MainStreetNews - History - Part I
Chapter 1: The War Ends, Reconstruction Begins, A Newspaper Is Born
"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 signing of the Declaration of Independence.
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:
. . .In addition to the "General News of the Day," the state of the markets and other commercial intelligence. . . such as Political, Literacy and Agricultural matter will be introduced from week to week as will tend to make the paper a most entertaining and welcome guest in every family to which it may find access; while, at the same time, the most scrupulous care will be exercised in preventing the appearance in the paper, of anything at which the most refined and delicate taste could take offense. . . .15
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:
Being a practical printer and for many years connected with the newspaper business, and possessing, as we believe, the requisite qualifications for the position--and being, as he is, a good and true man, he comes duly and truly prepared, worthy and well qualified before the readers of the News, most heartily commended by us and through us by each and all the members of the Company, as one most fit and proper to be at the helm in launching our new "barque" on the sea of public opinion; and we confidently hope that, aided and sustained by a large number of intelligent readers, he will succeed most nobly in his efforts to steer clear of breakers, and that the stars of the News will ere long be seen riding proudly over the waves of the sea of journalism, bringing "glad tidings of great joy" to all its readers, and prove indeed and in truth a blessing to all the people of the grand old County of Jackson. Readers of The Forest News, we take great pleasure in introducing you to our Managing and Business Editor, Mr. Stafford.19
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
He continued:
. . . 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
Editor Stafford no doubt was truly thankful; he quoted from more than a score of them. One quoted item, from The Baltimore Gazette, gave a detailed account of the first battle of the Revolution.
Two other articles appearing on June 12, '75-one original, the other copied from the Kentucky Yeoman-indicate that The News staff still remembered a war of a more recent date. Also, the pieces give hints of the political course the paper was destined to follow.
Consider this:
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, seemingly, so much exercised over the loss of a few thousand.35
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 piece went on to speak the mind, no doubt of Mr. Stafford and the owners of The News, but also of the vast majority of Georgians and Southerners:
The people are sick and tired of being taxed to the point of confiscation by the so-called "loyal" Union legislators, both State and National. It is another fact worth thinking about, that the people are tired out of all patience with seeing the Constitution violated and their liberties trampled under foot by men who, having "saved the Union" ten years ago, have ever since been doing their level best to bankrupt and Mexicanize the whole country . . . . In a word, the people have suffered so much during the last decade in mind, pocket, and general estate, by these "truly loyal" fellows, who esteem it their peculiar privilege to violate the Constitution and the laws whenever they stand in the way of their corrupt schemes, that they determined last fall to turn them adrift and put in their places those eighty- two honest rebel soldiers of the South, of whom, whatever else may be said against them, it was never charged that they would steal, or violate their oaths to support the Constitution.37
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 permitted to appear in the News . . . . We hope and trust our position will be understood and duly appreciated.38
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 this age. The country is flooded with papers of all sorts. They are doing much good, and some evil. They are educating the men and women and children of this generation. But, alas! the education thus given is not altogether such as it should be. Editors and other writers for the newspaper press are doing more to destroy the purity and precision of the English tongue, it is to be feared, than all our schools and colleges are doing in an opposite direction. Slang, instead of good English, is becoming the current literature of the newspaper press of this age.41
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. Follow the example of the renowned ancient painter, who, when chided because he made such slow progress in his work, replied: "I am painting for eternity."42
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.
The News of the eighteenth carried this story:
A very full and interesting meeting of the company was held at the office of 'Squire Niblack, Clerk of the Superior Court, on Monday night last, Vice-President N.H. Pendergrass in the Chair. An election to fill the unexpired term of Dr. J.D. Long, deceased, as President, was held, and Micager Williamson, Esq., elected. A committee, consisting of G.J.N. Wilson, Esq., Col. J.B. Silman and Col. W.L. Pike, was appointed to draft a suitable Tribute to the memory of the late President.47
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
And The Forest News-Mr. Howard's "Status and Prospects" notwithstanding-faced some rough times, too.
