The Significance of Early Newspapers
The classifieds have always been an important feature in local newspapers.
"The Sisters Three," published in Godey's Lady's Book and reprinted in the Wayne County Democrat for the enrichment of Wooster's citizens.
Wooster’s lawyers and doctors bought advertising space in the local paper.
By Brittany Previte and Laura Merrell
Wooster’s newspapers transformed a disconnected group of settlers into a well-informed community. Judge Levi Cox partnered with printer Samuel Baldwin in the summer of 1817 to create Wooster’s first newspaper, the Ohio Spectator and began the city’s long newspaper tradition. In addition to yearly subscriptions, the papers were supported by a growing number of individuals and businesses seeking to advertise their goods in the growing community.1 Newspapers provided a vital public role by publishing probate notices and other crucial information on ongoing estate or guardianship cases. They also served an educational role, occasionally giving up valuable front page space to works of excerpts from literature or poetry from national magazines.2 As Wooster matured into a civic community, newspapers served as public bulletins. They announced social notes like marriages, society meetings, and even dinner parties. By the 1830s, Wooster produced at least three newspapers weekly to sustain an ever-growing number of subscribers.
1 “Advertisements,” Wayne County Democrat, March 21, 1850.
2 “Probate Notices,” Wooster Journal and Democratic Times, June 21, 1836.