Owensboro Newspapers

Owensboro Bulletin

The first newspaper in Daviess County was the Owensboro Bulletin, started in 1844 as a Henry Clay Whig paper, by Thornton C. Pattee, and continued for several years.

Owensboro Gazette

The next was the Owensboro Gazette, a Democratic organ, established about April 10, 1852, by George G. Vest, from Frankfort, Ky, now United States Senator from Missouri, and Robert S. Triplett, of Owensboro, still a well-known business man of this place. Mr. Vest brought with him from Frankfort a good printer named Joseph H. Mayhall, and their paper was therefore a very fine-looking sheet. The first year it had an average of about ninety advertisements in it from the business men of Owensboro, among them Tyler & Mayo, Moorman & Bros, Allen & Daveiss, W. H. Kerney & Co, J. Hyman & Co, Adams & Shmutte, Wing & Weir, Megill & Bro, and Simmons & Millett. The proposed Henderson & Nashville Railroad was much talked of then, and was therefore a prominent topic in its columns. Within a year after its commencement, Mr. Vest sold the paper to Mr. Mayhall, who employed Alfred B. Johnson as editor. This man was a brother of Hon. James L. Johnson, and died in Owensboro before the war. In the fall of 1854, Mr. Mayhall was thrown out of a buggy and killed, and his widow continued the paper for a short time and sold it to a Mr. Hawkins, but it did not survive long.

National American, The Shield, and Ford's Southern Shield

During the Know-Nothing excitement of 1856 the National American was started in Owensboro by Joshua G. Ford, proprietor, and George H. Yeaman, editor. The first number was dated Aug. 6, 1856. A. G. Botts succeeded Mr. Yeaman as editor, and Colonel John H. McHenry was the next, in 1857-58; and about this time, Mr. Ford changed the name to The Shield, and soon after the outbreak of the war to Ford's Southern Shield, which name it sustained until its discontinuance in 1875. For a year or so, however, during the war, it was located at Hartford, Ky.

Owensboro Democrat

This paper was started a short time before the war, by Isaac P. Washburn, an illiterate man. It did not long survive the commencement of the war.

Owensboro Times

This paper, started early in 1882, by T. P. Getz & Co, wa already discontinued by 1883.

Owensboro News

This was an eight-column folio, commenced in 1881, by Thomas Collins, as a Republican local paper; but in a few months it died and the office material was mostly sold to the Post. Mr. Collins next endeavored to establish a paper at Mt. Vernon, IN but failed.

The Owensboro Monitor

This paper was started in 1862 by Henry M. Woodruff, a strong Union man, who spoke outboldly in the face of war. The size of the paper at first was a twenty-inch six-column folio, and the first number is dated Aug. 13, 1862. In the last week of May, 1864, Thomas S. Pettit became a part owner, and changed the political tone of the paper, and spoke out as boldly against Lincoln's administration as his predecessor did against secession, although for the Union. Soon afterward, Mr. Woodruff retired from the paper altogether. In the autumn of this year Mr. Pettit was taken away by military authority, as more fully described a little further on, and the paper was discontinued for about six months, except a few weeks, when it was run by Rev. Richard C. Gardner, a Methodist Chaplain of the Twenty-seventh Kentucky Infantry, who liad for his aid a few soldiers who could set type. During these changes considerable damage was done to the material of the office.

The following May, Mr. Pettit returned from "Dixie Land" and resumed his old position, bought new press and type, and battled away on the same old principles for which he was banished, and increased the circulation to more than 2,000 within a year. In the summer of 1869, he purchased a power press.

The local department of the paper he always kept open to all parties, and the news was given without partisan bias.

A. L. Ashby, from Mt. Sterling, Ky, was admitted as associate editor from May 27, 1868, to Aug. 7, 1872. He was afterward Secretary of the Owensboro & Nashville Railroad Company, and is now living at Louisville. He has accumulated considerable property. On July 21, 1869, the Monitor was enlarged to eight twenty-six inch columns to the page.

