In November 1999 staff and contributors published a 172 page history of The Bladen Journal and Bladen County. It was a summer undertaking led by the late Michael Simmons to celebrate the newspaper’s 100th anniversary.
The cover, designed by advertising manager Sharon Barnhill and staff photographer Jenny Hayes-Carroll, featured photos of a family preparing to board the train in Elizabethtown, workmen using a tractor to make an unpaved Elizabethtown street passable, a ferry preparing to dock with its cargo at Elizabethtown, and the McGirt Bridge as it’s about to finally span the Cape Fear River in Elizabethtown during its construction.
It was a massive publication printed on 11-inch by 14-inch paper and divided into four sections: a century of the Journal, feature stories on some Bladen Countians who had lived through most of the 1900s, life in Bladen through the 1900s and a review of events and people in the county through the 1900s.
Today’s newspaper began as the Clarkton Express in late 1898 under the leadership of J.D. Currie, according to the publication. The Express was published “off and on” for 10 years, until 1908 when it’s said to have begun continuous publication. By 1911, the paper became the Bladen Journal and it’s believed to have moved from Clarkton to Elizabethtown in late 1926 or early 1927.
Mrs. E.F. McCulloch served as editor of the weekly Journal from 1930 until her death in 1966.
The Journal became a twice-a-week paper in 1975. In 1988, it was renamed The Bladen Daily Journal and was printed Monday through Friday. It went back to semi-weekly in 1996 and became The Bladen Journal again. Today, it’s published each Tuesday, but its website, BladenJournal.com, is updated constantly with news and sports information.
The county “Rocks” who had lives through most of the 1900s that were featured in the publication were Eunice Holmes, Luke Beatty, Gracie Hester, Gladys Williams MooreAlice Fredere, Louise Council, Alberta Blanks, Lillian Rhodes, Grace Coleman, Jabe Frink, Hazel Parks, Edward B. Clark, Lena Neil, Daisy Elkins, Nellie Splawn, Evelyn Drye, Sadie Bluitt, Sidney Bryant, Virginia Fredere, Leashia Robinson, Leslie Clark, Mary Williams, Gretchen Brown, Thelma Harrelson and Mattie Richardson.
Along with Simmons, writing the stories were Marsha Burney, Erin Smith, Dan McLaurin, Jack McDuffie, Buddy Burney and Lynn McLamb. Hopefully, I didn’t leave out anyone who contributed.
It’s interesting to note that complaints in the first decade of the 1900s are no different today, according to the special publication. In 1907, a letter to the editor in the Clarkton Express was citing bad roads. Minutes from a 1908 commissioners meeting show that “that taxes, roads and welfare were major items of discussion.”
There’s news briefs from every decade of the 1900s. The Clarkton tobacco market started in 1900. Isaac Leinwand opened his department store in downtown Elizabethtown in 1935. In 1954, dogs being killed in western Bladen County led to the “Beast of Bladenboro” scare. Elizabethtown was selected for the county airport site in 1980. In 1992, Betty Sue Britt became the first female deputy in Bladen County.
I was loaned a copy of “Bladen Journal: Celebrating 100 years 1899-1999” by an acquaintance. If you still have a copy, hang onto it and pass it down to the next generation. It’s a piece of history in a format fading from today’s wireless world that needs to be protected.
If you get an opportunity to flip through the pages, don’t pass it up.
To those who were part of its production 27 years ago, congratulations on a job well done.
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