Fort Pierce News Archive

The Fort Pierce News was originally published by Arthur B. Brown as a weekly from 1903 through November 9, 1917. From November 15, 1917 through 1920, it appeared three times each week. On March 1, 1920, the Fort Pierce News merged with a slightly younger rival weekly paper, the St. Lucie County Tribune (also known as the St. Lucie Tribune) to form the Fort Pierce News-Tribune. The latter became a daily after 1926.

Fort Pierce sits astride the Indian River on Florida’s Atlantic Ocean coast. The town was incorporated in 1901 and named as the new county seat in 1905. Fishing was critical to the early economy of Fort Pierce. Pineapple was the agricultural king of St. Lucie County from the turn of the century until the collapse of the industry following World War I. The Fort Pierce News and the St. Lucie County Tribune reported on these developments, along with river traffic and occasional steamboat groundings, activities on nearby Indian reservations, and--with the advance of the railroads--the growth of tourism in south Florida.