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- Palmer Chamberlain Ricketts: Founder
The Cecil Whig newspaper was found on Aug. 7, 1841 by Palmer C. Ricketts to promote the Whig political party.
Today the Whig is one of the nation’s oldest newspapers, and the oldest newspaper on Maryland’s Eastern Shore still publishing under its original name.
Heralding itself as “Devoted to Politics, Agriculture, The Useful Arts, Literature
and General Intelligence,” the Whig was published weekly in Elkton, Md., in a log cabin that had been used as campaign headquarters for William Henry Harrison. The Cecil Whig also has a rather infamous history in that its founding editor shot and killed the editor of the rival Cecil Democrat in front of the Elkton Post Office in 1843. Ricketts continued to publish the newspaper from his jail cell as he awaited trial. A jury found that he had acted in self defense.
In 1989, the Whig became a daily newspaper, publishing Monday through Friday.
