The People’s Advocate in Washington City regularly published letters from West Virginia communities prior to establishment of the Mountain State’s own Colored Newspapers

The People’s Advocate, which Frederick Douglass subscribed to, regularly published reportage and letters from areas of West Virginia. Research courtesy of Lost History Associates. US Copyright law fully enforced in all criminal and civil courts.

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Frederick Douglass subscribed to the People’s Advocate, published by John W. Cromwell in Washington City. Before the first Colored Newspaper was established within the boundaries of West Virginia Cromwell’s paper regularly published letters and correspondence from areas and communities of the Mountain State.

We therefore can conclude that in addition to the Monthly Elevator, dually published out of Pittsburgh and Washington, Pennsylvania, which covered West Virginia, Frederick Douglass regularly read the People’s Advocate, which regularly devoted column space to reportage and dispatches from the Mountain State.

As we continue to attempt to reverse engineer the history of the first Colored Newspapers to document communal and political life in West Virginia we find it necessary to recognize the respective Black newspapers in area of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington, D.C. that provided space for reportage from the Mountain State.

Any discussion of West Virginia’s earliest Colored Newspapers must include acknowledgement of the region’s Black Press, otherwise the discussion is ahistorical and incomplete. For two decades the discussion and recognition of West Virginia’s earliest Black Newspaper(s) has been ahistorical and complete.

Tis a new day with new lost history.

JHM / LHA

The Lost History of Frederick Douglass & West Virginia’s First Colored Newspapers: A Chronological and Discursive Study of the Black Press in the Mountain State, 1875 – 1885 (publication date to be determined)

George Washington Welcome’s “Weekly Times” cited in George Washington Williams’ “The History of the Negro Race in America 1619–1880, Vol. 2”

As these discursive notes into the lost history of the first and earliest colored newspapers in West Virginia continue we continue to question how the false origin myth of J. R. Clifford and the Pioneer Press first began and has been perpetuated now for nearly twenty years or so.

As a note, we have emailed and chatted on the phone with Clifford legal scholar Mr. Tom Rodd, Esq. over the past couple of years. We have found Mr. Rodd to be generous with his time and forthright in sharing his knowledge (and publications) on Clifford. However, several emails to Prof. Connie Rice, the leading scholar on Clifford due her 2007 dissertation, have gone unanswered and ignored.

We at Lost History Associates get it. We aren’t surprised. We have been in this history game for more than a couple years and fortnights. Whereas a good journalist never ducks a correction, a good historian acknowledges their errors and oversights.

The historic record must be corrected. However, the historic record will not be corrected by those who are responsible for the historic record needing correction.

As I have closely reviewed Rice’s dissertation I’ve found several questionable and/or incomplete citations. What I have not found is any mention or even an allusion to George Washington Welcome, founder of the Wheeling Times / Weekly Times (ca. 1882) and Pioneer Freeman / Pioneer Press (ca. 1883). In 1884 Welcome sold his interest in the Pioneer Press to Clifford, who subsequently ran the paper until the second decade of the 20th century.

We must declaredly affirm that we admire and acknowledge the groundbreaking public history of Mr. Rodd, Esq. and public scholarship of Prof. Rice to recognize and uplift the history of Prof. Clifford, Esq. We also affirm our admiration and acknowledgement of the consequential career of Clifford, an associate of Frederick Douglass.

However, with these niceties out of the way someone must be accountable. That someone can be everyone; that someone can be all of us who toil within this field of public history. That someone can be the state of West Virginia and all of the individuals and institutions therein. We have repeatedly questioned the work of Harpers Ferry National Historic Park in not better advancing the public history and the historic interpretation of Storer College and its graduates. If we were conspiratorial we may dare think there is an all-involved conspiracy to obscure, suppress and erase the history of George Washington Welcome.

Whatever conspiracy may be afoot and conspiring the facts, truth and proper citations will abide and prevail.

George Washington Williams includes George Washington Welcome’s Weekly Times [Wheeling Times] in his 1882 book The History of the Negro Race in America 1619–1880.