In 1874, Mr. Pettit sold the Monitor to Robert Campbell, a native of Texas, who was educated at Baton Rouge, La., and served in Hood's Texas Brigade during the war. He was admitted to the bar in Texas, but in 1871, at the age of twenty-six, he commenced journalism in Mississippi.

The Monitor was suspended about the 1st of March, 1877, and the material of the office sold afterward to J. A. Munday, who started the Messenger the following August.

Owensboro Examiner

This was started Jan. 1, 1875, and conducted five years by Lee Lumpkin, sole editor and proprietor. It was a quarto of six columns to the page. Democratic. In 1880, it was consolidated with the Messenger.

The Messenger

Aug 7, 1877, was the date of the first number of this paper, an eight-column folio, started by J. A. Munday, who, for the purpose, had bought the material of the old Monitor office, as before mentioned. C. W. Bransford was admitted as partner in 1878. In March, 1880, these gentlemen bought out the Owensboro Examiner consolidating it with the Messenger., still retaining Mr. Lee Lumpkin, the proprietor of the former, as business manager. The latter, however, soon left to carry on a flouring mill. The Messenger and Examiner has since been issued both as a weekly and a semi-weekly. The semi-weekly was commenced as a seven-column folio, and in 1882 enlarged to an eight-column. In the spring of 1881, Mr. Bransford purchased Mr. Munday's interest, and was alone until October, when he admitted to partnership Mr. Urey Woodson. The former is senior and the latter junior editor.

This is a model local paper in respect to typography, make-up, quality of paper, and more than all, editorial and business management. It is remarkable what old heads these young gentlemen have.

The Messenger was issued also as a daily for about two months in the fall of 1870, as a six-column folio. Inability to obtain the Associated Press dispatches, and the consequent necessity of printing the paper at Evansville, let the proprietors to abandoned the enterprise.

In connection with the above is a large and nice job office, said to be the largest in the State west of Louisville, possibly the largest in the State outside of Louisville. The material is the consolidation of two considerable offices. Their large power press, the Cottrell & Babcock, is run by hydraulic force from the city waterworks, equal to four horse-power. A grammar has just been printed at this office.

The Saturday Post

This sprightly gazette was established by A. T. Craycroft and George V. Triplett, the first number appearing Sept. 3, 1881. Mr. T. is the business manager and editor. The paper is an eight-column folio, the columns a half-cm wider than the standard measure, and it is issued every Saturday morning. It is sincerely and purely Democratic in politics, as the party has attested by sending its editor as their Representative to the Legislature. Jan. 26, 1883, Mr. Craycroft retired from the firm, leaving Mr. Triplett alone. The typography and make-up of the paper is magnificent, its editorials spicy, and its selections rich. Mr. T. has a high degree of originality as well as of literary ability. See chapter entitled "Authors and Artists."

In connection with the Post is a fine job department. The editorial and composition rooms are models of neatness. Office in Hill's new block, a few doors north of the Planter's Hotel.

Methodist Standard

This was started in February, 1882, by Revs. J. S. Scobee, G. H. Hays, D. D., and B. F. Orr. It is a four-page monthly, with four wide columns to the page. Mr. Orr is a resident of Owensboro, and Mr. Hays of Cloverport. The paper is printed by O. T. Kendall & Co.

Home and School

This is a local educational monthly started in January, 1883, by O. T. Kendall & Co. It has eight pages four columns to the page.

Baptist Herald

An effort was made in 1866 to establish the Baptist Herald in Owensboro, but in vain.

The Press Association of Kentucky met in Owensboro, June 7 and 8, 1871, when a good delegation was welcomed by the citizens. They met first in the court-house and then at the Baptist church, when Colonel R. M. Kelly, of the Louisville Commercial, delivered a very amusing address, and Benjamin Casseday read an original poem. In the evening a sumptuous banquet was given at Allen Gilmour's, and also at Bransford's hall, the latter given by the citizens. A large share of the credit for the success of the occasion is due E. H. Taylor, J. H. McHenry, T. C. Jones and J. G. Ford. The tables were supplied by F. T. Guenther. Kelly's address and Casseday's poem were published in full in the next number of the Monitor.

Source: History of Daviess County, Kentucky. Chicago: Interstate Publishing Co., 1883. Print.