DEATH NOTICES AND OTHER GLEANINGS
FROM THE WESTERN WEEKLY REVIEW
FRANKLIN, TENNESSEE 1831-1840
Abstracted by Jonathan Kennon Thompson Smith
Copyright, Jonathan K. T. Smith, 2004

INTRODUCTION

            The WESTERN WEEKLY REVIEW, familiarly known as the WEEKLY REVIEW, published in a shop on the west corner of the public square in Franklin, Williamson County, Tennessee, was established as a weekly newspaper in April 1831. It was owned by J. H. McMahon (who sold his interest in the newspaper in January 1833) and James Hogan, Jr. (who acquired the newspaper in September 1833 when the first editor, Thomas Hoge, Jr., sold out).

            This was truly a NEWSPAPER, containing as it did news of a wide variety and it was so successful that it was in operation for several decades. It met with a healthy reception in a prosperously settled middle Tennessee county whose citizens obviously appreciated an up-to-date newspaper.

            Abstracted from the WEEKLY REVIEW, for this publication, are the death notices mentioned in this newspaper, 1831-1840, as well as occasional court and social items that involve the local genealogy.

            As for marriages, Hogan's first policy was to charge for marriage announcements but he was taken so to task for having done so that he dropped this policy and published reams of marriages, culled from local sources but also from many other newspapers, statewide and from other regions. If these marriages are mentioned with the date they were solemnized, the compiler has seen fit to include them in this compilation. If they bear no marriage dates, they are not so abstracted. A genealogist needs to be careful in accepting Hogan's marriage dates without equivocation; many bear incorrect pieces of information. Some of these have been corrected and are published in this compilation on page 72.

            The compiler urges persons interested in any of these abstracts to order copies of same from the microfilm copy of this newspaper kept in the Tennessee State Library and Archives, 403 7th Ave., North, Nashville, Tenn. 37243.

            Thanks to Laurel Baty for the loan of her microfilm rolls of the WEEKLY REVIEW from which the material in this publication has been gleaned.

Jonathan K. T. Smith
Jackson, Tennessee
February 2004

 

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