About

Following the closure of the Weekly Journal in May 1890, a company of forty stockholders formed the Banks County Publishing Company and founded the Banks County Gazette in Homer, Georgia. Based on the issue numbering of the Gazette, these stockholders saw the Gazette as a continuation of the preceding Joseph Barton-owned newspapers. The title published out of the same offices, and managed by J. D. Hill, who purchased the lot from Barton in April, 1890. T.O. Rorie moved to the Gazette at its foundation as publisher and stayed on until January 14, 1891. Following Rorie’s departure, the paper was managed by several different people. Joe S. Hames and Ira K. Hill first operated the paper in Rorie’s absence. During this time, Hames politically aligned the paper with the Farmers’ Alliance which later organized as the People’s Party. Hames and Hill ran the paper together until January 1892, when Hill left the publication; this resulted in more heavily populist, prohibitionist, and anti-tobacco editorials in the pages of the paper. Hames’ politics put him at odds with stockholder Dr. V. D. Lockhart which resulted in Henry Brewster taking over as editor and publisher in December, 1892. Brewster shifted the paper’s politics to align with the Democratic Party and edited the paper with the assistance of Lockhart until May, 1895 when Brewster allowed S. L. Cox and M. C. Sanders to edit and manage the paper under his ownership. On January 6, 1896, Brewster left the Gazette to work for the Cherokee Advance in Canton, leaving S. L. Cox as lead editor and publisher. Charles O. Toney worked on the Gazette with Cox for four months at the end of 1896, but Cox largely operated the paper on his own until 1897. On February 15, 1897, Cox merged the Gazette with the Harmony Grove Echo to create the Harmony Grove Echo-Gazette. The Gazette didn’t stay in Harmony Grove long as Homer residents pressured owner Dr. W. B. Hardman into returning the paper on April 1, 1897. Upon its return, he changed the name to the Banks County Journal.