Greg Tucker, Daily News Journal, May 10, 2015
MURFREESBORO — The first edition of the Daily News Journal designated on the front page as “Vol. 1—No. 1”, was printed and distributed in Murfreesboro on Monday, March 2, 1931. (Page one articles in this first DNJ included “Sweet Potato Crop Will Be Plentiful” and “Huge Sum Awaiting Veterans of World War in Rutherford.”) The DNJ was born of a 1931 merger of the assets of the bankrupt Daily News Banner into the Home Journal , a financially stable local newspaper during the early years of the Great Depression.
The ground floor of the Home Journal Building at 218 West Main in Murfreesboro once housed the offices and printing plant for the Home Journal newspaper (1921-31) and The Daily News Journal (1931-50). The building remains today much as it looked in this 1922 photograph.
Seven years later, pressured by a new competitor, the newspaper pronounced itself “Rutherford County’s Home Newspaper Since 1849.” Was this apparently exaggerated claim of antiquity merely an attempt to gain marketing advantage over the Rutherford Courier, an upstart competitor that began twice-weekly publication in 1936? Or did the claim, which the newspaper continued to assert well into the 21 st century, have a thread of legitimacy?
Home Jour nal
The Home Journal was founded in 1890 by Chip Henderson (a third generation journalist). Louis J. Burgdorf purchased the newspaper in 1898, and over a 25-year period established his publication as the leading voice of Rutherford County. Following his death in 1920, the Home Journal Publishing Co. was acquired by Andrew L. Todd and William Trevathan.
Todd was probably the wealthiest and most prominent Rutherford County lawyer, farmer, politician and businessman in the first quarter of the 20 th century.
In 1921 he moved the newspaper and publishing company into the ground floor of a new building at 218 W. Main St. in Murfreesboro. “The equipment in both the newspaper and job departments unexceled in any similar plant,” claimed Todd in a 1923 publication. (The second floor was occupied by the offices of Andrew L. Todd, farm loan correspondent of the New York Life Insurance Co..
“This agency lends millions of dollars to farmers annually,” according to Todd.)
“The Home Journal is a democratic paper in its political policies, but not of the extreme partisan class,” explained the owners in 1923. “It devotes its efforts mainly to the promotion of the agricultural and general interests of the county. An efficient and complete corps of writers and printers is kept employed at all times.”
News Banner
In 1898 two 19 th century newspapers — the Independent Banner and the Murfreesboro News — were purchased by C.C. Henderson (a thirdgeneration journalist and first cousin of Chip Henderson). They were combined to form the News Banner . This local journal published into the 1920s with one change of ownership in 1911. In 1926 it was purchased by Jesse C. Beesley Jr., the 24year-old son of a prominent Murfreesboro banker, using his father’s money.
“I had no money, of course, being just two years out of Princeton,” explained Beesley in a 1977 writing. In 1927, despite advice to the contrary, Beesley began daily publication. After four years of “hard times” the newspaper failed. “Both my father and I went broke during the depression,” noted Beesley.
Daily News Jour nal
Curiously, The DNJ’s first edition in 1931 did not identify a publisher or editor. Soon after the merger, Todd leased and eventually sold the newspaper to E. W. “Ned” Carmack from Nashville. The eccentric and unpredictable Carmack was the son of a prominent and influential state politician and journalist who was killed in a shootout in front of the state capital. (See Tucker, “Rutherford Ramblings,” RCHS 2014, pages 141-45.) The sale to Carmack was on a secured note, and Carmack soon failed to meet his financial obligations.
This failure was largely due to Carmack’s inattention and mismanagement, but competition from the Rutherford Courier was also a factor. It was during this period that the Carmack-controlled newspaper first made the “since 1849” claim.
(The Courier was first published as a weekly in 1931. The editor was H. R. Hoover with M. E. Bragg as the business manager. In 1935 Bragg purchased the struggling weekly and in June 1936 began twice-weekly publication, Tuesday and Friday, with evening distribution. “Wednesday and Saturday are the two biggest trade days of the week,” noted Bragg in his appeal to advertisers.) Todd regained ownership and control of the DNJ and the printing company in February 1939. During the war years, The DNJ was purchased by Jack McFarland. In 1950 the offices moved from the West Main building to the current location on North Walnut.
The DNJ has now discarded the “since 1849” claim which apparently relied on an attenuated line of commercial ancestry. The original Murfreesboro News was first published in or about 1850 by A. Watkins and edited by Rev. Green T. Henderson, grandfather of Chip and C. C. Henderson. The newspaper shut down at the outbreak of the Civil War, and all the equipment and offices on Maple Street were destroyed during the federal occupation of Murfreesboro.
A second Murfreesboro News was started in 1866 by the Rev. Henderson with the assistance of his son, Reese K. Henderson. This second publication was the one purchased by C.C. Henderson in 1898 and consolidated with another to form the News Banner .
In the two-century history of Rutherford County, there have been as many as three dozen general- circulation newspapers. The earliest Murfreesboro paper was The Courier , edited and published by G.A. and A.C. Sublett, beginning in 1814. The oldest copy on file in the Tennessee State Library and Archives is dated 1824.