Presentation about the newly available index to newspapers in Clark County from 1837-1870. The newspapers are all available on microfilm at the Jeffersonville Township Public Library and the index was compiled by Eden Kuhlenschmidt, a volunteer at JTPL. Presented by Eden Kuhlenschmidt at the Southern Indiana Genealogical Society on February 7, 2019.

1. Clark County, IN Newspapers
1837 – 1870
Created by
Eden Kuhlenschmidt
2019.02.07

2. Clark Newspapers before 1870
• Clark County Democrat 1858 – 1865
Clark County Record 1869 –
Clark County Star – 1884 only
• The Comet 1834 – 1847 which then became
Western Farmer 1847 - ?
• The Farmers’ and Merchanics Advocate 1827
• French’s Republican 1854 – 1861
Indiana Banner 1848*
Indiana Farmer (not published in Clark County)
Indiana Intelligencer/and Farmer’s Friend 1818 – 1825
The Indiana Mirror 1849
Jeffersonville Courier
Journal of Christianity*

3. Indianian /Southern Indianian 1836 -1846 (moved to Harrison County)
The People’s Gazette/Gazette 1841 – 1842
Political Pioneer 1832 – 1833
The Prospect 1859
Republican Statesman/Statesman and Clark County Advertiser 1820-s
– 1830’s
The Western Farmer 1847 / Clark County Democrat
Clark County Democrat 1862
The Journal 1839 – 1840
National Democrat/National Democrat and
Citizen Record – 1854 –
National Democrat – Supplement Delinquent Taxes
Republican 1837- 1845
Sprit of Progress – 1832
True Republican
Weekly National Democrat
Beobachter Am Ohio – Kentucky Publication covered Clark/Floyd Co.

4. Floyd and Harrison Counties
• Floyd County had 24 different newspapers
published between 1800 and 1870
• Harrison County had 1 newspaper published
in county between 1800 and 1870.

5. Why publish a county newspaper?
There were three notable reasons for publishing
a newspaper
Politics – National/State/Local – usually presenting a
specific political ‘camp’
Specific Cause; Abolitionists, Prohibition
Education - for farmers, other occupations, or children’s
magazines
And if there was space left, local news.

6. Where can you find the papers?
Rarely is there a complete year – try multiple
sources
NewspaperArchives.com
Library of Congress Digital Newspaper Archives
Indiana State Library + Indiana Memories and digital newspaper
collection
Jeffersonville Township Public Library
Charlestown – Clark County Public Library
NA-Floyd County Public Library – digitized and microfilm
and more – Willard Library has their collection on microfilm
Western Kentucky University – Kentucky Museum – microfilm of
many newspapers basically west of I-65.

7. How do you find your kin?
With digitized copies – a search by last name can be
helpful, if you don’t have the last name of Church,
Lee, Cook (place, also a first name, or occupation)
Printed Book Indexes exist for obituaries
What’s New –
The 1837 – 1869 Clark County Every Name Index
created between 2018-2019. It is available only in
the History Room of JTPL

8. What can you find?
• Politics – names of state legislators, committees served on, bills, and speeches
• Advertisements – most have first initial and last name of business owner
• Legal notices – estate, guardianship, property arguments, sheriff’s sale, lawsuits
• News from around the state and nation (more likely to have obits of relatives who
moved away)
• Local court - Reports from the Mayor’s court for local misdemeanors
• Social news - Sometimes birth, engagements, weddings, parties, church events
• Indiana Prison South news (commonly reported entrances, end of terms, death)
• Novels or short stories or poetry
• Check neighboring county newspapers – a local death, everyone knows about by
word of mouth, but the cousin who moved to Kansas – his death gets reported in
the paper

9. Take a look at our JTPL 1830 -1870
Index
There are 3, 378 entries indexed in this database, approximately 2,000 names
• Last name
• First name
• Maiden name
• Title
• Newspaper
• Date
• Day
• Page
• Column
• Reason (type of article)
• Location
• Microfilm Roll #3

10. Direction to using the Index
• Visit the Indiana Room at the main branch of the Jeffersonville Township
Public Library in Jeffersonville, Indiana. It is located next to the Post
Office.
• If possible email dstepro@jefflibrary.org to schedule an appointment or to
learn when she will be available.
• Ask for the Indiana Room
• Sign in – Ask the librarian (Diane Stepro) or volunteers for assistance.
• Use the index to locate family members.
• Use the microfilm to look up the dates from the index. Both microfilm
readers will print. The newer one will allow you to save items to a thumb
drive.
Happy Searching!