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Chronicling America
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Newspaper Tensas Gazette (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-Current

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About Tensas Gazette (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-Current

The original Tensas Gazette was founded in 1852 in St. Joseph, Louisiana, by Andrew Marschalk (1817-1878), son of Andrew Marschalk Sr., the “father of printing” in Mississippi. Publication was suspended from 1863 until the end of the Civil War. From 1868 to 1872, the paper was owned by Thomas W. Castleman (1845-1914), a Confederate veteran. During Reconstruction, it was issued as a “carpetbag” Republican newspaper under a new title, the North Louisiana Journal. It returned to Democratic hands in 1879 and was renamed the Tensas Gazette in 1886 when purchased by Robert H. Snyder (1855-1905), who retained it until his election as lieutenant governor of Louisiana in 1895. Subsequent editors included Hugh Tullis (b. 1857), Henry A. Garrett (1841-1901), and Abner E. Green, all prominent lawyers. Josiah Petit Scott (1875-1953) purchased the paper around 1912 and edited it until his death 40 years later.

Tensas Parish is located in northeastern Louisiana along the Mississippi River. At the turn of the twentieth century, it had one of the largest African American populations in the state. Cotton formed the basis of the local economy. The Tensas Gazette frequently reported on agricultural conditions as well as the construction and maintenance of levees, which were vital to the flood-prone parish. Despite efforts to control flooding, the area was inundated by flood waters in 1912 and 1916. As the official journal of Tensas Parish, the Gazette reported on local government and printed the minutes of the parish police jury (the governing body of the parish, similar to county councils in other states). Important social issues reported on included immigration to north Louisiana and the development of parish liquor laws. In addition to news from throughout the state and region (printed in the 1890s in columns titled “Louisiana in a Nutshell” and “In our Sunny South”), the four- to eight-page weekly carried news briefs from other towns of Tensas Parish (chiefly Newellton and Waterproof), as well as nearby Natchez and Vicksburg, Mississippi. By the 1910s it was offering a wide range of reading material, including fiction, essays, sermons, domestic advice, and a farm and garden column.

The Tensas Gazette, one of oldest newspapers in Louisiana, is still in publication as of 2011.

Provided By: Louisiana State University; Baton Rouge, LA

About this Newspaper

Title

  • Tensas Gazette (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-Current

Dates of Publication

  • 1886-current

Created / Published

  • St. Joseph, La. : R.H. Snyder Jr., 1886-

Headings

  • -  Saint Joseph (La.)--Newspapers
  • -  Tensas Parish (La.)--Newspapers
  • -  Louisiana--Saint Joseph
  • -  Louisiana--Tensas Parish
  • -  United States--Louisiana--Tensas--Saint Joseph

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Vol. 15, no. 34 (Jan. 8, 1886)-
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format as part of the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.

Medium

  • volumes : illustrations ; 58 cm

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn87090131

OCLC Number

  • 15152037

ISSN Number

  • 2166-7896

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.

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Cite This Item

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

Chicago citation style:

Tensas Gazette St. Joseph, La. -Current. (Saint Joseph, LA), Jan. 1 1886. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn87090131/.

APA citation style:

(1886, January 1) Tensas Gazette St. Joseph, La. -Current. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn87090131/.

MLA citation style:

Tensas Gazette St. Joseph, La. -Current. (Saint Joseph, LA) 1 Jan. 1886. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, aj.sunback.homes/item/sn87090131/.