Wetzel Chronicle

The paper is the merger two previous local newspapers,[5] the Democrat which dates back to 1877,[6] and the Republican,[7] which traces its roots back to the founding of the Messenger in 1876.[8][9]

The Wetzel Democrat was established as an eight-page Democratic weekly[10] by Dan Long, with W. S. Wiley and Robert McEldowney as editors.[11] Its early fame was based on McEldowney's editorials, which were widely syndicated, quoted, and discussed throughout the state.[12] Born in 1837, McEldowney had been raised in Wetzel County had received a public education in the local schools before attending Marrietta College in Ohio.[13] On the outbreak of the Civil War he had headed south to fight with the Confederacy's "Stonewall Regiment",[13] and fought as a captain at the Battle of Gettysburg.[12] An ardent Democrat, his editorials were known for both their wit (McEldowney once described the Republican party in the state as the only known instance of a "corpse attempting to commit suicide")[14] and its oppositional stance to Democratic party leadership. McEldowney died in 1900, at which point C. G. Westerman took over as editor and publisher.[12]

The Messenger was started 1876 by J. E. Hart.[11] After selling it and then repurchasing it, Hart changed the name to the Wetzel Republican,[11] a name under which it continued until its 1979 merger with the Democrat. The chief rival of the Democrat in its early years, it had a 1917 circulation of 1,300[15] to the Democrat's 1,800[15] in a county with a population of just over 20,000.[16]

Merged in 1979 under the title of the Wetzel Chronicle, the first issue of the Chronicle was published on July 5 of that year.[5] It has been owned by Ogden since at least 2001.[17]

On August 13, 2018, Perry Nardo, former publisher and current regional publisher of the Wetzel Chronicle, won the Adam R. Kelly Award from the West Virginia Press Association.[18] The Adam R. Kelly Award is the association's highest honor.

• List of newspapers in West Virginia