Current Media in the Valley, R.I. 

Several Blackstone Valley communities published daily or weekly newspapers well over a hundred years ago. Several examples of these early newspapers can be found at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester or at the town's Historical Society as outlined below:

Blackstone - Blackstone published an early newspaper in the summer of 1848. It was short-lived but a copy can be found at the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston. (At that time, Millville was part of Mendon and Blackstone)

Grafton - Grafton published two newspapers in the 19th century. The Evening Budget, a daily paper, was started on May 28,1851. Records do not indicate the duration of the publication, though it appears quite brief. However, the Grafton Herald was published weekly for over 26 years from 1874-1901.

Mendon - The Mendon AURORA and Advertiser was a weekly news and advertising publication that was first published on February 7, 1854. A copy is stated to be maintained by Mendon's Historical Society. Another publication, the Independent Messenger, was produced in Boston but distributed throughout the Mendon area in the mid-late 1800s.

Millbury - The Millbury Patriot & Worcester County Working Man's Advocate started in January 1831 as a weekly paper and changed in 1832 to the Plebian & Millbury Working Man's Advocate. This weekly was an activist paper appealing to the common laborer and spoke of worker rights and other proactive causes. In 1893, the weekly Millbury Journal began as a weekly. The Millbury-Sutton Journal still exists today although there were some time gaps when it was not produced.

Uxbridge - The Uxbridge Compendium was very successful as it published weekly for over 40 years from 1868-1913. The Blackstone Valley News was produced weekly from February 10, 1916-23. It started as the Uxbridge Booster. Both the American Antiquarian Society and the Uxbridge Historical Society have old copies of these early newspapers.

Whitinsville - The Whitinsville Compendium started December 10, 1870 and was distributed for almost three years. This publication branched off to unite with East Douglas' Herald to form a Worcester South Compendium and then turned into the Uxbridge Compendium which became a daily publication in the early 1870s. The Whitinsville Times started weekly on September 27, 1929 and there is scant information about the Whitinsville-Uxbridge Transcript which was published from 1904-5.

The above information was found in the Union List of Newspapers 1821-1936 collected by Winfred Gregory in 1937, published in New York. No early newspapers were found to be listed for these communities in the 1660-1820 record book.