Top of page

Chronicling America
National Endowment for the Humanities
BETA

Newspaper The Marietta Journal and Courier (Marietta, Ga.) 1909-1918 Marietta journal and the Marietta courier

View All Front Pages

About The Marietta Journal and Courier (Marietta, Ga.) 1909-1918

Robert McAlpin Goodman and John Andrew Massey used a salvaged hand press to publish the first four-page issue of the Marietta Journal in December 1866. The paper gained a third owner in 1869 when William S. N. Neal, who joined as a typesetter in 1867, became part owner. Marietta, Georgia, was partially razed during the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, and the Journal was the city’s first legal organ in two years. As editor, Goodman chronicled Marietta’s recovery and editorialized against radical reconstruction, which split former Confederate states into military districts until those states met perimeters for re-admittance into the Union. Goodman had never supported secession, and he frequently expressed bitter sentiment regarding Georgia’s secession. In a trend that continued beyond Goodman’s tenure, the Journal only endorsed Democratic candidates for office until the mid-20th century.

Goodman, Massey, and Neal co-owned the paper until January 1875, when Goodman sold his shares to Massey and Neal. The two remaining owners managed the Journal for another 34 years. During most of that time, the Journal served as Cobb County’s legal organ, and the paper also briefly carried legal advertisements for the nearby counties of Paulding and Pickens in the late 1870s. The Journal‘s editors published articles in support of public-school systems, child-labor laws, and prohibition. The paper was also a voice for White supremacy and supported policies of segregation and disenfranchisement.

On August 19, 1909, Massey and Neal sold the Journal to Josiah Carter, a notable Atlanta-based newspaper editor, who organized the paper under a stock company called the Marietta Publishing Company. Carter also acquired the Cobb County Courier, thus regaining the legal advertising rights the Journal lost in January 1909. He merged the titles as the Marietta Journal and Courier and purchased new equipment, which allowed expansion into a 12-page weekly. Josiah co-edited the paper with his wife, Annie L. Carter until his death in 1914. Their son, Josiah Carter Jr., who joined the paper earlier that year, then assisted his mother in the editorial department. When Cobb County became the site of Leo Frank’s lynching on August 17, 1915, the Journal and Courier celebrated the lynching and left lynchers unnamed in an editorial titled “A Life for A Life.”

David Comfort replaced Josiah Carter Jr. as editor in October 1918, and the paper’s title reverted to the Marietta Journal. Comfort managed the paper until William L. Harris took over as editor in chief in December 1920, and Harris bought out shareholders until he became sole owner. He transitioned the paper to a daily publishing cycle in 1935, creating the Marietta Daily Journal, and expanded again with a Sunday edition in April 1946. Despite the Journal‘s success, it lost legal advertising rights to the Cobb County Times during this period. During Harris’ tenure, Marietta experienced rapid and transformative growth when the Bell Aircraft Corporation, or Bell Bomber, established a manufacturing center there in 1943. The population of Cobb County nearly doubled by 1950, and Marietta transformed from a semi-rural resort community outside of Atlanta into a major urban center.

In September 1948, a new stock company called the Marietta Journal Publishing Company acquired the paper from Harris. Brooks P. Smith took over editing responsibilities and managed the paper until Otis Brumby Sr. purchased it in 1951. Brumby published the weekly Cobb County Times and daily Marietta Daily Journal as separate publications until suspending the Times in 1968. Reflecting political realignments during the mid-20th century, the Marietta Daily Journal featured editorials which largely supported the Republican Party. Today, the paper is published by Otis Brumby III and serves as Cobb County’s legal organ.

Provided By: Digital Library of Georgia, a project of GALILEO located at the University of Georgia Libraries

About this Newspaper

Title

  • The Marietta Journal and Courier (Marietta, Ga.) 1909-1918

Other Title

  • Marietta journal and the Marietta courier

Dates of Publication

  • 1909-1918

Created / Published

  • Marietta, Ga. : Marietta Publishing Company, 1909-1918.

Headings

  • -  Marietta (Ga.)--Newspapers
  • -  Cobb County (Ga.)--Newspapers
  • -  Georgia--Cobb County
  • -  Georgia--Marietta
  • -  United States--Georgia--Cobb--Marietta

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Began with: Vol. 43, no. 35 (September 3, 1909); ceased with: Vol. 52, no. 45 (November 8th, 1918).
  • -  "Official organ of Marietta. Official organ of Cobb County."--vol. 43, no. 35 (September 3, 1909), page [2]
  • -  "Official organ of Cobb County."--Vol. 48, no. 4 (January 23, 1914), page 4.
  • -  "Official organ of Cobb County. Official organ of the city of Marietta."--Vol. 50, no. 3 (January 21, 1916), page 6.
  • -  Some enumeration or chronology may be repeated or skipped in error; other irregularities in enumeration present.
  • -  Formed by the union of: Marietta journal (Marietta, Ga. : 1866), and: Marietta courier.
  • -  Vol. 43, no. 35 (September 3, 1909) (online surrogate); title from PDF masthead (Georgia Historic Newspapers database, viewed July 7, 2023).
  • -  Vol. 52, no. 45 (November 18th, 1918) (online surrogate); (Georgia Historic Newspapers database, viewed July 14, 2023).
  • -  Marietta journal (Marietta, Ga. : 1918) (DLC)sn 89053963 (OCoLC)21278001

Medium

  • volumes

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn89053964

OCLC Number

  • 21278095

ISSN Number

  • 2996-0428

Preceding Titles

Succeeding Titles

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

The NEH awardee responsible for producing each digital object is presented in the Chronicling America page display, below the page image – e.g. Image produced by the Library of Congress. For more information on current NDNP awardees, see https://www.loc.gov/ndnp/listawardees.html.

For more information on Library of Congress policies and disclaimers regarding rights and reproductions, see https://www.loc.gov/homepage/legal.html

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

The Marietta Journal and Courier Marietta, Ga. -1918. (Marietta, GA), Jan. 1 1909. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn89053964/.

APA citation style:

(1909, January 1) The Marietta Journal and Courier Marietta, Ga. -1918. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn89053964/.

MLA citation style:

The Marietta Journal and Courier Marietta, Ga. -1918. (Marietta, GA) 1 Jan. 1909. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn89053964/.