Page:History of American Journalism.djvu/206

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HISTORY OF AMERICAN JOURNALISM

INITIAL PAPERS OF TENNESSEE

Very often the publisher of the first newspaper in any State was also the authorized printer to the Territorial or State Legislature. Such was the case in Tennessee, where George Roulstone first brought out, at Rogersville on November 5, 1791, The Knoxville Gazette. After issuing a few numbers he moved his plant to Knoxville, where he continued to bring out the paper until his death in 1804. He remained public printer all this time and his wife was later elected for two successive terms to fill the place.

The second paper in Knoxville was The Register founded in 1798 by John R. Parrington. Another early Knoxville paper was Wilson's Gazette begun in 1804 by George Wilson, and pub- lished until 1818, when Wilson went to Nashville to begin The Nashville Gazette in the interest of "Old Hickory." Work- ing with Wilson as a journeyman printer was F. S. Heiskell, who, shortly before the former left for Nashville, started a second Register in August, 1816, which survived, though under many editors, until the outbreak of the War of the States.

The first paper in Memphis was The Memphis Advocate and Eastern District Intelligencer, which first appeared on January 18, 1827. The Times was established soon after and later the two papers were united with the title of The Times and Advocate.

Journalism began in Nashville in 1797, when The Tennessee Gazette appeared under the editorship of a Kentucky printer named Henkle. A year later the paper was sold and the name changed to The Clarion. The Hamilton County Gazette, which later became The Chattanooga Gazette, was brought from Knox- ville to Chattanooga by flatboat in 1838. It suspended in 1859, but in 1864 was revived by James R. Hood and E. A. James.


OHIO AND ITS EARLY PAPERS

The distinction of being the first paper in Ohio belongs to The Centinel of the Northwestern Territory, brought out in the village of Cincinnati on November 9, 1793, by William Maxwell. Born about 1755 in New Jersey, he had come to Ohio by way of Pittsburgh. He brought with him a Ramage press and a few