Among important documents published in post-war issues were proclamations regarding the reorganization of the state government by provisional Governor William L. Sharkey and general orders from Fourth Military District commanders, General Alvan Gillem (1866-67) and General Edward Ord (1867-68). The Star criticized federal policies and Republican Governors Adelbert Ames and James L. Alcorn. Content included the typical mix of editorials, general interest stories, and local news and legal notices; many advertisements were for cotton factors.

In 1871, the county seat and the Weekly Panola Star moved across the Tallahatchie River to thriving Sardis, Mississippi, despite objections of Panola residents as voiced in an April 1, 1871 article. Freeman Randolph, who had joined the Star as co-editor in 1869, was sole proprietor by December 1870. For at least two years, Randolph printed a special, time-limited, daily newspaper, the Daily Panola Star (1871-72), in association with the Sardis Agricultural and Mechanical Society’s annual fall fair, which added fair proceedings to the normal mix of news. Two years after R. A. Bonner bought the newspaper in 1880, he changed its title to the Panola Weekly Star (1882-86?). The four-page newspaper printed informational articles about agriculture, promoted the virtues of temperance, supported Democratic policies such as low tariffs and taxes and backed Democrat Grover Cleveland for President of the United States; important local topics included the traffic on the Tallahatchie River, news about the Mississippi and Tennessee Railroad, and the affairs of county government. The Panola Weekly Star increased the number of general interest stories, national news, and local social news; there were no legal notices. The Panola Weekly Star was last listed in the 1886 edition of George P. Rowell and Company’s American Newspaper Directory.

Provided By: Mississippi Department of Archives and History

About this Newspaper

Title

  • The Weekly Panola Star (Panola, Miss.) 1857-1881

Dates of Publication

  • 1857-1881

Created / Published

  • Panola, Miss. : M.S. Ward, 1857-1881.

Headings

  • -  Sardis (Miss.)--Newspapers
  • -  Panola County (Miss.)--Newspapers
  • -  Mississippi--Panola County
  • -  United States--Mississippi--Panola--Sardis
  • -  United States--Mississippi--Panola--Batesville
  • -  United States--Mississippi--Panola--Panola

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Vol. 2, [no. 1] (Jan. 28, 1857)-v. 25, no. 28 (Dec. 31, 1881).
  • -  Proprietor: Freeman Randolph, <1873>.
  • -  Published in Sardis, Miss. after Apr. 22, 1871.
  • -  Vol. 2, no. 1 misnumbered v. 2, no. 50.
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format from the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  Issued also in a daily ed. called: Daily Panola star.
  • -  Panola weekly star (OCoLC)16115527

Medium

  • volumes

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn83016951

OCLC Number

  • 10234693

ISSN Number

  • 2470-2331

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.

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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 Panola Star Panola, Miss. -1881. (Sardis, MS), Jan. 1 1857. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn83016951/.

APA citation style:

(1857, January 1) The Weekly Panola Star Panola, Miss. -1881. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn83016951/.

MLA citation style:

The Weekly Panola Star Panola, Miss. -1881. (Sardis, MS) 1 Jan. 1857. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn83016951/.