Front page of the first Village Record.
The Village Record was first started in Hightstown on June 30, 1849. The editors/owners were Jacob Stults and James S. Yard. Stults was only 19 years old and Yard was only 23.
After just five months (December 1849), Yard sold his interest to Edward C. Taylor and by April 1851, Taylor bought out Stults to become the sole owner. This ownership also only lasted a few months when Taylor sold the newspaper to Dr. B.H. Peterson. After only six months Dr. Peterson returned ownership of the paper to Taylor. Publishing a weekly newspaper by writing, reporting, selling ads and collecting money is difficult today, but just imagine what it had to be like 52 weeks a year in the 1850s!
By 1852 Yard had returned to Hightstown and ran the paper again until 1854 when he sold it back to his original partner, Jacob Stults.
Front page of the first Highstown Excelsior.
The Universalists Association started a competitor newspaper in 1857 named, the “Hightstown Excelsior” (learn more about the Universalist Church here). They too must have found it exhausting as they had a different editor each of its first four years: Charles Norton, Daniel Taggart, C.W. Mount and then again by Norton.
Obviously having enough, and really having no need for two newspapers in a one square mile town, the Village Record and the Excelsior merged to become the “Hightstown Gazette” in 1861, under the ownership of Stults and Norton until 1863 when Stults became sole owner again at the approximate age of 31.
Front page of the first Hightstown Gazette.
In 1870 a Thomas Appleget purchased half of the paper and by 1873 became the sole owner. In 1891 he brought his son, Fred B. Appleget into the business which by that point also included a printing business.
L.D. Tillyer then bought the Gazette in 1908. The annual subscription was reduced from $1.50 to $.75 to increase advance sale circulation. In 1912, George Dennis acquired the Gazette which he published until his death in 1955. Few will remember George Dennis but many remember his children Palmer and Kathryn, who published the Gazette until its closing and Kathryn’s death in 2005.
Two other newspapers had a short run. The “Enterprise” was owned by C.F Swett and was only published for about two years. The “Independent” was published for four years from 1903 to 1907. It was owned by Richard Merton Johnson Smith and the editor was William G. Smith.
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