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Newspaper The Working Christian (Yorkville, S.C.) 1869-1877

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About The Working Christian (Yorkville, S.C.) 1869-1877

The weekly Greenville Baptist Courier has served as a unifying voice for South Carolina Baptists for over a century. Its pages read like a catalog of the causes Baptists have historically embraced: home and foreign missions; orphanages like the Connie Maxwell Orphanage (now known as Connie Maxwell Children's Ministries); Sunday schools; educational institutions including Coker College, Greenville Woman's College, Furman University, and Limestone College; and the prohibition of alcohol.

The Baptist Courier began as the Yorkville Working Christian, founded by Tilman Rowland Gaines in July 1869. "Diligent in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord," the Working Christian attracted 2,500 subscribers in its first year. Its contents included poems, biographical sketches of Baptist ministers, reports on the activities of Baptist associations, and sermons. A subscription cost $2.50. Where previous Baptist newspapers like the Columbia Confederate Baptist and Charleston Southern Baptist had fizzled for the lack of subscribers, Tilman Gaines kept the Working Christian afloat out of sheer determination. In May 1870, he moved the newspaper to Charleston, South Carolina, as a "necessity to save the paper and our own credit," as he later explained on October 19, 1871. When an epidemic of yellow fever hit Charleston and advertising dropped off, Gaines relocated to Columbia, South Carolina.

In 1872, Tilman Gaines sold his interest in the Working Christian to Charles Marion McJunkin and directed his energies to other ventures, from publishing the Greenville Southern Herald and Working Man to planning the layout of Gaffney, South Carolina. On September 20, 1877, the paper was relaunched as the Baptist Courier. Ministers John Alexander Chambliss, Richard Furman, James Conway Hiden, and James Lawrence Reynolds served as corresponding editors; William Henry Strickland and Abner Whateley Lamar served as field editors. In 1878, James Alfred Hoyt, former publisher of the Anderson Intelligencer, purchased the Baptist Courier and moved it soon afterwards to its permanent home in Greenville, South Carolina.

For all its success, the Baptist Courier struggled financially, a fact well recognized by the South Carolina Baptist Convention. In 1920, the Convention purchased the Courier from Zechariah Thornton Cody and James Crawford Keys for $24,000. The paper's policy of offering churches reduced rates for their members further cemented its status. By 1957, the Baptist Courier counted 92,800 subscribers.

In 2013, the South Carolina Baptist Convention retired the Baptist Courier and launched a new periodical titled the Greenville Courier, presumably in response to changing consumer demands. The Courier continues into the present as a mix of social media posts and electronic and print publications.

Provided By: University of South Carolina; Columbia, SC

About this Newspaper

Title

  • The Working Christian (Yorkville, S.C.) 1869-1877

Dates of Publication

  • 1869-1877

Created / Published

  • Yorkville, S.C. : Lewis M. Grist

Headings

  • -  Baptists--Newspapers
  • -  York (S.C.)--Newspapers
  • -  York County (S.C.)--Newspapers
  • -  Baptists
  • -  United States--South Carolina--York--York

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Began in 1869; ceased in 1877?
  • -  Issues for - also called -
  • -  Also issued on microfilm by American Theological Library Association.
  • -  Description based on: Vol. 1, no. 2 (July 8, 1869).
  • -  Latest issue consulted: Vol. 2, no. 16 (Oct. 18, 1870).
  • -  Baptist courier (DLC)sn 82004649 (OCoLC)1776382

Medium

  • volumes

Call Number/Physical Location

  • BX6201

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn97064666

OCLC Number

  • 36309961

ISSN Number

  • 2998-5552

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:

The Working Christian Yorkville, S.C. 1869 to 1877. (York, SC), Jan. 1 1869. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn97064666/.

APA citation style:

(1869, January 1) The Working Christian Yorkville, S.C. 1869 to 1877. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn97064666/.

MLA citation style:

The Working Christian Yorkville, S.C. 1869 to 1877. (York, SC) 1 Jan. 1869. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn97064666/.