Clinton County Newspapers

Iowa newspapers have been published since 1836 and can provide valuable information for family historians. They contained much of the same info as newspapers today do. Certain legal notices were required, as in the case of finalizing a homestead application. Notices regarding births, deaths or marriages did not begin until about the 1880's and then, many times, it was a monthly list of records that were filed at the courthouse. Prior to 1880, announcements regarding births, deaths and marriages were often in the social column and it was entirely up to the publisher regarding whether or not he wanted to print the info. Obituaries of more prominent citizens were common, but many papers charged a fee for obits.

Clinton Co. Newspaper History

The Press : From the 1886 Portrait and Bio. Album

Newspapers of the County : From the 1901 Biographical Record of CC.

German Newspapers of Clinton County

Items Online

Abstracts and Articles: These are from various newspapers and dates.

Clinton Age: Abstracts and articles from the Clinton age

The Cyclist: Stories from the Clinton Age about a guy going around the county on a bicycle.
Old Settler's Picnic

These newspaper pages have deaths, a funeral, ill and injured, births, and other news.

List of Online Resources

This is a list of the newspapers that I know of that are online. I truly hope you will consider transcribing some obituaries for our obit board or some other articles of interest for our website. (Thank you so much to Karon for compiling this list for us!)

Clinton Public Library Historic Newspapers (newspapers from 1856-1927): I believe you have to have a Clinton, or Iowa?, library card to log in to this.

The ROD Library from the University of Northern Iowa has a great resource for digitized online newspapers. They have just about every newspaper listed.

Check out the IAGenWeb Old Press Project. A lot of great stuff there.

Send us your Newspapers!

I hope that, if you have Clinton County newspapers, you will consider submitting articles for us to put online. You can type them up and email them to me, us. You can also scan them and send the image in an email. Please make sure to note the name and date of the newspaper.

If you don't have the time or inclination for typing or scanning, please consider sending any old newspapers or copies of articles, obits, etc., you have to me via regular mail. I'd be more than happy to do the typing.

Thank you so much for your help.

At the Library

The library has the following newspapers on microfilm for your convenience. They will make copies for you as they have time but you have to know which paper and the date. There is a copy fee. Please contact the library for more info. You can also order these via interlibrary loan from the Iowa State Archives.

Their new digital newspapers are on line with Clinton County and in DeWitt!

The Clinton Herald obituaries and special events are indexed for the years 1967-90. These are in the card file index to the left of the door. Volunteers are welcome & encouraged to work on this project – contact the library for further details.

CLINTON AGE : April 1871 – May 1890
CLINTON DAILY ADVERTISER : April 1913-1927
CLINTON DAILY AGE : 1891 – 1893
CLINTON HERALD : Miscellaneous Holdings 1856-1870, 1871 – June 1885, 1886-Present
CLINTON HERALD (Every Other Day) : 1895; Jan. – June 1897, Jan. -June 1898
CLINTON HERALD : (Saturday issues only) Jan. 1866-Sept. 1867
CLINTON MIRROR : 1896 – April 1897
CLINTON MORNING AGE : 1894 – 1900, July 1901-1904
CLINTON MORNING NEWS : August 1883 – 1885; July 1886-1887; July 1888 – May 1890
CLINTON SEMI-WEEKLY AGE: 1897, 1899, 1901
CLINTON SEMI-WEEKLY HERALD: September 1867 – May 1869
CLINTON TRI-WEEKLY HERALD: July – Dec. 1899; July – Dec. 1900
CLINTON WEEKLY AGE: May 1890 – 1899; 1901
CLINTON WEEKLY HERALD: June 1869 – 1870; 1884- 1885; 1888-1889; 1892-1894; 1905-1907
CLINTON WEEKLY NEWS: 1886
IOWA AGE: April 1869-April 1871
LYONS CITY ADVOCATE: 1856-1861; 1866-1873
LYONS CLINTON COUNTY ADVERTISER: March 1874-May 1876; April 1878-April 1881
LYONS MIRROR: June 1856 – May 1858
LYONS WEEKLY MIRROR: June 1870 – May 1884; May 1885 – May 1888; May 1890-April 1892

Other Sources of Newspapers

The State Historical Society of Iowa at Iowa City has a vast collection of newspapers. They can be ordered via inter-library loan. There is a small fee. A guide to locating newspapers is:

United States Newspaper Project. A Bibliography of Iowa Newspapers, 1836-1976. Iowa City: Iowa State Historical Department, 1979. (FHL book 977.7 B33b; film 1033840 item 7; computer number 93532.)

The Family History Library collects indexes and abstracts of newspaper records but does not have original newspapers from Iowa. They do have two large alphabetical collections of Iowa obituaries. The original collections are at the Iowa Genealogical Society. These collections are:

Iowa Genealogical Society (Des Moines, Iowa). Iowa Obituaries, 1860-1982. Salt Lake City: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1987. On 101 FHL films beginning with 1487572 item 3; computer number 536965.

Iowa Genealogical Society (Des Moines, Iowa). Iowa Obituaries, 1850-1991. Salt Lake City: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1991. On 87 FHL films beginning with 1766206 item 2; computer number 651877.







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