The New Enterprise Archive

Located near the border with Georgia, about fifty miles east of Tallahassee, Madison was a political and agricultural center during the early period of Florida’s development. From the 1880s onward, Madison was connected to markets in Tallahassee and the surrounding region. The completion in 1906 of the Augusta Southern Railway extended commercial ties to Georgia. Nevertheless, Madison remained a sleepy country town. In 1912, the first movie theater opened and electricity was introduced the following year. Beginning in 1924, Madison commenced paving its roads.

The New Enterprise was published in Madison from 1901 to 1908. Its editor was Columbus B. Smith, a Georgia native. The Enterprise-Recorder was formed in 1908 through the merger of the New Enterprise and the Madison Recorder . Smith continued on as editor of the new weekly. The New Enterprise had billed itself as the “Official Organ of the Board of [Madison] County Commissioners,” and the Enterprise-Recorder to some extent maintained this purpose. By 1933, the paper’s name was changed to the Madison Enterprise-Recorder , a title which continues to the present.