About

In January 1870 the Beaver was founded in the back room of a store in Newburgh Ontario under the name the Addington Beaver. The papers founder and original proprietor was Cephas I. Beeman and its format was four-pages, six-columns once a week. Parts of the early paper were printed by Cephas’s brother George M. Beeman, a local printer. The Addington Beaver was short lived and the paper was sold by Cephas Beeman to his brother George and William Templeton.

Beeman and Templeton saw an opportunity to bring a new newspaper to Napanee. The two men transferred production of the Addington Beaver to Napanee, first under the new name of the Ontario Beaver. The Beaver was the third paper in the area after the Napanee Standard and Napanee Express.  The paper was extended to be eight pages in length and was renamed its final name of the Napanee Beaver. In 1890 the Beaver transitioned from a weekly paper to a tri-weekly paper, but this was short lived and the paper quickly returned to a once a week publication.

After the paper was moved to Napanee the Beeman family maintained control of the paper for several years. This changed in 1892 when George Beeman sold his stake in the paper to Templeton, leaving him as the sole proprietor of the paper as well as the editor.

William Templeton maintained control of the paper until his death in 1908. Templeton’s widow Sarah Adeline Templeton took over as publisher for the Beaver until her death in 1949. Although Sarah was the publisher the paper was guided by a series of editors throughout her management. This includes her son William Alan Templeton who was the editor of the paper until his death in 1932. Following William’s death, his son William became manager of the paper until he was killed during the Second World War. After Sarah’s death in 1949 her daughters took over publishing the paper.

After owning the Beaver since 1892 the Templeton family sold their stake in 1953 to Earl and Jean Morrison. The Morrison’s purchased several other local papers including the Post-Express in 1965, which was an earlier merger between the Napanee Express and Deseronto Post. This left the Beaver as the last community newspaper in the Napanee area. In 1967 the Beaver moved from its home at 133 John Street to a new office at 72 Dundas Street East.

Earl Morrison died suddenly in 1978, leaving Jean as the proprietor of the paper. Jean would manage the paper for over 30 years. The Beaver has won awards from both Ontario and Canadian Newspaper Associations. The paper remains in publication and launched a digital edition in 2017. After running the Beaver for decades, Jean Morrison died in 2019.

In April 2024 the paper was acquired by Adam Prudhomme, who joined the paper in 2008 as a reporter and became managing editor in 2019.

Circulation: 7,500