1. Editorial in The Atlanta Journal, August 10, 1950.
2. Robert Talley, One Hundred Years of the Commercial Appeal (Memphis: The Memphis Publishing Company, 1940), p. iii.
3. Journal loc. cit.
4. Loc. cit.
5. G. J. N. Wilson, The Early History of Jackson County, Georgia (Atlanta: W. E. White, 1914), p. 23.
6. E. Morton Coulter, A Short History of Georgia (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1933), p. 328.
7. Loc. cit.
8. Rabun Lee Brantley, Georgia Journalism of the Civil War Period (Nashville: George Peabody College for Teachers, 1926), p. 132.
9. The Forest News, June 12, 1875.
10. Coulter, op. cit., p. 338.
11. Brantley, loc. cit.
12. Coulter, loc. cit.
13. News, loc. cit.
14. Loc. cit.
15. Loc. cit.
16. Loc. cit.
17. Loc. cit.
18. Loc. cit.
19. Loc. cit.
20. Loc. cit.
21. Loc. cit.
22. Loc. cit.
23. Loc. cit.
24. Loc. cit.
25. Loc. cit.
26. Loc. cit
27. Loc. cit.
28. Loc. cit.
29. Loc. cit.
30. Loc. cit.
31. Loc. cit.
32. Loc. cit.
33. Loc. cit.
34. Loc. cit.
35. Loc. cit.
36. The Forest News, June 12, 1875, quoting from the Kentucky Yeoman
37. Loc. cit.
38. The Forest News, June 19, 1875.
39. Loc. cit.
40. Loc. cit.
41. Loc. cit.
42. Loc. cit.
43. Loc. cit., quoting from the Southern Watchman.
44. The Forest News. June 19, 1875.
45. Ibid., October 30, 1875.
46. Loc. cit.
47. The Forest News, December 18, 1875.
48. Ibid., December, 11, 1875.
49. Loc. cit.
50. The Forest News, June, 12, 1875.
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 signing of the Declaration of Independence.
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:
. . .In addition to the "General News of the Day," the state of the markets and other commercial intelligence. . . such as Political, Literacy and Agricultural matter will be introduced from week to week as will tend to make the paper a most entertaining and welcome guest in every family to which it may find access; while, at the same time, the most scrupulous care will be exercised in preventing the appearance in the paper, of anything at which the most refined and delicate taste could take offense. . . .15
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:
Being a practical printer and for many years connected with the newspaper business, and possessing, as we believe, the requisite qualifications for the position--and being, as he is, a good and true man, he comes duly and truly prepared, worthy and well qualified before the readers of the News, most heartily commended by us and through us by each and all the members of the Company, as one most fit and proper to be at the helm in launching our new "barque" on the sea of public opinion; and we confidently hope that, aided and sustained by a large number of intelligent readers, he will succeed most nobly in his efforts to steer clear of breakers, and that the stars of the News will ere long be seen riding proudly over the waves of the sea of journalism, bringing "glad tidings of great joy" to all its readers, and prove indeed and in truth a blessing to all the people of the grand old County of Jackson. Readers of The Forest News, we take great pleasure in introducing you to our Managing and Business Editor, Mr. Stafford.19
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
He continued:
. . . 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
Editor Stafford no doubt was truly thankful; he quoted from more than a score of them. One quoted item, from The Baltimore Gazette, gave a detailed account of the first battle of the Revolution.
Two other articles appearing on June 12, '75-one original, the other copied from the Kentucky Yeoman-indicate that The News staff still remembered a war of a more recent date. Also, the pieces give hints of the political course the paper was destined to follow.
