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Newspaper Vermont Phœnix (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955 Vermont phoenix and Vermont republican / Vermont phoenix and Vermont record & farmer / Vermont phoenix and Vermont record and farmer

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About Vermont Phœnix (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955

Publishers George W. Nichols and William E. Ryther established the weekly Vermont Phoenix in Brattleboro, Vermont, in 1834. They sold the paper to Gardener C. Hall and John C. Holbrook in 1836, but a few weeks later, Ryther bought it back and operated it until 1847, when Obadiah H. Platt joined him as a partner. From the 1830s through the early 1850s, articles and editorials in the four-page paper supported the Whig Party’s positions on national and state political debates. In 1851, Platt acquired full interest in the Phoenixand announced plans to print editions from three locations, but on January 8, 1852, a rival paper crowed, “The Vermont Phoenix is defunct.”

Dr. Charles Cummings brought the Vermont Phoenix back to life on February 3, 1855. The revived Phoenix was guided by the principles of Vermont’s new Republican Party, a tradition that continued into the 20th century. In 1857, the Phoenix absorbed the Vermont Republican, a rival paper operated by Obadiah Platt. When Cummings went to war in 1862, Charles S. Prouty and Addison Brown continued the Phoenix as publisher and editor. After Cummings died in 1864, the two men purchased the paper. As the only Brattleboro paper during the Civil War, the Phoenix covered local war efforts such as Smith General Hospital, which treated 4,000 soldiers, and Camp Holbrook, where many Vermont recruits began their military service.

A third partner, Daniel B. Stedman, joined Prouty and Brown in 1868. Brown retired in 1871, and when Prouty left the paper in 1873, Olin L. French joined Stedman as owner, publisher, and editor. Announcing their partnership, French and Stedman asserted that a country paper like the Phoenix should advocate local interests and record local events. For 15 years, the Phoenix and the Vermont Record, later called the Vermont Record and Farmer, competed for Republican readers, but because the Windham County market was not large enough to support them both, the financially stable Phoenix acquired the more precarious Record and Farmer in May 1880. In 1888 Stedman left the Phoenix, and French continued as owner and publisher until 1910. He was assisted by Walter Hubbard, who was the local editor from 1888-1895, the managing editor from 1895 to 1910, and the proprietor, publisher and editor from 1910 to1912. Under French and Hubbard, the Phoenix expanded to a 10-page weekly that included mostly news and announcements from towns throughout southwestern Vermont and several towns in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. They experimented unsuccessfully with a daily paper in 1898.

For many decades, the Phoenix competed with the Reformer, a Brattleboro weekly aligned with the Democratic Party. The competition ended in 1913, when the Brattleboro Printing Co acquired the Phoenix and the Brattleboro Reformer. The new company started the Brattleboro Daily Reformer and continued the Phoenix as a companion weekly until 1955. The paper was called the Brattleboro Daily Reformer and Vermont Phoenix from 1955 to 1973, when it became the Brattleboro Reformer.

Provided By: University of Vermont

About this Newspaper

Title

  • Vermont Phœnix (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955

Other Title

  • Vermont phoenix and Vermont republican
  • Vermont phoenix and Vermont record & farmer
  • Vermont phoenix and Vermont record and farmer

Dates of Publication

  • 1834-1955

Created / Published

  • Brattleboro, Vt. : G.W. Nichols & W.E. Ryther, 1834-

Headings

  • -  Brattleboro (Vt.)--Newspapers
  • -  Bellows Falls (Vt.)--Newspapers
  • -  Ludlow (Vt.)--Newspapers
  • -  Vermont--Bellows Falls
  • -  Vermont--Brattleboro
  • -  Vermont--Ludlow
  • -  United States--Vermont--Windham--Brattleboro
  • -  United States--Vermont--Windham--Bellows Falls
  • -  United States--Vermont--Windsor--Ludlow

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Vol. 1, no. 2 (Sept. 19, 1834)-
  • -  Ceased in 1955.
  • -  Published simultaneously at Brattleboro by O.H. Platt, at Bellows Falls by W.H. Smith and at Ludlow by Thompson & Jackson, .
  • -  Publishers: G.W. Nichols & W.E. Ryther, ; W.E. Ryder, <1836-1847>; Ryther & Platt, <1847-1850>; O.H. Platt, <1851>; C. Cummings, <1857-1864>; C.S. Prouty, <1863-1864>; Brown & Prouty, <1865-1867>; Brown, Prouty & Co., <1868>-1871; Prouty & Stedman, 1871-1874; French & Stedman, 1874-<1876>.
  • -  Editors: S. Knight, <1834>; O.H. Platt, <1847-1851>; C. Cummmings, 1855-<1861>; A. Brown, 1863-<1871>.
  • -  Upon the newspaper's revival in 1855, it was no longer affliated with the Whig Party.
  • -  Issues for Feb. 3, 1855-June 27, 1857 called new ser., v. 1, no. 1-new ser., v. 3, no. 26.
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format as part of the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  Absorbed Vermont Republican in 1857.
  • -  Absorbed Vermont record and farmer on May 1, 1880.
  • -  Merged with: Brattleboro daily reformer to form: Brattleboro daily reformer and Vermont phoenix.
  • -  Brattleboro daily reformer (DLC)sn 86071593 (OCoLC)13712537
  • -  Brattleboro daily reformer and Vermont phoenix (DLC)sn 97067590 (OCoLC)37671724

Medium

  • volumes : illustrations ; 53-67 cm

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn98060050

OCLC Number

  • 9735466

ISSN Number

  • 2166-9821

Preceding Titles

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:

Vermont Phœnix Brattleboro, Vt. -1955. (Brattleboro, VT), Jan. 1 1834. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn98060050/.

APA citation style:

(1834, January 1) Vermont Phœnix Brattleboro, Vt. -1955. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn98060050/.

MLA citation style:

Vermont Phœnix Brattleboro, Vt. -1955. (Brattleboro, VT) 1 Jan. 1834. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn98060050/.