The subject of a half-century research pursuit by Master Historian Prof. John Hope Franklin, in 1882 George Washington Williams published his seminal two-volume The History of the Negro Race in America 1619–1880. Several years before Williams had published a short-lived weekly newspaper in Washington City, using the Capitol Hill home address of Frederick Douglass for subscription orders.

Within the appendix of Volume 2 of The History of the Negro Race in America 1619–1880 Williams lists “NEWSPAPERS BY COLORED MEN” covering more than twenty states and Washington City.

On page 378 George Washington Welcome’s The Weekly Times [Wheeling Times] is cited by Williams. (When Welcome first launched his newspaper in Wheeling it was apparently a monthly, known as the Wheeling Times. In the late summer / early fall the paper began publication as a weekly and took the name The Weekly Times.)

This straightforward citation has apparently been overlooked for nearly two decades and therefore George Washington Welcome has been overlooked for nearly two decades.

How did Williams and Welcome correspond? Did Williams and Welcome know each other personally? There are several indications that Welcome was well known in certain areas of Ohio, westward of West Virginia. Williams was well known in Ohio, studying law under the father of future President William Howard Taft and serving in the state legislature. Could Williams and Welcome have known each other through their travels within Ohio?

Welcome apparently knew William Calvin Chase. Williams knew Chase. Welcome and Chase knew Frederick Douglass, as did Williams.

How long will it take for the public historic record to be corrected? We hope it takes less than twenty years to recognize and uplift George Washington Welcome, founder of two of West Virginia’s earliest colored newspapers.

JHM / LHA

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EDITOR’S NOTE:

This ongoing discursive research has been registered with the United States Copyright Office at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Any duplication and/or replication of this research, or the semblance of duplication and/or replication, without written authorization and consent of its author will be prosecuted with the full force of copyright law in local, state, federal and international criminal and civil courts.

Frederick Douglass gives security for John W. Cromwell in criminal libel case, 1885

Over the last quarter century of his life Frederick Douglass knew many swashbuckling newspaper men of the Black Press who found themselves in court from time to time due to their editorial fire and fury.

John W. Cromwell of the People’s Advocate in Washington City, William Calvin Chase of the Washington Bee and John R. Clifford of the Pioneer Press in West Virginia knew both Frederick Douglass and their respective local court systems well.

These polymath Black editors were studied and trained as educators and as lawyers. These men were known to argue their own cases. More often than not these editors were victorious in court affirming their First Amendment Rights.

Sometimes the cases these editors faced were personal and fraught with emotion. The publication of alleged and/or confirmed infidelities of members of the Black church, for example, often invoked a suit from those named in a story.

Frederick Douglass fiercely defended himself and his family in the court of public opinion with Letters to the Editors and in interviews with journalists of the Black press and mainstream press. However, we have not yet come across a case where Frederick Douglass, Sr. filed suit against any journalist or newspaper.

What we have come across, on occasion, is Douglass assisting these editors when they found themselves accused of impropriety either in the court of public opinion or in a formal court proceeding. Douglass would often submit Letters to the Editor attesting to an editor’s character, discretion and right to pursue the truth no matter where it led. Furthermore, Douglass was also known to get involved with an editor’s case if it reached the court system.

In studying Douglass we have found him to be a loyal friend and supporter of a younger generation of journalists who used their editorial desks to uplift their respective communities and press for the fulfillment of Civil Rights and Constitutional protections for Black Americans. Douglass entrusted these younger men and took actions whereby he invested his social capital and often real capital to assist these men.

One specific incident occurred in 1885 when Frederick Douglass posted the security for John W. Cromwell, who faced a case of criminal libel case for a story published in the weekly People’s Advocate.

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Editor Cromwell in Court.

J. Wesley Cromwell, editor, and Charles A. Lemar, business managers of the People’s Advocate, and ex-Captain W. P. Gray appeared before the Police Court this morning to answer a charge of criminal libel in publishing an article reflecting on the character of reputation of Captain J. A. Perry of Company B, Capital City Guards. They all gave $300 bonds for the appearances for trial next Thursday. The unpleasantness grew out of a factional fight in the soldier company names. Frederick Douglass gave security for Cromwell.

