What would become the Chambersburg Valley Spirit began publishing in 1831 as the Franklin Telegraph. The Telegraph became the Chambersburg Times in 1841, and changed its name to the Cumberland Valley Sentinel in 1848. In 1851, John M. Cooper and Peter Dechert moved their newspaper, the Shippensburg Valley Spirit, to Chambersburg from Shippensburg. In 1852, the Valley Sentinel and the Shippensburg Valley Spirit merged to form the Chambersburg Valley Spirit. In 1857, Cooper and Dechert sold the paper to George H. Mengel and Co., and in 1860 Mengel was joined in partnership by John Ripper. In 1862, H. C. Keyser and B. Y. Hamsher purchased the Valley Spirit. Keyser and Hamsher then merged the Valley Spirit with the Chambersburg Times (this was a new incarnation of the Times, founded in 1858. It bears no relation to the Times of the 1840s.) and briefly changed the name of their paper to the Spirit and Times before returning to the moniker Valley Spirit in 1863. John M. Cooper and Co. repurchased the Valley Spirit in 1867. Throughout the 1850s, the Valley Spirit was edited by Dr. William H. Boyle, a county doctor prominent in community affairs until his death in 1877.

Democratic in its politics, the Valley Spirit was published on Wednesdays. Normally, the paper consisted of eight pages, each six columns across. Like the Staunton Spectator, the Valley Spirit was sold only by subscription, for an annual rate of $1.75, and as in the Spectator, advertisements were sold to appear in a minimum of three issues, with significant discounts given for long-term (more than three months) appearances and large-sized ads. The Valley Spirit also specified that additional charges were levied for "extra display"--a graphic or unusual typeface--in an advertisement. The Valley Spirit publishers also took it upon themselves to judge the value of an advertisement to the community, stating that "communications on subjects of limited or individual interest will be charged 8 cents per line."