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Chronicling America
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Newspaper Copiah Signal (Hazlehurst, Miss.) 1888-1899 Weekly signal

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About Copiah Signal (Hazlehurst, Miss.) 1888-1899

Located southwest of the Mississippi state capital, Jackson, Copiah County was established in January 1823 from land ceded to the United States by the Choctaw through the New Purchase of 1820. After the Civil War, the county became known for the large-scale production of tomatoes. Hazlehurst became the county seat in 1872. As a railroad town, it was a shipping point for the tomatoes, other fruit and vegetables, wool, hides, and lumber, in addition to the ever-important cotton.

The Weekly Copiahan made its debut on a Saturday in September 1865; by the end of December, John Vance and S. F. Massengill were the editors and publishers. From 1874-76 the alternative title, the Copiahan, was consistently used in the masthead and thereafter used occasionally as the front page title. The Copiahan described itself as “… a friend to the farmer, the mechanic, the laborer, and all trades and professions ….” The Copiahan carried numerous legal notices in addition to political commentary, some national news, letters to the editor, legislative acts, advertisements, and business cards. Examples of legislation in the aftermath of the Civil War include Mississippi’s Freedmen law and Vagrant law, which appeared in the December 30, 1865 issue. Democratic-Conservative Party election tickets and announcements of “anti-radical” meetings belied the large-format paper’s political leaning.

A competing four-page weekly, the Copiah Signal, was started in February 1882 by Oscar Johnston, a former Weekly Copiahan employee. While both papers focused on news relevant to the county and local announcements from Hazlehurst, Beauregard, and Wesson, the Signal included more general interest content than the Copiahan. Johnston, a fervent Democrat, used his paper to attack those with opposing political views—so vehemently that he was challenged to at least one duel. The Signal covered significant county events including a cyclone that hit Wesson and Beauregard in 1883 as well as a controversy over temperance that same year. Most notably, however, the November 19, 1885 issue of the succeeding Hazlehurst Signal recounted the fire that devastated downtown Hazlehurst the Monday prior. The Signal was able to survive the conflagration; the Weekly Copiahan was not. Two weeks after the fire it was announced that the two papers would combine under a new name, the Signal-Copiahan. In 1888, the title reverted to the Copiah Signal.

William Mitchell continued to publish the consolidated paper on the same day (Thursday) as his previous newspaper, the Hazlehurst Signal, and to begin with, used similar content and formatting. For a time, he also continued to use the Signal‘s motto, “Home Men and Home Rule.” Although news and advice specifically for farmers appeared as early as the 1870s in the Copiahan, by 1888 the Copiah Signal was the official journal of the Farmer’s Alliance, an agrarian organization associated with the populist movement. It was also the official journal of Copiah County. The Copiah Signal does not appear to have survived into the 20th century; its last appearance in N. W. Ayer & Son’s American Newspaper Annual was in the 1899 edition, which showed that the paper had been moved to the nearby town of Wesson.

Provided By: Mississippi Department of Archives and History

About this Newspaper

Title

  • Copiah Signal (Hazlehurst, Miss.) 1888-1899

Other Title

  • Weekly signal

Dates of Publication

  • 1888-1899

Created / Published

  • Hazlehurst, Miss. : Mitchell and Hurt, 1888-

Headings

  • -  Populism--Mississippi--Newspapers
  • -  Hazlehurst (Miss.)--Newspapers
  • -  Populism
  • -  Mississippi--Hazlehurst
  • -  Mississippi
  • -  United States--Mississippi--Copiah--Hazlehurst
  • -  United States--Mississippi--Copiah--Wesson

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Vol. 23, no. 23 (Feb. 9, 1888)-
  • -  Ceased in 1899.
  • -  The word "weekly" appears in masthead.
  • -  Published in Hazlehurst 1888-1895; in Wesson, Miss. thereafter.
  • -  "Official Journal of Farmer's Alliance."
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format from the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn87065173

OCLC Number

  • 15248428

ISSN Number

  • 2765-8538

Preceding 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:

Copiah Signal Hazlehurst, Miss. -1899. (Hazlehurst, MS), Jan. 1 1888. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn87065173/.

APA citation style:

(1888, January 1) Copiah Signal Hazlehurst, Miss. -1899. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn87065173/.

MLA citation style:

Copiah Signal Hazlehurst, Miss. -1899. (Hazlehurst, MS) 1 Jan. 1888. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn87065173/.