About

In January 1891, Josiah Carter left his position as managing editor of the Atlanta Journal and joined a new stock company called the Herald Publishing Company. A number of well-known Georgia newspapermen made up the company’s ownership, including B. M. Blackburn, A. A. Murphy, J. M. Speer, and Samuel W. Small. In mid-July 1891, with Sam W. Small listed as editor-in-chief, the company published its first issue of the Evening Herald. This Herald was not associated from the earlier Atlanta Herald Henry W. Grady owned and edited for a time. The four-page paper circulated every evening except Sunday at a subscription cost of three dollars. Its immediate and fierce rival was Carter’s old newspaper, the Atlanta Journal. Politically, the Herald was, as noted in the Sunny South’s August 8, 1891 issue, “independent with leanings toward the reform movement.” The Herald’s status as a reform-oriented, Democratic, newspaper put it at odds with the Atlanta Journal, a more conservative Democratic paper. Sam Small was perhaps the Herald’s most famous writer due to popular dialect sketches he contributed to the Atlanta Constitution in the 1880s under his “Old Si” pseudonym. Small was notably a converted Methodist evangelist, recovering alcoholic, and vocal prohibitionist. Although he did not establish the Herald to be a temperance paper, Small did include editorials supporting the prohibition movement. In late August 1891, Small resigned from his position at the Herald in order to establish a church in Atlanta. Small’s evangelism and Populist Party sympathies made him a polarizing figure among Georgia newspapermen, and some papers like the Waynesboro True Citizen were happy to see him go. In its August 29, 1891 issue, the True Citizen announced “Joe Carter” replaced Small and wrote, “Sam Small will have to cut and come again before he finds an outlet for his prohibition and People’s Party vaporings.” With the exception of Blackburn’s brief absence in the spring of 1893, Blackburn and Carter shared editorial responsibilities for the rest of the Herald’s run. Blackburn was a strong Grover Cleveland supporter, while Josiah Carter was less enthusiastic for the Democratic candidate. This difference of opinion prompted Blackburn to resign in early-spring 1893, briefly leaving Carter the sole managing editor. In October 1893, the Herald acquired another prominent editor. John Armoy Knox, known for establishing the nationally-recognized Texas Siftings in Austin, Texas in 1881, became part owner and editor of what was now known as the Atlanta Evening Herald. Less than a month after Knox’s arrival, in November 1893, the Herald ceased publication. Notifying its readers of the Herald’s closure, the Albany Weekly Herald of December 2, 1893 wrote, “the fact that the Atlanta Herald has been forced to succumb to the prevailing financial depression [Panic of 1893] is a matter of regret to the press of the entire State.” The Herald’s assets were seized in order to settle outstanding debts, but Carter and Knox were able to access another source of capital. They launched the Atlanta Daily News in early 1894, but that paper was as equally short-lived as the Herald.