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Pocahontas Times

The Pocahontas Times has been recording the life of Pocahontas County since its first issue of May 10, 1883. The Times, the county’s first paper, was founded by James B. Canfield and Hezekiah B. Marshall and first located at Huntersville, which was then the county seat. Subsequent owners were C. Forrest Moore and Samuel B. Loury, 1888–89, and John E. Campbell, 1889–92. The paper was moved to Marlinton in May 1892, after that community became the site of county government.

In November 1892, the Times was acquired by the Reverend William T. Price and his family. For a number of years, the names of sons James, Andrew, Norman, and then Calvin appeared on the masthead, as editors, in various combinations. In 1906, Calvin Price became sole owner and editor, his brothers having moved on to other professions. At his death on June 14, 1957, his daughter, Jane Price Sharp, took over. In 1981, William Price McNeel, a grandson of Calvin Price, became editor, serving until 2005. By the 1990s, five generations of the Price family had worked on the paper.

The Times is unique among the state’s weekly newspapers as it almost totally skipped the ‘‘hot metal’’ period in printing technology, having rejected a linotype metal-casting typesetting machine after a brief trial in 1901–02 to return to handset type. By the 1980s, the paper was one of the last papers in the country to still be using handset type as part of its production process, along with a phototypesetting machine. Then due to damage caused by the November 1985 flood, the Times became one of the first papers in West Virginia to switch completely to the use of computers.

In August 1901, the present building was completed and occupied. As it retained the characteristics of a weekly newspaper and printing office at the turn of the 20th century, the building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The paper, with a circulation of 4,629 in 2016, follows Pocahontas Countians to most states of the union. The newspaper is owned by the Pocahontas Times, Inc.

Read the Historic Register nomination.

Written by William P. McNeel