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History: Part I-Chapter I... |
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PART 1 "Mr. and Mrs. John H. Holder, of Jefferson, are retiring August 10, as owners and editors of The Jackson Herald ...."1 Thus begins an editorial in The Atlanta Journal of August 10, 1950. And thus the retirement of Mr. and Mrs. Holder marked the close of one of the longest chapters in Georgia journalism. Since July 10, 1891, they had been The Herald. The real history of any newspaper is the history of the community which it serves.2 The fortunes of the two are inseparable. Likewise, the man cannot be divorced from the paper he has owned and edited for fifty-nine years. They must be thought of together. The Journal editorial cited above says there are few if any parallels in all the publishing world to this of the Holders and The Herald.3 They piloted the paper through good times and bad, through fair and stormy weather, continually increasing its usefulness and adding to its friends. To chronicle this colorful chapter in Georgia journalism, this thesis is written. The work is devoted primarily to Mr. and Mrs. Holder. They edited The Herald for a longer period than seven other editors combined. However, to give a complete picture of this Georgia weekly, this history of The Herald begins at the paper's birth, some sixteen years before the Holders received it as a wedding present.4 The year was 1875. Seventy-nine years earlier, in 1796, the legislature had passed
an act making Jackson the twenty-second county formed in the
state.5 One year hence and the nation would celebrate the centennial
of the Only ten years before had the War Between the States ended.
In 1875 it seemed only yesterday that three-fourths of the wealth
of Georgia had disappeared, slaves worth two hundred and seventy-two
million dollars had been set free, cities and countryside lay
in waste, forty thousand of her best citizens were missing, and
the spirit of her people was broken.6 Twenty-five years before the turn of the century Georgia was
well underway remaking a new commonwealth. The war may have been
a political rebellion, but it brought about a social and economic
revolution.7 For the Georgia press, the Civil War was but a hardening period. "The real fight lay ahead, on the editorial page...."8 In 1875 Ulysses S. Grant was president of the United States,
James M. Smith was governor of Georgia, and on June 12 of that
year the subject of this thesis joined the editorial fight, not
as The Jackson Herald, but as The Forest News.9 In 1870 there were five more newspapers in the state than
in 1860, and the number continued to grow as the years passed.10
Georgians found Reconstruction a good time to establish newspapers,
for these days brought almost immediate relief to the need of
materials, presses, and other physical features of the papers.11 Newspaper activity and development grew up almost exclusively
around the political situation, and the press was almost wholly
Democratic.12 This was true of the new Jackson County paper. In a "Prospectus"
which appeared in the first issue, and which was widely circulated
in the county in advance of publication, the owners said: As a Political Organ, the "News" will ever be found the exponent and defender of a high standard of Democracy-- founded on those principles of State Rights and State Sovereignty, which, though now fettered by the chains of tyranny and despotism, are bound, at no distant day--under the guidance of a beneficent Providence--to burst asunder the shackles of imperious usurpation. . . .13 As for being a newspaper, the owners declared they would try
to make their publication one "in the broadest meaning and
acceptance of the term. . . ."14 They continued: There may have been no shortage of newspaper equipment and
supplies in 1875, but there seems to have been a scarcity in
Jefferson of men able or willing to establish a paper on their
own. At any rate, The Forest News was the product of the Jackson
County Publishing Company.16 A search at the county courthouse failed to turn up any deeds
to the paper or property, and it is not known how many stockholders
there were in the company. However, no less than six men were
listed as officers in the first issue of The Forest News.17 On page two, upper left hand corner, the masthead gave Dr. J. D. Long as president, N. H. Pendergrass as vice president, and T. H. Nib- lack as secretary and treasurer. In a piece headed "To The Public," the three members
of the Publishing Company's executive committee--R. J. Hancock,
G. J. N. Wilson, and Wiley C. Howard--announced they had secured
the services of Malcom Stafford as Managing and Business Editor
of The Forest News.18 Of the paper's first "chief," the committeemen had
this to say: Mr. Stafford acknowledged the announcement, saying he had
spent nearly forty years in print shops and was aware of the
responsibility "devolving on those upon whose shoulders
the 'Editorial Mantle' may chance to fall. . . ."20 The editor said it was customary to make some statement of policy or to mark the course which he would follow. "But at the present time and on the present occasion," he continued, "the 'still small voice' of modesty whispers, 'be known by your works'."21 Mr. Stafford called the readers' attention to the paper's
masthead and the inscription there: "The People their own
Rulers; Advancement in Education, Science, Agriculture and Southern
