About

Captain Melville Dwinnell established the Rome Courier as one of the city’s first newspapers in 1843. The publication traced the early development in the city of Rome, which was founded a decade earlier on the Cherokee settlement Head of Coosa. The Rome Courier began as a weekly publication before transitioning into a tri-weekly newspaper in the 1860s and eventually began daily publication after the Civil War. During the Rome Courier’s antebellum years, Dwinnell traded subscriptions for firewood, clothing, and food. Between 1857 and 1859, the paper published as the Rome Courier and Southern Statesman (or Courier and Statesman) Once the war broke out, Dwinnell joined the Confederate cause and sent newspaper reports from the front. On May 4, 1864, Union forces took over Rome and seized control of the Rome Courier, publishing the Union Flag in its place. The newspaper resumed publication in the post-war years, even employing Georgia newspaper legend Henry Grady for a short time. Dwinnell remained owner of the Courier before selling it in January 1885. The new publisher renamed the paper the Tribune of Rome in October 1887. The Tribune merged with the Rome Herald in 1908 and the Rome News in 1923 to become the Rome News-Tribune, which continues publication to the present day.