About

Fred R. Fildes founded Quitman, Georgia’s first newspaper in January 1866 as the Quitman Banner. Fildes was editor and proprietor of the Banner until July 1873 when he announced in a valedictory editorial that he sold the Banner to T. A. White and H. M. McIntosh. The new owners hired W. B. Bennet to serve as editor, and McIntosh assisted him as associate editor. The Banner continued unchanged under the new management until February 19, 1874 when the title became the Quitman Reporter. Other than the name change, the four-page paper continued to circulate weekly and advocate the principles of the Democratic Party. In October 1874, Bennet retired from the Reporter which left McIntosh with editorial duties. In 1876, T. A. Hall, who already owned White’s shares in the paper, bought out McIntosh’s interest and became the paper’s sole owner. McIntosh briefly remained as a salaried editor, but he left in April 1876 to establish the Blackshear Georgian. By May 1876, however, McIntosh returned to the editorial helm of the Reporter to assist the paper’s new owner, Judge Joseph Tillman. McIntosh left the Reporter again in October 1876 after Tillman expressed interest in selling the Reporter’s printing plant. Tillman ultimately did not sell the Reporter but faced competition from McIntosh and Major A. P. Perham’s new paper, the Quitman Free-Press. The Free-Press proved more popular which prompted Tillman to relocate his paper to Waycross, Georgia in September 1880. The Waycross Reporter continued for about a decade before ceasing publication in the early 1890s.