Marietta’s first newspaper, the Ohio Gazette and the Territorial and Virginia Herald, this copy is from 1908. (Photo provided by Marietta College’s Legacy Library, Slack research collection)

There has been a newspaper published in Marietta for 222 years.

When the Ohio Gazette and the Territorial and Virginia Herald came off the press on Dec. 7, 1801, it was the first example of what would end up being dozens of different newspapers printing thousands of editions, including the one that you are reading right now.

Newspapers of that era focused more on politics and national news. There was little local news printed. Most towns had at least two newspapers, with each being very closely tied to a political party.

Two lawyers, Wyllys Sillman and Elijah Backus, brought a wooden press with them from Philadelphia and set up an office near the Ohio River on Front Street.

The newspaper favored Democratic Republicans, including Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson had taken office earlier in the year as the nation’s third president. Lower Front Street seemed to be a popular spot for newspapers. With the levee nearby, it was close to the action.

The paper changed hands after the two original owners went on to do other things.

It was sold to a man named Samuel Fairlamb who published it until it went out of print in 1810. The next newspaper of note to be printed was the Marietta Friend, which started in 1813.

In 1823 it became the American Friend and Marietta Gazette. A man named Royal Prentiss operated it and claimed that “the principal part of the mechanical labor has been performed by myself, worth which, and close application to business too, the paper could not have survived.”

It was printed for a time from a house on Fifth Street, before being sold in 1833 to John Delafield who shortened the name to the Marietta Gazette.

The paper merged in 1842 with the Intelligencer, which had appeared in Marietta in 1839. The Intelligencer was published until it was sold in 1862 and had its name changed to the Marietta Register.

It was from a different line of newspapers that The Times was eventually formed.

Appearing in 1826 was the Pilot, the paper published until 1826. A man named John Brough bought the assets of The Pilot and began publishing the Western Republican and Marietta Advertiser in 1831, while still in his teens.

His motto was “Freedom of speech is a man’s inalienable birthright – the liberty of the press his impregnable safeguard.”

After a decade the paper moved to Parkersburg and then to Lancaster.

In Lancaster he was elected to the state legislature and then became state auditor.

In 1845 he went to Cincinnati to study law and started the Enquirer with his brother Charles. In 1860 he would serve as governor.

Other newspapers would fill the gap as the democratic paper. In 1849 the democratic paper was called The Republican. Yes, I know this is confusing to modern readers. It ceased publishing in 1863.

This brings us closer to the present day. Well sort of. A man named Walter Hood started publishing a little paper called The Marietta Times on Sept. 24, 1864.

At first a weekly, it became a daily in 1898 and has been published ever since.

Here is an edited list of newspapers that have been printed in Marietta.

1801-1811 – Ohio Gazette, and Territorial and Virginia Herald

1807-1810 – The Commentator; and Marietta Recorder

1810-1813 – The Western Spectator

1813-1823 – American Friend

1823-1833 – American Friend and Marietta Gazette

1823-1824 – Marietta Minerva

1826-1830 – Marietta and Washington County Pilot

1831-1833 – Western Republican, and Marietta Advertiser

1833-1842 – Marietta Gazette

1835-1838 – Marietta Democrat

1837-1841 – Marietta Gazette and Washington County Agriculturalist

1839-1862 – Marietta Intelligencer

1849-1863 – The Marietta Republican

1856-1865 – Der Marietta Demokrat (German language paper)

1859-1862 – Home News

1862-1906 – Marietta Register

1864- current – Marietta Times

1865-1866 – Marietta Home News

1865-1867 – Washington County News

1867- ? – Der Patriot (German language paper)

1868-1904 – Marietta Zeitung (German language paper)

1870-1872 – Mariettian

1881-1906 – Marietta Leader

1884-1887 – Dollar Weekly News

1890-1892 – Christian Visitor

1884-1895 – Marietta Daily Dispatch

1901-1902 – Labor Journal

1902-1919 – Marietta Daily Journal

1906-1923 – The Register-Leader (Renamed Marietta Gazette 1923)

1916-1919 – The Observer (Sunday Mornings)

1923-1927 – Marietta Gazette (Sold to Marietta Times, 14 May 1927)

That is a lot of different titles over a very long period. People have always depended on newspapers to give them information that they couldn’t get elsewhere.

In the early years, this was mainly national and international news, local news would have been learned by simply talking to one another.

As railroads brought newspapers from other areas the shift turned to a more local focus.

I find old papers to be extremely fascinating. In fact, I hang them on the wall as artwork.

This includes a copy of The Times from 1868 — No, it does not contain any Art Smith photos — and a copy of the Intelligencer from 1858.

The fact that the start of The Times is actually in the middle of the history of newspapers in Marietta is interesting because through 159 years, the challenges of a civil war, two world wars, a depression, political unrest, COVID-19 and more than 50,000 editions, it has found a way to continue to serve the readers of Marietta and Washington County.

Art Smith is online manager of The Times, he can be reached at asmith@mariettatimes.com