In our research concerning the social history of this community, we combine archaeology with analysis of documentary sources, including tax records, census lists, deed information, and the wealth of data one can find in newspapers published during the life of the community. Our researchers have started a systematic review of the newspapers published in the region surrounding New Philadelphia, looking for articles, advertisements and notices that report events concerning the town and the regional context in which the town existed. To do this, we review copies of the old newspapers, mostly on microfilm, and transcribe the articles of interest. This project is ongoing, and we will be adding to this web page as we review more over time. We are grateful to the Research Board of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, which has provided support for this project.
Set out on this page are selected transcriptions of newspaper articles related to New Philadelphia (which is sometimes referred to as Philadelphia), and the surrounding region. Section I and Section II present transcriptions of articles and excerpts from the Barry Adage, Barry Breeze, and Barry Record newspapers from the period of 1870 through 1914. We will be expanding the list of available transcriptions under Section I in the near future. The town of Barry is located approximately six miles west of New Philadelphia. The articles discuss events in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia school house, and burials in the nearby cemeteries. (For some of these entries, we have been unable to provide citations to the exact page and column numbers due to the character of the microfilm copies of these newspapers.)
Section III presents transcriptions of articles and excerpts from newspapers published in the Quincy area in the period of 1850-1873, and the stories focus principally on developments concerning the construction of railroads. The town of Quincy is located along the Mississippi River, about 40 miles northwest of New Philadelphia. None of these stories from the Quincy papers directly explains why New Philadelphia was bypassed by the Hannibal and Naples Railroad in 1869. A September 7, 1857 article reprinted from the Pike County Press mentioned a possible route "down Keyser creek." Kiser Creek runs in a roughly north-south direction and is located just to the east of the New Philadelphia town site. A July 30, 1870, article reports that the new town of Pineville, also known as "Summit Station" due to its location on higher elevation, was situated on the newly-completed Hannibal and Naples Railroad line, and had just established a Postoffice. Pineville, later renamed Baylis, was at the top of a northward arc of the railroad's route that diverted its path away from New Philadelphia.
Additional transcriptions of news articles from Pike County newspapers are available online from the Illinois GenWeb project, although these items are not targeted specifically at the social history of New Philadelphia. A brief essay on the history of newspaper publishing in this region is also available online from the Illinois Newspaper Project. Microfilm copies of most newspapers published within Illinois are available at the Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield.
The format used in newspapers of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries differs greatly from the format of many newspapers today. Such older newspapers often had minimal headlines and rarely included any photographs. Newspapers published in that period also had clear political affiliations, usually with the local Democratic or Whig (later called Republican) party. Articles were written by reporters and editors based on their own perspectives and biases. These newspapers also occasionally used language and expressions which we now find offensive. In the article excerpts presented we have transcribed relevant news reports and editorial statements without editing out language we don't agree with. We present this information as data concerning past events and the variety of past attitudes and opinions concerning the perceived significance of those events.
