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The record of the newspaper press of a county, if it has happened
to fall into the hands of men competent to make it fully discharge
its duty, ought to be the one most important page of a county's
history. One of the greatest things that could always be said of our
Nation was, it has a free press. No man has to be licensed or
selected by the Government either to print a book or publish a
newspaper. It has been circumscribed by no law except natural
selection. Any one who wished could start a paper at any time, and
say anything he desired to say, barring only an occasional boot-toe
and the law of libel. If he chose not to be suppressed, there was no
power to suppress him-except a "military necessity," and once in a
great while mob violence. If he was persecuted or thrashed by some
outraged citizen, it is not certain but that he always got the best
of the difficulty, especially when he would begin to prate about the
"palladium of American liberties." The wisest act of our Government
in all its history was the unbridling of the press. It was the seed
planted in good soil for its own perpetuity, and the happiness and
welfare of its people. To make the press absolutely free, especially
after the centuries of vile censorship over it, was an act of wisdom
transcending in importance the original invention of movable types.
A free press makes free speech, free schools, free intelligence and
freedom, and when political storms come, and the mad waves of
popular ignorance and passion beat upon the ship of State, then,
indeed, is a free press the beacon light shining out upon the
troubled waters. Kentucky Republican The newspaper's past and present are totally different in many
respects. Take the country newspaper of fifty or sixty years ago,
and what an institution it was! Its ponderous editorials stagger us
even at this distant day as we read them, and its foreign news, from
six weeks to three months old, may have been highly entertaining
then, but would be considered a little stale now. The editor, too,
was a big man. He could no more write a local item, or pen a light
article, than he could move Mount Atlas. His editorial thunder was
hurled at his political antagonists like battering rams, and his
readers were regaled with column after column of dull matter they
never read, and could not have appreciated if they did. The Kentucky
Republican, the first paper published in Christian County, is a fair
sample of the early press. We have seen several copies of it; Mr.
Pike has one, the issue of September 15, 1821, and Mr. Meacham, of
the South Kentuckian, has the issue of September 21, 1821. Neither
of these issues contain a local item, except the advertisements, but
each has two or three columns upon the death and funeral of Napoleon
Bonaparte. The Spy Livingston Lindsay bought the press and the entire outfit of the
old Republican office in 1829, from Mr. Patton, and commenced the
publication of a weekly journal called The Spy, which he continued
for about two years. Mr. Lindsay then sold out to William R. B.
Mills, and accepted a professorship in Cumberland College at
Princeton, Ky. He was a young lawyer at the time of his journalistic
venture in Hopkinsville, had studied law, and been admitted to the
bar in Virginia before emigrating to Kentucky. Eventually, he
removed to Texas, where he rose to prominence in his profession, and
became Chief Justice of the State, and is still living there-at La
Grange. He was a fine writer, as well as lawyer, and still writes
well, though an old man now, as is shown by a long communication on
his " Recollections of Hopkinsville and Christian County," written
by request for this work, and from which lengthy extracts are made
elsewhere. The Hopkinsville Gazette The next paper was launched upon the community under the name and
title of Hopkinsville Gazette. It was established by two brothers,
John and Alexander C. Goodall from Louisville, who were practical
printers, and had learned their trade in the office of the
Louisville Journal. A man of the name of Alexander (a printer) came
here after the suspension of The Spy, and proposed to start a paper,
if sufficient encouragement was offered him. He had nothing, and in
order to raise means for the enterprise he canvassed the town and
surrounding country for subscriptions, and succeeded in procuring
the names of four or five hundred persons. He then went to
Louisville for the purpose of buying an outfit, but instead, sold
his subscription list to the Goodall Brothers, who came on with the
requisite outfit and material, and the result was, they established
the Hopkinsville Gazette in the summer of 1834, as a copy we have
seen, dated December 12, 1840, is Vol. VI, No. 17. They published it
some ten or twelve years with good financial success. Indeed, it is
said to have been the only paper that ever made much money here
prior to the war. The Goodalls were good printers and thorough
business men, and understood conducting a newspaper. They had
graduated in a good school-the Louisville Journal-then under the
control and management of George D. Prentice, the leader of the
Southern press, and they possessed some of his energy and
enterprise. John Goodall edited the paper, and also made some
pretensions to the law, but he remained only a few years in the
editorial harness, when he sold out to his brother and went to East
Tennessee, where he became prominent as a lawyer. A. C. Goodall
continued the publication of the Gazette alone. He died many years
ago, but his widow still lives here. Chastine Forbes was a printer
in the office of the Gazette; he is now Superintendent of the Insane
Asylum at Little Rock, Arkansas. The Green River Whig Mr. Goodall sold his paper to Robert Thomas, of Clarksville, who changed the name to Green River Whig. This occurred somewhere between 1844 and 1850. Under its new name and management it continued the sturdy defender of the Whig faith. But how long it existed as the Green River Whig, the most diligent investigation has failed to find out; probably until 1851, when another change took place, and another Hopkinsville newspaper was numbered with the things that were." Kentucky Rifle Upon the ashes of the Green River Whig arose the Kentucky Rifle, another Whig paper, under the editorship of J. E. Carnes, and himself and J. R. McCarroll publishers and proprietors. The issue of June 7, 1851, is Vol. I, No. 10, which would indicate that it was established about March of the same year. It has a very showy heading of a long rifle (a photograph perhaps of Daniel Boone's old rifle), with the letters "The Rifle," hanging upon the barrel, much as Daniel Boone would have hung his shot-pouch upon the deer horn over his cabin