Storyline · 1832–1836
Chapel Hill's first newspapers had trouble keeping going. William B. Crittenden proposed a Harbinger in 1832 but seems not to have started it. Isaac C. Patridge began his weekly Harbinger on August 27, 1833, under the supervision of the University professors, covering the sciences and arts and leaning on Elisha Mitchell and William Hooper for its contents. Its press also issued Joseph A. Hill's address attacking heavy corporal punishment. After one year Patridge said the paper would stop for some weeks while he decided whether to take a partner or retire. In 1836 Hugh McQueen started the Columbian Repository, which backed Hugh L. White for president; short of printers, it stopped that summer and returned in September with new workmen.
In March 1832 William B. Crittenden, a lawyer from New York, issued proposals to publish a paper called the Harbinger at Chapel Hill, but he seems not to have started it. After a prospectus that January, Isaac C. Patridge began his weekly Harbinger on August 27, 1833 under the supervision of the University professors. It covered the sciences and arts and leaned on Elisha Mitchell and William Hooper for its contents. By February 20, 1834 the Harbinger press had issued as a pamphlet the address Joseph A. Hill of Wilmington gave the North Carolina Institute of Education at Chapel Hill the June before, and papers across the state praised its attack on heavy corporal punishment. Patridge closed the paper's first subscription year with the issue of August 27, 1834 and said it would stop for some weeks while he decided whether to take a partner or retire; he had already offered part or all of the establishment for sale. In April 1836 Hugh McQueen proposed to publish the Columbian Repository at Chapel Hill, promising to support Hugh L. White for president, and the first issue appeared on June 18. Short of printers, the paper issued its July 28 number late, on August 2, and then stopped. It returned on September 15 with new workmen, and subscribers were not charged for the missed numbers.
Every statement above comes from these dated entries in the chronology. Each links to its source.
Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first.
People with a page of their own whom the dated events above name, those named most often first.
No indexed work is about this storyline itself yet. These are the most widely held histories of the theme it is filed under, so they may not discuss it. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.
Thomas A. Bowers's history of a century of journalism and mass communication teaching at the University of North Carolina, published by the School of Journalism and Mass Communication in 2009. It runs 282 pages with illustrations and portraits.
Robert E. Seymour's columns for the Chapel Hill News, gathered into a 192-page book by Chapel Hill Press in 2003. The short pieces offer anecdotes and reflections on Chapel Hill history, local manners and customs, and North Carolina life. Seymour (1925 to 2020) was the longtime pastor of Olin T. Binkley Memorial Baptist Church.
Anniversary booklet for the first twenty-five years of WCHL, the Chapel Hill radio station at 1360 on the AM dial, published in 1978. Topics include radio broadcasting and Chapel Hill history, with advertisements included. 20 unnumbered pages with illustrations and portraits.
Anniversary booklet marking fifty years of WCHL 1360, the Chapel Hill radio station, with profiles of fifty people from Chapel Hill and Carrboro. Published in 2003, 36 pages with portraits. Contributors include Roland Giduz, Jim Heavner, Jonathan Howes, Neil Offen and Rosemary Waldorf.
Thomas A. Bowers gave this talk on the beginnings of journalism teaching at the University of North Carolina on October 15, 2009 in Wilson Library, part of the Gladys Hall Coates university history lecture series. It was printed the same year.
Richard Hunter Simpson filmed this seven minute farewell to Howell Hall in 1999. The film concerns the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication, its buildings and its history, and the teaching of journalism in Chapel Hill. One videocassette, color with black and white sequences.
Centennial edition of the Daily Tar Heel, the University of North Carolina student newspaper, produced at Chapel Hill in 1993 to mark one hundred years of publication. Jen Pilla is named as centennial edition editor. Topics include the paper's history along with college student newspapers and periodicals in Chapel Hill, which makes the issue a source for the paper's own record.
An illustrated volume, with portraits, published by Village Sports in 1993 to mark forty years of WCHL, Chapel Hill's radio station at 1360 on the dial. Its writers were Jim Heavner, Roland Giduz, Jim Shumaker, Zora Rashkis, Dan Dunlop, George McCall, Lee Pace, Beth Tatum and Larry Stone.
A television news report of three minutes and fifty six seconds by Kenley Jones, broadcast on NBC Nightly News in 1975, on the spelling and grammar test journalism students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill had to pass for the major. John Adams, a former dean of the journalism school, is interviewed.
Stuart Willis traces the history of the North Carolina University Magazine, the student periodical published at Chapel Hill since 1844. His article was detached from the magazine itself in 1914 and printed by the Dialectic and Philanthropic Literary Societies, which ran it.
Holland Thompson's history of the North Carolina University Magazine at fifty years, written while he was a student of the class of 1895. It ran in the magazine for March and April 1894 and was issued separately at Chapel Hill by the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies.
Leaflet on the southern broadcast media history initiative of the Southern Historical and Folklife Collections at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, printed in 1995. The project concerned the history of broadcasting in the Southern states and the business records that document it. Five pages on one folded sheet with illustrations.
Each dated event above names its source, the place to start. For finding more on an event across newspapers, records and histories, see the research guide Follow an event across several accounts. Ask at the North Carolina Room of the Orange County Public Library for help with local sources.
Friends of the Orange County Public Library. “Chapel Hill's first newspapers: the Harbinger and the Columbian Repository, 1832–1836.” Orange County Indexed, https://focplnc.org/orange-county-books/storylines/chapel-hill-first-newspapers-storyline-1832/. Accessed October 22, 2026.
