Maryland Independent Passes Into Hands of New Publisher

The ''Maryland Independent'' is a semi-weekly newspaper that began publication in September 1874 in

Port Tobacco Port Tobacco, officially Port Tobacco Village, is a town in Charles County, Maryland, United States. The population was 13 at the 2010 census, making Port Tobacco the smallest incorporated town in Maryland. Overview This was historically the te ...

Charles County, Maryland Charles County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 166,617. The county seat is La Plata. The county was named for Charles Calvert (1637–1715), third Baron Baltimore. T ...

History

The ''Maryland Independent'' was founded by John S. Button, a local printer and

Freemason Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

. Its Republican slant paralleled the growing popularity of the Republican party in Charles County, and when former

state's attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, county prosecutor, state attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or solicitor is the chief prosecutor or chief law enforcement officer represen ...

Eugene Diggs joined the newspaper as an editor in 1877, he maintained this advocacy for Republican candidates and policies. This political position put the ''Maryland Independent'' directly at odds with the county's Democratic paper, the '' Port Tobacco Times,'' a rivalry that would continue for years. In 1879, the paper turned Democratic for a short time when local Democratic leader Charles Vivian Brent acquired the newspaper, retaining Button as business manager. Button died the following year, and Brent moved on in 1882 to a series of positions in the federal government, resulting in the paper's sale to

Adrian Posey Adrian Posey (October 14, 1857 – July 2, 1922) was an American politician, attorney, businessman and newspaper publisher from Charles County, Maryland. Early life Born at Mount Pleasant, the Posey family farm near Allens Fresh, Adrian Posey was ...

. Posey was a Republican lawyer who served in the

Maryland House of Delegates The Maryland House of Delegates is the lower house of the Maryland General Assembly, legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland. It consists of 141 delegates elected from 47 districts. The House of Delegates Chamber is in the Maryland State House ...

from 1888 to 1890, the

Maryland Senate The Maryland Senate, sometimes referred to as the Maryland State Senate, is the upper house of the General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland. Composed of 47 senators elected from an equal number of constituent single ...

from 1890 to 1894, and as the Charles County State's Attorney from 1896 to 1900. In late 1893, Posey built new offices and moved the newspaper's operations from historic Port Tobacco to the bustling new town of

La Plata La Plata () is the capital city of Buenos Aires province, Argentina. According to the 2022 Argentina census, census, the La Plata Partido, Partido has a population of 772,618 and its metropolitan area, the Greater La Plata, has 938,287 inhabit ...

, which soon became the Charles County seat in 1895. After Adrian Posey's death in 1922, his son Frederick Stone Posey continued publishing the ''Maryland Independent'' until his death in 1926, when the Posey family sold it to Thomas Brackett Reed Mudd. Though Mudd came from a prominent Republican family, his tenure at the newspaper was short, with brothers Ruey Philip and Philip Benjamin Bowling publishing the paper by 1930. The ''Maryland Independent'' continues publication to the present day, under the ownership of APG Media of Chesapeake. In July 2020, the paper was consolidated into Southern Maryland News, which covers neighboring St. Mary's and Calvert counties.

References

{{reflist Weekly newspapers published in the United States Newspapers established in 1874 1874 establishments in Maryland Newspapers published in Maryland