Brief note on Lost History of Colored Newspaper -> “Monthly Elevator,” (1875 – 1878 / 1879) & Frederick Douglass

From what we can so far determine the existence of the colored newspaper The Monthly Elevator does not exist in modern contemporary historiography.

Launched in early 1875 by T. R. H. Johnson and S. A. Neale and published until 1878 / 1879 (or later) the newspaper was not included in a December 1977 Pennsylvania Heritage article, “Black Press in Pennsylvania.”

The December 1977 article makes the bold and misleading declaration, “Between 1848 and 1880 no new Afro-American news­papers were established in Pennsylvania.”

This is not historically accurate. In 1875 the Monthly Elevator was published in Pennsylvania. Evidence suggests the paper was at one time published simultaneously in Washington, Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Listing papers by their location within the state and year, there is a listing in Philadelphia for “Elevator, ?” in the 1977 article.

Could this be alluding to the Monthly Elevator? We do not think so.

“The Elevator.” November 1874. Courtesy of Lost History Associates.

The omission and exclusion of the Monthly Elevator and its founding editors from the modern historical record – locally, regionally and nationally – is not surprising as we continue to find lost history at nearly every historic corner we turn in our ongoing research.

Despite the “erasure” of the Monthly Elevator in contemporary historiography what cannot be erased, or denied, is that Frederick Douglass viewed with his own eyes a bound volume of the paper and corresponded with one of the papers co-founders and editors.

Thomas R. H. “T. R. H.” Johnson appears to not exist in any modern historical literature on the Black Press, Western Pennsylvania, and/or the history of Black Education in Pennsylvania. Reportedly, in January 1, 1872 Johnson was granted a “permanent certificate” as a teacher in Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania School Journal affirmed Johnson was “the only colored teacher in the state” to whom that distinction had been so awarded.

To reiterate, a rudimentary survey of contemporary sources, such as the Heinz Center and Historical Society of Pennsylvania, have so far revealed nothing on Johnson and/or the Monthly Elevator.

According to the lost historic record Johnson was born in Ohio in 1841. After receiving an education Johnson became a teacher, apparently, before enlisting in the Union Army. Following the War Johnson was the principal of the Miller Street School in Pittsburgh. In the early 1870s he relocated to Washington, Pennsylvania, near the state border with West Virginia. After launching the Monthly Elevator, Johnson was elected as the county coroner for several terms. Archival research indicates Johnson was involved in the Grandy Army of the Republic. In 1906 Johnson passed away. He is buried alongside his family in Washington Cemetery in Washington County, Pennsylvania.

How well did Johnson know Frederick Douglass? While there is an extant letter that Douglass sent Johnson in the 1870s we have not yet determined the extent of their relationship, association and connections.

Frederick Douglass spoke in Washington, Pennsylvania on several occasions, as well as in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania over the course of several decades. We speculate there is a strong likelihood that T. R. H. Johnson attended and/or helped to organize one of these lectures by Frederick Douglass in Washington County and/or Pittsburgh during the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s.

Forthcoming research will hopefully help to better understand and determine the dynamics of the connections and associations between Douglass and Johnson. More discursive notes expected.

Frederick Douglass thanks T. R. H. Johnson for volume of The Monthly Elevator out of Washington, Pennsylvania [ca. August 23, 1876 ?] … “organ of the colored people of … West Virginia”

Courtesy of Lost History Associates.

Washington

I snatch my pen and a moment to thank you for a bound volume of the Monthly Elevator.

This duty would have been performed on the arrival of the valuable gift had I been at home when it came. The Elevator, in your hands, has my best wishes for its success. Little by little, you are with others, laying the foundation of a literature which will in time reflect credit upon our long oppressed and benighted people.

The Elevator though only a monthly and not over well supported, may yet do great things for us.

Frederick Douglass

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According to a Source Note:

No year cited, but preliminary research suggests the year of publication. Thanks Johnson, editor of The Monthly Elevator, for a bound volume recently sent. Remarks that the Elevator, an African American journal, is “laying the foundation of a literature which will in time reflect credit upon our long oppressed and benighted people.”

