Carroll County Democrat Archive

In 1887, J. Buchanan "Buck" Gilbert began publishing the Carroll County Democrat in Huntingdon, the seat of Carroll County, Tennessee. The Democrat was a direct competitor to the Tennessee Republican, the county's first newspaper, which had been established in 1868 by Colonel Thomas H. Baker. Both papers were published every Friday.

In the 1890 presidential election, the staunchly Republican county returned a Democratic majority, marking a long-term shift in politics for its residents. In celebration, Buck Gilbert printed the entire newspaper in red (the color associated with the Democratic Party at the time), with red roosters strutting across its pages.

Throughout the 1910s, the Democrat published a variety of locally-sourced stories as well as material purchased from the McClure Newspaper Syndicate. This included columns such as Temperance Notes, written by the National Women's Christian Temperance Union, articles on farming from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as well as serialized fiction. Advertisements promoted national brands and local businesses.

By 1920, still under the leadership of Gilbert's Huntingdon Publishing Company, the paper's circulation had increased to a reported 1,400, with an annual subscription rate of one dollar. (By comparison, the Republican reported a circulation of 1,440, with an annual subscription rate of $1.50.) The Carroll County Democrat remained popular for most of the 20th century. Buck Gilbert edited and printed the paper until 1940. William H. McConnell purchased the newspaper and operated it until 1971 when Robert and Rose Johnson (owners of the Camden Chronicle) took over. The Johnsons changed its name to the Carroll County News and joined a co-op of newspapers that formed the Associated Publishers. The co-op built a web printing plant in Huntingdon. In 1992, the Democrat became the Carroll County News-Leader, and continues to be published under that name, in print and online, by Magic Valley Publishing Group.