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Newspaper Pocahontas Star Herald (Pocahontas, Randolph County, Ark.; Pocahontas, Ar) 1907-Current

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About Pocahontas Star Herald (Pocahontas, Randolph County, Ark.; Pocahontas, Ar) 1907-Current

Pocahontas is the Randolph County seat in far northeastern Arkansas. The town began as a port on the Black River and grew into a major Confederate center during the Civil War. Union forces occupied the city several times, and in 1863, they burned part of the town including the newspaper office. Pocahontas recovered from the war, and from the late 1800s into the 1920s experienced a golden age. This period saw the transition from steamboats to railroads, which revolutionized trade. Pocahontas factories produced buttons, bricks, processed cotton, wagon wheels, and other wooden parts. Collecting mussels and pearling were also popular industries for a time. Pocahontas continues to be a major commercial center, over the years hosting an egg dehydrating plant, shoe factory, and aircraft parts manufacturing plant. The area around the city comprises a large agricultural industry as well. The Pocahontas Star Herald newspaper grew out of this golden age in Pocahontas and continues to serve the city to this day.

In 1904, Leander Frank Blankenship, Sr. and Earle William Hodges started the Pocahontas Star. That same year, Hodges was appointed as state printing clerk in Little Rock and sold his interest in the Star to Blankenship. Hodges continued to work for the state in various positions and was eventually the youngest Secretary of State elected in Arkansas. Vasco Giles Hinton published another paper in Pocahontas, the News-Herald (1903-1907) (which was previously titled the Randolph Herald (1884-1903). In 1907, Blankenship and Hinton consolidated the Star and News-Herald into the Pocahontas Star Herald under the Star Herald Printing Co. In 1910, the Star Herald absorbed the Randolph County Clipper (1909-1910), which Roy Lee Elliott started in Pocahontas the year before. The Star Herald was a Democratic paper published every Friday.

Blankenship worked as the editor and manager of the Star Herald until 1914, when Oscar E. Wyatt bought interest in the paper and came on as managing editor. Blankenship moved to Little Rock, though he retained his investment in the Herald and worked on the Arkansas Methodist (1916-1979). Later that year Wyatt sold his interest to David A. Lindsey, who took over as managing editor. In 1915, Blankenship returned to Pocahontas and bought the interest in the Star Herald back from Lindsey. He quickly also bought out Hinton and became sole owner of the Herald. In 1919, Blankenship sold part interest in the paper to his son, Warren Lee Blankenship, and they ran the paper together. In 1926, they brought on Leander Blankenship’s other son and Warren’s brother, Harry Ponder Blankenship, to help publish the Herald.

The Blankenship’s continued to run the paper for decades. Warren Blankenship took over the paper after his father. He established a “Here and There” column, and his writings were republished by newspapers and magazines across the country. Warren Blankenship’s daughter, Ann Elizabeth Carroll, took over the paper in 1963. Carroll and her husband William “Bill” Duard Carroll purchased the Herald from the rest of the Blankenship family, and Ann Carroll worked as editor and manager. She wrote under the name Ann Blankenship Carroll (A.B.C.) and continued the “Here and There” column. The Star Herald continues to be published today and is now owned by the east-coast company Cherry Road Media.

Provided By: Arkansas State Archives

About this Newspaper

Title

  • Pocahontas Star Herald (Pocahontas, Randolph County, Ark.; Pocahontas, Ar) 1907-Current

Dates of Publication

  • 1907-current

Created / Published

  • Pocahontas, Randolph County, Ark. : Star Herald Print. Co.
  • Pocahontas, AR : Cherryroad Media, Inc.

Headings

  • -  Pocahontas (Ark.)--Newspapers
  • -  Arkansas--Pocahontas
  • -  United States--Arkansas--Randolph--Pocahontas

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Began in 1907.
  • -  Numbering is irregular.
  • -  Formed by the union of: Pocahontas star (non-extant), and: News-herald (Pocahontas, Ark.).
  • -  Description based on: Vol. 27, no. 1 (Sept. 13, 1907).
  • -  Latest issue consulted: Vol. 143, no. 14 (Aug. 26, 2022) (surrogate).

Medium

  • v.

Call Number/Physical Location

  • ISSN RECORD

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn89051210

OCLC Number

  • 19684357

ISSN Number

  • 2833-5880

Preceding Titles

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

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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:

Pocahontas Star Herald Pocahontas, Randolph County, Ark.; Pocahontas, Ar -Current. (Pocahontas, AR), Jan. 1 1907. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn89051210/.

APA citation style:

(1907, January 1) Pocahontas Star Herald Pocahontas, Randolph County, Ark.; Pocahontas, Ar -Current. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn89051210/.

MLA citation style:

Pocahontas Star Herald Pocahontas, Randolph County, Ark.; Pocahontas, Ar -Current. (Pocahontas, AR) 1 Jan. 1907. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, aj.sunback.homes/item/sn89051210/.