The Miller County liberal. (Colquitt, Ga.) 1897-current

 

Title:

The Miller County liberal.

Place of Publication:

Colquitt, Ga.

Geographic coverage:

  • Colquitt, Miller county

Publisher:

Joseph and Zola B. Toole

Dates of publication:

1897-current

Description:

  • Began in 1897?

Frequency:

Weekly

Languages:

  • English

Notes:

  • Description based on: Vol. 10, no. 20 (Jan. 2, 1907).

LCCN:

sn90052437

OCLC:

21793042

The Miller County liberal. January 2, 1907

About

Widowed teacher Zula Brown Cook began publishing the Miller County Liberal in Colquitt, Georgia in September 1897. She is believed to be the first woman in Georgia to establish a newspaper. In order to found the Miller County Liberal, Cook saved two hundred dollars from her teacher’s salary to purchase a press and collected five hundred signatures of support from residents of the county. Cook simultaneously maintained her teaching job while printing the paper until she married Joe Toole in 1901. Zula Brown Toole continued to serve as editor of the weekly Democratic Party-aligned paper into the early 1930s and passed away shortly after the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the paper. Her son-law Bert Priest took over publishing duties in her absence, followed by her grandson George Terry Toole. The Toole family continues to publish the Miller County Liberal today as one of the oldest family-owned papers in Georgia.