About Beverly banner. [volume] (Beverly, N.J.) 1877-1964
Beverly, N.J. (1877-1964)

Beverly Banner

The Beverly Banner was a weekly newspaper that served the residents of Beverly, Burlington County, for 87 years from 1877 to 1964. The Beverly Banner succeeded Beverly's first newspaper, Beverly Weekly Visitor, which was started in 1867 by David Scattergood and printed in Philadelphia. Available each Friday, the Beverly Banner was a politically independent newspaper, despite its initial banner "Devoted to Temperance, Literature, Local and General News." The paper initially started as a four-page, seven-column newspaper, eventually increasing to eight pages in the twentieth century. The annual subscription price was $1.50, but individual issues could be purchased for five cents. The initial circulation of the paper was between 1,000 and 1,200 in the 1880s.

Beverly, NJ is a small, waterfront town located on the Delaware River in Burlington County, just north of the Philadelphia border. Originally formed as a township out of Willingboro Township in 1850, the city of Beverly was formed through a referendum on April 13, 1857. Being close to Philadelphia with a Pennsylvania Rail Road station, it was a bustling industrial area with hosiery and wallpaper factories. Other goods produced in Beverly included woolen goods, oil cloths, and canned goods, including fruit. During the second half of the nineteenth century, Beverly served as a popular destination for wealthier Philadelphians to relocate in order to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

The Beverly Banner was founded by proprietors Luther W. Perkins and Col. J. K. Haffey in 1878; John T. Morrell served as editor for many years. Colonel Haffey was originally an editor for the Bradford Miner in Bradford, PA, before enlisting as a Sergeant in Company I of General Thomas Kane's "Bucktail" Regiment in 1861. Health problems plagued Col. Haffey through his 2 stints in the Civil War. After the war, he focused his attentions on leasing lands for oil drilling around Bradford, eventually founding a semi-weekly paper called the Bradford New Era in 1875. In 1877, he moved from Bradford to Beverly, where he was instrumental in the founding of the Beverly Banner. However, his health declined and in 1880, he sold his half of the newspaper to E. S. Sherman; he would die on November 7, 1881. This would result in the creation of the firm Perkins and Sherman, which would oversee the paper for many years until Sherman moved to Palisade, CO, involving himself in the Palisade Tribune.

Col. Haffey was an avid supporter of the Temperance movement. However, even though the early years of the paper used the words "Devoted to Temperance" in the banner and he was a "a strong Republican in every sense of the word," as remarked by J. E. Watkins of the Chronicle (Moorestown, NJ), the Beverly Banner remained neutral in politics and true to the spirit of unbiased journalism. For many years, the paper was published at 424 Cooper Street, between the Masonic Hall and Maurice Cooper's jewelry store.

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