Historic Paper

The Monroe Enquirer, June 1875 – June 19, 1880, Monroe, N. C.

The Monroe Enquirer’s first issue was May 27, 1873. Published once a week, it was founded by William C. Wolfe and Walter J. Boylin. Boylin would sell his interest in a couple of years (but would later return). Over time there would be changes in names and ownership, other papers started and folded. On November 22, 1965, another local paper The Monroe Journal, begun in 1894, and the Enquirer would merge.

The Union County Public Library had original bound copies of The Monroe Enquirer for the years between June 1875 and June 1880*. Patrons enjoyed researching through them but the constant use began to take toil on the fragile pages. Some articles were even cut out of issues. At some point in the 1980s the decision was made to have these microfilmed. We do not know what became of the original bound copies

In 2008 the library had the microfilm digitized by Virtual Image Technology, Inc. (Fort Mill, S.C.). Our goal was to offer these on our web site.

Each issue is a pdf image and text searchable (OCR) using the binoculars icon or the "find" box above each image. Because of the occasional odd fonts that were used a word you are searching may not be found. You may then wish to do a general read-over of an issue – most are only four pages with much of the local information found on page three.

We have created a database of names for the obituaries published in these issues. We focused on ones for Union County, North Carolina and some that were found for the surrounding counties of Anson, Cabarrus, Mecklenburg and Stanly. You can search on a name or surname to locate issues and page numbers. You will then need to locate the death notice within the particular newspaper issue. If you are unable to find an obituary that was listed in our index or you know of one that should be there or cannot open the image in the newspaper, please contact us for help either by phone at 704-283-8184 ext. 5236 or email at UCPLgenealogy@unioncountync.gov. Requests for ones not listed on the index must include name of deceased and date of death.

To learn more about the history of The Monroe Enquirer or The Monroe Journal please visit the library. Pages from the 100^th anniversary issue of the Enquirer-Journal (5/28/1973) describing the history of the newspapers in Monroe are available in the vertical file “UCVF: Enquirer-Journal”. Wolfe’s image and historical information used here comes from this anniversary issue.