The ''Titusville Herald'' was a five-day morning

daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports ...

published in

Titusville, Pennsylvania Titusville is a city in the far eastern corner of Crawford County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 5,601 at the 2010 census and an estimated 5,158 in 2019. Titusville is known as the birthplace of the American oil industry and fo ...

, which covers news in

Crawford County Crawford County is the name of eleven counties in the United States: * Crawford County, Arkansas * Crawford County, Georgia * Crawford County, Illinois * Crawford County, Indiana * Crawford County, Iowa * Crawford County, Kansas * Crawford Count ...

. Founded on June 14, 1865, it was the oldest daily newspaper in the Pennsylvania Oil Region until it ceased print on November 5, 2022.

History

The ''Titusville Morning Herald'' was founded on June 14, 1865, by brothers William and Henry Bloss. William Bloss, born in

Rochester Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom *Rochester, Kent ** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area ** History of Rochester, Kent ** HM Prison ...

on March 25, 1831, was both a newspaperman and an abolitionist. After serving in the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

, he migrated to

Western Pennsylvania Western Pennsylvania is a region in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, covering the western third of the state. Pittsburgh is the region's principal city, with a metropolitan area population of about 2.4 million people, and serves as its economic ...

in search of opportunities in the burgeoning oil industry. William, joined by his brother Henry, purchased the ''Titusville Gazette and Oil Creek Reporter'' in 1865. The brothers regularly disagreed both about management of the paper In 1872, Henry and his partner, J. H. Cogwell, bought William's share of the newspaper. Henry continued to grow the paper, purchasing various other local newspapers including The ''Evening Courier'', The ''Evening Club'', The ''Evening Journal'', The ''Morning Star'', The ''Evening Press'', The ''Evening News'', and The ''Daily Courier''. The paper chronicled the oil industry as it developed in the wake of the discovery of petroleum in Oil Creek and its extraction with the establishment of

Drake Well The Drake Well is a oil well in Cherrytree Township, Venango County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, the success of which sparked the first oil boom in the United States. The well is the centerpiece of the Drake Well Museum located south of ...

in 1859 by Colonel

Edwin Drake Edwin Laurentine Drake (March 29, 1819 – November 9, 1880), also known as Colonel Drake, was an American businessman and the first American to successfully drill for oil. Early life Edwin Drake was born in Greenville, New York on March 2 ...

. The ''Herald'' provided coverage of oil prices along Oil Creek and chronicled the establishment of the Oil Creek Railroad in 1865. The ''Titusville Morning Herald'' also covered social issues affecting Titusville, a town that had grown exponentially in size and population during the oil boom. The paper features stories on gangs, prostitution and arson. When a devastating fire broke out in 1866, which devastated commercial buildings downtown (though sparing the ''Herald'' offices), Henry Bloss and the other editors recommended lynching those found culpable. When Henry Bloss died in 1893, his wife Sarah ran the paper until her death in 1916. Their son, Joseph Bloss, took over the paper and ran it until 1921. After Joseph's tenure as editor, the ''Herald'' was sold to Edgar Taft Stevenson. Edgar Stevenson, called "the newspaper man's newspaper man," edited the newspaper until he died in 1956. The Stevenson family published the paper for the next few generations. Since 1993, Michael Sample was the publisher until his death on Jan. 3, 2022. The paper ceased and printed its last issue on November 5, 2022.

References

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External links

''The Titusville Herald'' website
Newspapers published in Pennsylvania Titusville, Pennsylvania 1865 establishments in Pennsylvania Newspapers established in 1865 Defunct newspapers published in Pennsylvania 2022 disestablishments in Pennsylvania