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Chronicling America
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Newspaper Putnam Patriot (Putnam, Conn.) 1872-1962

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About Putnam Patriot (Putnam, Conn.) 1872-1962

The Putnam Patriot was a weekly newspaper published from 1872 to 1962 in Putnam, a rural town located in the northeastern corner of Connecticut. Starting in the early 1800s and lasting into the mid-1900s, eastern Connecticut was an important site for the United States textile industry. Putnam was home to one of the earliest cotton factories built in the U.S., the Pomfret Manufacturing Company, which opened in 1806, and the town later became one of eastern Connecticut’s main textile manufacturing towns, home to numerous cotton, wool, and silk mills.

The Patriot was started by Everett C. Stone in 1872. Allen B. Lincoln’s 1920 history of Windham County described Electa Woodworth Stone, Stone’s wife, as an “executive and all-round newspaper woman” who had much to contribute to the early success of the paper. In 1882, the Patriot passed to Alexander W. MacDonald, who had previously worked as a newspaper printer in New York City for publications such as Scientific American, starting a decades-long MacDonald family involvement with the paper. Alexander’s son Arthur S. MacDonald would serve as editor and publisher, and after Arthur’s death in 1932, his wife Katherine C. MacDonald became president of the Patriot Press, Inc. publishing company.

The Patriot published mainly local and state news from a Republican viewpoint. In addition to Putnam, it covered news from surrounding towns in Windham County, such as Eastford, Pomfret, Thompson, and Woodstock. Always of note on the pages of the Patriot were activities in the textile industry, with news and commentary about new businesses and increasing labor activity and unionization. The Patriot covered labor disputes, strikes, and mill shutdowns, including the nationwide textile workers’ strike of 1934, when the Connecticut National Guard was called in to quell violence that had broken out in Putnam because of the strike.

In a front-page editorial on April 4, 1940, addressing union activity at a local textile company, the Patriot stated that it attempted to cover labor news fairly, although the paper’s commentary demonstrated an overarching concern for the effect of labor activity on the local community: “Unfortunate union formation in Putnam in the past has only mean’t strikes; strikes have mean’t hardships; and these hardships have had a disasterous [sic] effect on not only the employers and the employes [sic], but the Putnam business men and the community as a whole.”

The Patriot closed its doors in 1962, when owner Keyren Cotter, long-time Patriot business manager who had purchased the Patriot Press in 1956, sold the paper to Putnam’s other weekly newspaper, the Windham County Observer.

Provided By: Connecticut State Library, Hartford, CT

About this Newspaper

Title

  • Putnam Patriot (Putnam, Conn.) 1872-1962

Names

  • Stone, Everett C.
  • Rogers, Vale

Dates of Publication

  • 1872-1962

Created / Published

  • Putnam, Conn. : E.C. Stone

Headings

  • -  Putnam (Conn.)--Newspapers
  • -  Windham County (Conn.)--Newspapers
  • -  Connecticut--Putnam
  • -  Connecticut--Windham County
  • -  United States--Connecticut--Windham--Putnam

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Vol. 1, no. 1 (Dec. 6, 1872)-v. 61, no. 17 (Apr. 26, 1962).
  • -  Editor: E.C. Stone, <1873-1876>; V. Rogers, <1876>.
  • -  "Republican."
  • -  Supplements accompany some issues.
  • -  Supplement with Sept. 10, 1886 published as: The Woodstock Bi-Centennial Recorder.
  • -  Available on microfilm from Putnam Public Library, Putnam, Conn.
  • -  Purchased part of the subscription list of: Windham County transcript, Nov. 28, 1872.
  • -  Windham County observer (DLC)sn 92051419 (OCoLC)26687060
  • -  Windham County observer, Putnam patriot (DLC)sn 92051427 (OCoLC)26687215

Medium

  • volumes ; 57-73 cm

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn84022396

OCLC Number

  • 10386936

ISSN Number

  • 2995-6617

Succeeding Titles

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

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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:

Putnam Patriot Putnam, Conn. -1962. (Putnam, CT), Jan. 1 1872. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn84022396/.

APA citation style:

(1872, January 1) Putnam Patriot Putnam, Conn. -1962. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn84022396/.

MLA citation style:

Putnam Patriot Putnam, Conn. -1962. (Putnam, CT) 1 Jan. 1872. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn84022396/.