About

On May 1, 1897, Dr. W. B. Hardman returned the Banks County Gazette to Homer, Georgia from Harmony Grove and renamed the newspaper the Banks County Journal. At first this new iteration of the paper printed every Saturday, but the editor and publisher shifted to Thursdays within the first year. The Journal was an eight-page Democratic publication that cost subscribers fifty cents per year in 1897. Within a month of its founding, Hardman leased the Journal to Wallace L. Harden for a year. Harden struggled to maintain subscribers, attract advertisers, and publish the paper on time. On April 28, 1898, Hardman, still primary owner of the newspaper, leased the paper to J. N. Hill and Henry W. Dyar on a twenty month contract. Henry W. Dyar edited the paper for the rest of 1898, but was replaced by C. A. Meeks on January 19, 1899. By January 4, 1900, the Journal was organized under the Journal Publishing Company, with Meeks listed as the editor and publisher. The paper expanded significantly under Meeks’ ownership and finally achieved financial stability. Meeks left the paper in 1913 to become editor of the Carroll Free Press. Andrew Jackson Hilton took over as editor on January 8, 1914. Hilton and his son Pat Hilton remained associated with the Journal for over fifty years. In 1968, the Journal became the Banks County News and continues today as the area’s legal organ under the ownership of Mainstreet Newspapers.