The Woodstock Sentinel-Review
The Woodstock Sentinel-Review
A brief history of the Woodstock Sentinel-Review newspaper.
By Liz Dommasch, County Archivist
Recently the Oxford County Archives received a donation of a bound set of 1894 Evening Sentinel-Review newspapers. Although the archives has an almost complete set of Sentinel-Review newspapers on microfilm for researchers to access, there’s something to be said about handling an actual newspaper and flipping through its pages. Early editions of the Woodstock newspaper were jammed packed with local stories and notices, fascinating world events, advertisements for an assortment of goods and services, and even included fictional stories, household tips, and cartoons.
The Sentinel-Review has been published in Woodstock since January 1, 1854 when it was known as the Woodstock Sentinel. It was started by John McWhinnie and Sandy Hay as a reform weekly. However, soon after its formation McWhinnie bought out Hay’s share of the newspaper and brought his son Robert in as publisher. They ran the newspaper until 1870 when George Pattullo assumed management and editorial duties. In 1878, The Sentinel would merge with another local reform newspaper, the Woodstock Review, which first appeared in town on October 1st, 1870 and was published by F.J. Gissing, formerly of Princeton.
Operated by George Pattullo until 1880 (when he became chief Liberal organizer for Ontario), sole propriety of the Sentinel-Review was given to his brother Andrew Pattullo (first President of the Ontario Good Roads Association in 1894 and elected Oxford North MPP in 1896). Andrew retained ownership of the newspaper until 1901 when a joint stock company took control of the Sentinel-Review and brought in William Taylor, business manager of the Montreal Herald, as president and managing editor.
In more recent years, the Sentinel-Review was formerly part of the Sun Media chain of newspapers and was purchased by Postmedia Network in October 2014. Since its inception, the newspaper has been printed as a weekly and then ultimately a daily newspaper, which included at one point a morning and an evening edition, and now is read as an online news source.
Other early Woodstock newspapers included the Woodstock Herald and Brock General Advertiser (1840), Woodstock Monarch (1842), The Oxford Star and Woodstock Advertiser (ca. 1848), British American (1848), Weekly Gazetteer (1854),Woodstock Mercury (1855), The Times (1855), Canadian Conservative (1862), Weekly Review (1869), Oxford Standard (1885), and Oxford Express (1898).
We are grateful for this new addition to our archival holdings, and are always appreciative of the materials individuals, organizations and businesses are willing to donate. The Oxford County Archives has a firm commitment to preserving and making available the County’s total archival heritage and are always excited to see what sorts of historical records are brought into our institution by the public.
For more information on how to donate to the Archives please visit our webpage: https://oxfordcounty.ca/Explore-Oxford/Libraries-museums-and-archives/Archives/Our-services/Record-Docations