Newspapers & Photographers

The first newspaper in the county was a four page, letter-size, weekly called Rip’s Pop Gun. It was named after the nickname of its publisher, Frank “Rip Van Winkle” Harley. Its circulation began in 1854, but it is unknown how long it ran. In the same year, The Carolina Intelligencer began circulating. Edited and printed by A. J. Cansler, it was a Baptist denominational paper.

Over the next several decades, newspapers came and went. Dozens of Cleveland County newspapers have been digitized and can be accessed at DigitalNC. Lincoln County newspapers can be accessed here. Rutherford County newspapers can be accessed here. Other North Carolina newspapers are also at DigitalNC as well as at Chronicling America.

Below is a summary of historical newspapers, along with their publication periods, and first publishers and/or editors.

Newspapers Published in the County Seat of Shelby

dates published	title	first publisher/editor
1854-18xx	Rip’s Pop Gun	Frank “Rip Van Winkle” Harley
1854-18xx	Carolina Intelligencer	A. J. Cansler
1861-1865	Mountain Eagle	Thomas Eckles, Thomas S. Moss; Sam Ross; changed to the New Regime
1865-186x	New Regime	Joe Babington
1871-1876	Cleaveland Banner	Plato Durham
1876-18xx	Shelby Banner	W. C. Durham; sold to James L. Webb
1875-1911	Shelby Aurora	Joe Babington and W. H. Miller; sold to J. Y. Hamrick, J. H. Quinn, and Fred D. Hamrick. Acquired by The Highlander in 1911.
1879-188x	Southern Methodist Herald	A. J. Craven
1885-1889	New Era	W. H. Osborne; sold to Clarence and George Frick
189x-189x	Carolina Banner
1891-1894	Shelby Review	Col. John C. Tipton; sold to Clyde R. Hoey who changed the name to the Cleveland Star
1894-1936	Cleveland Star	Clyde R. Hoey; Lee B. Weathers was editor/publisher 1911-1958; name changed to The Shelby Daily Star in 1936.
1910-1920	Highlander	Broadus H. DePriest; consolidated with the Shelby News in 1920.
1916-1920	Shelby Daily News	J. F. Babington and J. P. Wiggins
1920-1923	The Highlander and Shelby News	Broadus H. DePriest
1928-1929	Cleveland Press	C. J. Mabry and Wilbur J. “Jack” Cash
1936-1984	Shelby Daily Star	Henry Lee Weathers, editor 1958-1983. The paper was sold to Clay Communications.
1940-197x	Cleveland Times	Will Arey, Jr. and Rush Hamrick, Jr.
1983-present	Shelby Shopper & Info	Boyce Hanna
1984-1988	The Shelby Star	Previously named the Shelby Daily Star, The Shelby Star became The Star in 1988, its current name.
1988-present	The Star	Currently owned by USA Today; its editor is Diane Turbyfill. It became digital-only April 1, 2023.

Born in Lawndale, Lee Beam Weathers owned and edited the Cleveland Star/ Shelby Daily Star from 1911 until his death in 1958. In 1956, he wrote the first book on Cleveland County history, The Living Past of Cleveland County: A History.

Henry Lee Weathers, son of Lee, joined the staff of the Shelby Daily Star in 1935. Upon the death of his father in 1958, he took over as publisher and remained until 1983.

Henry Lee Weathers, Jr. took over the reins at the Shelby Daily Star in 1983. That same year the paper was sold to Clay Communications.

The Cleveland Star/Shelby Star has been fortunate to have employed so many long running, talented columnists in its history.

• Mamie Jones wrote a column entitled, “Cleveland County Early Days” during the 1940s and 1950s. Gardner-Webb University holds a collection of her columns.
• Erma Johnston Drum was a long-time columnist for the Shelby Daily Star, having taken over for husband Renn Drum after his death in 1935. She was also great friends with Jack Cash, who wrote the prize-winning book, The Mind of the South. Erma edited and typed the manuscript for his book. Jackie Bridges wrote an article about Erma Drum for The Star in 2014; it is here.
• Willard Wyan Washburn wrote a column about various people and places in Cleveland County’s history.
• Grace Rutledge Hamrick wrote weekly for a number of years about Cleveland County’s people, places, and events.
• Joe DePriest, Jr. wrote about the people of Shelby and Cleveland County for over 25 years.

