The Kennesaw route gazette. (Atlanta, Ga) 1882-18??

 

Title:

The Kennesaw route gazette.

Place of Publication:

Atlanta, Ga

Geographic coverage:

  • Atlanta, Fulton county

Publisher:

None

Dates of publication:

1882-18??

Description:

  • Began in 1873 with with v. 1; ceased in Dec. 1875 with v. 3, no. 8.

Frequency:

Monthly

Languages:

  • English

Subjects:

  • Atlanta (Ga.)--Newspapers.
  • Fulton County (Ga.)--Newspapers.

Notes:

  • "A monthly journal devoted to railway interests, literature, art and humor."--Vol. III, no. 5 (September, 1875) = whole no. 41, page [1].

LCCN:

2020233306

OCLC:

9922187852302931

The Kennesaw route gazette. September 1, 1875

About

The Kennesaw Route Gazette was a monthly advertising sheet published throughout the 1870s that briefly suspended publication in the early 1880s. B. W. Wren was editor and publisher of this earlier iteration of the Gazette before it suspended operations, and the twenty-five cent paper, much like other low-cost railroad papers, dedicated most of its space to advertisements. Joseph M. Brown, an agent of the railroad, revived the Gazette in 1886 with an updated form that featured literary works, local news items, and editorials. When the Great Kennesaw Route Gazette made its debut in January 1886, the The Western and Atlantic Railroad (W. & A. R. R.), otherwise known as the Great Kennesaw Route, was fifty years old. The line stretched from Atlanta, Georgia to Chattanooga, Tennessee, and its zero milepoint eventually became known as 'Terminus.' The revived Gazette was a monthly railroad sheet printed by Atlanta’s Record Publishing Company, and it circulated at the W. & A. R. R.’s twenty-two stops. From January to July 1886, the paper carried its long title, but, from August 1886 to its cessation in the 1890s, the paper’s masthead read Kennesaw Gazette. Future Georgia governor Joseph M. Brown, was the leading force behind the Gazette’s establishment. Brown served the railroad as general freight and passenger manager, and he saw an opportunity to increase ridership with an official W. & A. R. R. newspaper. Colonel A. L. Harris initially assisted Brown in the editorial department, but Harris left the Gazette in early 1887 to focus on the Record Publishing Company’s other railroad paper, the Southern Industrial Record. Brown’s columns in the Gazette were immensely popular, as they recounted the railroad’s history (particularly its usage during the Civil War) and highlighted cities like Cartersville and Dalton, which the W. & A. R. R. passed through. The paper’s popularity prompted Brown to increase its circulation from monthly, to semi-monthly, and eventually weekly. In its December 8, 1887 issue, the Cartersville Courant-American praised Brown as 'perhaps the most progressive and enterprising railroad man in the south.' The laudatory article went on to explain: 'he has done much to make this line famous by writing up the war campaigns of North Georgia, [and] he also gives much space in this journal to advertising to the world the varied and inexhaustible resources of Georgia.' Despite its popularity, the Gazette ceased publication in the late 1890s, perhaps due to Brown’s increasing role in the W. & A. R. R.; by February 1891, Brown was president of the railroad. As a testament to journalistic regard for the Gazette, the North Georgia Citizen’s (Dalton) November 26, 1891 issue remarked, 'that entertaining and pleasing publication, the Kennesaw Gazette, is greatly missed on our exchange table. It is not now issued, although its popularity was unquestionable, and its benefit to the Western and Atlantic railroad incalculable.'