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Chronicling America
National Endowment for the Humanities

Newspaper Wood River Advertiser (Hope Valley, R.I.) 1876-1880

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About Wood River Advertiser (Hope Valley, R.I.) 1876-1880

Hope Valley is a small village on the Wood River within the town of Hopkinton, R.I. But the term came to refer to a wide swath of area of Washington County in southern Rhode Island that encompasses the towns of Hopkinton, Charlestown, and Richmond, as well as villages including Wyoming (formerly Brands Iron Works), Carolina Mills, and Niantic. In 1876, Lyman W. A. Cole (1833-1883) saw the opportunity for a newspaper as a much-needed instrument of commerce to provide to the rural, agricultural areas and throughout the bustling textile mill villages of southern Rhode Island.

Cole was born in Providence, and in the 1850 Federal Census he was listed as a 17-year-old printer. By 1875, he was 42 and a widower living in a boarding in a house in Hopkinton. Though he still identified as a printer, he was not associated with any printing house or publication. When volume one of the Wood River Advertiser appeared in 1876, it listed its place of publication specifically as “Hope Valley” where he had set up an office opposite the railway station.

Terms were one dollar per year “in advance” for a newspaper to be published weekly on Thursday. While church and society notices led the first column of the first page, business cards dominated. Advertising was featured for all types of goods and services from Westerly, R.I. to Wyoming, R.I. such as sewing machines, pharmacists, furniture, fertilizer, and fresh oysters. Cole also advertised his own job printing services. Other content included poetry and syndicated news, but commerce dominated the pages. By 1877, the price was three cents a copy or “$1 per year. And no questions asked.”

The Wood River Advertiser was continued by the Hope Valley Advertiser, a self-proclaimed “local newspaper, devoted to the interests of the people of Southern Rhode Island” and it ran until 1883.

Provided By: Rhode Island Digital Newspaper Project

About this Newspaper

Title

  • Wood River Advertiser (Hope Valley, R.I.) 1876-1880

Dates of Publication

  • 1876-1880

Created / Published

  • Hope Valley, R.I. : L.W.A. Cole

Headings

  • -  Hopkinton (R.I. : Town)--Newspapers
  • -  United States--Rhode Island--Washington--Hope Valley

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Vol. 1, no. 1 (Jan. 6, 1876)-v. 5, no. 52 (Dec. 23, 1880).
  • -  Sample issue numbered Vol. 0, no. 0, issued in Dec. 1875.
  • -  Also issued in microform from Bell & Howell, Micro-photo division.
  • -  Hope Valley advertiser (Hope Valley, R.I. : 1881) (DLC)sn 92063981

Medium

  • volumes

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn83021114

OCLC Number

  • 9820216

ISSN Number

  • 2998-5536

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.

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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:

Wood River Advertiser Hope Valley, R.I. -1880. (Hope Valley, RI), Jan. 1 1876. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn83021114/.

APA citation style:

(1876, January 1) Wood River Advertiser Hope Valley, R.I. -1880. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn83021114/.

MLA citation style:

Wood River Advertiser Hope Valley, R.I. -1880. (Hope Valley, RI) 1 Jan. 1876. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn83021114/.