About The daily Kentuckian. (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1898-1898
Hopkinsville, Ky. (1898-1898)

The Daily Kentuckian (Hopkinsville, Ky.)

The first issue of the Daily Kentuckian was published in Hopkinsville on April 29, 1898, and it broadcast “Live News on Every Page! We set the Pace” from its masthead. Covering Christian County and the southern Pennyrile region of the state, the paper churned out six issues a week, excluding Monday. It ran concurrently with its semiweekly sibling, the Hopkinsville Kentuckian, itself carved just months earlier from the Semi-weekly South Kentuckian. Unlike the semiweekly, which survived for several decades, the Daily Kentuckian’s life was short, ending after only four months on August 13.

The seeds of the paper were planted much earlier, however. Founded in 1866 by J.M. Dodd as the Hopkinsville Conservative, the weekly served as the “Official paper of County and City.” In ten years time, Dodd had taken a man named Wallace as his publishing partner. They changed the title to the Hopkinsville Democrat. The Democrat lasted only three years, when, in January 1879, the paper was sold to Wilgus and Townes, who established their own title as the South Kentuckian. In 1881, Wilgus partnered with Charles M. Meacham to produce a daily edition called Daily South Kentuckian, which ran concurrently with the Wilgus and Townes weekly.

By 1883, Townes had left the picture as Wilgus and Meacham combined the two editions to form the Semi-weekly South Kentuckian. By 1889 Wilgus, too, had folded from the hand, and Meacham went solo to create the Hopkinsville Kentuckian, a title that more closely associated the paper with the city of Hopkinsville, which Meacham felt was progressive and deserving of such a tribute.

It is unclear precisely why Meacham chose to produce a daily since he already owned a successful semi-weekly. But the Daily’s content suggests that the decision was due in no small part to the Spanish-American War. The conflict raged from April to August 1898, coinciding exactly with the period of the Daily Kentuckian’s existence. Most of the news in the Daily focused on the war, from the battles themselves to the political activities of both the Spanish and United States governments.

Meacham was a prominent politician in central and western Kentucky. He had served as president of the Kentucky Press Association in 1893 and was elected Mayor of Hopkinsville from 1906 to 1914. Both Kentuckian papers were Democratic agents for the three congressional districts that surrounded Christian County at the time.

In 1918, Meacham made a final push to revive the Daily Kentuckian, but this endeavor lasted less than a year. On the heels of the paper’s demise on April 5, 1919, the Hopkinsville Kentuckian changed as well, becoming simply the Kentuckian, published by the Kentuckian Company with Meacham at the helm. After nearly 40 years, the Kentuckian finally ceased publication in 1920, allowing Meacham to focus on his other professional pursuits. Thus ended one of Hopkinsville's longest running newspapers.

Provided by: University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY