The Cape County Herald Archive

The Jackson Herald was published on Thursdays in Jackson in Cape Girardeau County, Missouri, from 1897 until 1911. It appeared as a four-page weekly until 1903 when it became an eight-page paper. The editor, Benjamin F. Lusk, and the Jackson Herald Publishing Company sold the paper in 1910 to Fred Goyert and the Herald Publishing Company. In February of 1911, the company and the paper moved to Cape Girardeau, and the name was changed to the Cape County Herald. At this time, it was published as an eight-page weekly each Friday.

In 1914, the paper again changed ownership when the Cape Girardeau Publishing Company assumed control and changed the title to the Cape Weekly Tribune. By late 1914, the paper was being published as the Weekly Tribune and the Cape County Herald. In 1918, the name was changed back to the Weekly Tribune with James P. Whiteside as publisher.

Editors of these papers came and went and often were not even mentioned. The publishing company determined the newspapers’ politics as recounted in the May 19, 1910 issue of the Jackson Herald: “The stockholders of the Herald have taken full control and will continue its publication. It will be as heretofore Republican in politics and devoted to the best interest of Cape Girardeau County.” The February 17, 1911 issue declared: “The Herald comes to Cape Girardeau as an independent Republican newspaper, and is not owned or controlled by any political cliques, corporations or interests of this city. It will be published solely as ‘the people’s newspaper.’ ”

One thing all of these papers had in common is reporting the local news of Cape Girardeau County. Information can be found on weather: the July 25, 1901 issue of the Jackson Herald reports that “Rain is needed. Everything is drying up, fruit, vegetables, corn are about all played out for want of rain. Blackberries almost a failure, some few are coming in from the swamps where they had a rain on the 4^th of July.” Local events are also covered. The July 13, 1913 issue of the Cape County Herald announced that $100.00 in premiums would be given out at the Cape Girardeau Fair by the County Court.

By 1914 the Cape Printing Company chose to punctuate its articles with vivid headlines and photographs, determined to create a striking front page and capture the attention of its readers. It made the paper visually pleasing and easier to read. One such striking headline appears in the November 6, 1914 edition: “SOCIETY GIRLS ON COON HUNT; LAND 3 PELTS – Hazel Harrison, Dorothy Bell, Mary Griffith and Rebecca Houck Enjoy Sport. – Old Br’er Possum Too Wise for’em—Four social belles of Cape Girardeau went coon hunting Wednesday night and when they emerged from the Houck woods about six miles west of this city early yesterday morning, they had captured one coon and three possums.”

The Cape Girardeau Printing Company ceased publication of the Weekly Tribune in 1919.