door. The Rifle was as intensely Whig as its predecessors, and Carnes hurled his fierce thunderbolts at the Locofocos like blows from a battle-ax. It continued some four or five years, and then-burst--just as many another gun has done before when too heavily loaded. Mr. Carnes was a brilliant writer and a brilliant man. He had been editor of the Vicksburg (Miss.) Whig before he came here, and as a writer was aggressive in the extreme. He was a poet, and frequently, in his leisure moments, used to "give loose fancy scope to range," and would reel off some beautiful and touching verses. Many of his poetical effusions are found scattered through the old files of the Rifle. He finally became a Methodist preacher, and was sent to Texas as Superintendent of the Methodist Book Concern. The Mercury The Rifle was either changed to the Patriot or was sold, and the latter journal started in its place, with S. C. Mercer and J. R. Mc Carroll proprietors. It was established about 1855, and in the latter part of 1856 the name was changed to the Mercury. It was an organ of the Know-Nothing, or American party, and was the last paper in Western Kentucky of that political faith. Its publication was continued until in 1861, when the war put an end to it, and the office and material became a prey to " military necessity," and the sport of " the boys " in the army. Mr. Mercer is a fine writer, and still a citizen of Hopkinsville, and is well known to the people of the city and the county. He is comparatively a young man, and should not allow his genius To rust unburnished, not to shine in use," but should return to literary work, a capacity in which he is a bright and shining light. The People's Press Some time about 1848-50, Smith & Bronaugh started an opposition paper called the Democrat. About 1851 they sold it to John C. Noble, now of Paducah, and one of the oldest editors living in Kentucky. Mr. Noble changed the name to the People's Press, and continued its publication as a Democratic paper, but how long we do not know, nor do we know its final fate. As Christian County was a strong Whig county, it probably starved to death. Mr. Noble is well known throughout Western Kentucky as an able and forcible writer. and an unflinching Democrat of the old school. Hopkinsville Republican George M. Cote, a " rat " printer from Pittsburgh, started the Hopkinsville Republican in March, 1881, and some six months later sold out to S. C. Mercer, formerly of the Mercury, and left Hopkinsville uncermoniously. Mr. Mercer continued it a short time, and leased the office to Wallis, Mullen & Kennedy, who changed the name, or rather issued a new paper-the Weekly News. The Republican had been of the same color of politics with its name, but Messrs. Wallis, Mullen & Kennedy made the Weekly News Independent in politics. They published it until the great fire in 1882, when the office was destroyed. Hopkinsville Conservative - This paper was established, in 1868, by Col. J. M. Dodd, who came here from Henderson, Ky., about that time. Some time in 1876 he changed the name to the Hopkinsville Democrat. The Conservative, true to the principles of its name, was conservative and liberal in politics, but upon its change of title it changed its sentiments and became an organ of the Democratic party. The Democrat was issued until the latter part of 1879, when Col. Dodd leased his office, and the paper was added to the long list of the dead that had preceded it. The Kentucky New Era In 1870 Col. John D. Morris started the Kentucky New Era. The
reader can hardly imagine what a joy and relief it is to at last
come to one paper in the long line that is alive, prosperous and
happy. Verily, Hopkinsville has been a newspaper grave-yard, and the
preceding list is so much like calling the roll of the dead, that
the change from the funeral to the festival is inexpressibly
pleasant. In June or July of 1870 the first number of the New Era
was issued as a brand-new Democratic paper. The name "New Era" was
received from the circumstance of the rights (the ballot) having
been bestowed upon the " man and brother," and as this formed a new
era not only in Kentucky, but in American politics, Col. Morris
deemed New Era an appropriate name for his paper about to be
launched upon the world. For some time after the New Era was
established, Asher G. Caruth, now Commonwealth's Attorney for the
Louisville District, was associated with Col. Morris as editor. They
sold the paper, in 1871, to Philip Van Bussum and Robert McCarroll,
and in November, 1872, William Feland became the proprietor of it.
He changed its politics and made it an organ of the Republican
party, with the laudable desire and intention of shedding a ray of
light into the Egyptian darkness of the community. A speedy change
of politics, however, back to the old Democratic faith relieved the
proprietors of the mournful duty of having to " lay away its little
slippers," and of consoling themselves with the reflection that "
whom the gods love die young." In April, 1873, it was purchased by
Hunter Wood, the present proprietor, in connection with Walter E.
Warfield; the latter gentleman and Samuel Gaines, a writer of
considerable ability, were the editors. In September, 1874, Warfield
sold out to Mr. Wood, and Gaines was retained as editor up to April,
1881, when Col. Morris and James R. Wood became the editors. In
about six months Col. Morris re-tired, and J. R. Wood, who is a
brother of the proprietor, has ever since been editor-in-chief. John
R. Payne was local editor from April 1, 1881, to. October 1, 1882,
and business manager to the beginning of the present year (1884),
when Henry Wallace succeeded to the position. The South Kentuckian On the 1st of January, 1879, W. A. Wilgus and William T. Townes
leased from Col. Dodd his office, and established the South
Kentuckian, the first issue appearing as a New Year's morning call
to the people of Hopkinsville; Charles M. Meacham, editor. In the
following August Mr. Meacham bought Townes' interest in the lease,
and a little later Mr. Wilgus sold his interest in the lease to J.
W. Gogin, but on the 1st of January, 1880, it passed back into his
hands, and the firm became Meacham & Wilgus. They leased the office
from Col. Dodd for the year 1880, and in the fall following
purchased it out-right. They had commenced with an old press that
had been in use for more than thirty years, and type and material
well worn. As their means would permit, they have improved their
office until they have an entire new outfit, with complete job type
and presses, and about a year ago they purchased an improved
Campbell power press. Mr. Meacham is the editor, and Mr. Wilgus
manages the business.
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