About Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932
Woodbury, N.J. (1878-1932)

Gloucester County Democrat

The Gloucester County Democrat was originally started in Mantua, which is also in Gloucester County, New Jersey, and had a name that reflected that location. Within a month the paper expanded and changed both its name and location, moving to Woodbury and becoming the Gloucester County Democrat. The October 8, 1878 edition of the paper explains to its readers that being at the center of railroad and telegraph communication in the county seat of Woodbury would be beneficial to gathering news and serving the interests of the party and readers.

William T. Gibbs was the initial editor and proprietor, but he left the paper in February 1879 to work at another newspaper. From August 6, 1878 until February 1879, the paper was a six-column folio with a subscription price of fifty cents per year. It was published irregularly from February to March 1879, when it was purchased by James D. Carpenter, who enlarged the paper to a seven-column folio and raised the subscription price to a dollar fifty per year. Carpenter's first press was a Washington hand press, which was then followed by a Taylor drum cylinder and a steam engine. In August 1880, with a growing subscription list and increased advertising, the paper was enlarged to eight columns.

Carpenter came from a publishing family and his goal was to establish a permanent politically Democratic newspaper in Gloucester County. Born in Oswego, New York, his father ran the Oswego Palladium. After trying several professions, and with no encouragement from his father, he purchased the Gloucester County Democrat at age 24. In 1880, Carpenter was joined at the newspaper by Belmont Perry, and from January 1880 to March 1881, the paper was published by Perry & Carpenter. Perry was also a scion of a newspaper publishing family. He grew up in Flemington, New Jersey, the son of a lawyer and publisher of the Hunterdon County Democrat. Perry married Lida Thackara of Woodbury and relocated there after his marriage, where he was appointed county prosecutor. Both Carpenter and Perry were active in Democratic party politics and for twenty-five years Carpenter was chairman of the party in Gloucester County, a deeply Republican county.

In 1915, Carpenter was appointed postmaster of Woodbury under Woodrow Wilson, and in 1916 he turned the management of the newspaper business over to his son, Edmund H. Carpenter, who continued to publish the newspaper as a weekly until December 31, 1932. On January 2, 1933 the Gloucester County Democrat became the Evening News and Gloucester County Democrat, a daily published by Edmund Carpenter until October 31, 1938 when it merged into the Woodbury Daily Times.

Provided by: Rutgers University Libraries