Manufacturers."22 "For this," he declared, "The Forest News will labor; for the attainment of these ends the humble writer will devote his every energy."23 But like most country editors, he needed help. With the first issue, The Forest News made a play for contributions, support, and advertising. Under the heading "Send Us the News," were these words: We most respectfully solicit communications on all subjects of interest and passing events. At the same time, however, we would suggest in the most courteous manner, that those who write for any paper--and especially The Forest News--should bear in mind that "brevity is the soul of wit."24 The paper's bid for moral--and no doubt financial--support was put this way: . . . In looking over the various papers of the country, we are admonished to "support home industry;" if, then, this injunction applies to cotton factories, shoeshops, carriage and harness shops, and in fact all the various industries of our land, why should the proposition not hold good in case of newspapers . . . .? The printers have to be supported...25 That Mr. Stafford thought well of his profession is evidenced by these words: "It is a fact that you can reach the country trade and public much cheaper and far more effectually by advertising in the standard papers of the country than by any other means."26 The Forest News, on June 12, 1875, just one day old, hadn't
got its ink dry, but the editor wrote, "The old established
weekly newspaper is . . . the most advantageous medium for the
city dealer to reach the country customer . . . ."27 . . . It is read from the topmost line in the left hand corner of its title page to the end letter of the final word on the last page . . . . It is safe to assume that the country paper is read by an average of ten persons to each subscriber; it is kept . . . as a matter of reference, unless loaned to the less thrifty neighbor, who is too mean to take a paper, and too sensible to do without it when he can obtain it by loan or theft.28 The following notice-signed by Ordinary Wiley C. Howard, Sheriff
John S. Hunter, and Clerk of Superior Court Thomas H. Niblack-probably
caused happiness among stockholders of the Jackson County Publishing
Company: "The legal advertising of Jackson County will hereafter
be published in The Forest News . . . ."29 Mr. Howard and Mr. Niblack being on the executive committee of the Company might have had something to do with The News being designated the official organ. Advertising rates were one dollar per square. The paper explained that a square is one inch, "or about 100 words of the type used in our advertising columns."30 The subscription price, which later was to come down, started out at two dollars per year, one dollar for six months. A club of five subscribers could get the paper for a year for $8.50. For a club of ten the price was $15. In typography and makeup the June 12, 1875, issue of The Forest News compared favorably with other late nineteenth century newspapers this writer has studied. But according to Editor Stafford, all did not go well in bringing out the first number. He said, " . . . We have passed through troubles 'seen and unseen' and 'trials and tribulation' known only to the 'craft' typographic."31 Nevertheless, the Jackson County Publishing Company was on a sound enough basis that Mr. Stafford could say, "Now that a newspaper is one of the 'fixed institutions' of Jefferson . . . ."32 He made the statement in connection with an admonition to his readers to work for better mail facilities. Under the heading "The One Thing Needful," Mr. Stafford's cry was for "A daily or at least a tri-weekly mail between Athens and Jefferson, and a weekly mail to and from Harmony Grove."33 There were several notes of thanks in the first issue. One
was to "those kind publishers who . . . furnished us copies
of their paper in advance of our publication."34 The "powers that be" at Washington City, have just
discovered that there is any thing wrong in stealing. Some one
has stolen some $47,000 from the Treasury Department, and there
has been great commotion among the officials in regard to the
theft. While, on the other hand, the Southern States have been
robbed of millions upon millions within the last few years, and
not a word of complaint made by any of those who are now, The Yeoman editorial began, "It is a fact worth thinking
about that in the Next Congress there are eighty-two rebel soldiers
and only twenty-five Union ones."36 The people are sick and tired of being taxed to the point
of confiscation by the so-called "loyal" Union legislators,
both And so The Forest News, still wet between the sheets, was feeling her oats-albeit they were from somebody else's editorial pasture. The second issue of the paper came out on schedule, on June
19, 1875. Evidently, some of Editor Stafford's correspondents
of a week were feeling their oats, too, and he was prompted to
issue the following warning: While we respectfully ask, and confidently
hope to receive communications giving items of interest, local
or otherwise, we beg to say, that nothing of a personal character
calculated to give offense to any one-from the humblest to the
greatest-will be More than likely Mr. Stafford thought his long experience somewhere else-not his short tenure on The Forest News-entitled him to take "modern journalism" to task in the second issue of the paper. "In these days," he wrote, "there is great danger that the quality of the article will depreciate in proportion to the increase of the quantity."39 Mr. Stafford wondered if newspapers were equal in merit and ability to the standard journals of the preceding age. He said James Camack of the Georgia Journal, Miller Grieve of the Southern Recorder, Simri Rose of the Macon Messenger, James Gardner of the Augusta Constitutionalist, and Dr. William S. Jones of the Chronicle and Sentinel were the leading editors in Georgia during the latter portion of the first half of the nineteenth century. ". . . They were not only able, but also accurate and polished writers." 40 The News editor's review of modern journalism continued: . . . There is certainly much need for an elevation of the
standard of modern journalism. Every body reads the papers in
For those who would write for newspapers, Mr. Stafford offered this advice: When you sit down to write, be not in haste. Take your time.
