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Chronicling America
National Endowment for the Humanities

Newspaper The Paducah Weekly Sun (Paducah, Ky.) 1902-19??

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About The Paducah Weekly Sun (Paducah, Ky.) 1902-19??

Because of frequent name changes, the history of the Paducah Sun, Paducah’s oldest continuously published daily can be confusing. The paper began in 1877 as the Paducah Daily Sun , with a Sunday edition known as the Weekly Sun. It was followed by the Paducah Daily Sun , owned by Frank M. Fisher, who by 1896 had bought the Sun Publishing Company and who two years later consolidated the daily and weekly titles into the Paducah Sun. This singular title was edited briefly by Frank W. Gregory until 1899, when Fisher took hold of the editorial reins. A year later, Fisher was joined by his nephew, Edwin J. Paxton.

In 1901, the Paducah Sun introduced the Sunday Chat for the “quiet of the Sabbath.” By 1902, another version of the paper–the Paducah Sun (Weekly ed.) — appeared on Thursdays, along with the regular daily edition. That same year, the name of the weekly was formally changed to the Paducah Weekly Sun ; it was continuously published until at least 1913. At first, the Weekly Sun was less substantive than its daily sibling, with only four pages compared to the daily’s eight and with national, international, and local news crammed into eight narrow columns of small print. As subscriptions increased and its popularity grew, the Weekly Sun gradually came to resemble its daily counterpart, with six columns of regular type and virtually identical content. In 1906, the Paducah Evening Sun appeared, first under the direction of Paxton and Fisher, and later an associate editor, Elliott C. Mitchell. By 1914, Fisher had retired, selling his share of the paper and the publishing company, leaving Paxton the sole proprietor. The Paducah Evening Sun thrived during these years, with more than 25,000 subscribers in McCracken County and in the surrounding area.

Although the Evening Sun was a more nationally comprehensive paper than most in Kentucky at the time, its reporting nevertheless focused heavily on local developments, many of which involved acts of violence. These included the Black Patch Wars of 1906-1911, when western Kentucky was terrorized by Night Riders, who organized a campaign of intimidation against tobacco farmers unwilling to participate in the pooling of produce. It was not uncommon also to read morbid accounts of racial killings and beatings, written with a flair that would be unacceptable by today’s standards. One typical incident involved a disagreement between a white farmer and his African American tenant, which culminated in a lynching.

The coup de grâce came in 1929, when the staunchly Republican Sun acquired its Democratic rival, the News=Democrat. The two papers were merged into the Sun-Democrat until 1978, when, at the behest of Edwin J. Paxton’s grandson, Jack, it returned to its original title: the Paducah Sun. In 2009, the Paxtons continue to own the Sun, making it one of Kentucky’s oldest familial enterprises (http://www.paducahsun.com/.)

Provided By: University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY

About this Newspaper

Title

  • The Paducah Weekly Sun (Paducah, Ky.) 1902-19??

Dates of Publication

  • 1902-19??

Created / Published

  • Paducah, Ky. : The Sun Pub. Co., 1902-

Headings

  • -  McCracken County (Ky.)--Newspapers
  • -  Paducah (Ky.)--Newspapers
  • -  Kentucky--McCracken County
  • -  Kentucky--Paducah
  • -  United States--Kentucky--McCracken--Paducah

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Vol. 9, no. 22 (June 11, 1902)-
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format as part of the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  Daily eds.: Paducah sun (Paducah, Ky. : 1898), 1902-1906; and Paducah evening sun, 1906-<1913>.
  • -  Volume XXXVI, no. 259 (October 29, 1913); newspapers.com, viewed July 17, 2020.

Medium

  • volumes : illustrations

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn85052115

OCLC Number

  • 12442283

ISSN Number

  • 1946-6099

Preceding Titles

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

The NEH awardee responsible for producing each digital object is presented in the Chronicling America page display, below the page image – e.g. Image produced by the Library of Congress. For more information on current NDNP awardees, see https://aj.sunback.homes/ndnp/listawardees.html.

For more information on Library of Congress policies and disclaimers regarding rights and reproductions, see https://aj.sunback.homes/homepage/legal.html

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

The Paducah Weekly Sun Paducah, Ky. -19??. (Paducah, KY), Jan. 1 1902. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn85052115/.

APA citation style:

(1902, January 1) The Paducah Weekly Sun Paducah, Ky. -19??. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn85052115/.

MLA citation style:

The Paducah Weekly Sun Paducah, Ky. -19??. (Paducah, KY) 1 Jan. 1902. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, aj.sunback.homes/item/sn85052115/.