Boiling Springs Newspapers

dates published	title	first publisher/editor
189x-190x	The Reformer	Seaton Green
18xx-18xx	Rural Reformer	J. Y. Hamrick
1942-2010	The Pilot	Gardner-Webb College/University
1981-1985	Foothills View: A Community Newsletter

Lawndale Newspaper

dates published	title	first publisher/editor
1942-1945	Hot Off the Hoover Rail	Cleveland Mill and Power Company

Kings Mountain Newspapers

dates published	title	first publisher/editor
1889-1892	Kings Mountain News	William A. Mauney and A. R. Rudisill; sold to J. C. Tipton
1894-1896	Progressive Reformer
1894-1900	Kings Mountain Reformer	H. P. Allison; sold to Charles Gould, changed to the Oracle
1900-1900	Oracle	Charles Gould
1xxx-1903	Kings Mountain Democrat	Rufus Plonk and ______ Booker; merged with the KM Herald
1903-present	Kings Mountain Herald	J. Ed McLaughen and L. A. Bickie
1971-1974	Kings Mountain Mirror	Lem R. Lynch, Rodney Dodson

Waco Newspaper

dates published	title	first publisher/editor
1884	Rural Chronicle	H. S. Blair; moved to Lenoir, NC

Articles and Special Editions on Cleveland County History

Over the years Cleveland County newspapers have published special editions recounting the county’s history and progress. Below is a listing of these as well as a link where available.

newspaper issue	date published
Cleveland Star (Cabaniss article)	July 1, 1903
Cleveland Star (Roberts article)	May 20, 1924
Cleveland Star	September 27, 1935
The Star: “Cleveland County – A Sesquicentennial Celebration”	May 30, 1991
The Kings Mountain Herald	February 20, 1992
The Star: Our First Century	May 15, 1994

A Sampling of Local News and Opinion

Some of these articles have been automatically clipped from the online images, then organized into two or three columns for optimal display on your computer screen. As a result, they may not look exactly as they did on the original page. The articles can be seen in their original form by visiting the cited online source.

Antebellum Years, 1836-1861

The Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861-1875

The Rise of Industry, 1876-1890

The Progressive Era, 1890-1929

The Great Depression and World War II, 1929-1945

Post-War, Civil Rights, and Cold War Era, 1945-1991

There were also earlier articles about people and events in the Charlotte and Raleigh newspapers of the day. Those may be found at Newspapers.com, although a paid subscription is required.

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Photographers of the Past

The world’s first and oldest surviving photograph is “View from the Window at Le Gras” made in 1826 by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. It shows the view from his French estate, captured on a pewter plate using a technique called heliography. This technique required an exposure of at least eight hours.

“Boulevard du Temple” is believed to be the earliest photograph showing a living person. Taken by Louis Daguerre in 1838, the photo was captured because the man in the image stood still for a shoe shine during the long exposure. The “Daguerreotype,” named for its inventor, created detailed, unique, mirror-like images on silvered copper plates. The technique was adopted world-wide and grew in popularity during the 1840s and 1850s.

Gaining popularity in the latter half of the 19th century (1860s–1880s) were itinerant photographers. These traveling photographers offered affordable portraits, often using tintypes in the 1870s or taking postcard photos in the 1920s. They traveled to rural areas at a time when only large cities had studio photographers. They would travel with all their equipment in their horse-drawn wagon and would set up at county fairs or street corners in small towns. Some would travel the countryside and take photos of farm families in front of their homes. The photo below is an example of similar photos found among the collections of many Cleveland County residents.

Itinerate photographers rarely signed their work, so their names are not known with certainty. Some of those who visited Cleveland County may have been:

• Rufus Morgan (Western NC / Appalachian region)
• The “Cline Brothers” (NC foothills, mostly around Hickory, but known to have visited Cleveland County)
• W. A. “Billy” Cooper (Upstate SC / Spartanburg area)
• J. B. Sherman (Piedmont NC / SC border region)

John C. McArthur, born in 1856, is mentioned in the Cleveland Star around the turn of the century for his baby and family reunion photos. William E. McArthur, although three years younger, was mentioned as early as 1885 for his work in photography.

Although Ellis maintained a studio, he also went out into the community to photograph family events as well as newsworthy events of importance to the wider community. He contributed often to the Cleveland Star. Perhaps his most famous photograph was taken the morning of the Warren Street building collapse on August 28, 1928.

Forrest Ellis died in 1961, after having photographed Cleveland County people and events for over five decades. After his death, Ellis’ daughters Marion and Beverly took over the business. Marion died just eight years later, leaving Beverly as the sole owner of the business. Many Cleveland County residents remember her driving around in her old Rambler Cross Country station wagon.

The Earl Scruggs Center in Shelby has a collection of over 150 photographs made by Forrest Ellis. Many of these have no information attached to them. The public is invited to view these photographs online and submit information. The link is here.

Hubert O. Carlisle and his wife, Alma Sue, moved from Rutherford County to Kings Mountain in 1950 and opened a photographic studio there. In 1954, they moved the business to Shelby. Carlisle Studios was located at 314 South Lafayette and served Cleveland County residents for almost 40 years.

Paul Lemmons, age 95, of Mooresboro made a photograph in the early 1960s that became famous worldwide. He was called to the home of Onnie and Lena Baker who lived on Chestnut Street in Shelby. A Northern Cardinal had begun feeding goldfish in their little backyard pond! What Lemmons captured with his camera was such a rare event in the world of wildlife that the photograph was published in ornithology textbooks, birding magazines, and even National Geographic. Birding experts surmised that the cardinal had lost its clutch of babies and the goldfish’s open mouths looked enough like a baby bird’s that the cardinal began feeding them worms.

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Radio

The history of radio in Cleveland County continues here under the Transportation and Communications tab.