The Eastern Clarion Archive

The 19^th-century history of Mississippi's current state-wide newspaper, the Clarion-Ledger (1941-present), is the story of a succession of powerful and influential white Democratic newspapermen, sometimes also politicians. The paper began in 1837 as the four-page weekly Eastern Clarion (1837-63) in the town of Paulding, located in east-central Mississippi. After 1839, the new owner, Simeon Roe Adams, turned the paper into a regional powerhouse. Three years after Adams death in 1860, proprietors, Asa R. Carter and James J. Shannon moved production to Meridian, a recently established railroad boom town. Two versions of the paper were published: the Daily Clarion (1863-66) which dropped to two pages in 1863-65; and the Weekly Clarion (1863-82). After the Civil War, Shannon moved the Clarion to Jackson where it became the state's most influential Democratic newspaper.

In addition to state legislative and judiciary news, the Eastern Clarion and its daily and weekly versions covered in great detail the escalating movement for Southern secession and establishment of the Confederate government. During the Civil War (1861-65) the paper included battle reports and news on the county volunteer companies, the Jasper Greys and the Jasper Rifles. Towards the end of the conflict, a January 28, 1865 reprint averred; ". . . We have got to abandon this war, or put Negro soldiers in our army - one or the other."

In 1866, Clarion owners James J. Shannon and Jones S. Hamilton joined John Logan Power and B. F. Jones, proprietors of the newly formed Daily Mississippi Standard (1865-66), to form Hamilton, Power and Company. The four-page version, usually issued every day except Monday, appeared under a variety of short-lived titles: Daily Mississippi Clarion (1866), Daily Mississippi Clarion and Standard (1866), and Daily Clarion and Standard (1866); but, it finally reverted to the Daily Clarion (1866-88). In 1867, the Mississippian’s (1832-50) former owner/editor, the fiery and caustic Ethelbert Barksdale, replaced Shannon as editor of the Clarion. Barksdale's son, Harris, joined the firm in 1868; he published the Clarion with John Logan Power until his death in August 1881. Two years later, Ethelbert Barksdale left to serve as a United States congressman (1883-87). In 1883, the Weekly Clarion changed its name to the Clarion (1883-88); page length in both papers varied from four to eight. At various times throughout the Clarion's run, it declared itself the official journal of the city of Jackson and the state of Mississippi and the "Official Journal for the Publication of the Laws of the United States."

Staunchly Democratic, the Clarion severely criticized all aspects of Reconstruction. Barksdale's venomous editorial attacks on Republicans resulted in a probable act of arson, which destroyed the newspaper's building on March 1, 1869. Reconstruction efforts, such as the Freedman's Bureau and Mississippi's 1868 "black and tan" constitution, were roundly attacked. In 1876, Clarion editorials successfully advocated for the removal of Mississippi's last Reconstruction Republican governor, Adelbert Ames. The newspaper also covered non-political news such as the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia and crises like the 1878 yellow fever epidemic. It published legislative acts, including ones in the early 1880s to prohibit maltreatment of convicts.

The R. H. Henry Company, established in 1888 by John Logan Power and Robert Hiram Henry, consolidated Power's Clarion newspapers with Henry's State Ledger (1883-88) forming the Clarion-Ledger (1888-91) and Daily Clarion-Ledger (1888-91). Ownership descended through Henry's cousins, brothers Robert and Thomas Hederman, and remained in the family until 1982 when the paper was bought by Gannett. Today the Pulitzer Prize-winning Clarion-Ledger is published seven days a week.