The Weston Sentinel Newspaper

Before coming to Weston, Owen was foreman of printing for Horace Greeley’s New York Tribune and apparently anticipated by several years the publisher’s famous advice: “Go west, young man.” More certain facts are two: First, he came to Weston at the urging of Jonathan M. Bennett; and, second, Bennett paid his travel expenses. The young, far-sighted, local attorney had political ambitions and knew having at hand a friendly local journal was the most efficient way to place his name and views before the public. (See #59.)

In 1853, the Sentinel building caught fire and burned. The press and some other equipment were saved, but the event was too much for Owen. Discouraged, he sold the paper and for a time retired to his farm home on Murphy’s Creek. (See also #48.)

The new owners of Weston’s press were brothers H. J. and W. F. Tapp, who restarted publication of the paper with a changed name, the Weston Herald. In 1858, the Tapps sold their paper to Frederick J. Alfred of Albemarle County, Virginia. He published the Herald until the outbreak of the Civil War, that event so dividing the loyalties of Lewis Countians between the North and South as to make it nearly impossible for anyone to cover the news and print it without angering one faction or the other.

In June 1867, when the war was well over, others started what would be the third newspaper in the town’s history, the Expositor. Seventeen months later, it was acquired by new owners. They changed the name to the Democrat in November 1868 and made it one of West Virginia’s most respected weeklies, a reputation for integrity carried on by all of the paper’s successive editors. The Democrat continues to be published and is now the town’s oldest business enterprise. (See #130.) (Until it closed in December 2002, Ralston’s Drug Store had been older by around 13 months.)

Gilchrist-Stalnaker, Joy . Oldaker, Bradley R.. Images of America Lewis County. Arcadia Publishing, 2010.

https://wvrhc.lib.wvu.edu

The Weston Sentinel Weston, W. Va. -1899.