A pencil note at the top states, “An Encouraging word from Hon. Frederick Douglass.”

Enveloped addressed to Johnson in Washington, Pennsylvania. Includes a three cent stamp.

[Courtesy Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History]

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Editor’s Note:

Records indicate the Monthly Elevator was published from January 1, 1875 to 1878 / 1879. It is most likely the bound volume sent to Frederick Douglass by T. R. H. Johnson of Washington, Pennsylvania was either from the paper’s first year of publication, 1875, or second year, 1876.

The estimated date of the letter of August 23, 1876 by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is within possibility.

In late 1874 the New National Era ceased publication after a nearly five year run. In the fall of 1875 Douglass allowed George Washington Williams to use the Douglass family’s home address on A Street NE in Capitol Hill for subscriptions, money orders and other correspondence pertaining to Williams’ short-lived weekly the Commoner.

In an unofficial capacity Douglass served as an editor emeritus of the Black Press the last twenty years of his life attending Colored Press Conventions, subscribing to Black newspapers and journals, penning letters of support and letters to the editors of these papers, among other public and private demonstrations of support.

According to available documentation, The Elevator devoted itself to being to “the organ of the colored people of western Pennsylvania and West Virginia.”

Hereby whereas therefore henceforth, we can confirm that Frederick Douglass corresponded with the editor of (one of) the first known Colored Newspaper to devote itself to covering West Virginia. The appearance of the Monthly Elevator in early 1875 is several years before we can determine and confirm a Colored Newspaper being published within the state boundaries of West Virginia.

So, hereby whereas therefore henceforth we can confirm not only did Frederick Douglass know and associate with the editors & publishers of the earliest colored newspapers to appear in the Mountain State but we can also confirm that Frederick Douglass corresponded with the editor of one of the earliest known colored newspapers known to devote coverage to West Virginia’s Black American communities, individuals and institutions.

Brief note on Frederick Douglass & Rev. John William Dunjee, agent for Storer College and business manager of the Harpers Ferry Messenger (est. 1882)

Rev. John William Dunjee (1833 – 1903)

In attending antiquarian book fairs and visiting book shops helmed by caretakers and guardians of the antiquarian trade I’ve seen a handful of Frederick Douglass pamphlets and ephemera printed during the course of his lifetime. The writings and speeches of Frederick Douglass were printed on-demand, as it were, as well as being included in essay collections with contemporary authors, journalists and orators. These materials were published and circulated through an extensive network from the Atlantic Monthly and North American Review out of Boston to Black newspapers in major cities and small towns throughout the country.

From the mid-1840s to the mid-1890s Douglass was the source of a specialized print culture that survives today. Speeches made by Frederick Douglass in the presence of American Presidents, members of British Parliament as well as Bishops of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and students at “HBCUs” held at fairgrounds, camp meeting grounds, city parks, Black churches and elsewhere were published.

As I can recall, some of these pamphlets I’ve seen over the years had specific notations and/or signatures of either the specific publisher, sales agent and/or recipient / owner of the material. As well, these pamphlets often have the markings of “WITHDRAWN” from an academic, public or even private library. Sometimes these pamphlets can be very worn and marked up, as well as they can be found in nearly original condition.

While there may be a working bibliography and/or complete catalogue of these Frederick Douglass-specific pamphlets somewhere we are presently unaware of its existence, ISBN and/or inclusion in WorldCat / OCLC.

We offer this somewhat periphrastic preamble in the context of a small case study of a Frederick Douglass pamphlet being sold for fundraising purposes. (Somewhat similar to today how we receive solicitations from the children of friends and family to purchase popcorn!)

In May 1881 Frederick Douglass delivered a speech on John Brown in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia at the dedication of a new building on the campus of Storer College, where Douglass would later serve as a member of the Board of Trustees.

“An Address by Frederick Douglass At The Fourteenth Anniversary of Storer College” was apparently a popular and widely distributed pamphlet as I’ve seen more than a handful held privately in the past decade of research.

