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Newspaper The Gold Leaf (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911

About The Gold Leaf (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911

The Gold Leaf, a Democratic weekly newspaper in Henderson, North Carolina, was owned and edited by Thaddeus R. Manning (1856-1915) from 1882 until March of 1911. The paper was four pages with eight columns each. The Gold Leaf‘s masthead included the quote, “Carolina, Carolina, Heaven’s Blessings Attend Her.” Only scattered issues of the early years of the Gold Leaf have survived. The paper ran agricultural and household advice, editorials, local and social news, and many public notices and advertisements. Syndicated articles were reprinted from such newspapers as the Baltimore Sun and the Raleigh Post and Wilmington Messenger in North Carolina. Such articles contained state and national news, as well as farming and medical advice. The content of the Gold Leaf changed little throughout the 29 years of Manning’s tenure. Other papers published in Henderson at this time include the Henderson News and the Hustler.

By the 1900s, the share of local (vs. syndicated) material began to increase, and Manning occasionally wrote local historical pieces for the paper. Historian Samuel Thomas Peace described the Gold Leaf as carrying “clean news and some lengthy essays.” Its pages remained filled with a large amount of agricultural content, including advertisements for fertilizer and farm equipment.

On Thursday, March 30, 1911, the front page of the paper proclaimed, “Thad Manning has sold the Gold Leaf! Ah well! Time has a way of getting in its work, and he has held on for many years.” The article went on to say that Manning “loved his paper and sought to make it vital with his personality” and that “one could see the man in the very pages of the paper.” Upon hearing of Manning’s retirement, the editor of the Durham [North Carolina] Daily Sun wrote, “[Manning] has elevated and brightened journalism. He has served his town, county, and State with superb devotion and zeal.”

The Gold Leaf was sold to a company called Gold Leaf Publishing. Within a few weeks, it no longer ran the catchy quote, and the name of the paper was changed to the Henderson Gold Leaf. The new editor and manager was Preston Taylor Way (1869-1920). Way had previously published and edited the Waxhaw Enterprise in Waxhaw and another newspaper in Jonesboro, North Carolina. The Gold Leaf remained largely the same under Way, although there was a stronger political edge to the editorial page.

The Henderson Gold Leaf became a semiweekly publication in 1913, and, during World War I, a daily edition was added. In 1914, the daily paper was renamed the Henderson Daily Dispatch, and the Henderson Gold Leaf returned to a weekly publication. A fire at the Henderson office in 1946 destroyed much of the newspapers’s archival material. The Henderson Daily Dispatch is still published today.

Provided By: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library, Chapel Hill, NC

About this Newspaper

Title

  • The Gold Leaf (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911

Dates of Publication

  • 1881-1911

Created / Published

  • Henderson, N.C. : Thad R. Manning, -1911.

Headings

  • -  Henderson (N.C.)--Newspapers
  • -  North Carolina--Henderson
  • -  United States--North Carolina--Vance--Henderson

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Began in Dec. 1881.
  • -  -v. 30, no. 17 (Apr. 13, 1911).
  • -  Devoted to the industrial, educational and material welfare of Vance County and North Carolina.
  • -  Also issued on microfilm from North Carolina Dept. of Archives and History, Division of Archives and Manuscripts.
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format from the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  Description based on: Vol. 1, no. 26 (June 8, 1882).
  • -  Henderson gold leaf 2375-916X (DLC)sn 91068403 (OCoLC)24562429

Medium

  • v.

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn91068402

OCLC Number

  • 24562411

ISSN Number

  • 2375-9127

Succeeding Titles

Additional Metadata Formats

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.

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Cite This Item

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

Chicago citation style:

The Gold Leaf Henderson, N.C. 1881 to 1911. (Henderson, NC), Jan. 1 1881. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn91068402/.

APA citation style:

(1881, January 1) The Gold Leaf Henderson, N.C. 1881 to 1911. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn91068402/.

MLA citation style:

The Gold Leaf Henderson, N.C. 1881 to 1911. (Henderson, NC) 1 Jan. 1881. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn91068402/.