- History's Newsstand Blog - http://blog.rarenewspapers.com -

Who’s Who in Newspapers? Joseph A. Turner edition…

The 4th installment of Who’s Who in Newspapers:

George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton… Babe Ruth, Jesse Owens, Vince Lombardi… John Wayne, James Dean, Katharine Hepburn – these individuals, among many, are easily recognizable. However, there are quite a few historical figures who, while having adorned the pages of many a newspaper, are far from household names. Such is the case with Joseph A Turner. Who is he? What was he known for? When did he live?

Mr. Turner just happens to be the publisher of what is believed to be the only Confederate newspaper printed/published on a Southern Plantation: The Countryman. He was the owner of Turnwold Plantation, located about 9 miles from Eatonton, Georgia – of Chick-fil-A, J.C.H. (see below), and The Color Purple fame.

As if this distinction were not enough, he took on Joel Chandler Harris – the eventual famed author of the Uncle Remus, Br’er Rabbit, and Br’er Fox stories, as an apprentice at the age of 14 – and trained him to serve as the typesetter for the newspaper.

Whenever we post an installment of “Who’s Who in Newspapers,” we typically provide a link to a chronological listing of newspapers which have information regarding the notable person in question. In this case, however, the newspapers are extremely rare, and while we do (at the time of this post) have a handful of issues, in this instance our link simply goes to a sample issue of this title:

THE COUNTRYMAN, by Joseph A. Turner [1]

.