The Library of Congress has digitized a 36-page version printed in New Hampshire. The material is part of the Daniel Murray pamphlet collection. Murray, a longtime and decorated librarian at the Library of Congress, is recognized as one of the most important early Black American antiquarians.

Sale of these pamphlets – as well as Life and Times – were often done door-to-door at commercial, educational, faith-based and private properties by authorized agents. These agents were often affiliated with an educational, journalistic or faith-biased purpose. Should an agent sell these materials without the proper authorization a notification would often appear – by Douglass himself – in local newspapers disavowing any connection with said agent and/or said purpose of the sale of these print materials.

So therefore the record would reflect that when one would publish and sell Frederick Douglass-related print material whether it be the Harper & Brothers out of New York City, William Calvin Chase out of Washington City or Rev. John William Dunjee in Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna Valley and the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia it was done so with the blessing of Frederick Douglass.

Courtesy Lost History Associates.

In the fall of 1881 Rev. Dunjee was reportedly in the area of Carlisle, Pennsylvania “in the interests of Storer College.” Dunjee was “trying to get subscriptions for the endowment of a professorship in the institution.” The Carlisle Weekly Herald encouraged its readers to “respond liberally, as the cause is a good one.”

While we are currently working on confirming the connections and associations of Douglass and Rev. Dunjee the record reflects Dunjee is in the selective class of agents entrusted to distribute and sell Douglass-related pamphlets.

Where were the pamphlets Rev. Dunjee was selling printed? Our inclination is to suspect either Baltimore or Washington City where there were Black newspapers at the time but it is possible the pamphlet was printed locally within Jefferson County or elsewhere in West Virginia.

Did Storer College and/or Rev. Dunjee publish the pamphlet? It is possible.

Less than a year after Dunjee was noted for selling “An Address by Frederick Douglass At The Fourteenth Anniversary of Storer College” as a means of fundraising for Storer College he established his own newspaper.

Extant archival records indicate the Harpers Ferry Messenger was initially published by the late spring of 1882.

The paper was connected to Storer College, minimally by geography, but we do not know the particulars and dynamics of the relationship. All evidence indicates the Harpers Ferry Messenger was not a “campus newspaper” but instead covered the Black American communities in Harpers Ferry, Charlestown, Shepherdstown and nearby areas in Jefferson County, the Eastern Panhandle and presumably nearby Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia. At this point in our research we do not believe the Harpers Ferry Messenger was of a denominational interest nor formally supported by the same Baptists (Freewill Baptist) philanthropic networks which supported Storer College.

Many of the details and specific of the Harpers Ferry Messenger have yet to be confirmed; for example, where was the newspaper office?!?

However, we can confirm that by mid-1882 the Harpers Ferry Messenger is being published and circulated throughout Jefferson County as a monthly sheet. This is nearly a year before George Washington Welcome established the Pioneer Freeman / Pioneer Press in nearby Martinsburg and nearly two years before John Robert Clifford purchased the Pioneer Press from Welcome.

Courtesy Lost History Associates.

Furthermore, it would appear the Harpers Ferry Messenger existed for at least a year or so as the Harpers Ferry Messenger before relocating to Shepherdstown in the second half of 1883 in which the paper dropped Harpers Ferry from its masthead and was known simply as the Messenger. We are unable to confirm the publishing history of the paper beyond the conclusion of 1883.

Although we cannot yet confirm, we have reason to believe Frederick Douglass may have offered support for publication of the Harpers Ferry Messenger / Messenger in either a letter to the editor, letter to subscribers and/or a simple subscription. Douglass was at one time or another an accumulative subscriber to dozens upon dozens of newspapers, including local, regional and national publications. Douglass was a known supporter and subscriber to the Black Press.

To what extent may have Douglass supported the Harpers Ferry Messenger? We hope to better understand the connections and relationship as the research continues to abide.

JHM / LHA

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Editor’s Note:

There is currently NO historic marker, heritage sign or any respective representation for Rev. John William Dunjee of the Harpers Ferry Messenger in present-day Harpers Ferry or Jefferson County that we are aware of. There should be.