A word on the Souderton Independent

Older than the Souderton Borough, The Independent was officially founded in July 1878, as the “Germania Gazette,” and was printed in German, a reflection of the prominent German population living in the Indian Valley at the time.
 
After two years the language was changed to English and the name changed to “Souderton Independent.”

Today we receive the Independent on Wednesdays but early issues were delivered on Saturdays, which, at the time, was the logical end-of-the-week time to sum up the happenings of the last seven days, as well as being the big come-to-town day for farmers. In the six-day work week, it was also the day people were paid, thus having money to shop for the items the paper was advertising.

Early content in the Independent was national and world news, as this was before radio and the mass-circulated daily could bring such news to Souderton and Telford. Later the emphasis could shift to local news when other media could bring world news to our towns.

After remaining in the same ownership for an extraordinary number of years, the Independent was bought by Montgomery Newspapers. The Independent can also be found online.