Consider this:
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, seemingly, so much exercised over the loss of a few thousand.35
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 piece went on to speak the mind, no doubt of Mr. Stafford and the owners of The News, but also of the vast majority of Georgians and Southerners:
The people are sick and tired of being taxed to the point of confiscation by the so-called "loyal" Union legislators, both State and National. It is another fact worth thinking about, that the people are tired out of all patience with seeing the Constitution violated and their liberties trampled under foot by men who, having "saved the Union" ten years ago, have ever since been doing their level best to bankrupt and Mexicanize the whole country . . . . In a word, the people have suffered so much during the last decade in mind, pocket, and general estate, by these "truly loyal" fellows, who esteem it their peculiar privilege to violate the Constitution and the laws whenever they stand in the way of their corrupt schemes, that they determined last fall to turn them adrift and put in their places those eighty- two honest rebel soldiers of the South, of whom, whatever else may be said against them, it was never charged that they would steal, or violate their oaths to support the Constitution.37
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 permitted to appear in the News . . . . We hope and trust our position will be understood and duly appreciated.38
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 this age. The country is flooded with papers of all sorts. They are doing much good, and some evil. They are educating the men and women and children of this generation. But, alas! the education thus given is not altogether such as it should be. Editors and other writers for the newspaper press are doing more to destroy the purity and precision of the English tongue, it is to be feared, than all our schools and colleges are doing in an opposite direction. Slang, instead of good English, is becoming the current literature of the newspaper press of this age.41
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. Follow the example of the renowned ancient painter, who, when chided because he made such slow progress in his work, replied: "I am painting for eternity."42
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.
The News of the eighteenth carried this story:
A very full and interesting meeting of the company was held at the office of 'Squire Niblack, Clerk of the Superior Court, on Monday night last, Vice-President N.H. Pendergrass in the Chair. An election to fill the unexpired term of Dr. J.D. Long, deceased, as President, was held, and Micager Williamson, Esq., elected. A committee, consisting of G.J.N. Wilson, Esq., Col. J.B. Silman and Col. W.L. Pike, was appointed to draft a suitable Tribute to the memory of the late President.47
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
And The Forest News-Mr. Howard's "Status and Prospects" notwithstanding-faced some rough times, too.
1. Editorial in The Atlanta Journal, August 10, 1950.
2. Robert Talley, One Hundred Years of the Commercial Appeal (Memphis: The Memphis Publishing Company, 1940), p. iii.
3. Journal loc. cit.
4. Loc. cit.
5. G. J. N. Wilson, The Early History of Jackson County, Georgia (Atlanta: W. E. White, 1914), p. 23.
6. E. Morton Coulter, A Short History of Georgia (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1933), p. 328.
7. Loc. cit.
8. Rabun Lee Brantley, Georgia Journalism of the Civil War Period (Nashville: George Peabody College for Teachers, 1926), p. 132.
9. The Forest News, June 12, 1875.
10. Coulter, op. cit., p. 338.
11. Brantley, loc. cit.
12. Coulter, loc. cit.
13. News, loc. cit.
14. Loc. cit.
15. Loc. cit.
16. Loc. cit.
17. Loc. cit.
18. Loc. cit.
19. Loc. cit.
20. Loc. cit.
21. Loc. cit.
22. Loc. cit.
23. Loc. cit.
24. Loc. cit.
25. Loc. cit.
26. Loc. cit
27. Loc. cit.
28. Loc. cit.
29. Loc. cit.
30. Loc. cit.
31. Loc. cit.
32. Loc. cit.
33. Loc. cit.
34. Loc. cit.
35. Loc. cit.
36. The Forest News, June 12, 1875, quoting from the Kentucky Yeoman
37. Loc. cit.
38. The Forest News, June 19, 1875.
39. Loc. cit.
40. Loc. cit.
41. Loc. cit.
42. Loc. cit.
43. Loc. cit., quoting from the Southern Watchman.
44. The Forest News. June 19, 1875.
45. Ibid., October 30, 1875.
46. Loc. cit.
47. The Forest News, December 18, 1875.
48. Ibid., December, 11, 1875.
49. Loc. cit.
50. The Forest News, June, 12, 1875.