Virginia Argus and Hampshire Advertiser

A. S. Trowbridge founded the Virginia Argus and Hampshire Advertiser as a Democratic weekly newspaper in Romney in July 1850. Trowbridge had been an educator in New Orleans, Louisiana, before moving to Romney. By October 7, 1852, the Virginia Argus was being published by Trowbridge & Drinkard; on May 26, 1853, it reverted to being published by Trowbridge alone. After a few months of ownership and experience, Monroe and Cookus continued serving as the proprietors, editors, and publishers until the outbreak of the American Civil War, when they joined the Confederate States Army. He again represented Hampshire County in the House of Delegates from 1879 to 1883. The Virginia Argus and Hampshire Advertiser had a circulation of 800 copies distributed per week, which was the second largest of the three newspapers published in Hampshire County; the other two were the South Branch Intelligencer of Romney, with a weekly circulation of 960 copies, and the Piedmont Independent of Piedmont (now in Mineral County, West Virginia), with a weekly circulation of 600 copies. ==Jacob Green affair==

In a series of articles published in the May 14 and 21, 1857 issues of the Virginia Argus, Romney resident Col. Isaac Parsons chronicled the 1855 arrest of his nephew, James Parsons, for attempting to capture Col. Parsons' fugitive slave, Jacob Green, and the resulting dispute between the Parsons family and Charles James Faulkner over legal fees in 1857. In August 1855, Green escaped from Parsons' Wappocomo plantation with four other slaves from neighboring plantations. Virginia Governor Henry A. Wise appointed John Randolph Tucker to attend Parsons' trial as a "special commissioner" of Virginia. The dispute between Virginia and Pennsylvania escalated, and on January 31, 1856, an article published in the New York Herald read "Threatened Civil War between Virginia and Pennsylvania." Col. Parsons, Faulkner, and Tucker traveled to Hollidaysburg for James Parsons' trial. Faulkner provided for Parsons' legal defense, leading to his acquittal as having acted legally under the provisions of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. In September 1856, Faulkner billed Col. Parsons $150 (~$ in ) for his legal services. Parsons disputed the charge. In a series of articles in the Virginia Argus, he declared that Faulkner had originally offered his services at no cost; that he had been lauded publicly for his generosity in doing so without ever denying that he had been working pro bono; and that he was practicing "duplicity and deception" in trying to win a reputation in his district through "specious acts of munificence". . Faulkner later served as United States Minister to France; following the American Civil War, he again served as a member of the United States House of Representatives, from West Virginia's 2nd congressional district. James Parsons and his brother William Miller Parsons were later proprietors of the Virginia Argus. ==Extant issues==

Extant issues of the Virginia Argus and Hampshire Advertiser are maintained by four known institutions. The American Antiquarian Society Newspaper Project in Worcester, Massachusetts, maintains an 1852 issue of the newspaper; West Virginia University Libraries in Morgantown, West Virginia, maintain issues dating from 1852, 1853, 1856, 1857, and 1859; and the Duke University Libraries in Durham, North Carolina, maintain issues dating between 1858 and 1861. The Library of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia, also maintains microforms of issues of the Virginia Argus dating from 1852, 1853, 1856, 1857, and 1859. ==See also==