Think deeply and clearly, and write slowly and accurately. In the second number of The News something is learned of Mr. Stafford's whereabouts before coming to Jefferson. That issue quotes the following piece from the Southern Watchman, published at Athens. The "News" is a very handsome sheet in its general "make- up," as it is obliged to be under the management of Mr. Stafford. . . . It is filled with interesting reading matter-good, substantial matter, not sensational. Having known the managing editor, (who has been employed in our office most of that time,) about a quarter of a century, we take pleasure in commending him and his paper to the patronage of the public-having ever found him a true man, and one well qualified to conduct any department of newspaper work.43 As for the matter in The News not being sensational, Mr. Stafford replied: Our own humble opinion is, that a country paper should not "run" on the "sensational" schedule. The "Sensational" schedule may do very well for the "fast-going" and "fast-living" people of large towns and cities; but the conviction has always forced itself on our mind that "the People," the real "yeomanry" of the land, need just such "food" for their minds and thoughts as they do for their bodies-that is, something good, wholesome and solid.44 By the time the fourth issue appeared on July 3, 1875, the paper had quit carrying items about itself and had settled down, the editor no doubt thought, to giving its readers that "something good, wholesome and solid." The first major change in the paper's set-up came on October 28, 1875. This item in The News of October 30 of that year explains the reason for it: "It is our painful duty to record the demise of John David Long, M.D., the President of the Jackson County Publishing Company. Dr. Long peacefully departed this mortal life at his residence in this town on Thursday, the 28th (Oct. 1875)."45 The inside pages of the paper immediately after Dr. Long's death carried large, black column rules, an eighth of an inch wide-in mourning for the late president. The lead editorial, "In Memoriam," was about him. It said, "He has gone from us forever. We deeply feel our great loss."46 Not until December 18, 1875 did The Forest News get around
to removing his name from the masthead as president of the Company.
But it wasn't until just before that time that a successor was
elected. Just a week before, on December 11, the paper printed number twenty-seven; thus it began its second half year. The lead editorial in this issue was "Our Status and Prospects," signed Wiley C. Howard, chairman of the executive committee. Said Mr. Howard: "We deem it not amiss at the close of the first six months of our existence in the newspaper world, to give... some statement as to how we have progressed and how we hope to succeed in the future...."48 And here, in part, is that statement: We take pleasure in announcing... that the paper is in a healthy condition, and in paying expenses, notwithstanding the difficulties under which the enterprise started, and the many disadvantages under which we labor-such as remoteness from railroad communications, the want of general mail facilities in nearly all portions of the county, and the great scarcity of money.... It was thought by wise and experienced men to be a hazardous undertaking to begin the publication of a newspaper in the county when ours started; and, doubtless, there are those now who have no faith in the permanency of the paper; but we have no hesitation in proclaiming that we mean to make it a grand success.... We did not set in to stop-but started to keep going.... Our subscription list has been gradually increased until we number some five hundred good paying subscribers....49 So The Forest News was no longer an infant, but a growing
six-month-old looking to the future. But newspapers are like
people: some die as others are born. In the first issue of The
News, back on June 12, 1875, there was this note: "The Atlanta
News, we regret to learn, has permanently suspended. It was a
lively sheet while it lasted."50 1 Editorial in The Atlanta Journal, August
10, 1950.
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