The American Civil War disrupted the lives of Kentucky residents in many ways, one of which involved the closing of newspaper presses. The citizens of Richmond were without a paper until the war ended. According to the digital Library of Congress “Chronicling America Historic American Newspapers,” William C. Miller revamped journalism in Richmond as he established The Kentucky Register in 1866.
By 1871 he had sold the Democratic leaning paper to Judge Willliam C. Miller and a Richmond attorney, Francis Marion Green. In 1872, after Miller retired, Green became sole owner until his demise in 1895. At that point, Samual F. Rock took over the paper. Since he owned several other papers, he was considered one of the state’s largest publishers. He sold The Kentucky Register to Thomas H. Pickels in 1907, who in turn resold it to Grant E. Lily in 1917.
Lily had purchased the Madisonian and the Richmond Climax, then merged them into the Climax Madison. The paper still maintained a Democratic slant. These two were merged into the Richmond Climax during 1917. The ownership passed to Shelton M. Saufley on December 1, 1917, and he finally condensed The Kentucky Register and Climax into the Richmond Daily Register. In 1978 the Richmond Publishing Corporation acquired proprietorship and renamed it the Richmond Register. An accomplished journalist, Steven Cornelius, serves as the current editor.
The Kentucky Register provided Madison County readers with a combination of national, international, and local news. For example, it covered World War I, the 1916 presidential election, and local happenings. Being pro-Democrat, it placed President Woodrow Wilson in a favorable light. A1916 editorial by Thomas A. Edison endorsed Wilson for his successful reelection bid. The April 3, 1917 issue covered the entrance of the U.S.A. into World War I. Senator Ollis M. James from Kentucky lauded President Wilson’s war speech as comparable to that of Lincoln and Washington. He made it clear that the American citizens, including those of German heritage will support this war effort for global freedom and security. It was autocracy, not the German people that Wilson declared was the enemy. The key problem centered upon Germany’s unrestricted attacks upon neutral merchant and passenger shipping throughout the Atlantic.
As sentiment against the Kaiser sharpened, one Richmond resident with a German background, Stanley G. Zinke, portrayed anxiety that many German Americans harbored. Citizens from this group endured harassment in a hostile environment in 1917. Some faced violent attacks and unjust incarceration. Governmental spokesmen on the national state and local level issued warnings not to speak or write anything critical of the war effort. Certain parties had slandered him because of his ancestry. So Zinke wrote an essay proclaiming his total support, as an American citizen for the United States entrance into World War I. He penned: “I believe I am the only civilian in Richmond—with possibly two or three exceptions—who has been found qualified for service and is now listed in the War Department as ‘Qualified.’
On a local scale the paper covered other numerous events. A group of prominent Richmond ladies planted a “suffrage garden,” to garner support for female voting rights. Mrs. J. W. Caperton donated the land for the potato patch. Other ladies who donated labor represented such personalities as the Burnham, Clay, Bennett, and Shackleford families. Upon harvesting their first crop, women planted a second one. Other local events included the performance of the play Romeo and Juliet, which was well attended. Finally, Waco High School defeated Richmond Model in a baseball game by a score of 8 to 2.
On the tragic side, the October 27, 1916 issue of the Kentucky Register exposed the scorn harbored towards African Americans. An article contrasted the death rates for white and black citizens in the commonwealth. The rate was much higher for the latter with the figure at 22.9 per thousand while the former was 11.2 per thousand. The discrepancy was especially acute in deaths from Tuberculosis, Whooping Cough, Influenza, Typhoid Fever, and pneumonia. The article expressed concern not for the poverty rate and dearth of medical care for Black residents but for the danger their high death rate represented for their white employers.
The essay made a sweeping conjecture that African Americans were to blame for their excessive deaths by not maintaining good hygiene. The extreme racial disparity of black mortality was only significant because white employers may have to live in proximity of them. In other words, whites, for their well-being should maintain their distance from blacks. The clip maintained, without any supporting evidence, that “Negro cooks in the matter of personal habits have rather unenviable reputations and are especially dangerous when they are carriers of the disease. ---This is especially true in handling milk, which is almost always drunk without being sterilized.” We need to recall that this “Jim Crow” era restricted blacks to an outcast status with denied access to all but the most menial jobs, extreme poverty, hunger, and inferior medical care.
The same issue carried another clip which is paradoxical with the above statement. In nearby Lexington, the local health department had passed an ordinance which required milk from dairy cattle to undergo pasteurization before approved for market. The local dairy farmers immediately met at the courthouse and formed the Fayette County Dairymen’s Association which vowed to fight this ordinance. The piece read: “The dairymen will fight the attempt to compel them to pasteurize their milk on the grounds that pasteurized milk was worthless for infants according to many medical authorities.” It was apparent that most medical authorities knew better since the health departments strove to require that milk undergo pasteurization.
In sum, The Kentucky Register provided a Democrat lean over local, state, and national currents during the Late 19th and early 20th centuries. Obituaries, ads, fiction, and recognition of individual residents rounded out the paper’s content. From this we can obtain a historical image of life in Richmond and the nation.
