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The ''Maryland Independent'' is a semi-weekly newspaper that began publication in September 1874 in
The ''Maryland Independent'' is a semi-weekly newspaper that began publication in September 1874 in Port Tobacco
Port Tobacco, officially Port Tobacco Village, is a town in Charles County, in southern Maryland, United States. The population was 13 at the 2010 census, making Port Tobacco the smallest incorporated town in Maryland.
Overview
This was historical ...
, Charles County, Maryland
Charles County is a county in Southern Maryland. As of the 2020 census, the population was 166,617. The county seat is La Plata. The county was named for Charles Calvert (1637–1715), third Baron Baltimore. Charles County is part of the Wash ...
.
History
The ''Maryland Independent'' was founded by John S. Button, a local printer andFreemason
Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...
. Its Republican slant paralleled the growing popularity of the Republican party in Charles County, and when former state's attorney
In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a loc ...
Eugene Diggs joined the newspaper as an editor in 1877, he maintained this advocacy for Republican candidates and policies. This political position put the ''Maryland Independent'' directly at odds with the county's Democratic paper, the '' Port Tobacco Times,'' a rivalry that would continue for years.
In 1879, the paper turned Democratic for a short time when local Democratic leader Charles Vivian Brent acquired the newspaper, retaining Button as business manager. Button died the following year, and Brent moved on in 1882 to a series of positions in the federal government, resulting in the paper's sale to Adrian Posey. Posey was a Republican lawyer who served in the Maryland House of Delegates
The Maryland House of Delegates is the lower house of the legislature of the State of Maryland. It consists of 141 delegates elected from 47 districts. The House of Delegates Chamber is in the Maryland State House on State Circle in Annapolis, ...
from 1888 to 1890, the Maryland Senate from 1890 to 1894, and as the Charles County State's Attorney from 1896 to 1900. In late 1893, Posey built new offices and moved the newspaper's operations from historic Port Tobacco to the bustling new town of La Plata
La Plata () is the capital city of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. According to the , it has a population of 654,324 and its metropolitan area, the Greater La Plata, has 787,294 inhabitants. It is located 9 kilometers (6 miles) inland from th ...
, which soon became the Charles County seat in 1895.
After Adrian Posey's death in 1922, his son Frederick Stone Posey continued publishing the ''Maryland Independent'' until his death in 1926, when the Posey family sold it to Thomas Brackett Reed Mudd. Though Mudd came from a prominent Republican family, his tenure at the newspaper was short, with brothers Ruey Philip and Philip Benjamin Bowling publishing the paper by 1930.
The ''Maryland Independent'' continues publication to the present day, under the ownership of APG Media of Chesapeake. In July 2020, the paper was consolidated into Southern Maryland News, which covers neighboring St. Mary's and Calvert counties.
References
{{reflist Weekly newspapers published in the United States Newspapers established in 1874 1874 establishments in Maryland Newspapers published in Maryland